Am I a Good CEO?

Imagine working at a place where you get to "borrow" thousands of dollars of equipment and the CEO can only mildly roast you cuz he has stolen even more, and people out there throwing shade e at him

To be fair, Luke Tech Tips (LTT) or Luke Media Group (LMG) would not require all that much change in terms of branding #LukeForCEO

Dont step down as a CEO, Im founder and CTO of a tech startup, (not unicorn yet but 8 years on market and ~100mil valuation), I've seen this trend over and over and it almost capsized my company as well. Whoever will be new CEO will not care enough, nor know enough to step in. They will be cautious, think about everything 5 times, need process and policy to touch dishwasher in kitchen. This will impact momentum, reduce risks by limiting growth and break internal culture of "high risk, high reward" and "its better to try and fail than not try at all" that is foundation for any comapny like yours is (or mine was).
Ex. No "CEO" in right mind would sign off on screwdriver project, floatplane, Lab or other stuff that makes LMG what it is and why so many people value your opinion and like to watch you.
From bottom of my heart please dont, its painfull to watch your lifework go to waste and i dont wish this to any founder.

I don't think it makes sense to isolate Linus in a creator role and have someone else do management. Linus brings a lot of culture and level headedness to this; but also his energy and not business all the time focused, benefits (and hinders) the company.
However, bringing in leaders to take on the stuff Linus isn't as good at (like having Colton lead business development) - is a perfect fix.
Don't lose the spark just to be more business like.
Have the spark lead the drive to bring in smart business people and build a leadership team that directs the company as a whole.

I think Linus has done an incredible job with the channel as a ceo. It’s a production media company that a part of tech in a real way, one that stands for the consumer: which makes products a tricky thing. But you gotta make money too, so you do your best, focus on content and the brand and keep the good vibes rolling. Which you will. I don’t think your wife would want you to hire someone else to run it, maybe I guess I don’t know. But to me it would feel less like LTT if Linus wasent behind the wheel

I think Linus being creative is what makes him a good CEO. It may not be conventional, but it works.

I think you being a 'bad' ceo is part of the appeal for a lot of people. They want someone with their soul still intact running things.

I gotta say, I absolutely **love** the way y’all approach the business side of this shizz, because way too many businesses out there play it safe and try to min-max cost to profit, and in the process basically become evil, soulless corporate monsters who desperately need to be dissolved for the good of all of mankind. Starting with the goal of what you wish to achieve and **then** working to make it make business sense is riskier but you wouldn’t make any awesome stuff if you didn’t do it that way.

I think the lab makes a lot of sense. For the same reason MKBHD has a $250k robot arm to film, it allows you to do things other PLcliprs cannot.

Linus did a better job explaining the issues with most corporate incentive structure and Wall Street pay packages than any consultant I have ever met.

From my understanding, a majority of people at Linus office are either paid accordingly or get compensated in other ways by office supplies and opportunity to more than make up for any shortcomings. Some of us work real grinds and still bring home dirt, I'd love to work for Linus doing CLEAN and FUN work lmao

A way I think you guys could make money for the labs is that you could rent it out. Its a lot of tech in one place could be very valuable. It would be a good place for experimentation, prototyping, and testing

The “sendit” nature of Linus is what keeps me excited for new LTT uploads. I’m sure he could be way more “responsible” with the company and keep it profitable but updates on the lab are the type of thing that make me open PLclip just to check if LTT uploaded. Another channel that does the same thing is off the ranch, he did the abandoned mansion thing before it ever made sense but dammit that was some good content

I'm kind of curious if the lab site will have an API.
If it will i would totally develop an app for it 👀

I have been watching your back catalog - I work from home and have PLclip on constantly. You've gone from spraying plasti-dip on a whole PC to having your own lab to test equipment.... love how far this channel has come, and Linus is definitely a big part of the success as the CEO.

The fact that, while Linus does care a lot about profit, his priority over that is always quality, company growth in exciting ways and employee wellbeing. I've never heard anyone say anything bad about working or having worked for LMG and it shows in the passion and quality that the whole public facing teams shows (writers, video hosts, editors, and camera crew) and probably in the non-public facing teams as well.
Most people "fit" for a CEO or CFO job are usually business majors with only profit in mind; even the best of them usually just try to maintain a minimum of quality to not cause problems in their products or services but don't go beyond that, they try to minimize employee wellbeing just to the point they don't go to competitors but no more than that and will fire a ton of employees bc of short term financial troubles bc "cost cutting".
The reason that LTT and LMG is so beloved is that Linus and Yvonne clearly love the company, and the people working there and doing what they do.

