Mike Lindell is an American entrepreneur who founded the world-famous MyPillow brand. He is likely better known for his political leanings as he is a vocal supporter of Donald Trump and a conspiracy theorist.
At the financial peak of his company, Lindell’s net worth ranged between $200 and $300 million. Due to quickly dropping customer interest and the many legal battles and hefty fees that are still in progress, Mike Lindell’s net worth has experienced a significant drop.
Today, his estimated net worth is likely to exceed $30 million, including his various debts, though this doesn’t include potential losses from 2 pending defamation cases.
He is also under the spotlight in multiple large defamation cases with pending rulings that could end in gargantuan fines. If he loses these cases, he may be forced to file for bankruptcy.
Key Takeaways: Mike Lindell’s Net Worth & Life
- Entrepreneurial Success: Lindell’s rise with MyPillow, from overcoming personal adversities to achieving significant commercial success, underscores the potential of entrepreneurial spirit. At its zenith, his net worth was estimated between $200 and $300 million, showcasing the lucrative impact of innovation and market penetration.
- Political Controversy: His vocal support for political causes and dissemination of conspiracy theories illustrate the risky interplay between personal beliefs and business. This stance precipitated a backlash, affecting customer loyalty and partnerships, and embroiling him in costly legal battles.
- Financial Decline: Amidst these controversies, Lindell’s net worth witnessed a stark decline, now estimated around $30 million. This figure reflects not just the lost revenue and severed business ties but also the looming expenses from ongoing and potential legal verdicts.
- Current Net Worth: Despite the adversities, Lindell’s current estimated net worth stands at approximately $30 million. This amount, however, is entangled with debts and the uncertain outcomes of pending defamation lawsuits, which could further impact his financial standing.
- Philanthropy and Persistence: Lindell’s dedication to philanthropy, especially in supporting addiction recovery, alongside his ventures into new media, demonstrate his unwavering commitment to his interests and beliefs, despite the financial and reputational risks.
Mike Lindell’s Net Worth: Full Breakdown
Only Mike Lindell knows the exact breakdown of his net worth because he hasn’t clarified the worth of his assets, income sources, and debts. Below is the best estimate of the breakdown of his net worth that we can come up with, drawing on a large number of reputable sources.
Asset or Income Source | Contribution to Net Worth |
Minnesota mansion sale | $945k |
Book proceeds | Unknown |
8% equity in MyPillow | ~$35 million |
Election interference campaigns | -$25-50 million |
Frank Social program | -$1 million per month |
Proceeds from sale of other MyPillow equity | Unknown |
Unpaid legal fees | -$2 million |
Total Net Worth | ~$30+ million |
6 Fun Facts About Mike Lindell
- Latest Update: New Controversial Behavior at the DNC: Mike Lindell recently made headlines for his unusual behavior at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Lindell appeared without his signature mustache after shaving it off and was seen shouting at a young attendee, creating yet another stir in his long list of public controversies.
- Addiction Recovery: Mike Lindell overcame a severe addiction to crack cocaine in 2009, crediting his recovery to his faith and prayer.
- Entrepreneurial Spirit: Before founding MyPillow, Lindell tried his hand at several businesses, including a carpet cleaning service, a lunch wagon business, and even pig farming.
- MyPillow Success: At its peak, MyPillow generated over $100 million in annual revenue, with Lindell often appearing in infomercials to promote his product.
- Political Involvement: Lindell is a vocal supporter of Donald Trump and has been heavily involved in promoting election fraud conspiracy theories, which led to several defamation lawsuits.
- Author: He authored a book titled “What Are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO,” which details his life story and journey to success.
Latest Update: New Controversial Behavior at the DNC
Mike Lindell recently made headlines for a bizarre incident at the Democratic National Convention (DNC).
Known for his erratic public appearances and outlandish behavior, Lindell stunned onlookers by appearing without his signature mustache, which has long been part of his trademark look. While attending the DNC, he unexpectedly shaved off his mustache, an act that sparked curiosity and confusion. However, the real drama unfolded when Lindell reportedly began shouting at a young attendee during the event.
Lol wow Mike Lindell debates Knowa pic.twitter.com/K5KSCstgYG
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 21, 2024
According to witnesses, Lindell appeared agitated and directed a loud tirade at a teenager who was simply attending the convention with his family.
The details of what sparked Lindell’s outburst remain unclear, but it was yet another example of the entrepreneur’s increasingly erratic behavior in public.
This incident comes amid Lindell’s ongoing legal battles and financial struggles, which have put him under intense media scrutiny. Once a successful businessman with a net worth estimated in the hundreds of millions, Lindell has since seen his fortune dwindle.
This recent episode at the DNC only adds to the long list of controversies surrounding the MyPillow founder and further tarnishes his already embattled reputation. Despite the setbacks, Lindell continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons, leaving many to wonder about his mental state and future.
Mike Lindell’s Election Fraud Claims
Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, became a prominent supporter of Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 U.S. presidential election being rigged. Lindell pushed conspiracy theories about election fraud and was sued by Dominion Voting Systems for defamation. H
is unwavering promotion of these false claims led to the removal of MyPillow products from several retailers, including Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s. Despite facing significant financial and reputational damage, Lindell has continued his efforts, organizing a “Cyber Symposium” to promote these baseless allegations.
