Joshua Kenneth Richards, known as Josh Richards, is an 18-year-old social media influencer, entrepreneur, musician, writer, actor, and host from a small town outside of Toronto, Ontario. 

Richards has been an entrepreneur since as long as he can remember, telling Forbes “I had my first company when I was 13 years old. I had a hockey merch company.”  After a brief entrepreneurial hiatus to grow his social media audience to over 30M followers across platforms, he put his entrepreneurial hat back on and founded TalentX, the largest TikTok management and production company, and Sway House, one of the top talent collectives on the internet. He then proceeded to launch his own energy drink Ani Energy, acquire 10% of social good company Dog for Dog where he became partners with Snoop Dog, launch a JV with Warner Records in addition to signing with them as a recording artist, invest in TikTok competitor Triller and become their chief strategy officer, invest in Ellen DeGeneres’ UnHide and become their co-creative director ,and join the REMUS team as a Venture Partner.

As an entrepreneur, Richards is also a consistent angel investor, investing in dozens of companies including ReKT Global, Lendtable, Atmos, Versus Game, AON3D, Poppi, Chalk Messaging, Stir, and Humaning. His love and knack for business has attracted the eyes of notable entrepreneurs, some even becoming mentors, including Sean Rad (founder, Tinder), Josh Wolfe (MP, Lux Capital), Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Harrington, and Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.

Besides being an entrepreneur, Richards is signed to The Gersh Agency and has starred in multiple short films including Under the Stadium Lights and Summertime Dropouts. He also co-hosts the BFFs Podcast with Dave Portnoy and has a song with over 100M streams. He also has had op-eds published in Newsweek and Elite Daily among others.

Charity and giving back is something Richards has always valued. He participated in the All In Challenge which helped raise over $50M, donated 100,000 masks to his and his friends’ schools, created a clothing line where all proceeds were donated to the NAACP, gave out blankets to the homeless on Giving Tuesday, and after Giving Tuesday, he decided to give back again the following Tuesday, handing out Chipotle and Ani Energy to the less fortunate. 

Richards was named to Forbes’ 2019 Highest-Earning TikTok Stars list at number 5 and named one of the next 20 cultural pioneers by Highsnobiety. Sean Rad (founder, Tinder) called Richards in Forbes: “wise beyond his years” and Newsweek called Richards “a mogul in the making”. He spoke at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas about climate change where he gave a fan $10,000 for creating the best video raising awareness regarding climate change and at the Hawke Media Quarantine Conference. He has been profiled by NBC, CNBC, Newsweek digital and print, Forbes 1, Forbes 2, Axios  Insider, Benzinga, Seventeen, International Business Times, has appeared on ET,  Fox Business Network TV, and others, and has been quoted in almost every major media outlet from Rolling Stone, to Fortune Magazine, to Billboard Magazine.

You can connect with Josh Richards on Linkedin as well as on Triller, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter via @JoshRichards.