Patreon was in talks to onboard MrBeast in a deal that could have been worth millions but never came to pass

• Patreon was in talks with Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson earlier this year, Insider has learned.
• The deal, which would see the YouTuber creating subscription content, was worth millions but never materialized.
• News of the negotiations arrives amid layoffs within Patreon's creator partnerships team.

Earlier this year, Patreon had its sights set on onboarding one of the most well-known creators on earth. 

The company was in talks with Jimmy Donaldson, known to his millions of followers as MrBeast, for a deal that would see the marquee YouTuber creating subscription content, two former employees told Insider.

One of the former employees said the prospective deal "had enough zeroes to fall in the millions." The second said it could've been valued at as much as $ 10 million.

Ultimately, though, the deal never came to pass. It fell apart by July, according to the second former employee.

A representative for MrBeast declined to comment.

Ellen Satterwhite, Patreon's interim head of communications and US policy lead, told Insider that the company would not comment on personal or sensitive information about specific creators.

News of the negotiations arrives as Patreon announced cuts to its creator partnerships team, which works to onboard and support creators. Patreon founder and CEO Jack Conte wrote in a memo on September 13 that the company's creator partnerships efforts would "take a more scaled approach with a smaller, consolidated team in the US."

All told, the layoffs impacted 80 of roughly 470 staffers across various teams. 

While a deal with MrBeast never materialized, other deals that Patreon closed appear to have fallen spectacularly short of expectations. Company documents obtained by Insider show that deals with TikTok megastars Larray and Lil Huddy brought in far less in their first months on the platform than the company projected.

"They saw these deals as experiments to play around with and test certain strategies," the second former employee said. "Apparently, only a few months ago, there was enough money in the bank to spend several million to sign creators with exclusively Gen-Z followings who of course can't that easily spend $ 10 or more per month for exclusive content."

Read more about Patreon's creator deals and the evolution of its partnerships strategy

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