A golf shirt is an odd destination for an Instagram joke. Yet on Doing Things’ website, the distance between watching Bob Does Sports and buying Breezy Golf apparel is almost comically short. Watch the people. Learn the vocabulary. Wear the shirt. The entertainment has supplied a reason to care before the shop has asked for a credit card.
- Doing Things builds and operates social entertainment brands.
- Advertisers buy access to communities; fans buy merchandise and experiences.
- The useful lesson: test what an audience will do after it laughs.
The joke arrives before the company
Reid Hailey started ShitheadSteve in 2014 while taking college classes and living in his parents’ basement. Derek Lucas was making memes of his own. They collaborated through an Instagram message group called the Meme Illuminati. John Mayer joined the conversation. Even the origin story sounds like something you might forward to a friend.
In their 2020 interview, the founders described a company born remotely, with creative and brand-partnerships staff distributed across the United States. They formed Doing Things in 2017. The social skill came first: noticing what people would share, and finding other people who could make it.
A network gives that skill somewhere to go. A new account can be introduced through established pages, rather than waiting for strangers to discover it. Doing Things learned to move a promising idea through a collection of audiences. The underlying advantage is distribution coupled with editorial judgment: knowing which joke belongs in which room.
Fifty thousand dollars and an awkward ad break
One early experiment makes the machinery visible. For All Gas No Brakes, Doing Things helped put Andrew Callaghan on the road with an RV, equipment and production support. The Hustle’s account put the upfront commitment at roughly $50,000. Clips were repackaged and promoted across the network; the account reached a million followers in four months.
The awkward part was getting paid. Rapid edits left little room for an advertisement, and the material made some advertisers nervous. The company turned to Patreon subscriptions. Here was a show people wanted to watch, accompanied by a business model that needed another route to their wallets.
“The ad market is so volatile.”
Reid Hailey, speaking to The Hustle
Distribution did not settle every question. The partnership ended in 2021 amid a contract dispute with Callaghan, as Forbes reported. A successful audience-building arrangement can still leave creator and company wanting different things. Anyone copying the model should pay as much attention to ownership and incentives as to the launch video.
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A shirt that already has an audience
Breezy Golf offers a more literal connection between watching and buying. Its shop sells polos, hats, layers and other golf apparel, with an “As Seen on Bob Does Sports” collection. The product belongs to the activity viewers came to watch. It has a use beyond announcing that its owner follows a channel.
Fans can watch freely, shop, or attend an experience. Creators can potentially gain production and commercial support. Advertisers can commission entertainment that already understands an audience’s habits. Those are different customers with different reasons to pay; treating them as one giant follower count would hide the interesting economics.
Fast Company’s 2026 recognition focused on this movement into products and events. Its account described five core brands with merchandise businesses and the company’s role in the 2025 Internet Invitational golf tournament. A feed can invite people somewhere. The invitation becomes valuable when they accept.
Buying the joke takes a year
The founders initially had little appetite for outside capital. By 2022, Doing Things was profitable. Volition Capital’s experience backing Chewy helped change their minds: the company wanted to develop its ecommerce business. The $21.5 million Series A was announced that February.
Overheard joined in early 2023. The acquired brand turns overheard conversations into social entertainment, giving the portfolio another recognizable editorial voice. According to December 2024 reporting, integration took a full year. Overheard subsequently doubled revenue year over year, largely through brand partnerships. Buying a funny account did not spare anyone the ordinary work of combining teams.
CEO estimate of gross revenue mix. Other revenue includes ecommerce, events and licensing. The proportions differ by brand.
The advertiser needs an invitation
The company’s campaign examples explain what a marketer actually gets. Cheez-It worked with Recess Therapy on a four-part social series called Puff’d Talks. McDonald’s appeared through TrashCanPaul’s absurd humor. Kérastase partnered with Overheard New York on a U.S. Open celebration spanning social content and an in-person experience.
The selling proposition is a familiar voice with an existing audience. A conventional agency can create a campaign; an individual influencer can bring personal recognition. Doing Things combines several editorial identities with the commercial support behind them. Its position sits between social publishing, creator partnerships and consumer brands. The format must still earn its place in the feed.
A business you can learn from, without copying the memes
My reading of the model is practical: start with a specific community, notice its recurring interests, and test a paid offering that fits. Cross-promote where the audiences overlap. Let purchase behavior tell you more than applause. A golf shirt makes sense to golfers; an unrelated product needs a much better explanation.
The conditions matter. Passive followers may never buy. A creator may resist the company’s priorities. An advertiser may reject the very material viewers enjoy. Products and events require operations that a clever caption cannot replace. Doing Things is interesting because it makes those connections visible. The joke opens the door; somebody still has to run the shop.