Chris Pavlovski Reveals How Charlie Kirk Found Rumble's Headquarters and Became Its First Investor

[00:00] All right, Chris Pavlovski, CEO of

[00:02] Rumble, my colleague and friend, uh, and

[00:05] guy who built this. You mentioned

[00:07] something that I've mentioned on the

[00:08] show a couple times now, but I'd love to

[00:10] hear the full story around it. That

[00:12] Charlie actually, not only has he been

[00:15] deeply involved in Rumble from the

[00:16] beginning, and I'd love to hear how you

[00:17] guys started talking about that, but he

[00:19] found this very building for you. And so

[00:22] much of what Rumble does now is about

[00:24] Sarasota and Longboat Key and this part

[00:26] of Florida and freedom. And I was

[00:28] telling people how, you know, you

[00:29] started in Canada, let's say slightly

[00:31] less than free. So, can you talk a

[00:34] little bit about Charlie's connection to

[00:35] all of this?

[00:36] Yeah. Well, first, welcome to uh

[00:37] Sarasota, Longboat Key. Um, you know, I

[00:40] I'll step back and kind of uh tell you

[00:43] how I even found this place first and

[00:45] foremost. My parents have been coming

[00:46] here for 20 years as a Canadian

[00:48] snowbirds. I fell in love with it. Uh,

[00:50] as you can see out there, it's it's as

[00:53] beautiful as it gets. But uh as Rumble

[00:57] was like transitioning into this small

[00:59] company and growing very rapidly late in

[01:02] 2020 and early in 2021,

[01:05] uh Charlie not only before I get to the

[01:08] to the Longboat Key story, Charlie was

[01:10] actually the first investor in Rumble

[01:12] with JD Vance, the Vec Ramaswami

[01:16] um back in uh I think it was like April

[01:18] of 2021.

[01:20] Wow. I didn't even know that. Yeah, he

[01:22] was in that very very first round and he

[01:24] was out of that group I would say the by

[01:27] far the the most active

[01:30] and most interested in that investment

[01:32] round person.

[01:33] Did you know him at the time or you met

[01:35] him because of the investment?

[01:36] I met I don't exactly remember how I met

[01:38] him at that time but it was probably

[01:40] through um the investment this as Rumble

[01:44] actually I think I met him shortly after

[01:46] Bonino joined Rumble um in late 2020. So

[01:49] I he I actually knew him a little prior

[01:52] to uh him investing. So even before the

[01:54] the investors and uh you know he ended

[01:58] up joining that investment round back

[02:00] early in 2021. But the most important

[02:03] part was that he was like the most

[02:05] active investor, the one that was most

[02:07] interested in helping Rumble and most

[02:10] interested in like freeing speech as

[02:13] much as possible, allowing everyone to

[02:14] be able to have dialogue. um he was

[02:17] adamant about that as as we already

[02:19] know, but he was instrumental in in the

[02:22] building blocks of Rumble and really

[02:25] pushing that forward and supporting me,

[02:27] supporting this company to get where it

[02:29] was. And then that kind of like, you

[02:32] know, brings me to how we ended up here.

[02:34] Obviously, my parents uh were coming

[02:36] here and I fell in love with this place

[02:38] and I thought it was the right place. It

[02:40] it just felt like Florida was the the

[02:42] freest in the country in my mind. And it

[02:46] just felt right. And I I remember

[02:48] Charlie telling me, he's like, "I got a

[02:50] I I have a place in Florida in in

[02:52] Sarasota." I'm like, "Really?" And you

[02:55] know, he he's like, "Yeah." So,

[02:57] he was he ended up coming to Sarasota

[02:59] and we ended up looking for offices

[03:01] together. That's how involved he was. He

[03:02] didn't need to do that. Think about

[03:03] this. like as an investor, you know,

[03:05] most shareholders are just looking for

[03:07] returns on their investment.

[03:09] And uh Charlie wasn't that guy. In fact,

[03:13] I don't even I still think, you know,

[03:16] Charlie held his shares as far as I

[03:18] remember. I don't know for sure, but

[03:19] like I you know, I've had conversations

[03:21] with him where he told me he he he held

[03:23] his shares in the company and he never

[03:25] sold. So, um he wasn't about that return

[03:28] on investment like the other investors.

[03:30] He was in it for really helping Rumble.

[03:33] So we go around, we're looking at

[03:35] offices, we walk into this very building

[03:37] on this very floor, and we we sit down

[03:42] in this like old boardroom. It was like

[03:45] it had to have been done in the 70s or

[03:47] the '8s,

[03:48] right? I came here when it was pretty

[03:49] disreputed. That's right. And we got a

[03:52] we had a reporter harass us when you

[03:53] were in when you came with us here.

