<b>In 2017, MrBeast spent more than 40 hours counting to 100,000 on camera; years later, his video productions employ over 1,000 people</b>

At 13, Jimmy Donaldson was already uploading videos to YouTube. The early years were not exactly glamorous. He posted hundreds of videos and often got very few views. He and other creators also spent time studying the platform, looking at audience retention, the algorithm and thumbnail design. That obsession with how YouTube worked became part of the foundation for what came next. Then came January 2017, when Donaldson decided to do something that sounds ridiculous on paper. He started counting to 100,000 on camera. The filming did not take a few hours. It went on for 40 straight hours. Donaldson later explained that he wanted to binge-watch Game of Thrones and Naruto, but felt guilty about spending that time without earning money. Counting let him do both.The 40-hour stunt had a weird reason behind itThe finished upload is not the full 40-hour recording. It runs for 23 hours and 48 minutes because his editing software had a 24-hour maximum. Several parts of the footage were sped up to fit under that limit.The stunt also got a major boost from other creators. Members of FaZe Clan reacted to the video in their vlogs, helping make it his first major traffic driver. Donaldson then followed it with other unusual endurance ideas, including reading the dictionary and watching paint dry.His YouTube operation grew far beyond a bedroom setupAs the channel expanded, Donaldson started putting nearly all his earnings back into videos. Simple room challenges gave way to elaborate productions, large cash giveaways and sets that required far more people to build and run.That operation now sits under Beast Industries, a parent holding company with more than 1,000 people across full-time staff, contracted construction crews, set designers and specialized security teams. Production takes place on a 100-acre corporate compound with multiple multi-million-dollar soundstages designed for indoor sets.The production budget is huge too. Donaldson has said roughly $250 million a year goes into content creation. A standard video shoot can cost more than $1 million, and he has even scrapped completed million-dollar videos when he felt the final cut was not entertaining enough.The creator also built businesses outside YouTubeThe expansion did not stop with videos. Feastables became a snack brand, while Lunchly entered the packaged lunch market. Beast Industries also acquired Step, a financial app focused on teaching teens investing and asset management. Its team also developed Viewstats, a YouTube analytics platform built to optimize content performance.Then came mainstream television. Amazon signed a deal worth more than $100 million for Beast Games on Prime Video. Beast Industries also closed a $200 million funding round at a $5 billion valuation.That makes the 2017 counting video look very different in hindsight. It was a 40-hour stunt built around one creator and a strange idea. Years later, the same creator's content operation involves giant sets, seven-figure shoots and more than 1,000 people working across the business behind the scenes, across production and the company.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.