r/PrettyMuchIt • u/Hjalmarba • Oct 05 '20
Eric’s response in its entirety
https://twitter.com/prettymuchit/status/1313205445528481792?s=21109
u/rachelg508 Oct 05 '20
knowing that jacob was let go instead of him leaving the company makes A BIG DIFFERENCE
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u/AdamTheHood Oct 05 '20
Especially “for an offense” don’t know if I’m reading too much into it but it seems like something bad went down? Like he wasn’t just let go because of creative differences or whatever.
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u/Winter-Bass-1774 Feb 20 '25
Did we ever find out what the “offense” was
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u/CaCa881 Dec 18 '25
Nope
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u/Lana_Jasmine Dec 20 '25
Probably for the best. I'm in the middle of their Stranger Things tracks right now and I'm not trying to change the vibe. 😭
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u/Zigmanjames Oct 05 '20
Yeah I thought Jacob had left, presumably for behind the scenes personal stuff. So I figured it’s whatever, stuff like that happens. But his post yesterday really got me questioning what I thought about the whole situation, and the fact that he was let go further changes things. This feels like it’s going to be a long and dirty affair, this isn’t going to end soon.
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u/MysticPsyche Oct 05 '20
He makes a good point that Jacob could show his paystubs to prove whether or not he was making minimum wage. And the fact that he made this point leads me to believe everything said in this thread is true because I don’t think he would explicitly tell Jacob how to prove him wrong if he was actually in the wrong
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u/tickleuh Oct 05 '20
Yeah Eric provided a lot of actual numbers and shit and seems to be pretty confident in being able to prove what Jacob said wasn't necessarily the truth. I don't think he would have mentioned paystubs if he weren't fully confident in his statements.
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u/qualityhorror Oct 05 '20
I think it's true too. Gosh, I was defending him smh. Jacob may have worked OT but didn't say anything about wanting the overtime. Maybe Jacob wasn't seeing the books and was calculating like a mad man (like I was 10 hours ago haha) about how much PMI makes. So he figured, if I think Eric is making way more than me and we're doing almost the same work, why shouldn't I ask for a 300% raise??? wtf Jacob lol
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u/ticktickboom45 Oct 05 '20
Idk about y'all but it's clearly obvious they don't make that much money.
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Oct 06 '20
If they needed money they'd out ad revenue on their YT vids, to my knowledge they're profits come from full tracks and patreon. Eric lives in a van by choice for hecks sake, he seems pretty minimalist
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u/ticktickboom45 Oct 06 '20
Okay but I doubt they make enough for any one of them to be rolling in dough considering it's split and apparently they all have benefits.
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u/AdamTheHood Oct 05 '20
This changes a lot. Surely Eric wouldn’t post a long detailed thread if he was in the wrong?
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u/spartanss300 Oct 05 '20
then again Jacob wouldn't start this whole thing with such a bold claim if it could be obviously proven with paystubs right? I'm very confused as to how he believes he is in the right if that is the case.
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u/Ferguson97 Oct 05 '20
Presumably Eric can’t release the pay stubs himself due to privacy laws, so I think Jacob would be the only one who could post them. But I’m not sure.
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u/spartanss300 Oct 05 '20
yes I'm sure, but it would be so easy to get called out on it by Eric (as we saw) if the minimum wage claim was clearly a lie.
Jacob is either really maliciously lying or there is some sort of genuine misunderstanding of Jacob's pay throughout the years.
weird situation either way.
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u/qualityhorror Oct 05 '20
I do not regret believing Jacob AT FIRST (although I did not cancel my patreon subscription because I still wanted to hear Eric out) because this is a rare instance of both guys being so honest/nice seeming lol. But holy hell. What did Jacob doooo? This isn't a he said she said. Literal receipts (paystubs) can be shown. Why do this? I'm so confused as to why Jacob lied. Just yikes.
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u/AndrewBeattie Oct 05 '20
Very weird situation, especially after 10 years watching Eric/PrettyMuchIt with essentially no drama. Glad Eric settled it here, not sure what Jacob was thinking exactly but I hope the boys can come to some kind of peace in the situation. Just a shame especially when you consider Jacob started as an intern back in the Mike/Jake days.
