This conversation features the co-founder of Angel Studios, a revolutionary entertainment company that has disrupted Hollywood's traditional model by putting audience decision-making at the center of content creation. Coming from a Mormon farming family in rural Idaho, the founder and his brothers built their entertainment empire starting with viral YouTube ads for products like Squatty Potty and Poopery, then transitioning to comedy with Dry Bar Comedy, and eventually creating the crowdfunding model that produced hits like The Chosen and Sound of Freedom.

The discussion explores how Angel Studios operates through its 2 million-member guild system, where everyday people vote on which projects get greenlit, fundamentally challenging Hollywood's expert-driven approach. Drawing from The User Method by Jeff Schwarting and The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, the founder explains how solving problems for their own family led to building an alternative entertainment ecosystem that serves values-based audiences worldwide.

The conversation covers Angel's journey from near-bankruptcy with early projects to becoming a publicly-traded company, their theatrical distribution strategy that bypasses traditional Hollywood gatekeepers, and their philosophy that amplifies light rather than nihilism. The founder also discusses how their Mormon faith influences their business approach, the role of AI in democratizing creativity, and their vision for creating a safe space where parents can proudly send their children into filmmaking careers.

The Guild System: 2 Million People Deciding Hollywood's Future

Angel Studios operates on the principle that 2 million guild members paying $12-20 monthly have veto power over all content - 'nothing can go into Angel Studios unless they vote first'

The voting process requires filmmakers to submit at least 5 minutes of finished content, not scripts or sizzle reels, ensuring voters judge actual execution rather than concepts

Projects need a 70+ score to pass, with voters answering two questions: 'Does this amplify light?' and 'How would you feel if this never came to Angel Studios?' - based on the Sean Ellis test used for Slack

The Wisdom of Crowds research validates this approach: 'Experts get it right 60% of the time. The crowd gets it right 91% of the time' on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

From Potato Farms to $250 Million Box Office Success

The founders grew up in Declo, Idaho (population 250) on potato farms with three TV stations, watching their first theater movie (Aladdin) at a dollar theater with degraded film quality

The User Method principle guided their approach: 'Three out of five unicorn companies were made by somebody solving a problem for themselves' - like Steve Wozniak creating Apple or Airbnb founders paying rent

Sound of Freedom, shelved by Disney for 8 years, generated $250 million at the box office after the guild voted it through with a high score

Angel Studios maintains a 93% Rotten Tomatoes audience score average, the highest in the industry, with $34 million average box office compared to other independents

Dry Bar Comedy: The $10 Million Proof of Concept

Dry Bar Comedy launched as Angel's first original content, filming 750+ comedians over 10 years with 6+ billion views and 150 million viewers worldwide

The key insight: 'If you make them pay, they laugh better' - free audiences folded their arms saying 'make me laugh,' while paying audiences were invested in having a good time

Production costs were 1/15th of Netflix specials by filming all comedians in the same Provo, Utah venue with identical camera setups, bringing in 300 paying audience members

The format requires 40 minutes of clean content from comedians who normally do blue material, labeled 'funny for everyone' - many viewers don't realize it's a clean brand

The Chosen: Crowdfunding Revolution and Divine Intervention

The Chosen became the largest crowdfunded TV series in history, raising $10 million from 17,000 investors after an 18-month 'crawling on glass' campaign

The breakthrough came from running the entire 19-minute pilot as a skippable YouTube ad: 'If we can get them to watch that 19 minutes, they invest'

The 'Pay It Forward' model emerged when they noticed Facebook fans saying 'I can't afford it' and others responding 'Send me your email, I'll buy it for you'

After initial struggles with episodes 1-4 breaking even at $700,000 revenue vs $700,000 marketing spend, the Pay It Forward model transformed the series into a top-5 global show

Tuttle Twins: Teaching Austrian Economics Through Time Travel

Tuttle Twins book series sold 9 million copies teaching Austrian economics and freedom principles, adapted into an animated series about twins with a Cuban grandma's interdimensional time-traveling wheelchair

The show features historical figures like Harriet Tubman, Benjamin Franklin, and Karl Marx, with episodes teaching concepts like 'the pencil' from Adam Smith - who steals pencils and renames them 'Adam Smithies'

Built for co-viewing with 90% entertainment, 10% education: 'Two-thirds of jokes are adult jokes, one-third kids' jokes' targeting ages 8-15

The series emerged from Libertas Network's work on lemonade stand laws, allowing kids to run businesses without permits - 'millions of kids all over the country' now operate in these legal frameworks

Disrupting Hollywood's Broken Economics and Ideology

Hollywood's fundamental problem: '75% of all money is made off PG and PG-13 movies, but 70+ percent of movies are R-rated' - they're not serving their profitable audience

A powerful Hollywood executive declared at an industry meeting: 'We are the gods here. We choose what people like. We set the culture' - representing the industry's disconnect from audiences

Angel owns the entire distribution stack from apps to theater relationships, avoiding traditional gatekeepers: 'You can buy tickets on angel.com. You don't have to go to Fandango'

Theater owners secretly support Angel's mission, pulling out crosses and saying 'I'm on your side' at industry events, frustrated with big studio treatment

AI, Creativity, and the Future of Storytelling

AI will democratize filmmaking by flattening creative costs: 'It's no longer going to be the rich kids' sport' with 100 times more movies being made annually

The chess analogy proves human-AI collaboration wins: 'If you pair a grandmaster with AI, they beat the AI consistently' - and chess is bigger than ever despite computers dominating since 1996

Human pain and suffering remain essential for transcendent art: 'Every piece of great art that stood the test of time' comes from artists who 'transcended tremendous pain and suffering'

Angel requires all employees to '10x their output using AI tools' while maintaining that AI lacks the soul necessary for storytelling that connects across time and space

Faith, Family, and Building a Movement

As Mormons, the founders represent 'the new Jews' according to an Orthodox friend - a persecuted minority (16-18 million people) historically 'kicked out of everywhere you go'

The Mormon outsider status enables diverse coalition-building: 'Tremendous diversity from Orthodox Jews to Hindus to evangelicals to Catholics on our team' due to shared outsider experience

The mission extends beyond entertainment to family values: Wife Annie Ellie argues 'we should praise parents who burn the ships to have kids' the same way entrepreneurs are praised for business risks

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt supports their approach: long-form content is safer for brain development than short-form social media that 'causes brain rot'