Magnus Midtbødiscussed
Magnus Midtbø / RungneClimbing media + B2B chalk & apparel + gyms
Creator Fund Weekly — Sep 1, 2026Sam Lessin, Eddie DeDomenico, Jack Raines, Megan Lightcap, Caroline Singer
Magnus Midtbø: the climbing influencer
6:41
from 32:20 in the recording
Creator Fund call, Aug 31 2026 (Riverside)
Norwegian ex-world-champion competitive climber (retired from competition 2017), now the largest climbing YouTuber globally (3.7M subscribers) with engagement per video still scaling year over year. Owns Rungne, an apparel brand whose real revenue driver is B2B chalk sales into climbing gyms -- reportedly $5M in 2024 sales, presumed accelerating. Also owns a rock-climbing gym in NYC with plans to expand the gym format.
Things We Like
- Rare full stack: elite competitive pedigree + massive/growing media audience + an already-proven, scaling B2B product business (chalk) + physical real estate (gym) with expansion plans
- Media engagement per video is still scaling, not just subscriber count -- suggests the audience relationship is deepening, not just growing
- Real precedent for the gym format resembling a 'third place' community model (Megan's Vital Climbing/Brooklyn comp) rather than a plain training facility
Key Questions
- There are many rock-climbing YouTubers -- why is he specifically THE one to back? (Sam's central question, still open -- Eddie's working answer is the combination of competitive credibility + scale + charisma, not yet proven out with numbers)
- Is the addressable audience the broad casual-climber base, or specifically the serious/hardcore segment -- and does that change the business plan? (Sam pushed back on Eddie's 'no casual rock climbers' framing)
- What exactly are his gym-expansion plans, and do they look more like a training facility or a community/'third place' model?
- How does he compare, as an investment thesis (not as an athlete), to Alex Honnold -- team's take is they're not comparable; Honnold reads as a singular stunt-athlete personal-brand play (closer to a Bryan Johnson), not a scalable multi-line business like Magnus
Conversation Quotes
- “I don't know how much when you say he's clearly the guy... why is he the guy?”Sam
- “No one has the scale of Magnus... but you're right, Sam, there are a bunch of more niche people who communicate really well about the sport”Eddie
- “the serious person's influencer, if that makes sense... that I would buy if that's true, and we can prove that out”Sam