Mike Lindell’s Early Life
Michael James Lindell was born in Minnesota on June 28, 1961. In his teenage years, Lindell struggled with gambling addiction. After finishing high school he went on to study at the University of Minnesota but he only lasted a few months before dropping out.
In his 20s, Lindell fell into another addiction – drugs. He was addicted to cocaine which continued to worsen in the 1990s when he started using crack.
In 2009, Lindell finally overcame his addiction, which he credits to religion and prayers. Here is what he says about that period:
“I had one prayer that night. God, I want to wake up in the morning and never have the desire again.”
Mike Lindell Net Worth: How It Fluctuated Over the Years
Mike Lindell has a truly unique story behind his net worth that resembles a rollercoaster more than anything else.
Lindell’s First Attempts at Making Money
When Lindell quit school, he worked two jobs and tried to make money in many different ways. After he was fired from one job and quit the other, he started a carpet cleaning business but it failed soon after.
He then tried to make money working as a professional card counter, playing blackjack in Las Vegas. That venture failed too. His next business idea was to raise pigs but that failed just as spectacularly as his previous endeavors when the pigs broke out of their pen.
His string of odd jobs continued over the next few years. He started a lunch wagon business, worked as a bartender, and even bought a bar.
It’s not terribly surprising that many of these ventures failed as Lindell was in the throes of addiction for most of them. His drug abuse and the many debts he accumulated from gambling led to the foreclosure of his home and his first wife leaving him.
The Breakthrough Point
When Mike beat his addictions, things started turning around for the young businessman. The breakthrough point was in 2004 when Lindell founded MyPillow, a business that earned him millions.
The MyPillow brand produces comfy pillows with interlocking foam.
MyPillow became a successful company fast. It was so successful that Lindell started making donations to the Union Gospel and the Salvation Army, among other organizations. He grew the business further by investing millions in television ads and spots.
By the early 2010s, MyPillow Inc. was a prosperous company that increased Mike Lindell’s net worth to around $50 million. MyPillow expanded its product list to other bedding products including duvet covers, sheets, etc.
By 2017, the firm had sold 41 million pillow products and employed 1,600 people.
At the peak of the business, Mike Lindell’s net worth was estimated at around $300 million, most of which came from the success of MyPillow.
Before the businessman became a conspiracy theorist and was sued several times for defamation, the company generated over $100 million in yearly gross revenue. Its products were best-sellers in top stores around the world including Bed Bath and Beyond, Walmart, Wayfair, and HEB Stores.
In 2020, Mike appointed his son, Darren Lindell, as the company’s CEO.
While the company’s net worth has been consistently plummeting in the last couple of years, MyPillow is still liquid and on the market. Mike Lindell now owns 8% equity in the company, putting his shares at around $35 million worth.
Mike Lindell’s Life in Politics and Conspiracy Theories
Today, people know Mike Lindell not only for MyPillow but also for his conspiracy theories and controversial support of former president Donald Trump. For years, Mike Lindell was deeply involved in Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the presidential elections of 2020. In addition to offering financial backing, he propagated false conspiracy theories, investing millions in these ventures.
As a result of the conspiracy theories, his image soured in the eyes of most US consumers causing dozens of stores, including major brands like Walmart, to stop carrying MyPillow products.
It was during the pandemic when Mike Lindell strengthened his reputation as a conspiracy theorist. According to The New York Times, the businessman has peddled an unproven theory that the toxic plant extract Oleandrin is a cure for COVID-19.
Through numerous donations and TV appearances, Mike Lindell secured a platform to express his opinions on political issues. Following his encounter with Donald Trump at a rally in 2016, he began leveraging TV appearances and social media to amplify his political perspectives even further.
“When I met with Donald Trump, it felt like a divine appointment, and when I walked out of that office I decided I was going to go all in,” he stated in a Liberty University Journal in 2019.
In 2020, Lindell invested a fortune in campaigns that aimed to disprove that Trump lost the US election to Biden.
In an interview in December 2021, Mike Lindell claimed that he spent $25 to $50 million of his net worth between November 2020 and December 2021 to try to prove that the election was stolen.
“I will keep spending it because there is no tomorrow. We lose our country. We either only have two paths: either it gets changed before the 2022 election or we lose our country forever. I will spend every dime I have,” – Lindell told CNBC.
He made allegations that Smartmatic and Dominion, two voting machine companies, colluded with others to manipulate the election, prompting both entities to pursue legal action.
He also alleged that anti-Trump protesters carried out the January 6th Capitol raid to frame the supporters of the former president.
In the wake of his rantings about the matter, retail stores started pulling the pillows from the shelves. This caused a significant drop in revenue for MyPillow. In January 2023, Mike Lindell reported that these actions cost the MyPillow brand over $100 in annual revenue.
In November 2022, Mike Lindell announced that he’ll be running for Chair of the Republican National Committee. On January 27, 2023, he received four out of 167 votes and lost.