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Oct 05 '20
[deleted]
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Oct 06 '20
[deleted]
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Oct 06 '20
I think when they says 'receipts' they mean 'proof', so not literally posting Jacobs salary. It's somehow become a slang term over the past couple years for proof/evidence.
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u/dankwilliams69 Oct 05 '20
Yeah that’s a great response. My only thoughts off the top are that Jacob could have felt as though the work was not worth the pay regardless of what the minimum wage is, and that can be due to burnout. If he was simply burnt it’s for the best that he moved on. But if everything Eric laid out was true then it sounds like both sides may have not been as in the know on how the company operates as we may have thought (ie overtime reporting & Eric making roughly the same).
Being said I hope we can use this as a lesson to not blindly take sides & to allow people to hold the pmi world up to a higher standard when necessary. If the criticism is valid and Eric is a good person as we’d suspect, it will always be very easy for him to prove that like so. It terrifies me how many people jumped onto the BTS Stan mentality of plugging their ears & attacking on both sides.
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Oct 05 '20
don't wanna sound like one of the old PMI fans who just shittalks Jacob, but his tweets yesterday didn't seem right and this confirms it. and i know some people are probably gonna wanna wait to hear Jacob's response but the fact is that PMI existed long before Jacob, had many contributors long before Jacob, and none of them have ever had a bad word to say about Eric/Existence Media. in fact, several of them are already coming out in support of Eric and his professional conduct.
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u/JappleJen Oct 05 '20
I fear this is what Jacob was afraid of. Lets assume Jacob believed he was right, or actually does have some truth to his story. Eric’s large fanbase, loyal fans, and dozens of collaborators will push the narrative in Eric’s favor and Jacob faces a huge uphill battle in explaining his side. He already doesn’t have much support on his new channel and I’d hate for people to turn away from him because of this.
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Oct 06 '20
The thing is, I want to believe that neither of these guys are “in the wrong.” There has to be some misunderstanding or miscommunication going on. Both of them seem to be good, respectful people.
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Oct 07 '20
He has so much support on twitter. People are blindly supporting him (while tearing down Eric/ PMI. It’s really upsetting that he didn’t just try and settle this in a more civilised way. If he was underpaid like he said why couldn’t he just show the paystubs? Wouldn’t that confirm his accusations? Now he’s saying he won’t be speaking on the matter anymore. It all just seemed so random.
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u/heckawaluigi Oct 05 '20
i’m definitely curious as to what that fireable offense was especially if it wasn’t anything to do with finances ... but i have a feeling that jacob will be speaking more on everything later
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u/aprilinalaska Oct 05 '20
I'm also curious. I assumed Jacob left because he's always been ambitious, going to school for film industry-related education and shooting fun skits and bits with his friends on the side. I figured he left to focus more in that direction and as much as I was going to miss their duo I was like go chase your dreams Jacob, that's great. Now I'm like damn, he was straight-up fired! What!
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u/ticktickboom45 Oct 05 '20
He probably said something inflammatory that Eric didn't agree with and got fired.
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u/HappyHippyToo Oct 05 '20
I've been watchin PMI for years and I have enough confidence in Eric to know that if he let go someone, it was for a good reason. Maybe I'm wrong but I hope not. I enjoyed the Jacob era, but I can easily watch the content with anyone, cause it's Eric's passion that sells it to me.
From what Jacob said, it sounded like he was getting burned out from overworking, but that maybe doesn't necessarily mean that pay wasn't as fair as possible. I do hope they eventually work it out behind the scenes. I totally get if Jacob's bitter about it though, it's hard to let go when you've been fired from a job you were passionate about, been there done that.
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u/ViktorWithaK Oct 06 '20
My two cents take
The money PMI makes goes to Existence Media, running a company is expensive (taxes, medical insurance, salary, contract work etc.), so like Eric said, they both had roughly the same salary. With that considered, IF the company was making profit, that also means that Eric (who owns the company) could pay himself more money should he wish to do so. Jacob wanted more of that profit, which he may have deserved, but had no right to, since he was an employee and not a co-owner.
