How YouTuber Caleb Hammer built a big business on debt call-outs

• YouTuber Caleb Hammer has attracted a large following by blending high-stakes personal drama and money tips.
• He's turned his online fame into a goldmine through memberships and his Dollarwise budgeting app.
• Hammer discussed how he's built his business and his edgy, sometimes polarizing style.

Caleb Hammer learned about money the hard way.

The host of the hit YouTube show "Financial Audit," who regularly chews out his guests for getting into extreme debt, grew up poor in Portage, Michigan, to young parents working low-wage jobs.

"I could never do the nice things other kids could," Hammer told Business Insider. "When I was in high school, they were paying off debt."

Once in college, Hammer began to worry he was going down the same path. He said he'd racked up $120,000 in debt at one point, mostly from college loans and a car, but also from extras like an iMac, an electric piano, and a fast-food habit. Hammer moved to Austin for a sales job and began educating himself about money management through books and watching YouTubers like Graham Stephan.

Now, at 31, Hammer has become one of YouTube's top personal finance creators, with almost 3 million subscribers. His company, Hammer Media, employs 28 people.

Hammer has cultivated a loyal fan base, many of whom pay him directly. He recently relaunched his budgeting app, Dollarwise, which saw paying subscribers jump 20% to total nearly 26,000. At an annual rate of $90 and a monthly rate of $10, the company says the app is on track to generate north of $3.2 million this year. Hammer also has one of YouTube's largest paid membership programs.

Hammer's tough-love approach, which often involves belittling guests, has drawn criticism, but he says it's both entertaining and effective. He cited a recent company survey showing that his average guest paid off about $20,000 in bad debt within 12 months.

He prides himself on appealing to a wide demographic and says his viewership is close to half women, depending on the platform.

"A lot of people come for the entertainment because they see something they've never heard of before on the internet," Hammer said. "Then all of a sudden they stay, and they actually get financial conversations, financial talking points, and information for the first time in their lives, and they start actually changing their lives."

Spiced-up financial advice

Hammer is best known for "Financial Audit," where he roasts guests on episodes with titles like "Pampered Princess Thinks Poverty Is Easy" and "Gold Digger Exploits Beta Husband." Episodes regularly run an hour and a half and get upward of 1 million views.

Social media is awash with personal finance content, from the investment-focused "The Iced Coffee Hour" to Budget Girl, who offers money management tips. Hammer makes it entertaining by blending high-drama situations with sound effects and jokey memes that grab viewers.

Wearing stubble and an arched expression, Hammer berates guests for their irresponsible expenditures, frequently holding his head in his hands.

"This is income, and you guys have gone beyond debt," Hammer recently told a couple who were more than $22,000 in the red. "Beyond debt. You'll never fix this, and I don't know how you're not homeless. You might need to move in with family."

Emotions can run high. In one episode, a woman walked off the set in tears after Hammer snarked about her having a marriage that lasted two weeks.

Off camera, Hammer is less animated, though he insists his basic personality is the same.

"Hanging out with my friends, I'm very goofy, making a lot of silly jokes and whatnot," he said. "And when I'm with my girlfriend, it's more chill, more low-key, and obviously more romantic."

"Everyone has a different personality for every different situation," he added.

A big paying audience

While around 70% of independent creators' revenue comes from ads and brand deals, according to a recent survey, Hammer Media gets nearly half its revenue from app subscriptions, memberships, and financial education courses, said Robert Kaliati, the company's president.

In addition to Hammer's Dollarwise app subscribers, he has about 73,000 paid YouTube memberships. For $5 to $25 a month, members get access to more programming and a Discord. Hammer also sells financial education courses and gives Dollarwise subscribers a budget-friendly cookbook.

"Ad rates can be up and down, algorithms can be all over the place," Hammer said. "When that happens, it's scarier to invest in new shows and new content, because you don't know if it's going to pay off. But this gives us more runway."

"Financial Audit" is Hammer's flagship show, though he also has a handful of member-only offerings, like "Dating Audit" and "Fat & Fatter," in which he samples food like Japanese snacks and breakfast biscuits.

He said he wants to keep expanding beyond the finance category by acquiring or launching new shows.

"Having something in a completely different space is always good for just diversification," he said. "Also, some people might just not like me. I have humor and personality that some can find off-putting, and that's fine. It's nice for us to create content that caters to other people as well."

Jamie Gutfreund, founder of Creator Vision, a firm that provides creator marketing strategy to brands, said Hammer is a prime example of a creator building a multifaceted business with content at the center.

Other creators who are far down this road include Dude Perfect, which sells sporting goods and live experiences in addition to ads, and YouTube's top creator, MrBeast, who's building a sprawling business that includes snacks and financial services.

Hammer's jokes and tone have faced criticism

Hammer's style has won him both fans and critics, some of whom say he's too reliant on ridicule and sex talk. On one recent episode, he asked a trans guest details about her anatomy. Another video included Hammer chastising a guy for sending money to women without getting sex in return.

Hammer feels he's misunderstood. He said he's an equal opportunity antagonist and said that guests consent to the kinds of jokes they want on the show as part of an extensive onboarding process. He said some guests have even brought lists of his routine roasts they want him to say to them.

"That's a part of the fun," he said. "If they weren't in on it, that wouldn't be fun, in my mind, because I never want to bring someone down." He added that sex jokes were only a small part of his humor.

Hammer did offer one instance when he took audience feedback to heart.

"I don't really say anymore, 'I'm going to kill myself,'" he said.

As for politics, Hammer said his emphasis on individual responsibility and his edgy humor have led some to mischaracterize him as right-wing. He's called himself "obnoxiously centrist" and takes pride in having viewers from across the political spectrum.

"We have a lot of people on the left and on the right that watch our content, which is really cool," he said. "You'll have people you would never think watch 'Financial Audit' come up to me and be like my biggest fan, and they got blue hair with 1,000 piercings and tattoos everywhere."