[03:55] Um and he So we walk into this boardroom

[03:58] and there's like tiles on the ground,

[04:00] the roof is falling apart. I think a

[04:02] hurricane just went through and it just

[04:03] really destroyed this building. And we

[04:06] we're sitting we're sitting in this like

[04:08] boardroom with these old chairs, this

[04:10] old wooden table, green carpets, and

[04:13] Charlie just looks around and he's like,

[04:15] "Chris, this is going to be the Rumble

[04:18] headquarters. This is going to be the

[04:19] free speech capital of the world." And

[04:22] I'm like, "All right, we're going to do

[04:25] it." And I never looked back. We're now

[04:28] sitting in this studio um in in the

[04:31] building that Charlie helped pick pick.

[04:33] And like you know I think

[04:36] like I said we've had many investors,

[04:39] many shareholders. Uh Charlie was one of

[04:41] the few that really did it for for the

[04:45] purpose of forwarding free speech, the

[04:47] actual idea of like doing something

[04:49] great for America. And and that's why

[04:52] that's where his heart was. That's why

[04:53] he was in this company. And that's why

[04:55] he helped build it with me. And he never

[04:57] stopped. Like it we were we were meeting

[05:00] all the time. We were talking all the

[05:02] time. We're trying to figure out how to

[05:03] how to do certain things. And you know,

[05:05] he was always involved, deeply involved.

[05:07] And like for that, I'm forever grateful.

[05:10] He without him, you know, Rumble

[05:12] wouldn't be where it is today.

[05:13] And it's important to reiterate that he

[05:15] wasn't like an an official adviser or

[05:18] anything. He was really doing this

[05:19] because he believed in the mission and

[05:20] he believed what Rumble was doing. Yeah,

[05:22] he had some stock, but like he didn't

[05:23] have to be wandering around finding

[05:25] buildings with you or advising you or

[05:28] coordinating on free speech events or

[05:29] anything else.

[05:30] Yeah, no investor's ever done that. And

[05:32] uh you know, that's not usually what you

[05:34] expect out of the investor. But Charlie

[05:36] went above and beyond. It was he really

[05:38] touched this company in a way that I

[05:40] don't think many people know. And

[05:42] and you really think about it during

[05:43] that time, Rumble was the only thing.

[05:46] There was no X, there was no Elon.

[05:48] Rumble was the the tip of the spear for

[05:50] free speech and Charlie knew that. I

[05:54] knew that. This company knew that. And

[05:56] we we did something that uh no other

[05:59] company did at the time. And we we stood

[06:01] up for that first amendment like no

[06:02] other.

[06:03] What do you make of the state of free

[06:06] speech post what has happened to Charlie

[06:09] now? Because obviously we were at the

[06:11] memorial yesterday together. There was a

[06:13] lot of talk. I mean, I think every

[06:14] single speaker said something about his

[06:17] love of free speech. This company is the

[06:20] company lead. I think it's still the

[06:21] spear. I mean, X has helped a lot for a

[06:23] lot of reasons, but there's still a lot

[06:25] of confusion around the algorithm there

[06:27] and, you know, our things being seen and

[06:29] all that kind of stuff. I mean, what do

[06:30] you make of the general state of free

[06:32] speech in a time when Charlie lost his

[06:34] life for it and here we are defending

[06:36] it, you know, basically through a tech

[06:38] stack? Yeah, I think we have to

[06:41] understand that free speech is always

[06:42] going to be under attack. Uh the truth

[06:45] is always going to be under attack.

[06:46] People that stand for freedom and

[06:48] freedom of expression um are going to be

[06:51] under attack. We have to be brave. We

[06:54] have to be strong and we have to defend

[06:56] it. It's not going to we're not going to

[06:58] have free speech by just sitting around

[07:00] and not doing anything. We're going to

[07:02] have to like fiercely defend it. And

[07:04] like in the aftermath of what happened

[07:06] to Charlie,

[07:08] you know, I I got we went through a lot

[07:11] of I'm sure you, but myself, I went

[07:13] through a lot of different emotions um

[07:15] in in the last week or two with respect

[07:18] to that. And like you know obviously the

[07:20] ABC Jimmy Kimmel thing and and I got

[07:24] really irritated like you're now seeing

[07:28] people talk about ABC that they now you

[07:32] know the Trump administration is

[07:35] infringing on free speech and that's

[07:37] just like

[07:38] that's really irritating to me because

[07:41] that's not what free speech is. Let me

[07:43] let me explain what actually happened in

[07:45] 2021 when we were defending with

[07:48] Charlie.

[07:49] There were platforms like Twitter, like

[07:52] YouTube that were out there parading

[07:55] that they were free speech platforms.

[07:58] Twitter said Jack Dorsey numerous times

[08:00] they're defending free speech.