One thing i dont really get is why the writers and such would be moving to the lab. That seems like a "i need space in the main location" move, but its not like you need more sets or things.
Logistics / Storage being with the lab makes sense for access to products, but not really the video team

The reason why you are one off if not the best tech channel on PLclip is because you don't give one about what you say and do it's fun it's different and we enjoy it.
If you can find an exact replica of linus then go for it but I think what's best for the channel is keep going with your weird yet interesting ventures such as labs might not be cheap but it's an amazing idea and nobody in the world currently has the balls to stand up to HDMI and all the companies that create the stupid standards.

I think Linus being CEO puts the company in a unique position that traditional media outlets might not have. We all love this channel (at least for me being a LONG time watcher) for Linus and what hes created, so having his personality throughout the decisions etc and being so upfront with us as viewers is amazing and something we dont get often.

That nightmare was dark, and I can only help but think it's an omen telling you to stay in charge, and ditch the new CEO idea. Following proven company structures is neat, but breaking the mold and making new systems is great, and you've succeeded greatly with a hybrid approach. You can have a "CEO" that isn't a traditional CEO, that doesn't have traditional overall power, but still focuses on high-level things and has a lot of control. Keep making your own path, turning down 9 figures is amazing, and I respect you guys so much for keeping things going your own way.

So I work for a company that has a CEO and an owner. The owner has final say on everything and he must approve everything. The CEO just makes sure that there are some kind of profit coming. I dont know if that would work for LMG as a company. In my opinion I think Linus is great and fine as the owner and person who runs LMG. My concern is more of what happens after he leaves or dies.

from watching them having a server on a tub, struggling and crawled on a tiny house to this, really lovely journey

There are so many contextual attributes to consider on this topic. What business structure do you have now, is that structure something that could resemble what you would want in the future, what are the cycles your company experiences, how many direct reports do you have (should also consider the amount of “executives or directors you have”), where do you want to be? There are going to be benefits and draw backs to having a dedicated CEO for your organization. It could allow you to take a step back from some duties, which can give you back more time. This time could be used to seek out projects or tasks within the organization that interest you or you use this time to spend more time with family. A draw back to having a dedicated CEO is that you will run into areas where you don’t agree or don’t see eye to eye on a problem and/ or solution. Giving away power isn’t the easiest thing to do for most business owners and it would require you to adapt some of your current practices. I have no doubt that you would be able to make those changes though. For example, you have already empowered many other staff and given them the autonomy to go off and solve problems, create solutions, etc. (e.g., promoting personnel to directors of departments). At the rate in which your organization is growing it might be beneficial to seek out a dedicated CEO. Rapid growth is a good thing, but it is important to ensure that the rapid growth is built upon a solid foundation. Someone that is solely focused on the big picture will have the time and can allocate necessary resources to ensure that this process takes place. As you get busier and busier it may not always be possible for you to allocate the appropriate amount of time that is required for this process to take place. This is not to degrade what you have done already but is something that many business owners face when they are rapidly growing and also want to participate within the organization as you do. There are a few different organizational structures that you can use to oversee a CEO, if you decide to obtain a dedicated CEO for your organization (e.g., board of representatives).

"Flipper of s***" _is_ a job title which should definitely exist. In my experience, companies usually have nobody responsible for tidying up, or selling equipment. So expensive gear just gets lost in store-rooms for years until it eventually gets broken and becomes e-waste.

I always find it cool how when Luke talks about LMG, he uses "we" and "us" type language. Despite not technically being an owner of the business, he's been there for so much of that he talks about it like he owns it.

Have you thought about doing a lower capacity 24V version? That would overcome the limitations with 36V if two batteries were wired in series

I like Linus' attitude towards running a company. Making exciting stuff is more important than making huge profits. As long as it doesn't lose a lot of money, everything is fine. He probably hasn't been in the situation that something is losing a lot of money, so we can't say how he will react if he needs to do hard cuts. But the growth of LMG has been a more natural und not exceedingly large one. Given that road, he might not ever get in that situation.

I have so much respect for Linus. He's one of the most self-aware and humble people who have grown such an unbelievably successful company. Great guy and great channel.

