US banker quits JPMorgan, takes 50% pay cut to work for MrBeast: 'I was working 80-to-100-hour weeks'

Bart Dziedzic left JPMorgan and took a 50% pay cut to join MrBeast, saying the creator economy offered more autonomy, learning, and long-term career growth.

Bart Dziedzic, a 27-year-old former investment banker who previously worked at JPMorgan, has opened up about his decision to leave the firm and take a 50% pay cut to join YouTube star MrBeast’s team. He told Business Insider that trading Wall Street for the creator economy has been among the most rewarding choices he has made.

Dziedzic left JPMorgan in January 2024 and started at MrBeast the following month. (LinkedIn/Bart Dziedzic)

Raised in Darien, Connecticut, Dziedzic said he never fully fit into the finance world despite building a successful career. Speaking to Business Insider, he shared that his parents were Polish immigrants who struggled financially, and he grew up admiring entrepreneurs and innovators like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.

Dziedzic graduated from Fordham University, following which he landed at JPMorgan Chase, where he worked his way up into investment banking. “It was prestigious, and the money was good,” he told the outlet.

But despite building a strong professional path, the 27-year-old said that the finance world never felt like the right long-term fit. He said that 80-to-100-hour workweeks and the pace of New York eventually took a toll. “If you break it down to the hourly rate, it's not a ton of money. And the noise of the city was starting to wear on me,” he said.

Pros and cons of new job

Then one day, while speaking to a partner at a VC firm who was doing some recruiting for MrBeast, he learned that the YouTube star was hiring “smart, obsessive, athletic people”. The opportunity, he said, required relocating to Greenville, North Carolina, taking a steep pay cut, and leaving friends and family. But he felt the risks were reasonable at his age.

“I figured, I don't have a family or mortgage, and everyone knows the MrBeast name. I saw the opportunity to learn, add value, be part of a brand that is growing very rapidly, and have autonomy. That's the one thing I didn't like about JPMorgan — like any corporate job, it's too structured,” he told the outlet.

“In the worst-case scenario, I can come back. If nothing else, it'd be an experience in itself,” he continued. So, in January 2024, Dziedzic said that he left JPMorgan and started at MrBeast the following month.

He said his introduction to the creator world came during a multimillion-dollar production featuring participants aged 1 to 100. The scale, he said, showed how different the creator economy was from corporate finance.

Transition to small town life

Dziedzic shared that his transition to Greenville was tough at first, but eventually, he started to enjoy his time. He said that he took on a major project, in which he planned and executed a pop-up MrBeast theme park in Riyadh. He also worked on negotiations, design and operations, comparing the experience to the construction work he once did with his father. The park opened ahead of schedule and drew 7,000 visitors on its first day, he said.

Now manager of strategy and operations for MrBeast’s holdco team, Dziedzic has since moved back to New York. He said the shift reinforced his belief that early-career professionals should prioritise learning and responsibility over salary.

“Do something that's exciting, risky, with a good leadership team behind you, where you can learn something. Because the further you get along in your career, the harder it will be to pivot,” he said.