Garrett Mitchell / Cleetus McFarlanddiscussed
Freedom Factory (racetrack) + Freedom Plus (streaming) + DTC car productsAutomotive/motorsports content -> owned venue & event IP -> subscription streaming -> DTC products
Creator Fund Weekly — Oct 15, 2026Sam Lessin, Eddie DeDomenico, Megan Lightcap, Caroline Singer
Cleetus McFarland: he owns the track, the races, and the streaming service
3:17
from 21:27 in the recording
Creator Fund call, Oct 15 2026 (Riverside)
Eddie's pick: Garrett Mitchell, who built his YouTube audience (as 'Cleetus McFarland') over ~20+ years racing and wrecking his own cars on camera, following his father's background in resto-mods. Growth has kept accelerating -- 1.3M views on a video posted the day before the call. In 2023 he bought and renamed a Florida racetrack 'Freedom Factory,' where he now owns and runs real racing events and IP (including hosting an international race brought over from Australia) for real prize money. On top of that he's built Freedom Plus, a paid live-stream broadcast of the races (over 100,000 subscribers at $19.99/month or $120/year, roughly 25 events last year, seven figures of revenue), plus a ~30-person operation and a growing DTC car-products business. Eddie has an inside connection via Mitchell's manager but suspects the manager underrates how big the underlying business already is.
Things We Like
- Rare owned-infrastructure model -- most creators only own an audience; Mitchell owns the venue, the racing IP/events, a paid streaming product, and now a product line
- Freedom Plus is an already-proven, large paid subscription (100K+ subs, seven figures of revenue, ~25 live events/year) layered on top of the content business
- Still accelerating at the top of funnel (1.3M views on a day-old video) even after years of building
- Genuine international reach -- hosting an Australian race at his own track -- suggesting the brand/IP travels beyond a domestic audience
- Warm-ish path in via his manager, though the team suspects there's more upside than the manager currently sees
Key Questions
- Eddie wants to research the surrounding community/audience more -- he compares the energy to Savannah Bananas but thinks the aesthetic is meaningfully different
- Is the manager relationship the right entry point, or does this need a more senior/direct conversation given the manager may be undervaluing the business
- How much of Freedom Plus's growth is organic vs. tied to Mitchell's own YouTube audience, and how portable is that if he scales events/IP beyond his own track
Conversation Quotes
- “He bought a racetrack in Brighton in Florida and renamed it freedom factory, which is an amazing, ridiculous American name for a racetrack”Eddie
- “He's got a hundred thousand people signed up for Freedom Plus... so it's in the seven figures of revenue”Eddie
- “He's just crushing right now and the business is growing crazily... I really like the shape of this one. He owns a lot of interesting pieces”Eddie