I make a living on YouTube playing an anime character. Here's how I built my career and what my day is like.

Mint Fantôme is a virtual influencer who streams for hours a day on YouTube.

Maid Mint Fantome/YouTube

• Mint Fantôme is a virtual, anime-style influencer, with 347,000 YouTube subscribers.
• The virtual YouTuber, or VTuber for short, appears as a digital avatar online.
• The creator behind Mint took an untraditional pathway into the entertainment industry.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with the creator behind YouTuber Mint Fantôme, a virtual influencer who appears as an anime character. Like other virtual YouTubers, the creator is anonymous online, but their identity is known to Business Insider. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I play a 19-year-old ghost online.

My anime-style digital avatar goes by many names: Mint, Maid Mint, or Mint Fantôme. I have 347,000 subscribers on YouTube where I livestream my avatar chatting, singing, and playing video games.

This is my full-time career, and it has become all that I do. I'm part of a growing trend of virtual influencers, called VTubers. Like many others, my identity is anonymous.

I recently joked with a friend that our jobs are like the TV show "Severance." The virtual characters we play online are like our "innies," which are the separate workplace identities of the show's characters.

This character I created allows me to have a public persona online without fully sharing my personal self.

I discovered virtual YouTubers several years ago. Many of those I followed were from a Japanese company called Cover Corporation, which owns one of the top VTuber agencies, Hololive.

I found their content really fun to consume. Living in the US, it wasn't until Hololive put out auditions for English-speaking creators that I realized this could be really cool for me to try.

I auditioned, but I didn't get the role. However, through the audition process, I met some independent VTubers who inspired me. I realized you don't have to work with a huge corporation to do this work.

When I started in 2020, I wanted my avatar to be completely separate from my normal self. I told no one, not even friends or family.

Then, as I started to become more popular, some of my friends came across my videos and recognized my voice.

I later told my mom. She still doesn't quite understand it. But she knows I've always loved Japanese culture and anime. She can't believe what she thought was a phase has evolved into my career.

How I make money as a virtual influencer

Most of my income comes from donations on YouTube. That's just out of people's generosity, and it's how I've been able to maintain this as a career. I also sell merchandise and promote brands through sponsorships.

More and more, VTubers are infiltrating Western culture. For example, Hololive's VTubers collaborated with the Los Angeles Dodgers. I've seen other independent VTubers work with hockey teams and at other events where you maybe wouldn't expect to see an anime girl.

I've performed at a couple of live concerts, and I want to do more. At these shows, I'll dance and sing with other VTubers. Online, everybody is just a number and a username in the chat box. But with live events, I can feel a true connection.

What an average day looks like

I typically try to stream for two to four hours a day on YouTube.

Filming is simpler than people think. I use a phone, and there are programs like VTube Studio and VSeeFace that VTubers use to generate their avatars.

I went to school for filmography, so I have some experience. But I also watch a lot of YouTube tutorials.

When I first started, I streamed in my closet. It was a small walk-in closet with good sound insulation. Now, I have my own dedicated streaming room.

When I'm not streaming, I create my own graphics and thumbnails. I scroll through X, where I'll post and check hashtags. I also take notes on my phone on ideas for livestreams or merchandise.

It's hard for me to turn the switch off. Some creators can say they don't go online or on social media at certain times. I don't have strict boundaries like that.

Instead, I log off from my job by browsing my personal Instagram and TikTok accounts, which are centered on my hobbies and interests, such as anime and Japanese culture.

An alternative pathway to entertainment

This passion for anime helped me break into the entertainment industry, which I consider virtual YouTubers part of. As in any aspect of entertainment, so much success is the luck of the draw.

When I'm streaming, I'll see a number on the screen of how many people are watching. Maybe the number says 3,000, but I can't fully comprehend that 3,000 people are watching me. I know that they are people, and I know that their usernames represent a person. But even after all these years, I feel so ordinary. I don't feel like an influencer.

The anonymity that comes with being a VTuber has been really great for me.

I'm not a very public person. I'm very shy, and I have a lot of social anxieties. But chatting for hours a day online has really helped me come out of my comfort zone. I'm so grateful I get to do this job.

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Entrepreneurial young people flock to 'mini private equity' as the job market stagnates

BlackSalmon/Getty Images/iStockphoto

• Young people are flocking to search funds, which seek to buy and grow small businesses.
• The model is popular with MBAs and young professionals looking to test their entrepreneurial mettle.
• The trend comes amid growing job insecurity for white-collar workers.

Just two weeks ago, Adam Froendt was a vice president of private equity and junior capital at Churchill Asset Management, a private capital affiliate of insurance giant TIAA's asset manager Nuveen.

Not yet 30, he had been promoted three times in his eight years in the industry, closing more than 60 middle-market private equity deals and 30 fund investments.

Last month, he quit that promising job to run a business. Now, he just needs to find one to run.

Froendt is one of a growing number of young people looking to test their entrepreneurial mettle through the world of so-called search funds. Sometimes described as mini-private equity or entrepreneurship through acquisition, a search fund is a small investment fund run by one or two people established to buy an existing small business. Once the business is purchased, the "searchers" run it with an eye toward creating value by streamlining operations and growing in size.

A 2024 Stanford Business School study found that search fund creation hit an all-time high in 2023, the latest year with data, with more than 90 first-time search funds raised. The strategy is particularly hot among young people, with Stanford finding that nearly 80% of first-time fundraisers in 2023 clocked in at 35 or younger, including many freshly graduated MBAs.

Some searchers, like Froendt, are so eager to be their own boss that they forgo outside investments — using their personal savings or their spouse's income to fund their entrepreneurial ambitions.

