James Stephen Donaldson, the algorithm ruling, product hustling, normal smile having YouTube superstar better known as MrBeast recently made his debut on Shark Tank. During his first episode on the show where celebrity investors put “idea people” through a humiliation ritual, Donaldson cut from the pack to back an AI-powered ball. It rolls. You can throw it. It’s, y’know, got AI in there. Donaldson opted to invest a quarter million into the product.
Cousins Andrew Brown and Kevin Langdon presented the Sharks with “Ball 2.” A sequel to ball. Unlike your average foam ball, the second ball is “filled with sensors,” capable of tracking and harvesting data as it is rolled, thrown, bounced and so forth. Reporting information back to a companion app, Brown and Langdon added that through the magic of AI you can instruct the ball to create new games on the fly. Like being thrown further, or being rolled not as far.
For a live demonstration, Donaldson and Lori Greiner competed to see who could shake the ball more. Donaldson won. “It worked way better than I was expecting it to work,” said Donaldson after getting his shake on, “that was cool.”
For the most part, the Sharks seemed characteristically unimpressed by Ball 2. Their primary concern was marketing to consumers. The world is full of balls. There are millions of ball havers. Thousands of ball knowers. And despite disagreements from certain communities, we even live on a giant ball. All balls without AI, and at first glance the ball with AI in it looks no different. Without coming across the video pitch, there would be little motivation to opt-in. “If you put this next to another ball on a shelf it’s a tough sell,” admits Langdon.
While Mr. Wonderful withheld his support, MrBeast was all-in. Donaldson invested $250 thousand for a 55% stake in the company. After a concerned glance at each other, the two cousins turned around and shouted “beast ball!” to the offer. Greiner and O’Leary were skeptical of consumer interest, the latter saying it would live or die on a “viral” moment. Donaldson lives and dies on that same principle, fashioning himself a scholar of YouTube user trends and unironic appreciator of Squid Game (the show and the practice). With a seemingly hypnotic control over nephews and their energy drink consumption, both Donaldson and the Ball 2 crew seemed confident they could get kids interested in their AI play orb.
At just 28 years-old, Donaldson has established a business empire that is as vast as it is dubious. While he boasts about his surgical mastery over social media, he plays it far faster and looser in his other ventures. Whether it’s the quality of his food products, routine allegations over staff treatment or where he decides to open a theme park, his circle of control seems to wane the further you go offline.
As for me, I’m keeping my money in Aurora Castle, the amusement park that’s also a space colony to be built somewhere in Vaughan.