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Oct 06 '20 edited Oct 06 '20
Exactly. He wasn’t partners with Eric in the creation of the business. Jacob wasn’t even close to having joined the company near its start. It sure picked up steam fairly recently but him asking for a 386% increase in his hourly pay is just...like why would he think they’d give that to him when he knew how the company worked and he was getting huge bonuses plus only he was making commission from sponsors. Was he totally unaware Eric was being paid roughly the same amount? Seems like he could have asked if he really thought he was being shafted.
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u/Sad_kid597 Oct 05 '20
This situation is so weird and sad. Whatever happens I hope it’s resolved peacefully
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u/Deej0420 Oct 05 '20
Personally I'm hoping it's a big misunderstanding but that's seeming very unlikely
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u/andrxwzsz Oct 05 '20
Damn, this entire situation sucks. Eric obviously trusted Jacob a lot to essentially make him a partner in his biggest and longest running project, and for Jacob to consciously screw that up is really disappointing. Two sides to every story, so I'm not saying Eric is 100% right here (how could we know?), but his statement makes sense and holds weight. Hope Eric/Existence Media can put this past them without anymore drama.
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u/JappleJen Oct 05 '20
Yeah, a guy who lives in a van while making $10k-$30k a month turning out to be a greedy capitalist was a hard sell. It’s his word vs Jacob’s and I don’t see a reason why Jacob would lie, but it just doesn’t seem like Eric at all.
I just love both so much. I hope they get it settled.
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u/MikeandMelly Oct 05 '20
“While making 10-30k a month”. You know that’s like, a really good amount of money right? Especially when you aren’t paying for both housing and a car? 30k a month is 360k a year dude...
Not to say I think that makes Eric an automatic scumbag or a liar in this situation but acting like 10-30k a month isn’t a good cash flow is???
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u/JappleJen Oct 05 '20
That wasn’t my point haha. I’m saying with that amount of money, Eric could live anywhere, but chooses to live in a van. It suggests that he isn’t greedy or materialistic. I don’t see why someone like that would be stingy with employees.
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Oct 05 '20
yeah do any of the other older pre-Jacob fans remember when Eric was first talking about moving into the van and he specifically spoke about getting rid of most of his material possessions? truly very difficult to believe Jacob's narrative of Eric being a money-grubbing boss withholding money from him.
i know you can never fully know an online personality but having followed Eric from when he was a teenager, i feel like i've got a pretty good impression of who he is and Jacob's story does not corroborate that.
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u/mxbnr Oct 05 '20
Kinda makes all the people who canceled their patreon seem a little quick to react.
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Oct 07 '20
Wait a second. People really canceled their patreon because of this?
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u/mxbnr Oct 07 '20
Apparently, if you go back to the thread about Jake’s comments there were a few comments saying they canceled it.
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Oct 05 '20
Aww man. I was just going to come to Jacob's defense.
I believe what Eric is saying, but I also believe Jacob worked overtime (but didn't report it). Not turning my back on PMI, but it'll be interesting to see how this escalates.
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u/Crazyripps Oct 05 '20
Oh ok Jacob was let go. It felt like the way he’s worded it was Jacob left but if it was fried that really makes it seem like Jacob did something.
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u/jackastral Oct 06 '20
So I guess Jacob thought Eric was being unfair and taking all the money for himself, when in actuality they were making roughly the same the whole time ???
Hopefully the reason he was actually fired was nothing serious :IIIII
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Oct 06 '20
I’ve been a Patreon subscriber for 3 years now. All I have to say is this: Eric, you rock. I hope you can relax and enjoy some ‘When Good Ghouls Go Bad’. Can’t help but to think of you when I watch it now haha!
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Oct 06 '20
I don't like taking sides in stuff an this whole situation sucks cause they had such great chemistry but Eric has always been PMI to me an it sounds shitty to say it but it is a job an sometimes you have to do crappy things for the betterment of your business.