I think a new CEO might not care as much as Linus does. Linus built this company from the ground up, so he understands what it's taken to get where he is and to bring the company to where it is plus he cares so much about his staff

22:39 "You can defend yourself when I'm done attacking you" is one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

Part of being a good CEO is delegating all the stuff you are bad at/hate doing to the right people. I think that works pretty good in LMG

I watch the wan show because you both seem so natural chatting away. The thing that creeps me out is that linus is exactly like my old friend, mannerisms, movements, facial expressions. I 100% think you'd freak out if you met being so similar. So if you need a double I know a guy.

“you can defend yourself after i’m done attacking you”
i’m using that one

It's a very stressful and personal conflict to deal with. For instance, what happens when he knows an idea is good or bad and the ceo decides to go the other way and the company takes a hit, maybe people have to be laid off to keep it afloat? He'd still feel like it was his fault for delegating the responsibility. I feel like stepping down should only be done if you've prepared a replacement for the role and you intend to move on to new, more experimental projects that you don't necessarily want to be tied directly to the financial health of the main brand. Clearly, this means an Only Fans, but might also include Linus Bop, LTToiletries, or even custom, 3d printed christmas ornaments.

Maybe get a COO to help take some burden off daily operations you don't have to step down but Linus does have a lot on his plate with a house renovation and writing and all that jazz

Your company is what it is because of your decisions, you are perfect for your company

Linus needs a mini-me like Mr Beast has got - someone who spends enough time with him that they learn to make the exact same decisions.
As far as the "being responsible" criticisms go I think it's different for a company like this where there are fans who have basically joined linus on his journey. They'll buy stuff just cos LMG is selling it - but given that it's done with the integrity of genuinely trying to make a good product and a clear idea that the profits go to continuing the journey they are even more onboard. They get to literally buy-in to the story and feel like they are a part of it. As far as I can tell things like the screwdriver aren't a risk, they're a dead-cert, a total win-win situation.

This is my fav Wan show segment of all time. Thanks for the face palms

Kind of interesting, I watched almost nothing in the past week because I was on vacation with my family. My kids were on what our school district calls mid-winter break. Could a bunch of people fall into weird categories like that and maybe effect your viewership?

In a world where people are sending it because of the money they will get out.
Sending it because of the passion for something resonates with your audience. Plus makes good yt content

I remember Aaron Kyro stepped down as ceo of Braille to a founder position. Seems like this seems inevitable someday for Linus, just don’t see it happening anytime soon.

How would a CEO have handled the backpack warranty conversation/issue?

F@#k it man, love whilst you guys do, don't ever stop unless you get bored and tired, then feel free to quit. Otherwise i'm all in for LTT.

Realy funny to see Linus' Performance Review being published on YT! 😁

I thought the point of the whole hot take was “it’s fresh off my simmering mind and hasn’t gotten to cool, so it may be overly spicy, be warned”
I think as long as that’s clear and people are mature enough to recognize that they can make stupid comments when they’re frustrated/stressed/exhausted, the whole transparency thing is great… but it does mean you’re relying on a somewhat mature audience.

11:22 to be honest, without this type of thing, LMG wouldn't have been as interesting and beloved as they are now.

Sounds like you need a COO to facilitate Linu's mad creative drive and specifc preferences

Bring in a managing director to deal with the day to day operations? This would allow Linus to stay as the CEO, thinking about the roadmap/future plan for the company, as well as host. But also frees up his time from the boring day to day tasks that he doesn't enjoy.

The reason I like Ltt is Linus considers more than just profits where as another ceo might just only think of profits.
Speaking from personal experience the ceo of the company I work for although my boss and I but heads with the ceo about the direction of our department and it’s frustrating. But when he steps down in a year or two I know that our department will be gutted in support and our department will die just because we only break even however the overall experience, atmosphere. not to mention our department paid for everyone’s salaries during Covid lockdowns because we where the only revenue stream at that time. If you only look at money earned than you can greatly ruin the quality of something if not looking at something as not worth while.

LABS won't make sense financially, if in say, 3 years from now or 2-3 years after you've finished it, still has zero return.
But as it stands, is not a 3 day spur of the moment investment. It's a very complex heavy long term investment. I also expect (and hope) that it will do well eventually because the potential of it is just astronomical. Both for you in-house and testing, helping other creators as well as maybe certain partnerships being much more specific disclosing the testing that's going to be done to the product.