The boom in search funds is partly a response to a more complicated job market. White-collar jobs, once the obvious pathway to success, feel less stable. The dream of entrepreneurship is still alive and well, but tech startups can feel out of reach given the enormous shadow tech giants like Google and Amazon now cast over the economy.

Search funds and their various cousins offer a more realistic path to entrepreneurship.

"It's an alternative to the romantic entrepreneurial belief that you can only succeed by starting a company," Newton Campos, professor of entrepreneurship at IE University in Madrid and the founding partner of Newton Equity Partners, a recently launched fund that invests in search funds, told BI.

Froendt, who was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug running a car wash in high school, calls it "betting on himself."

"Traditionally entrepreneurship is thought of as "zero-to-one," involving brand new ideas starting at the ground floor," Froendt said. "When my eyes opened to the thought of being an entrepreneur in the context of an existing business, it immediately resonated with me."

Here's why some of the brightest young people are choosing to buy and operate unglamorous businesses like porta-potty rentals (yes, really) instead of climbing the corporate ladder.

Adam Froendt

Adam Froendt

How search funds work

The original search fund model, created in the 1980s, begins with an entrepreneur finding investors to fund their salary and expenses during a multi-year search for a business worth buying.

Froendt is taking a higher-risk and higher-reward path by self-funding his search, which takes, on average, two years. This model offers more flexibility over the businesses targeted, as well as more control and, eventually, more equity. As the founder of TrueGrit Capital, Froendt will be living off his "own personal balance sheet" (his savings) for up to two years.

The next step is to buy a successful small business, often from an owner-operator looking to retire. Froendt is looking for a company with between $3 million and $12 million in yearly revenue located between Maryland and South Carolina and in the healthcare services (think home health or care management), financial services (think insurance or accounting), or knowledge (think training or certification) industries.

The searchers' goals are to streamline operations, grow revenue, and create value for themselves and their shareholders. Most searchers plan to exit after five or more years, though some plan to hold indefinitely, which is what Froendt hopes to do.

The payout can be massive. According to the Stanford study, the average return on investment across the search funds studied was four and a half times invested capital, much higher than that of a traditional private equity firm.

There are many similarities to private equity, causing some to call the model "mini private equity." But Peter Kelly, a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business who conducts the biannual survey and who ran a successful search fund business in home health care, said the terminology is inaccurate.

Kelly, who prefers the phrase entrepreneurship through acquisition, said that the model borrows from private equity financing but is fueled by the entrepreneur's desire to become an owner-manager.

The manager of a private equity fund gets paid through fees, incentivizing them to grow their assets under management, he said. A searcher is a direct investor (usually the largest) and gets paid by growing the business.

A.J. Wasserstein, a senior lecturer at the Yale School of Business put it this way: "Search is about jumping into a CEO role and leading and building. Private equity is about providing capital."

Why it's growing

Search funds were developed in the MBA world, and some of its popularity can be traced to an ever-growing list of courses about the model.

Campos counts 25 schools that teach it worldwide but said he expects the number to reach 100 in just a few years.

As interest in search funds grows, more firms, including Pacific Lake Partners and Relay Investments, have raised funds to invest in them. Campos founded his own investment fund earlier this year to help institutional investors find search funds in Europe and beyond.

Campos, who said he sold a rental apartment to invest, has made 18 personal investments in search funds, which have netted him a nice return.

Websites like SearchFunder, which connects investors with prospective searchers, and a series of how-to guides have made "searching" easier than ever.

"A Primer on Search Funds," updated every few years by Kelly and his Stanford colleagues, offers a very granular guide to the process, including sample legal documents to help close a deal. Campos called the document the "Bible" for the business model.

Harvard professors and entrepreneurs Rocye Yudkoff and Richard Ruback have published the "HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business," another essential read for anyone interested in the industry.

They've even turned it into a podcast, recently discussing how buying a successful small business can be less risky than betting on a career with a large corporation.

"That institution might be around forever, but that doesn't mean you're going to be around forever inside that institution," Yudkoff said.

Interest in search funds is only expected to continue as tech and consulting firms cut jobs and Wall Street hiring slows amid fears of an economic downturn.

Some 15% of the Harvard Business School's 2024 class that were looking for jobs did not receive any job offers after graduation, compared to only 4% in 2021.

Search funds have even become the target of online jokers. They are a recurring theme of Search Fund Stu, a financial meme maker on Instagram whose page is full of jokes about unsexy businesses like port-a-potty rentals and social media influencers promoting the model.

Search Fund Stu told BI that he is operating a business that he bought through a search fund, and asked to remain anonymous so he can post freely. One of his posts shows a photo of an uncomfortable-looking dog, labeled "MBA without a full-time offer" and riding a mini-horse labeled "a $500k search fund."

Alongside the jokers, there are lively discussions on "SMB Twitter/X," where current operators commiserate and gloat about the highs and lows of the model, spawning some bonafide influencer stars, like Codie Sanchez, with more than half a million X followers and 2 million Instagram followers.

Sanchez left a career as a private equity investor to buy and sell small businesses and teach the model to others through her media brand, Contrarian Thinking.

Froendt recently quit social media but said that Walker Deibel, another influencer and author of the guide "Buy Then Build," played a big part in his decision to try out the model.

Kelly warns, however, that people shouldn't jump into search funds because they see it online. They are still quite risky compared to climbing the corporate hierarchy, with 37% of funds raised failing to acquire a company and 31% of companies acquired either still operating or having exited at a loss, according to the Stanford survey.

"We try not to promote it in the classroom, and I don't care if my students do it, I just want them to learn about it," Kelly said.

"If no Stanford business school graduates did it one year, I might say, 'That's too bad,'" he said, adding: "If 30 graduates did it, that would make me nervous."

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