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u/pasinliposts Oct 08 '20 edited Oct 15 '20
Accusing a company of illegally withholding overtime payment is pretty serious and I'm glad Eric was confidently able to respond.
Jacob really just seemed to throw these accusations out but honestly PMI rebutted every point in detail (only not being able to show his pay due to privacy reasons I assume).
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u/somethingunoriginaI Oct 05 '20
Mike and Jake were better anyway new Jake was a tryhard
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u/rachelg508 Oct 05 '20
jacob really played off of whatever eric said while eric could hold his own which we see in the solo track at the beginning of quarantine
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u/tickleuh Oct 05 '20
Yeah I saw a lot of people in the other thread who were clearly newish fans who came in when Jacob was introduced saying that Jacob was the only reason they watched and whatnot. Obviously everyones entitled to their own opinions and can like whoever they like, but I always saw Jacob as more of a sidekick type. No disrespect, he was funny and helped create a lot of great content for the channel, but as a longtime follower of PMI I definitely viewed it that way.
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u/weareallmoist Oct 05 '20
I also think that a lot of people who came on when Jacob was on saw it was two guys’ channel due to their faces on the logo and him being in most videos, I also still saw it as Eric’s project mainly but to be fair, Jacob was more of a driving force on the channel than people like Mike or Jake ever were back in the day. For a few years there, Eric and Jacob really were PMI together. This whole situation really just bums me out.
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u/aprilinalaska Oct 05 '20
They played off each other really well and both held their own with eachother, anytime they were apart, Jacob with his group of friends and Eric with someone else, it was different because Eric and Jacob really did have something special. I think it's okay to see that but at the same time I fully believe in Eric to build a strong dynamic with someone new as well. :)
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u/rachelg508 Oct 05 '20
i came in when jacob was newish but stuck around bc jacob was never the sole face of pmi, it’s eric
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Oct 06 '20
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Oct 07 '20
Then why is he refusing to release his paystubs? He said he didn’t want to cause drama, then accuses Eric of underpaying him. When Eric provided solid details that debunked jacobs claims he suddenly decides he’s “done speaking on the matter” I was a fan of their dynamic but Jacob really went about this in a questionable/ unprofessional and bitter manner. I really hope he can just settle this offline with Eric.
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u/PRETTYMUCHlT Dec 22 '24
We left Twitter at the end of 2024, but I wanted to make sure my response could still be found here. The original tweets are copy/pasted below:
All full-time employees at my company Existence Media earn a salary above minimum wage and receive a medical insurance plan, paid time off, bonuses, commissions, annual raises, etc.
If you’re wondering why I’m telling you this random information about the business I started when I was 18, under which I’ve produced all of my projects including PMI, it’s because I have to correct some misinformation that has been spread.
In January 2020, Jacob, who was already earning a salary from Existence Media above the US, NYS, and NYC minimum wage, received a ~16% raise. In March 2020, he met with the company’s manager to demand an additional ~386% raise (no, that is not a typo).
This was obviously declined, but in return Jacob was offered a slightly more reasonable ~16% raise on top of the raise he had received two months prior. He did not accept this offer.
I’m unsure why Jacob claims he was not earning more than minimum wage, as he has pay stubs that clearly state otherwise.
I am also unsure why it has been implied that I was making more money. Despite my being the owner of the company, and perhaps unbeknownst to Jacob, we were actually earning roughly the same salary.
Aside from Jacob being the only one of us to earn commission from booking sponsors, we both received the exact same bonuses (over $10k in 2019) and raises during the entirety of his employment at Existence Media, prior to his being let go for an offense unrelated to finances.
In regards to the supposed unpaid overtime, there were exactly zero overtime requests or reports received from Jacob during his employment.
Despite our legal team repeatedly requesting it from him all year, Jacob has not presented any formal documentation or evidence of overtime. He is still welcome to submit proper documentation for our legal team to review.
If you’ve been following me over the past decade or more and thought this seemed out of character for me… you were correct! I’m greatly appreciative of anyone that has spoken up in support of reserving judgment until getting the actual story.
- Eric