In terms of content, LTT produces enough quality and consistent stuff that it's enough for me to be sufficiently updated on consumer grade tech, so unless it's something really big or really controversial I don't look it up elsewhere (except for phones, kinda). So even if a lot of the content doesn't apply to my situation and market, I can at least be confident that whatever I'm getting is sufficiently true and honest that I can extrapolate from that information. And I can only do that because I trust Linus as a person from all these years I've been following LTT. And, funnily enough, the only reason I trust Linus that way is because of the WAN Show and the several times I've seen him being honest both as a person and a business man, even at the cost of his own interests.
If LMG puts Linus on a leash and gets a PR team to manage the message and talking points to a degree that I'd feel that Linus isn't being open and honest as he is today, I'd probably stop following the channel. Another CEO also feels a bit weird unless it's Yvonne or Luke, but I'd more willing to give the benefit of the doubt that even if he isn't the big man anymore Linus has sufficient control over the company and the message that it doesn't get twisted.
I know this sounds a bit weird, but I do look up to LMG as a good example of a company and how I'd like to run a company, and it's often the example I cite for good practices, so seeing you guys become too corporate and just another trash, no point, no edge, we do what brings the most cash regardless kind of company would make me genuinely disappointed. So, Linus, please, do not step down in the next 20 years, we need more LMGs in this world not less.

Honestly.. Luke is the best pick for the next CEO - we all know him and has been there since the start

If I had to guess the swings are based on viewer burnout of ltt content. Imagine you have a really good week and everyone watched every video that week the following week the same viewer may not want to watch another ltt video for a few days. So it might be a micro data problem expressed as a macro problem.

I think you'd have to find an almost carbon copy of Linus to be CEO. Sounds stupid to say, but that is essentially what Mr.Beast did. He explained it in a video with Joe Rogan or some other interview thing. He basically finds people just like him to run those aspects of his businesses.

This was hilarious and insightful. No other company would run like lol. It's like a meme company but it works?! Kinda crazy, but maybe if this works other companies could be less shit and nicer and operate like this lol

A change in CEO (but Linus still in LMG in some creative capacity) could provide some good in a bit more separation between the "nuts and bolts" of running a business and creative/editorial decisions.

The interesting thing to me is that Linus has a PLclip rep. I get it it’s just interesting to learn how the top youtubers function.

You don’t need a ceo. CEOs need to be more like you. Having random startup energy is super valuable.

I thought most people had the same opinion of LTT as me.. until I saw your subreddit.
I was honestly shocked.

The thing is, as the CEO, it’s only your job if you do not delegate the role.

I love linus business approach. Full gas eyes closed.

He can get a COO on board that just does the operative things, stuff that Linus seems to be the least concerned with.

20:16 Ironicly Linus was thinking of a price ending in .99 when he in earlier videos refuse to say a price other than the rounded up number, so 69.99 he'd say 70 instead.

For all intents and purposes, linus has his issues but he is pretty much the best CEO i can think of when it comes to big money tech companies
He takes responsibility for his actions, the company and employees
His employee has respect and is competent
All in all i'd say is really good

16:50 damn he must be under a lot of stress, and value his legacy very extremely highly.

Why don’t get a business manager or COO that doesn’t do executive decisions but he/she/they has a strong vote or say on the table with the tasks to make sure everything is going smoothly and all the reports and things that u hate

"you can defend yourself when I'm done attacking you" hahahahhaa man linus i'd love to work for you

Why not have chatgpt be your ceo since it makes only logical decisions and can free your time to creative options

Honestly, Dan's specs is pretty resonable, I'm running a 5950x and 128gb ram just for bloody audio work

So the problem with the algorithm is that it frustrates your efforts to experiment and find what things get more viewers. Instead if the algorithm decides to start promoting you, you get a flood of views.

"You can defend yourself when I'm done attacking you."
Linus sounds like Bing.

i think the problems with ceo's in general are very widespread and run very deep in that culture. Linus is better as a ceo by oders and orders of magnitude. not saying there aren't better ceo's out there, but it's a really long shot to think there is one better for ltt.

linus casually dropping his recurring nightmare

I listen to Linus talking about the screwdriver, imagine trying to sell that screwdriver without Linus name attached to it, is just like the big scam problem he had before with scammers using an email address from within that company to send the scam thing...

