Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Jake Kassan, co -founder of MVMT Watches.
Courtesy of Jake Checkout
When Jake Kassan sold his company for $ 100 million at the age of 27, he thought the money would make him happy. Although he did it temporarily, he finally took his sense of purpose and threw it into cycles of anxiety and depression, he said.
In 2018, Kassan sold its MVMT watches of accessories based in Los Angeles, pronounced “Movement”, the group moved in a deal That left him away a billionaire. The company, which had started as a 21 -year -old University abandonmentHe gave him the financial freedom he was looking for.
“The Northern Star when I was younger, it was always financial freedom,” Kassan told CNBC does it. “So my purpose, I always felt it was: I wanted to make money.”
“Then you sell (your company) and then … for the first time in years, I don’t want to talk about MVMT, but I didn’t know what to talk about, and I couldn’t find anything that felt as important as that business trip,” he said. “I think I lost the purpose.”
Today, the 33 -year -old is working to recover his sense of purpose and redefine what happiness means to him.
University download converted into a millionaire businessman
When I was a child, Kassan said, it was never particularly good at school. Instead, he saw more value to earn money.
“Academically, I’ve never done (well). I’ve always been a bit below average,” Kassan said. “Call it ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) or what you want to label it as these days … I am very good to be focused, and it is a strength and a weakness of mine, to be honest.”
“I discovered that if there is something that interests me, I am extremely concentrated and almost obsessive so to the point that you will succeed, but also sometimes you sacrifice other areas of life,” he said. .
Jake Kassan with his parents at the MVMT office.
Courtesy of Jake Checkout
Kassan’s first “business” involved selling lollipops when he was in seventh grade. For the University, he had already won years of commercial experience. Before starting MVMT, it launched an interactive shirt business that shines in the dark in 2008.
At that time, I was studying at Santa Barbara City College, before leaving after his first year.
“I just didn’t know why I was doing it. I was doing the routine, going in circles … after a year of (go to classes) and have a business at the same time, I went to follow that business,” he said.
Unfortunately, he said, that company, which depended mainly on a brick and mortar shop, failed after competitors who adopt a digital approach first entered the space. But that taught him a great lesson that would feed the success of his next company: focus on electronic commerce.
The impact of money on mental health
By June 2013, Kassan founded MVMT Watches, who adopted an online approach, with his roommate at Kramer Laplante University, and for about five years, the two dropouts accumulated one million followers on the brand’s Instagram, they built A team of 45 employees and finally sold the company for $ 100 million.
“Let’s go quickly a day where it happened … you wake up and look at the Chase application that you have always opened, and now you see that your bank account looks like a phone number,” he said. “Somehow, many change. Somehow, nothing changes.”
At first it was great, because I was enjoying being at the time. But at some point … he felt like Marmota’s day. It’s like, there must be something else.
Jake Checkout
Co -founder, MVMT clock
Although a more pleasant lifestyle could afford to help their friends and family financially, that high disappeared quickly, he said. Kassan, who had fought with anxiety and panic attacks before, said his mental health worsened in the years after his company.
“It was great at first, because I was just enjoying being at the time. But at some point … he felt like Marmota’s day. It’s like, there has to be something else,” he said.
“As time passed, I couldn’t help starting to feel this void that grew inside me,” Kassan said on his recent YouTube video. “I finally went up to the top of my mountain, but I didn’t find what I was looking for.”
Jake Kassan, 33, co -founder of MVMT watches.
Courtesy of Jake Checkout
Not only did he lose the sense of challenge he longed for in life, but also lost his impulse and identity, he said. In addition to that, said Kassan, fought to find the right person to talk about how he felt.
“I turned 30, (I had just) to go through a break … I had friends and things, but still, I only found people who understood (how) he only felt … he felt emotionally exhausting,” Kassan said CNBC does it.
“How do you empathize with someone who is rich and depressed?” He said in the video.
Eureka moment
One night in 2024, Kassan was on a trip to Australia with friends when he had a panic attack in his hotel room.
“I’ve had panic attacks before, but this was … completely out of the left garden,” he said. “He was the first one I had in years. This flood of thoughts has just entered. It was a really dark moment that paralyzed me,” Kassan said.
Jake Kassan with his friends in Australia.
Courtesy of Jake Checkout
However, after weeks of reflection, he realized that he needed to work back on something that challenged him, gave him a purpose and a feeling of genuine enjoyment.
“At one point, I think it could have been after the panic attack, where (I said): ‘It’s fine, I need to change my approach and really start (work) more or less to appear,” he said. Instead of being so concerned about fate, he decided that he would simply start working again as he did when building MVMT.
“I think the gym is the best analogy. He said.
He also learned that what he did so satisfied in building MVMT and his other business efforts was the fact that he could be creative. That discovery led him to concentrate on the videography and the storytelling.
Today, Kassan is working on the construction of his YouTube channel. He is also an angel investor for companies. The companies in which it has invested include the prebiotic company of Olipop sodas and the Truff sauce company.
“I can’t buy more peace of mind,” he said. “That is my relationship with money. I am grateful for it. I appreciate it. I prefer to have it than to have it … but there is nothing that can do that a happier person will make me.”
Do you want to earn extra money outside your daily work? Register in the online CNBC course How to get passive income online To learn about common passive income flows, advice to begin with real life success.
Further, Register in CNBC Make It is Bulletin To obtain advice and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.
