YouTube’s ‘Bucket List Family’ Has Raised $10 Million To Establish Next-Generation Animation Studio

YouTube’s Bucket List Family channel, which chronicles the adventures of the Gees — who sold all of their belongings to travel the world — have raised gobs of cash to create their own next-generation animation studio, which they are billing as “the next Pixar.”

The Gee family — comprising parents Garrett and Jessica and kids Dorothy, Manilla, and Calihan — traveled for three years and visited upwards of 100 countries before settling on the beach in Hawaii, though they still intend to travel, per their official website. They count 1.3 million subscribers and nab 4 million monthly views.

Now, the family has turned to Republic — a platform that curates private investing opportunities across the startup, gaming, real estate, and crypto spaces — to raise money for their new studio startup, aptly dubbed The Bucket List Studios. The campaign has already reached its maximum funding goal of $3 million from a total of 27,992 investors, with 12 days to spare. Participants will receive Series Seed preferred shares in the company.

This sum arrives on top of $7 million that the family has already raised from VCs and accredited angels, the Republic campaign explains. The Gees say they turned down a $10 million offer from a major studio, and thus

sought to raise that same sum independently. They say they opted to form an indie studio to order to be able to pursue interactive learning activities, tell global stories with complete creative freedom, and develop “software to bring a new age of animation to life.”

Funds will be allocated to hiring and commencing production, and the family says they will continue licensing and acquisition meetings with Disney+ and Netflix along the way.

The first series from Bucket List Studios will be a cartoon — mixed with actual footage — following the family’s travels, with each episode featuring local artists, writers, and musicians.

The Bucket List Cartoon will also feature shoppable elements, per the campaign, including activity and coloring books coordinated with each episode, as well as links to buy featured apparel, travel gear, and more. Down the line, the Gees envision further monetization via licensing and software development.

In terms of this latter tenant, Garrett is already a wildly successful tech entrepreneur. He founded an app called Scan as a freshman at BYU that builds various products and services related to scannable QR codes, which eventually sold to Snapchat for $54 million.

You can check out the elevator pitch for the family’s latest entrepreneurial endeavor below: