When Grant Hilbert was 15 years old, he started a YouTube channel with farming games. The young man worked on developing the channel for 7 years, gained 1.3 million subscribers, bought 250 acres of land in Iowa and became the first person in history to get his start in video games through farming. Today, Hilbert manages two YouTube channels and heads the company that released American Farming, a Midwestern farming game.
How it all started
Born Grant Hilbert in 1998, he grew up in the suburb of Ankeny (20 miles from Des Moines, central Iowa). Hilbert’s childhood was spent on the family farm in Kossuth County, so a love of farming was in his blood. While other kids followed the lives of celebrities and showbiz stars, Grant’s idols were farmers.
At the age of 15, Hilbert and his friend decided to conquer YouTube. They created a channel called The Squad, where they posted walkthroughs of various video games, including Farming Simulator (played only by Grant). The channel quickly ran out of steam, but Hilbert still had fans who asked him to record new Farming Simulator walkthrough videos. And the young man did what was expected of him.
Farming Simulator is an agricultural-themed sandbox game. Hilbert realized that the more views, the higher the chances of getting a good income. Therefore, he regularly shot videos and posted them on the channel, building up the number of subscribers.
The start of a big business
In 2016, Grant graduated from high school. He decided to devote his summer vacation to the development of his channel. He began to post more videos, from which the channel’s popularity skyrocketed. Soon, the views opened the way for Hilbert to get real money.
When Grant enrolled in college at the University of Iowa, he already had 30 thousand subscribers. Hilbert spent all his free time recording videos, looking for opportunities to develop his business, studying books, and listening to podcasts. His classmates considered him strange because Grant did not go to parties and did not have fun like all the other students.
He tried to shoot one video every day. In his freshman year, the channel’s subscribers reached 100,000, in the second year, 300,000, and at the time of graduation in 2020, Hilbert already had 1,000,000 subscribers.
Hilbert is still an avid gamer, and in addition to video games, he is exploring the field of iGaming. He sees many gambling games as an alternative to video games. Especially arcades and crash games. These entertainments have become popular in recent years, and the statistics of search queries indicate Jet-X’s leadership. Online casino review sites also speak about the same. The largest of them https://jet-x-game.com/ gives information about dozens of famous casinos with Jet-X and other gaming hits. Many of them are available in a free demo version. This is the version that Grant usually runs so he doesn’t risk his money. And if he does play for cash, he severely limits his budget.
This approach is quite innovative, as the problem of gambling addiction is relevant for many countries around the world. Therefore, Grant prefers not to take risks and treats gambling only as a way to have a good time.
Buying land
In his sophomore year, Hilbert raised enough money to buy land. In December 2020, he purchased 120 acres of land in Mhaska County, and in early 2021, he bought another 250 acres in Poweshiek County. The total purchase amounted to $1.8 million. Grant and his younger brother Spencer grow corn and soybeans on the purchased land. Spencer graduated from the University with a degree in economics and finance, and he serves as the company’s chief mechanic.
In the spring of 2021, the brothers planted their first crop. Hilbert filmed and posted all of his work on the farm on his second YouTube channel, Grant Hilbert. A year before he started farming, Grant founded a software company called SquadBuilt Inc. Its goal was to create a significant farming simulator, American Farming, to be released in 2022.
Today, Hilbert has his farm, two profitable YouTube channels, a software company, and a few additional investments. Yet Grant continues working hard; he hasn’t become a selfish millionaire.
Hilbert says that the Internet opens up a lot of opportunities for young people, you have to spot them and grab them like he did.