Photo Credits: Dude Perfect on tour. Reese Strickland/For the Register / USA TODAY NETWORK
Off the heels of a $100 million funding round and hiring its first CEO, the YouTube sensation is opening an 80,000-square-foot facility in Frisco.
After acquiring 20,000 square feet of industrial space for $3 million last year at The Star Business Park, trick-shot artists Dude Perfect, one of the world’s most popular YouTube channels, has purchased an additional 60,000 square feet within the same industrial building.
According to new Dude Perfect CEO Andrew Yaffe, 20,000 square feet will be dedicated to a full video production facility. The additional 60,000 square feet will be reserved for Dude Perfect’s business operations, which currently has 25 employees. By the end of 2025, Yaffe told D CEO he could foresee the staff doubling.
Yaffe, a former NBA executive, was unwilling to reveal the expansion’s price tag but said, “It’s less expensive here than it would be in New York or Los Angeles.”
The production facility will act as a central location for Dude Perfect to produce content—on-screen talent for Dude Perfect Coby Cotton likens it to a late-night show studio. “If an artist were launching a new album, they’d go on Jimmy Fallon to promote it,” Cotton said. “We wanted to build something here in Frisco that when an athlete comes through town, they stop at the Dude Perfect headquarters [to create content].”
“We’re not sparing any expense in virtual production, live production, and short-form production at this facility,” Yaffe said. “We will have top line technology, a gaming studio, and every element you want in a world-class production facility.”
The production studio is currently in a soft-open phase for prospective clients and partners to visit. According to Yaffe, the facility should be completed and open around January or February 2025.
Early prospective clients, like NBA executives and more than 15 athletes, have already come through the venue to vet it. “One of the executives told me it is on par with an NBA-quality facility,” Yaffe said. “Next week, we’re hosting a college team to do a shoot-around and practice. We think the facility can be a creative hub for the community, and we want to be a host for that. We want people to come for fun. It’s about filming content, but not just that.”
In April, Highmount Capital infused $100 million of funding into Dude Perfect. “The capital allows us to experiment and take risks in new business lines,” Yaffe said.
Highmount CEO Jason Illian told D CEO that when the firm started vetting Dude Perfect, “we were in the boat of just thinking this business was a YouTube channel. It’s much more than that. They’re getting $1 million sponsors on their videos, but now we’re trying to help them attain multi-year, $20 million contracts.”
In 2022, Dude Perfect announced plans to build a trick-shot theme park. Yaffe has big ambitions for a nationwide, multi-venue roll out, but the CEO says the team will take its time on the project. “We’re in the exploration phase but don’t want to do something unless it’s up to our standards. We want to make sure we do it right. Within the next couple of years, we will be present in the experience economy. Whatever we do, we will start right here in North Texas.”