I wish TechLinked aired earlier in the evening on airing days

Linus doesn't need a CEO, he needs an 'assistant' that does the things he is bad at, doesn't have time to do or doesn't want to do. So he can focus on the things he wants to and has passion for. And run the company in the way he likes

I think the job of a CEO shouldnt be to maximize profits no matter what, but rather to maximize the quality of product to pricing, and to use that to improve profitability and competitiveness.

Are you steering the company in a profitable direction? Are you understanding of your workforce and their needs? You are the face of the company and talk with most of your employees. I have worked for a company for 15 years in some form of management or the other and not once have had a single conversation with the CEO. I don’t think I would even recognize him outside of work if I saw him.

It doesnt make sense to ke when people get genuinely upset by "bad takes" i just laugh at em and focus on the good takes personally

Linus definitely deserves a statue

The real question is has Linus been a good Bing?

I disagree with the jab at PR execs making it hard to get good info out of a company, as Luke highlighted. Good passionate PR folks (rare but they exist!) will ensure that the developers share their stories in the best way WHILE being trained to not go “you guys got no phones huh???”
Having said that, Linus does a great job at driving things forward and the authenticity of his brand is part and parcel of the err, brand as well. Again, rare but it absolutely works here 🙌

Dang! As somone who only watches the WAN Show clips, this is an absolutely hilarious video knowing the absolute shit show that started on the subreddit the very next day.

I think things are fine the way they are. If Linus changed roles in either direction, I don't think the company or the output would be as good.

Why don't you use a collection of dedicated hardware encoders like magewell ultra Encode, alveo U30 and hardware compositor/mixers so your computer only has to do key/fill graphics with casparCG? Distributed hardware systems can often be more reliable and powerful than doing everything in software on a single system...

If Linus stoped being CEO I would be worried that small changes would take place that would sutelly move the direction LTT in a direction that might not be liked by the viewers.

Honestly I'm not so sure an run of the mill CEO would jive super well with culture you've created. However, someone that could manage parts of the business that Linus is less inclined to enjoy could be a good idea.

I can confirm i am being fed old stuff in general on youtube for a few weeks now. some are goldies, but it mostly feels weird and not appropriate for my preferences...

Just subbed GMM. I had never heard of them before you mentioned them. You are an influencer. 🤣🤣

Anyone asking Linus to step down has never met my boss. Linus is cool, laid back and SEEMS easy enough to get along with. My boss will argue over the color of the sky. I hate my job and I wish I could use my computer skills at work. Nope, I deliver car parts for a living .

On the one hand, I think LMG or YMG or whatever is now is better off from _not_ having a business person at the top. From my own experience, companies are generally more ethical when the person at the top isn't literally trained to care about money. And that's including my own company, whose CEOs are both from engineering not business backgrounds (that statement might be a little too self-doxxy... oh well!).
On the other hand, as somebody who at least based on your public image is very same brain, I know I'd be a flitty mess if I didn't have the expectations of a manager to keep me working on the current task rather than bouncing to the new shiny problem. I don't know how you have so much self-discipline to keep and entire company going!

Give all the CEO stuff to someone else and make yourself a host/creative director.

Yvonne as CEO, and Linus as her Advisor.

I don't think the lab would be happening, at least not at the scale it's happening with a more traditional CEO. It's a big risk that doesn't justify the short term benefits. But at a long term it puts LTT at a unique position that no other tech media company is at this very moment.

Linus notices older videos getting views, and lately PLclip has been recommending videos 2-3yrs old as soon as I open the app… I have to look for recent uploads in any of the channels I’m interested in. Started around two weeks ago for me.

that ChatGPT viewer question was so a great example of how people still don't understand what these AI chat systems are. It's just a text association and prediction engine, it's not smart.

Linus staying in control is the way. He knows the viewers, market and fans better than anyone, he's lead this entire industry since before it was cool. Since before making money on PLclip was even a legitimate idea let alone a multi million dollar one.
The day LMG turns into any other unrelatable billion dollar tech company is the day it loses its appeal, and a big part of it being relatable is how Linus is just Linus and not some "career ceo" who would just be grossly corporate.

The classic $69 gambit always works

The only thing I can say is: Please don't get rid of Dan. He's pure gold!

I love CEOs that use the hard R