The Dassault Falcon 900B doesn't fit neatly in any budget PC build guide, but Linus Sebastian named his anyway. "The Millenial Falcon." Acquired in April 2026, the private jet is the kind of punchline that writes itself - the guy who spent 15 years reviewing consumer electronics you could maybe afford now owns a business jet that definitely costs more than your house. But it also says something about how far a borrowed camera and a $1 IP deal can go.

Sebastian grew up on a hobby farm in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, the kind of childhood that doesn't suggest "YouTube billionaire." He was named after Linus Pauling - the only scientist in history to win two unshared Nobel Prizes - which either set an impossible benchmark or a very Canadian one. Diagnosed with ADHD as a child, he channeled it into restless curiosity about how things work, the kind that gets you hired at a computer retailer.

The NCIX Years

He landed at NCIX in 2007, a Canadian computer retailer that sold hardware the way enthusiasts wanted it sold: in obsessive detail. Sebastian started making product videos. He borrowed a camera from the company president's son. The content found an audience because Sebastian wasn't reading spec sheets - he was actually interested, and the camera could tell.

By November 2008, Linus Tech Tips had its first video on YouTube. By the time Sebastian left NCIX, the channel had become the kind of asset that a company should fight to keep. Instead, he walked away with it for one dollar. Whether that was clever negotiating or NCIX's costly underestimate is a matter of perspective - though NCIX eventually went bankrupt in 2017, so perhaps the hierarchy of good decisions became clear.

Building LMG from a Garage

October 2012: Linus Media Group incorporated. January 2013: operations launched from a garage in British Columbia. The co-founder on the business side was his wife, Yvonne Ho - a former Hong Kong actress with approximately 50 TV appearances, who pivoted to become CFO of a tech media company. That combination of Sebastian's ADHD-driven creative energy and Ho's structured operations became the actual engine of LMG.

The growth was not a straight line. It was a multi-channel expansion built around a simple premise: make technically rigorous content that assumes the viewer is smart. TechQuickie launched in 2015 for people who wanted the fast version. TechLinked arrived in May 2018 for daily tech news. ShortCircuit in 2020 for unboxing. LinusCatTips, which is exactly what it sounds like, for the Bengal cats.

This kid's twelve, he's like dying of leukaemia - the last thing I could do right now is be upbeat.

- Linus Sebastian, on a Make-A-Wish interaction

The CEO Exit

On May 18, 2023, Sebastian announced he was stepping down as CEO. Terrence Tong took over. Sebastian's new title: Chief Vision Officer, effective July 1. The move was framed as a return to what he actually wanted to do - make content, handle the hardware, be on camera. Running a 120-person media company, it turns out, is a different job than being the guy who drops the Razer Blade.

The Razer Blade drop is worth mentioning because it became a signature. At LTX 2017, Sebastian dropped a 2017 Razer Blade on stage. The moment became emblematic of a broader reality: LTT is a place where expensive gear meets real-world handling, and not always gracefully. It became part of the brand. The audience did not want carefully staged product reveals; they wanted someone who actually used the stuff.

Fifteen Years of Consistent Volume

What separates LMG from other tech channels isn't virality - it's output. The main channel posts roughly four videos per week. That cadence, sustained over fifteen years, at consistently high production quality, is the moat. The channel's engagement rate sits at 3.51%, considered strong for a channel at that subscriber count, where algorithmic dilution tends to drag the number down. The likes-to-comments ratio of 6.13 is excellent by any benchmark.

In January 2026, Linus Tech Tips crossed 16 million subscribers with 9.2 billion total views. The math there is worth sitting with: 9.2 billion video views for a channel built on GPU reviews, PC build guides, and the occasional server farm tour. The audience watching a Linus Tech Tips video about DDR5 RAM is, collectively, larger than the population of most countries.

The Jimmy Fallon Moment(s)

January 13, 2025: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, CES 2025 segment. Linus Sebastian demonstrates consumer technology to a late-night audience. January 15, 2026: he's back for CES 2026. The back-to-back bookings are a useful data point about where tech journalism now lives. When NBC wants someone to explain what's happening at CES, they call a YouTuber.

The ENTP Who Actually Shows Up

Sebastian's personality type is catalogued as ENTP - the archetype associated with restless innovation, debate for sport, and genuine impatience with systems that don't make sense. In practice, that means a content creator who debates GPU cooling solutions with the same energy he debates editorial decisions. His ADHD, which he's spoken about directly, feeds a review style that moves fast, covers details others skip, and circles back to the interesting question before anyone asked it.

The university arc is instructive: enrolled at UBC, initially in a calculus-heavy program, put on academic probation, switched to psychology and English, then dropped out. His wife Yvonne reportedly supported the decision. The dropout story is common among founders; less common is the detail that the program switch to psychology and English suggests someone trying to understand communication before he found the medium for it.