Fantasy Factory Revenue Model

Rob Dyrdek shares details about the scale and costs of running his Fantasy Factory operation.

"I was making significant income, but I was spending so much and not managing it properly. I had a $5 million a year overhead running the Fantasy Factory. The building itself was $750,000, and then you add all the staff - I had a president, COO, full-time general counsel, CEOs. I had about a 30-person team. I was essentially running an agency.

I was breaking even because I was making profit and paying taxes, but after taxes I wasn't saving any money. I kept reinvesting in new projects and bigger ideas because I thought that's how you do it. I was having extraordinary success - I revolutionized skateboarding, built Street League Skateboarding, launched a cartoon on Nickelodeon, had multiple shows on MTV, owned my integration rights doing Chevy deals and Microsoft deals making millions of dollars.

But the way I was reinvesting, rather than creating value, I was really almost like a creative services agent. I wasn't creating value with intention, wasn't looking at markets and market sizes and trends. I didn't even know what an investment banker was in 2013 - I thought it was someone that dealt with high net worth individuals. That's how little I knew about business back then."