What Is Mike Lindell’s Net Worth?
Mike Lindell is an American entrepreneur, enterprise govt, and creator who has a net worth of $0. At his monetary peak, Mike Lindell’s net worth simply topped $100 million, and should have been as excessive as $200-300 million. Prior to his election controversies, Mike’s firm My Pillow grossed $110 million per 12 months. Mike has claimed that in 2023 his firm is on tempo to gross simply $5 million, a 95% drop. Much of that drop occurred after his merchandise have been dropped from shops like Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond. Further including to his issues, Mike’s authorized bills and the prices of making an attempt to show the 2020 election was rigged have apparently wiped away the overwhelming majority of Mike’s former fortune. In numerous interviews in 2022 and 2023, Mike claimed to have spent $25 – $50 million of his private cash attempting to show the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. He additionally claimed to be spending $1 million per thirty days at one level attempting to launch and preserve his social media app Frank Social. In October 2023, Mike’s attorneys in a defamation case filed a declare that he owes thousands and thousands in unpaid authorized charges and due to this fact they requested to drop him as a consumer. In response Mike claimed to be “out of cash” and that he had “misplaced all the things. Every dime. All of it’s gone.“
Mike was at one time an instance of a really inspirational story of restoration and American entrepreneurship. A college dropout, Mike launched My Pillow in 2005. In 2008 he was so badly hooked on crack cocaine that he as soon as stayed awake for 19 days straight, by his personal account. He had one last get together on January 16, 2009 after which give up all the things – booze, cocaine, and crack.
Between 2009 and 2016, My Pillow and Mike have been unimaginable tales of restoration and success. His commercials have been ubiquitous on tv, particularly on Fox News. At his peak, circa 2016-2017, Mike Lindell’s net worth was $200 – $300 million. Before Mike turned an entrenched conspiracy theorist and topic to a $1.3 billion defamation cost, his firm generated nicely over $100 million per 12 months in gross income. The merchandise have been best-sellers at shops equivalent to Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohls, HEB Stores, Wayfair and the Canadian Shopping Channel. Based on related comparable firm valuations, My Pillow was price round $500 million in 2017.
As you seemingly know, as we speak Mike is much less identified for My Pillow than he’s identified for being a vocal and controversial supporter of Donald Trump and peddler of false conspiracy theories. Lindell has been deeply concerned in Trump’s makes an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, offering monetary help and spreading false conspiracy theories. As a end result, dozens of shops (together with all six shops talked about within the earlier paragraph) stopped carrying My Pillow merchandise. Mike’s most vital monetary blow got here in June of 2022, when My Pillow’s greatest retail companion, Walmart, stopped carrying the corporate’s merchandise.
In November 2022, Mike Lindell introduced his operating for Chair of the Republican National Committee. He misplaced on January 27, 2023, after receiving solely 4 of the 167 votes solid.
Early Life
Mike Lindell was born Michael James Lindell on June 28, 1961, in Mankato, Minnesota. He grew up in Carver and Chaska, Minnesota, and he started playing as a youngster. After graduating from highschool, Mike enrolled on the University of Minnesota, however he dropped out a couple of months later.
Lindell turned hooked on cocaine in his twenties, and within the ’90s, he started utilizing crack. His drug abuse and playing money owed led to his first spouse ending their marriage in addition to the foreclosures of his dwelling. Mike’s drug dependancy turned so extreme that his crack sellers held an intervention in 2008. According to Lindell, “They have been three of the largest sellers within the cities. They mentioned I had been awake for 19 days straight. They refused to promote to me once more. One of them tried babysitting me till I fell asleep.” Mike has mentioned that prayer helped him get sober in 2009.
My Pillow
In the ’80s, Mike launched a number of small companies in Minnesota, equivalent to bars, eating places, and a carpet cleansing enterprise. In 2004, he invented the My Pillow pillow, and for the subsequent few years, he offered the product at commerce exhibits, mall kiosks, and state gala’s. He established My Pillow, Inc. in 2009, and the corporate took off after its first infomercial in 2011. The 30-minute present price $500,000 to supply, and it aired a median of 200 instances per day. Lindell has mentioned of the infomercial, “It turned the primary infomercial on the planet. In 40 days, we went from 5 workers to 500.”
