Influencer Advisory™How Neuro got the MrBeast partnership, and how to recreate it
Founder · October 9, 2026 · 5 min read
Fits into: End-to-end walkthrough to celebrity partnerships for brands onboarding their first one, as the page showing how to get there with no relationship.
Goal: You leave able to plan your own approach to a public figure with no existing relationship.
Before you approach anybody
1. Find where you overindex before choosing anybody
Get consumer insights first & find the group you overindex on.
Study that group closely before picking any partner.
How we know:
- Kent Yoshimura, Open Residency: Neuro's CEO says this is how every partnership and top of funnel play starts, before picking anybody.
2. Name the tools: Meltwater & Epsilon
They pay a lot for Meltwater & Epsilon for consumer insights.
How we know:
- Kent Yoshimura, Open Residency: Same interview: Kent names Meltwater and Epsilon as the paid platforms behind the consumer insights read.
3. Let the data pick: Strava, chess.com
They're eyeing Strava for runners & chess.com for chess players.
How we know:
- Kent Yoshimura, Open Residency: Kent says Neuro is eyeing Strava for runners and chess.com for chess players off that same overindex read.
4. Only partner with people who already take it
Partners must already love the brand and take it.
That's the bare minimum requirement.
How we know:
- Ryan Chen, Sweat Equity: Neuro's co-founder calls loving and already taking the brand the bare minimum before any partnership talk starts.
Getting to the person
5. Seed through John Beer, then wait months
They seeded product through John Beer of Jack Taylor PR in November 2019, then got silence for months.
How we know:
- Ryan Chen, Sweat Equity: Ryan says they seeded product through John Beer of Jack Taylor PR in November 2019, then got crickets.
6. Meet people where they already play
Daniel Lubetzky met them at a paddle club in Austin, where Andrew Schulz, who they signed, plays.
How we know:
- Kent Yoshimura, Kate Mackz: Kent says Daniel Lubetzky met them at a paddle club in Austin because they had just signed Andrew Schulz.
7. Map the route: investor to president to Darren
Jared Smith of RXBAR led to Jim Murray of Feastables, then YouTube's president, then Darren, head of philanthropy.
How we know:
- Ryan Chen, Sweat Equity: Ryan names the exact chain: investor Jared Smith to Jim Murray to YouTube's president to Darren.
8. Look two or three degrees out
It's not always one degree of separation.
Sometimes it's two or three.
How we know:
- Ryan Chen, Sweat Equity: Ryan's own rule: a route is rarely one degree of separation, sometimes it takes two or three.
9. Use nonprofits as your door in
They met him through Bing Chen, who started Gold House, because he loved the product.
How we know:
- Ryan Chen, BrandBusters: Ryan says the same route worked twice: a mutual friend, Bing Chen of Gold House, opened the door.
Approaching the charity channel
10. Earn a spot in their video first
Two years earlier, they were in a Beast Philanthropy video for adaptive athletes.
How we know:
- Ryan Chen, Sweat Equity: Ryan says he was in a Beast Philanthropy video for adaptive athletes two years before the partnership.
11. Open by asking how to donate
After seeing what Beast Philanthropy did for smaller nonprofits, they asked how to donate back.
How we know:
- Ryan Chen, Sweat Equity: Ryan says after seeing Beast Philanthropy support smaller nonprofits, their first ask was simply how to donate.
12. Give, don't sponsor: 100% goes to impact
They take 100% of it into real-world impact.
Every Beast Philanthropy video funds a project.
How we know:
- Darren Margolias, Beast Philanthropy AMA: Darren Margolias says Beast Philanthropy is the only channel he knows that puts 100% of that revenue into impact.
13. Email Darren at Beast Philanthropy directly
Email Darren directly at Beast Philanthropy .org, he says he'll look at it.
How we know:
- Darren Margolias, EA Forum AMA: Darren Margolias says on the record to just email him directly and he'll look at it himself.
Structuring the deal
14. Sell a co-branded tin, assign all proceeds
All proceeds from the tin go to Beast Philanthropy.
They've committed half a million dollars to fund Build TAMU.
How we know:
- Ryan Chen, Sweat Equity: Ryan says all the tin's proceeds go to Beast Philanthropy, and they've committed half a million dollars.
15. Give up creative control completely
They let them run it.
They haven't even seen the final cut or copy.
How we know:
- Ryan Chen, Sweat Equity: Ryan says Neuro lets Beast Philanthropy run it and hasn't even seen the final cut or copy.
16. Make the charity a shareholder, not an investor
MrBeast himself isn't an investor in the deal.
Beast Philanthropy is becoming a shareholder instead.
How we know:
- Kent Yoshimura, Kate Mackz: Kent says on record that MrBeast personally isn't an investor, but Beast Philanthropy is becoming a shareholder.
What it buys, and what to expect
17. Size it on 25 to 45 million viewers
Their director sells ads to an audience of 25 to 45 million people, not the 1.6 billion reach number.
How we know:
- Darren Margolias, EA Forum AMA: Darren Margolias himself says he sells advertising space in the videos to an audience of 25 to 45 million people.
18. Check Albertsons, the other sponsor precedent
One video netted just over 5 million.
Its sponsor, Albertsons, still got big screen time.
How we know:
- Tubefilter, Apr 2025: Tubefilter reports one Beast Philanthropy video netted just over 5 million, with sponsor Albertsons still getting big screen time.
19. Show up in person, then raise the ask
They spent 3 days with Mr. Beast in Ghana.
Now they're increasing what they donate from half a million to millions.
How we know:
- Ryan Chen, Sweat Equity: Ryan says three days with Mr. Beast in Ghana led them to raise their commitment from half a million to millions.
Who else has sponsored a Beast Philanthropy video
Only what a page we saved actually says. A brand a search engine attributes and no page confirms is not on this list.
| Sponsor | The video | What it drew |
|---|---|---|
| Albertsons | Beast Games: Charity Edition, a Beast Philanthropy video | Just over 5 million views (Tubefilter, Apr 28, 2025) |
| Neuro | Beast Philanthropy x Neuro tin, funding Build TAMU | 100% of proceeds from the tin donated (Neuro's own product page) |