In an introductory video for Andrew Tate's "Hustlers University 2.0," his suite of courses for which thousands of people pay a monthly subscription fee, one of the first things you learn is that his two favourite things appear to be making money and emotional manipulation.
"You're in the most fantastic place on the planet for making money, Hustlers University, and the only person who could ruin that is you," the controversial influencer exclaims as he parades in front of his red Aston Martin Vanquish, blue Rolls-Royce Wraith, and white Porsche 911, luxury sports cars worth over $750,000 in total. Tate, dressed in a leather jacket, holds a coffee in one hand and gestures at the camera with the other.
"Most of you are content to be losers on the side," he declares. "You want to get away. That's why you signed up. You no longer want to be a loser."
Tate goes on to talk about the need to "escape the matrix" — part of his worldview that working makes you a "peon" or a "wage slave brokie." Four other luxury cars, including one of Tate's beloved Bugattis, appear in the video's background, hinting at what is possible if viewers simply follow Tate's instructions.
While red pilling, also from The Matrix, has been a part of the cultural lexicon for several years, Tate devotees have gathered in one place and appear to be more intent than ever on "escaping the matrix." They have come to believe that he, the school, and "Tateism" — think pro-capitalism and pro-hypermasculinity — hold the answers to societal slavery. This includes financial independence as well as opposition to modern progressive politics. And the Hustlers University 2.0 programme was designed to effectively spread that messaging across the social media channels where dissatisfied young men congregate, via its affiliate programme. (For this story, BuzzFeed News contacted Tate's representative and asked detailed questions.
While Tate's overt displays of wealth and misogynist language seemed to come out of nowhere this summer for many, he's actually been steadily growing his following for the past couple of years. Following his appearance on Big Brother in 2016, the former professional kickboxer established a small empire marketing himself as the "Top G" and selling online courses for $500 each. The 11 courses, such as the "Pimpin Hoe Degree" and "Instagram Playbook," were designed to help men improve their dating skills, in the style of early 2000s pickup artists. Those courses have since been removed from his website and are no longer available for purchase.
According to Tate’s website, he founded Hustlers University 2.0 in 2021. BuzzFeed News enrolled in the online Discord network, called “campuses,” in August, just as Tate had been deplatformed from social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. For $49.99 a month, users have access to the Discord and to video lessons purportedly teaching money-making methods like investing in cryptocurrency, offering copywriting services to businesses, and setting up your own e-commerce and Amazon stores. Sprinkled in with the business advice is the same anti-LGBTQ and anti-women rhetoric that Tate has become known for.
Despite being deplatformed on nearly every major social media platform, Tate can still influence followers through Hustlers University 2.0 — and he appears to make millions of dollars doing so. What are the students' names? Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly men, some of whom claim to be as young as 13 years old. These students try to inspire one another to become successful entrepreneurs like Tate, whose main product is himself.
Tate has reaped huge financial benefits from going viral for being deplatformed. According to online screenshots, Hustlers University 2.0 had only 12,000 subscribers in March. By July, the figure had risen to 77,000. It was 129,000 at the beginning of August, but by the end of August, as his media attention grew and the affiliate programme that incentivized subscribers to spread the word was discontinued, thousands had left; on Aug. 25, BuzzFeed News counted 102,000 students.
However, this was only a temporary setback; by September, subscriber numbers had risen to 160,000. BuzzFeed News discovered over 221,000 users on the Discord server in October. If all of those members paid the $49.99 monthly fee, Hustlers University 2.0 could earn more than $11 million in October. While it's unclear how many of these accounts are still active and paying the monthly fee, an ad on one of the signup sites featuring Tate claims 168,334 students are enrolled, implying at least $8 million per month.
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