At its peak, the company generated a reported $280 million in revenue per year. As of this writing, the corporate has offered over 50 million pillows and employs greater than 1,600 folks.
In 2017, My Pillow, Inc.’s accreditation was revoked by the Better Business Bureau attributable to buyer complaints, and its score was lowered to an F.
Mike appointed his son Darren the corporate’s CEO in 2020, and as of 2021, many retailers not carry My Pillow merchandise. Lindell believes that retailers stopped promoting his merchandise due to his claims of voter fraud within the 2020 election, however a Bed Bath & Beyond spokesperson mentioned that My Pillow was one in all many “underperforming gadgets and types” the retailer determined to discontinue.
In March 2021, it was introduced that Mike was launching a social media platform known as Vocl that will be a cross between Twitter and YouTube. He later modified the identify to Frank due to a dispute with an organization that had established a web site known as Vocal. Lindell spent 4 years growing Frank, which launched in April 2021 with quite a few technical difficulties. As of April 2022, Lindell had 308 followers on FrankSocial, greater than every other consumer.
Lost Revenue and Lost Fortune
In December 2021 Mike Lindell claimed in an interview that he spent $25 – $50 million of his personal cash between November 2020 and December 2021 attempting to show that the election was stolen from Donald Trump.
In the quick time period wake of Mike’s public rantings in regards to the election, many retail shops pulled his pillows from their cabinets. This transfer precipitated MyPillow’s gross sales to drop considerably. In January 2023 Mike claimed these actions precipitated My Pillow to lose over $100 million in annual income.
In January 2022, one in all Lindell’s private banks, the Minnesota Bank & Trust, reportedly described him as a “reputational danger.” A month later the financial institution dropped him as a consumer.
In June of 2022, Walmart, My Pillow’s greatest distributor, pulled the entire firm’s merchandise from its shops.
In March 2023, Mike claimed he had been compelled to borrow $10 million in 2022 to maintain My Pillow afloat. He additional claimed to have been promoting belongings and borrowing cash personally to “keep liquid.” In his personal phrases:
“I offered a constructing I had in Savage, in Minnesota, in October. And I needed to borrow $2 million too. I’ve spent all of it combating for this nation.“
Private Jets
On social media, Mike is usually pictured or recorded aboard one in all his non-public jets.
In July 2021 it was reported extensively that MyPillow offered a 1993 Dassault-Breguet Falcon 50 non-public jet. The 10-passenger airplane can journey from LA to NYC in 5 hours at a top-speed of 539 mph. Depending on age, miles and situation, related fashions promote for $1.5 – $3.5 million.
In an interview in March 2023, Mike implied that he nonetheless owned at the least one different non-public jet.
(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Personal Life
Mike married Karen Dickey on May 9, 1987, they usually have 4 youngsters, Lizzy, Heather, Darren, and Charlie. Lindell and Dickey divorced after 20 years of marriage, and Mike wed Dallas Yocum on June 8, 2013. Lindell filed for divorce the next month after Yocum left him.
In early 2021, the “Daily Mail” claimed that Mike started a nine-month relationship with actress Jane Krakowski in late 2019. Krakowski’s rep denied the allegation, stating, “Jane has by no means met Mr. Lindell. She shouldn’t be and has by no means been in any relationship with him, romantic or in any other case.” Lindell additionally denied it and filed a lawsuit in opposition to the publication.
During a March 2021 look on “The Domenick Nati Show,” Mike revealed that he had been residing in undisclosed areas attributable to security considerations. He acknowledged, “I have never been again to Minnesota, and anyone on the market that’s on the lookout for me, I have never been again there in two months. I am unable to return there.” During the swearing-in of Dan Patrick as Lieutenant Governor of Texas on January 17, 2023, Patrick revealed that Lindell had moved to Texas a couple of years earlier.