[08:02] They were censoring political dialogue.

[08:05] They weren't in censoring incitement and

[08:07] violence. They they were censoring

[08:08] political dialogue. conversation about

[08:10] COVID, conversation about an election.

[08:13] Um, YouTube was doing the same thing,

[08:16] Facebook was doing the same thing. And

[08:18] all these companies were parading that

[08:20] they were going to uphold free speech,

[08:22] yet they were censoring thousands if not

[08:25] millions of people, millions for sure,

[08:28] millions of people on what they could

[08:30] could and could not say. That's

[08:33] first, if you're going to parade that

[08:35] you're free speech,

[08:38] you're not free speech if you're doing

[08:39] that.

[08:39] Where were you when it

[08:40] very simple? But never in that moment

[08:44] was Fox News or CNN or any television

[08:49] show that's in the media,

[08:52] they did not, they always had the

[08:54] ability to change staff, always had the

[08:56] ability to, you know, remove people, put

[08:58] other people in.

[08:59] And that's what ABC did, right? his

[09:01] show's ratings were going down. This was

[09:03] they found this as an excuse to go

[09:05] possibly do it for that reason or they

[09:07] they did it for, you know, what he said.

[09:09] I don't know. That's that's their

[09:11] internal, you know, deliberations. But

[09:13] at the at the end of the day, they have

[09:15] the they're exercising their free speech

[09:17] and their first amendment rights by

[09:19] letting someone go on their plat freedom

[09:22] of association on their platform.

[09:24] Correct. So, it it's not even close to

[09:27] what happened in 2021 when you're

[09:29] deplatforming a president's

[09:31] communication to the public.

[09:34] There's a big difference between

[09:35] Facebook and YouTube, which are means of

[09:39] communication to the masses. Like, if

[09:42] you're not online to be able to

[09:43] communicate to your masses, you can't

[09:45] communicate to your constituents. That's

[09:46] like denying someone buying a cell phone

[09:49] to go call somebody. That's the it that

[09:53] that's the way I look at that. When

[09:55] you're talking about a media company

[09:57] like ABC who literally like censors and

[10:00] does whatever they want because it's

[10:02] their free speech to exercise whatever

[10:04] they want to say that that's that's

[10:06] their first amendment right. So it you

[10:09] know is really irritating to see like

[10:10] every Democrat come out and say this is

[10:13] a violation of free speech. Meanwhile

[10:15] like Fox News was removing talent left

[10:18] and right from their network over the

[10:19] last 5 years. So was CNN. So was every

[10:22] other company out there that's like a

[10:24] media company. But all of a sudden now

[10:26] when a media company changes talent,

[10:28] that's uh because they didn't like what

[10:30] he said or because his show ratings were

[10:31] going down. That's now an infringement

[10:33] of free speech.

[10:33] Did you see did you see the uh there's a

[10:36] meme going around of what Jimmy Kimmel

[10:38] said when Roseanne was fired by ABC for

[10:41] one tweet even though she was a hero of

[10:43] the left at the time. you know, now now

[10:45] the left doesn't love her so much. But

[10:46] he basically was like, you have a

[10:48] responsibility to say the right thing

[10:49] and anyone can decide to hire you or

[10:50] fire you.

[10:51] It's it's hypocritical, right? Like this

[10:53] is I saw one with uh one that he did

[10:55] with Trump as well. And like it's it's

[10:58] just so hypocritical and it's it's so

[11:00] disingenuous. That's the part that

[11:01] bothers me. We actually here at Rumble,

[11:04] you know, Charlie actually defended what

[11:06] the First Amendment really is here for

[11:08] and how and and how it is to be used.

[11:11] And they're trying to conflate the idea

[11:14] of a media company changing staff to be

[11:17] an infringement of the first amendment.

[11:18] No, no, no. It is exactly the exercising

[11:20] of the first amendment to change your

[11:22] staff in your own entity. Every entity

[11:24] has its right to its own free speech

[11:26] however they want to speak. And if ABC

[11:28] wants to speak with specific talent,

[11:31] they have that choice.

[11:32] Contrary to what Eric Swallwell said, no

[11:34] one has a right to a TV show. You have a

[11:37] right to speak freely, but not to a TV

[11:39] show. So, I'm going to end this with the

[11:41] easiest question I can possibly ask you.

[11:43] Can Jimmy Kimmel open an account on

[11:45] Rumble and do his show there?

[11:48] He's welcome to open an account on

[11:50] Rumble, and he can do his show there,

[11:51] but he has to stay within the terms of

[11:53] service, which is not incite violence,

[11:56] and that's what it's all about. Good to

[11:58] see you, my man.

[11:59] Thank you. Thanks for having me.

[12:02] [Music]