Three years ago, Khaby Lame got laid off from a factory in Italy.
Last week, he sold his company for $900 million.
I know what you're thinking: "Wait, the TikTok guy? The one who just shrugs at life hacks?"
Yeah, that guy.
On January 27th, Khaby sold his operating company Step Distinctive Limited to Rich Sparkle Holdings in a deal worth close to a billion dollars.
Not a brand deal, not a slice of someone else’s business.
A real company, with a real exit on NASDAQ.
And if your first reaction is "good for him," you're missing the main point.
Because this isn't just about Khaby getting rich. It's about what he did differently than every other creator who went viral and then disappeared.
Picture this…
2020, pandemic hits. Khaby's working as a machine operator in Chivasso, Italy. Then he gets laid off.
No job, no backup plan. Living in social housing with way too much time on his hands.
So he opens TikTok. But instead of dancing or following trends, he does something simple: he watches those ridiculous life hack videos and shows you the obvious solution.
It blows up.
Not "a few brand deals" blow up. Not "maybe I can quit my job" blow up.
Most followed person on the planet blow up.
160 million followers.
Billions of views.
Global household name.
But here's where most creators mess it up…
They take every offer, promote anything that pays, and burn through their credibility chasing short-term cash.
Khaby didn't do any of that.
Instead of cashing out, did something most creators never think to do: he built a business.
He signed with manager Alessandro Riggio and Iron Corporation.
He turned down millions in offers that didn't fit his brand.
He treated his content like IP, not just posts.
And while everyone else was chasing views, Khaby was building infrastructure.
Because going viral is easy, but, building something after you go viral? That's where most people fail.
Here's the crazy part…
Khaby didn't just sell a media company. He sold a scalable version of himself.
Part of the deal was licensing his face and voice to AI.
That means Khaby can now create content in his sleep, speak languages he doesn't know, and be in ten campaigns at once without showing up.
Khaby figured out how to make money without needing to be physically present.
He decoupled his revenue from his time.
Most creators are trading hours for dollars. Khaby built a machine that prints money whether he's working or not.
You Don’t Need 160 Million Followers
You don't need 160 million followers to apply this.
You need to start thinking differently about what you're building.
Stop treating your brand like a side hustle, start treating it like an asset.
Stop chasing every opportunity that shows up in your DMs. Start asking: "Does this build equity or just pay bills?"
Because Khaby started with nothing. A cheap phone, a shrug, and no followers.
But he treated his silence like a product. He protected it. He scaled it. And when the time was right, he sold it for nearly a billion dollars.
The creator economy isn't about going viral anymore.
Attention is cheap now… Ownership isn’t.