In 2012, Mike based the non-profit group the Lindell Foundation, which helped drug addicts acquire therapy, and in 2019, he launched the Lindell Recovery Network to “assist struggling addicts discover hope, restoration, and the love of Jesus.”
In 2019, Mike printed the ebook ” What Are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO.”
Minnesota Mansion
In August 2016 Mike paid $745,000 for a 5,400 sq. foot mansion on 2.5 grassy acres within the city of Chaska, Minnesota. He listed the house on the market in September 2022 for $1.1 million. He finally accepted $945,000 in December 2022.
Donald Trump Support
Lindell turned a Trump supporter after assembly with the then-presidential candidate in August 2016. Mike later mentioned:
“When I met with Donald Trump, it felt like a divine appointment, and once I walked out of that workplace I made a decision I used to be going to go all in.“
Lindell attended the ultimate presidential debate in addition to Trump’s inauguration, and he has spoken at Trump rallies and the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference.
In 2019, he met with Trump in regards to the problem of opioid dependancy, and he was in attendance when the then-president signed the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, which handled opioid use dysfunction. During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mike briefly modified the main focus of the My Pillow factories from bedding merchandise to face masks on the Trump administration’s request. Around that point, Lindell appeared at a White House COVID-19 press convention, and he turned the Minnesota marketing campaign chair for Trump’s 2020 re-election marketing campaign. During the pandemic, Mike has promoted oleandrin, a poisonous plant extract, as a COVID-19 remedy, and he’s a board member of Phoenix Biotechnology, an organization that producers merchandise that comprise oleandrin.
Election Conspiracies
After Joe Biden defeated Trump within the 2020 election, Lindell was concerned in sponsoring a bus to go on a two-week tour to problem the outcomes of the election. He additionally spoke at a couple of stops on the tour. Mike attended the rally that preceded the January sixth assault on the Capital, however he has mentioned that he was not current on the revolt. However, he did unfold conspiracy theories that Antifa was behind the assault and have been in all probability “dressed as Trump folks.”
Mike has additionally promoted conspiracy theories that the Smartmatic and Dominion voting machine corporations teamed up with international powers to rig their machines and steal the election, which resulted in Dominion submitting a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit in opposition to him. In January 2021, these false claims bought Lindell completely banned from Twitter.
In September 2021, Bonner County, Idaho, started a recount of ballots that have been solid within the 2020 election after Lindell alleged that greater than 40 Idaho counties had been hacked. The recount concluded that accuracy was inside 0.1% with no proof of hacking, and Idaho’s Chief Deputy Secretary of State, Chad Houck, introduced that the state could be billing Mike for the price of the recount.
In 2021 he additionally directed, produced, and starred within the documentary “Absolute Proof” to attempt to show that Trump gained the 2020 election. Fact-checkers have criticized the documentary for together with “debunked, unsubstantial claims,” and it was faraway from YouTube and Vimeo a couple of hours after it livestreamed on the One America News Network web site.
$5 Million Challenge Lawsuit
In August 2021, Mike held a three-day “Cyber Symposium” to current “irrefutable proof” of voter fraud, which he by no means produced.
As a part of the symposium he additionally launched the “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge” which provided a $5 million reward to anybody who may debunk his information associated to the 2020 election. A cyber safety knowledgeable named Robert Zeidman took Lindell up on the problem, and subsequently debunked the information, conclusively. Lindell then refused to pay the $5 million reward, so Zeidman filed a lawsuit. In April 2023 an arbitration panel confirmed Zeidman’s work and ordered Lindell to make the fee. In their findings, the panel mentioned:
“Based on the foregoing evaluation, Mr. Zeidman carried out underneath the contract. He proved the information Lindell LLC supplied, and represented mirrored info from the November 2020 election, unequivocally didn’t replicate November 2020 election information. Failure to pay Mr. Zeidman the $5 million prized was a breach of the contract, entitling him to recuperate.“