Prior to the 2016 election, Mike Lindell sat comfortably atop a empire built on pillows. He was the epitome of the American dream. An inspirational rags-to-riches story of a man who overcame drug addiction then launched what became a highly-successful business, My Pillow. In addition to a large fortune, Mike earned a modest level of fame thanks to his ubiquitous self-starring infomercials.
By Mike's own estimation, My Pillow was generating $110 million in gross revenue per year before he became a controversial public figure. Based on comparable businesses, My Pillow easily could have been worth $300-500 million if it had ever sought buy-out offers. As such, we once conservatively estimated Mike's net worth to be AT LEAST $100 million. One could argue his net worth based on the absolute highest potential enterprise value of My Pillow would have pushed his net worth into the $200-300 million range.
Fast forward to the present and unfortunately all the pillows in the world wouldn't soften Mike's financial fall…
(Photo by Joel Koyama/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
The Downfall
Earlier today, Mike's lawyers – from a firm called Parker Daniels Kibort and Lewin & Lewin – filed paperwork in both Minnesota and Washington D.C. seeking permission to drop him as a client. According to the filing, the lawyers are looking to be excused from the case due to lack of payment. Mike has reportedly failed to pay "millions of dollars" in legal fees to his lawyers.
The lawyers had been representing Mike and My Pillow in defamation lawsuits brought by voting machine companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. Dominion alone sued Mike for $1.3 billion in damages.
Here's the filing from Mike's soon-to-be-former lawyers:
"On October 2, 2023, Parker Daniels Kibort and Lewin & Lewin was informed by Defendants [Lindell and My Pillow] that they are not able to get caught up with or make any payment on the large amount they owe in arrears nor pay for anywhere near the estimated expense of continuing to defend against the lawsuits going forward, including either the legal fees or litigation costs…"
The law firm also claimed that continuing to represent Lindell and My Pillow "could threaten the very existence of the firm."
Mike Lindell learned of the filing at some point yesterday (Thursday). Later in the day he appeared on Steve Bannon's "War Room" and gave further detail to his current situation:
"I can't pay the lawyers. We can't pay. There's no money left to pay them. I don't know where that leaves us."
In a separate interview with NBC, Mike elaborated:
"We've lost everything. Every dime. All of it is gone."
Exacerbating his financial problems has been the utter obliteration of My Pillow as a business. My Pillow had at one point been a very popular item at stores like Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond. Most major retailers have since dropped My Pillow altogether. The biggest blow being Walmart dropping My Pillow in June of 2022.
As a result Mike has claimed that My Pillow's revenue, which if you'll recall previously topped $110 million per year, has sunk to $5 million per year, a 95% drop.
Another factor in Mike's current financial situation is his own personal spending habits. In various interviews in 2022 and 2023, Mike claimed to have spent $25 – $50 million of his personal fortune trying to prove the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. Separately he claimed to be spending $1 million per month at one point trying to launch and maintain his social media app Frank Social.
As a result of these recent revelations, we have reduced Mike's net worth to ZERO. And that could just be a starting point depending on the outcome of his defamation cases.