The Prove Mike Challenge
Apart from the substantial defamation charges launched by the voting machine companies that he claimed colluded to steal the election, Lindell has also faced a lawsuit from Robert Zeidman, a Nevada computer scientist.
Lindell created the famous ‘Prove Mike Challenge’ promising $5 million to anyone who would prove that his data that he believed showed election interference wasn’t real data from the 2020 election. Zeidman quickly found that the data was entirely bogus and tried to claim the prize.
He later filed a claim against Lindell after he refused to pay the $5 million prize.
Robert Zeidman took the matter to the arbitration panel selected by Lindell LLC and, on April 19, the panel agreed with Zeidman. Lindell was asked to pay the reward within 30 days, but he reportedly still hasn’t paid a dime.
Alec Beck, Lindell’s lawyer has filed a Petition to Vacate Arbitration Award, which still leaves the case open.
Lindell’s Social Media Platform
In March 2021, Mike Lindell launched Vocl, a social media platform that would be a cross between YouTube and Twitter. He had to change the name to Frank Social because of a legal dispute with a company whose website was called Vocal.
The entrepreneur spent four years developing Frank Social and, according to his claims, invested $1 million per month to launch and maintain the app.
Despite some issues with setting his website live and posting his first videos, the Frankspeech.com website is live now – and very active.
Even so, this venture didn’t pan out as he expected, seeing how his Instagram account has slightly over 2000 followers today. He is also now permanently suspended from Twitter due to repeated violations of the Civic Security Policy.
Mike Lindell’s Net Worth Today
In October 2023, Mike Lindell’s attorneys working on his voting system defamation cases brought against him declared that he had accumulated millions of dollars in unpaid legal fees. Consequently, they requested to withdraw their representation as his legal counsel.
Lindell confirmed this, saying that he only has $10,000 to his name. In the interview with CBS MoneyWatch, he said that the legal fees amount to $2 million and that he can’t afford them.
Dominion and Smartmatic, the voting system manufacturers that he blamed for rigging the election, are still pursuing their lawsuits against the pillow salesman. Dominion is seeking $1.3 billion in damages, claiming that the statements were unfounded.
At this point, the Supreme Court has allowed the defamation lawsuit and rejected the MyPillow founder’s bid to dodge the claims.
Meanwhile, Lindell still vows to continue with these legal fights.
The company recently settled a gargantuan $787.5 million defamation case against Fox News for similar claims and has major cases pending against other allies of former president Donald Trump, including Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and Patrick Byrne.
Smartmatic is asking for an unspecified amount in damages, as well as for an order that will require Mike Lindell to retract his false statements and implications if it wins the case.
Both proceedings are still pending in court. If he loses either or both of these cases it will certainly have a grand impact on Mike Lindell’s net worth, regardless of the outcome. At the very least, the legal fees will grow significantly by the end of the process.
Philanthropy
Despite the many legal challenges and conspiracies, Mike Lindell’s philanthropy is well-appreciated. Because of his long and painful stint as an addict, he decided to found the Lindell Foundation to help former drug addicts.
In 2019, Mike Lindell launched the Lindell Recovery Network, a program that connects addicts and helps them overcome their drug addictions.
Mike Lindell as an Author
In 2019, Mike Lindell published a book: “What are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO”. His earnings from the book are unknown.
This business memoir is the only book Lindell has authored. It follows the businessman’s story from his rock bottom as a crack addict to his tremendous success with MyPillow.
Mike Lindell’s Investments and Assets
Today, Mike Lindell’s net worth comes mostly from his shares at the MyPillow company. He’s also linked to a few assets over the years, including an unknown number of private jets and a 5,400-square-foot Minnesota mansion.
Private Jets
Mike Lindell is often recorded or pictured aboard his private jets. In 2021, MyPillow sold a 1993 Dassault-Breguet Falcon 50 10-passenger jet worth between $1.5 and $3.5 million.
This is not the only private jet Mike Lindell has been seen on over the years. However, there is no public information on whether he sold them or if ever he actually owned them.
Minnesota Mansion
In August 2016, Mike Lindell bought a 5,400-square-foot mansion for $745,000 in Chaska, Minnesota. In 2022, he sold the mansion he bought at a price of $945,000.
What Can We Learn From Mike Lindell’s Success?
Mike Lindell’s career – and his life, have been a roller coaster ride. His life is marked by highs and lows, many successes, and even more controversies.
MyPillow’s revenue has fluctuated greatly since the beginning, but not as a result of poor business decisions. Lindell managed to overcome his own demons and built an empire from scratch, showing us that second chances do exist.
However, Lindell’s ventures into conspiracy theories and the tremendous fallout that followed demonstrate the risks of mixing personal beliefs with business.
His involvement in election disputes has terribly tarnished the reputation of his brand and led to costly legal battles that will most likely put another dent in his net worth if not completely eviscerate it.
These battles and the current defamation cases against him serve as a reminder of the perils of straying into unverified, controversial claims. It goes to show that upholding integrity and truth in public discourse is important, especially for public figures and business leaders.