After Hearing ‘No’ From Streaming Giants, Druski Self-Funded His Dreams — And It’s Led To $14M In Earnings And Collaborations With Brands Like SNIPES
Rejection led Druski to bet on himself.
The comedian and content creator, born Drew Desbordes, has brought belly laughs to the masses.
His content creation journey started by propping up a phone in his mother’s home. Today, the grind has led him to establish a loyal fanbase, which includes over 20 million followers, and changed the course of his life trajectory.
He went from being a broke college student to being named among the 2025 Forbes’ Top Creators list — with an estimated $14 million in earnings — all while self-funding his dreams.
“A lot of those skits, you get nothing in return money wise, because it goes on TikTok or Instagram or X or Facebook. It’s a big sacrifice, but it’s worked for me so far,” Druski said during an exclusive interview with AFROTECH™.
The decision to self-fund his own ventures followed after several rejections while attempting to seek a traditional deal. While he isn’t opposed to that route, his journey today has affirmed that the initial “no’s” were necessary fuel for the launch of ventures such as 4Lifers Productions, which houses “Coulda Been Records” on YouTube. The segment was inspired by a parody talent-scouting series via Instagram Live during the wake of COVID-19.
Druski has also self-produced and launched shows “Coulda Been Love” and “Coulda Been House” and activations such as the “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda Tour” and Coulda Fest, a sold-out comedy and music festival held at the State Farm Arena.
“We tried too early on to push our stuff out there to the bigger people — like the ones you mentioned [Netflix and Amazon]. It quickly turned into a ‘no,’ but I think with the success of the shows and us doing it on our own kind of proved to me that we can do this by ourselves,” he told AFROTECH™. “We don’t need to have anybody else, but we definitely tried, and it was a lot of ‘no’s.’ So I think that was the reason why we went and banked on ourselves [and] put all our money into it. So it’s just me and my own personal production company 4Lifers.”
Druski is supported by a well-oiled team, including a photographer, managers, a social media experts, and more, who are all helping him bring his vision to life. He aims to build a lasting footprint in the entertainment industry, much like Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, Kevin Hart’s HARTBEAT, and Tyler Perry Studios, which is fully self-funded by Perry himself, AFROTECH™ previously reported.
“I want to be able to build that Adam Sandler type movie production company or the Kevin Hart movie production company or the Tyler Perry movie production company,” he told us. “That’s what I want to build. You ain’t gotta understand this. You have to surround yourself with good people and hardworking people that have the same vision as you.”
SNIPES
Beyond his team, another strategic area for Druski is his partnerships.
His latest collaboration is with global sneaker and streetwear retailer SNIPES USA, which also carries Nike, one of his endorsement deals.
“They sell [Nike], which is also one of our bigger deals as well,” he said. “So that was another ‘yes’ for us as well that could correlate with our other brand deals. If I can wear Nike in the commercial, if they sell Nike, and we could push that through the Snipes brand, that also makes sense.”
Druski will be working closely with SNIPES on exclusive community events, special deals, and real meet-and-greets in the midst of back-to-school season, according to a press release shared with us.
“I enjoyed working with SNIPES on this campaign,” Druski said. “It was a collaborative approach on the creative where they gave me the freedom to interject personalities from my world into the content, which helped to organically connect the two spaces. It was entertaining to play various school characters while highlighting SNIPES in a fresh way. I look forward to continued work with SNIPES as they’ve shown they are authentic and true to the culture.”
The partnership has also led to a full-circle moment with a commercial that was shot at his alma mater, South Gwinnett High School.
“I graduated twelve years ago, barely…That’s what made my personality today — that school,” he shared with AFROTECH™. “The same school I was getting kicked out of is is the same school I’m shooting the commercial at now.”
