Stevin John: Blippi Creator’s Astronomical Net Worth & How He Did It
Years ago my son discovered a YouTube video. It was a man dressed in a brightly-colored outfit dancing and singing in front of a garbage truck. The melodic tune is still stuck in my head. Garbage trucks. Garbage trucks. Driving through the town picking cans up off the ground. Garbage trucks.
My son was hooked. Enamored. He was obsessed with Stevin John’s creation. Blippi became all he could talk about. And he could pronounce and spell the name perfectly. I heard Blippi hypnotize my child every single day with the pronunciation of his name. B-L-I-P-P-I. BLIPPI!
The man dancing around in an orange bow tie and glasses, complete with bright blue suspenders and an orange-and-blue fedora, quickly rose up the YouTube ranks. What I didn’t realize until later was how intentional Stevin John was in the creation of his character.
The Creation Of Blippi
It was 2014 when the idea for Blippi popped into Stevin John’s head. It was just after he noticed his 2-year-old nephew watching YouTube videos about tractors. The videos weren’t very good. They were just random footage and background music.
That gave him the idea to create Blippi. He wanted to create something his nephew and small kids around his age would love. He wanted to do videos about fire trucks, tractors, animals, garbage trucks and all the other things that fascinate children.
He brainstormed hundreds of names to come up with the name Blippi. He knew that kids spoke from the front of their mouths. So the sound had to come from the front of the mouth. It had to be easy for kids to pronounce. For every name that made sense, he checked trademarks, copyright and whether the domain name was available.
Blippi Sold For $120 Million
I still remember touring Blippi’s warehouse in Las Vegas with him and looking at the operation. He had just purchased the warehouse in cash. And it was just after he had soared past a billion views on YouTube (that number has since climbed to well over 20 billion and counting).
He was able to monetize Blippi thanks to all the YouTube views. But that’s not all. He also went heavily into merchandising, collaborating with factories in China to produce all sorts of merch for Blippi. Plus all the brand deals people offered him to have Blippi tour their place. He was a walking money-making machine.
To think that he did all of that from an idea. The cool part is this. Stevin John sold Blippi in a deal valued at $120 million to Moonbug Entertainment. Shortly after that Disney acquired Moonbug in an even bigger deal.
Stevin John Net Worth
So, Stevin John walked away with a lot of money. And because he was living in Las Vegas at the time, he saved himself a huge amount of state tax. Vegas is home to a lot of celebrities and well known people like Dana White, Mikki Mase, and many others.
There’s a reason why people choose Vegas. Aside from having no state tax, it’s just a fun place to live. Stevin John no longer lives in Las Vegas. He moved back home to Washington State where he lives with his wife and kids. I’m sure whatever is next up for Stevin John will be even bigger than the last deal.
Because of the sale of Blippi, Stevin John’s current net worth is $345 million.