Shay Carl Butler, co-founder of one of the earliest YouTube multi-channel networks, Maker Studios — which was subsequently acquired by Disney for $675 million and folded into a new entity dubbed the Disney Digital Network last summer — has left the company.
Butler, the proprietor of seminal family vlogging channel The Shaytards — which has upwards of 5 million subscribers — is joining a brand new network that marks a collaboration between influencer marketing software startup Social Bluebook and the MCN Bent Pixels.
In addition to moving the Shaytards channel — as well as the Butlers family’s other channels — to the new Social Bluebook outpost, which has been dubbed Social Bluebook Community, Butler has also tendered an undisclosed investment in the company, Variety reports, and has been appointed chief marketing officer. Social Bluebook provides tech that helps roughly 170,000 influencers estimate the value of their reach in negotiating brand deals. In addition to Butler, other investors in the company include old-school YouTube stars like The Eh Bee Family, Furious Pete, Charles Trippy, and Tay Zonday.
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“It started to feel like [Disney] didn’t know who we were anymore,” Butler told Variety of his departure. “It’s Disney — they’re big … I’m itching to get back to the roots of why we started Maker Studios, and something tells me this could happen with Social Bluebook.”
Butler also has familial ties to the Idaho-based startup: Bluebook’s CEO, Jackson Wood, is his brother-in-law. Other investors in the company include former Maker CEO Danny Zappin, and Social Bluebook founders (and former Maker execs) Sam Michie and Chad Sahley.
Despite his storied career on YouTube — including developing and starring in the YouTube Premium docu-feature Vlogumentary — Butler has struggled with personal demons that have dealt a substantial blow to his career and image. Last year, an adult webcam performer said that Butler sent her explicit messages and videos of himself masturbating, whereupon he revealed that his alcoholism had recurred before going on a long hiatus. Months later, Butler returned to both his personal and family channels with messages of atonement — and the 38-year-old now appears to be posting on the latter channel regularly.
