Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Zach Jobe and Jeremiah Burton were the backbone of Donut Media's build content for years, Jobe filming Money Pit out of his own garage, Burton writing Bumper 2 Bumper before stepping in front of the camera. In June 2024 they walked away to start BigTime with full creative control. It worked immediately. They crossed a million subscribers within a week of announcing the split.
This summer, that trust ran into a sponsor deal that blew up fast. BigTime's video building a Land Rover Defender Octa for Gumball 3000, close to $200,000 sunk into the build, was sponsored by Coretsu, described as a tech and AI startup. Almost immediately, viewers started questioning the sponsor in the comments, then on Reddit, where fans began speculating about a connection to Peter Thiel. That link has never been confirmed. What's confirmed is that fans speculated about it, and the video is upfront about that distinction.
We break down the real context behind the unease, a genuine, ongoing conversation across the AI and camera-surveillance industry right now, including the Ring and Flock partnership that got cancelled after backlash over law enforcement and immigration access (a separate situation, not linked to Coretsu). And we cover how BigTime actually responded. Two weeks later, in a follow-up video about buying Icon tools at Harbor Freight, Jobe and Burton opened with a direct apology. Jobe admitted they hadn't done proper due diligence, and BigTime pulled the ad entirely, walking away from the payment, and said they wouldn't work with Coretsu again.
We also untangle how the story got distorted as it spread, fan speculation about Thiel turning into treated-as-fact within a day, and edited clips making Jobe and Burton look dismissive when the full apology shows the opposite.
Zach Jobe and Jeremiah Burton were the backbone of Donut Media's build content for years, Jobe filming Money Pit out of his own garage, Burton writing Bumper 2 Bumper before stepping in front of the camera. In June 2024 they walked away to start BigTime with full creative control. It worked immediately. They crossed a million subscribers within a week of announcing the split.
This summer, that trust ran into a sponsor deal that blew up fast. BigTime's video building a Land Rover Defender Octa for Gumball 3000, close to $200,000 sunk into the build, was sponsored by Coretsu, described as a tech and AI startup. Almost immediately, viewers started questioning the sponsor in the comments, then on Reddit, where fans began speculating about a connection to Peter Thiel. That link has never been confirmed. What's confirmed is that fans speculated about it, and the video is upfront about that distinction.
We break down the real context behind the unease, a genuine, ongoing conversation across the AI and camera-surveillance industry right now, including the Ring and Flock partnership that got cancelled after backlash over law enforcement and immigration access (a separate situation, not linked to Coretsu). And we cover how BigTime actually responded. Two weeks later, in a follow-up video about buying Icon tools at Harbor Freight, Jobe and Burton opened with a direct apology. Jobe admitted they hadn't done proper due diligence, and BigTime pulled the ad entirely, walking away from the payment, and said they wouldn't work with Coretsu again.
We also untangle how the story got distorted as it spread, fan speculation about Thiel turning into treated-as-fact within a day, and edited clips making Jobe and Burton look dismissive when the full apology shows the opposite.
