In a Netflix documentary launched in January, Bryan Johnson, a tech entrepreneur turned longevity guru, walked individuals by way of his morning routine. After monitoring his sleep, he would get up early to conduct audio remedy and hair remedy, do an hour of train and take 54 completely different tablets with a drink known as “the inexperienced large,” he stated.
Mr. Johnson additionally talked about his long-life start-up, Blueprint, which sells well being dietary supplements, blood-testing tools and different merchandise tied to his private weight loss plan and suggestions.
“By doing Blueprint, one of many key aims is to attain the bottom potential organic age,” he declared. He added that his well being routine had “reversed my organic age 5.1 years.”
The Netflix function was a breakout second in Mr. Johnson’s five-year marketing campaign to develop into the face of one in every of Silicon Valley’s most oddball fascinations: the pursuit of eternal youth. The 47-year-old former Mormon missionary has develop into recognized for experimenting on his personal physique to defy getting old, charming the media and his almost 4 million social media followers by receiving the blood plasma of his then-17-year-old son and repeatedly surprising his penis to extend his erections.
His fame has additionally appeared to catapult Blueprint to success. In January, Mr. Johnson hailed his start-up as “one of many fastest-growing firms on this planet, fueled by phrase of mouth.”
However away from the cameras, his fastidiously curated profile and Blueprint’s enterprise are beginning to present cracks — particularly with a brewing battle over Mr. Johnson’s use of a authorized doc: confidentiality agreements.
For almost a decade, Mr. Johnson has wielded confidentiality agreements to manage his picture and the businesses he constructed atop that picture. His staff, sexual companions, distributors and contract employees have all needed to signal the paperwork, typically in trade for settlements, severance or continued employment at his companies, based on individuals near him and his start-ups, inner paperwork and courtroom information.
Now these agreements, which have been supposed to maintain individuals silent on Mr. Johnson’s private life and companies, are backfiring as a few of his employees band collectively to problem them.
No less than three of Mr. Johnson’s former staff — together with a former fiancée who labored for him — have not too long ago filed complaints with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, a federal watchdog company, about his confidentiality agreements. They stated the phrases they signed have been “overbroad” and accused Mr. Johnson of violating federal legal guidelines that defend employees who wish to discuss their office situations, based on copies of two of the complaints and 6 individuals with data of them.
Individuals near Mr. Johnson and Blueprint have more and more chafed on the agreements because the start-up has confronted mounting monetary and product-quality questions that some thought needs to be made public, former staff and others with data of the corporate stated.
Oliver Zolman, Mr. Johnson’s longtime longevity physician, who was featured within the Netflix documentary, quietly left Blueprint final 12 months after having considerations about a few of its well being dietary supplements, the individuals stated. Final fall, Mr. Johnson additionally instructed Blueprint executives that the corporate was operating out of cash.
Mr. Johnson’s objective was “to make use of these contractual agreements to maintain everybody quiet,” and that effort “form of was a home of playing cards,” stated Matt Bruenig, the lawyer for the previous staff who filed the N.L.R.B complaints.
Jamie Contento, who was Mr. Johnson’s private assistant and who filed one of many N.L.R.B. complaints, stated she “positively felt coerced into signing the agreements” as a result of she thought she would lose her job if she didn’t achieve this.
The New York Instances interviewed 30 individuals near Mr. Johnson and his start-ups, together with present and former staff. Many spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they have been sure by the confidentiality phrases and feared retaliation from Mr. Johnson. The Instances additionally reviewed copies of the agreements, courtroom information, inner paperwork, photographs and the N.L.R.B. complaints.
Mr. Johnson declined to reply many questions from The Instances. In a put up on X earlier than this text was printed, he stated confidentiality agreements “attempt to create clear boundaries and expectations, in order that belief isn’t left to likelihood.”
After The Instances contacted Mr. Johnson, he privately pushed individuals in his orbit to abide by the agreements, individuals conversant in his outreach stated. One authorized letter despatched final month reminded a former worker that they have been “strictly prohibited from utilizing, disclosing or misappropriating any confidential, proprietary or commerce secret info belonging to the corporate or Bryan R. Johnson,” based on a duplicate.
Publicly, Mr. Johnson centered on different issues. This month, he introduced his personal faith, which is called after his longevity slogan, “Don’t Die.” It could save the human race, he stated.
Everlasting life
Mr. Johnson based the funds firm Braintree in 2007 and have become a multimillionaire when PayPal bought the start-up in 2013. He quickly shed his Mormon roots and commenced a part of exploration.
Mr. Johnson divorced his spouse, with whom he has three youngsters, and left the Mormon Church. He employed prostitutes, based on associates, former staff and courtroom paperwork, and took medicine together with acid, Ibogaine and DMT.
Mr. Johnson has not publicly addressed his use of acid, however is a proponent of psychedelics like DMT and has the form of its chemical construction tattooed on his arm.
He additionally began utilizing confidentiality agreements. The phrases mandated that individuals couldn’t communicate publicly about his escapades, or speak to their associates or household about him.
In 2016, Mr. Johnson based Kernel, a mind expertise start-up. He had turned down the prospect to determine the same firm with Elon Musk, who created his personal such agency, Neuralink.
Mr. Johnson more and more fixated on his status, based on former associates and staff, and puzzled why he was not getting as a lot publicity as Mr. Musk. He turned extra to confidentiality agreements. In 2020, he required a date to signal one earlier than the 2 used acid collectively, two former associates stated. She signed however left early, incensed by the settlement.
The confidentiality phrases have been usually connected to broader employment agreements at Mr. Johnson’s enterprise. On the time, a Kernel worker settlement with confidentiality clauses was 4 and a half pages lengthy, with few specifics about what employees couldn’t speak about.
However as Mr. Johnson transitioned into the longevity business and centered on his well being, dropping greater than 50 kilos, the phrases mushroomed. The change was pushed partly by the founding of Blueprint, a start-up at Mr. Johnson’s Los Angeles residence, in 2021 to promote well being merchandise to his legions of death-averse followers. (He stepped down from Kernel in 2023 however stays on the board.)
Blueprint’s model is tied to Mr. Johnson’s picture, with pop-ups of his face selling the Netflix documentary and dietary supplements known as “Bryan’s favorites” listed on the market on the web site. “He’s the healthiest particular person on the planet,” Blueprint’s website claims.
By final 12 months, a Blueprint employment settlement with confidentiality phrases was 20 pages lengthy and listed dozens of restrictions.
Amongst them: Staff should preserve confidential “any nonpublic info concerning Bryan’s residence, workplace, private results in his residence or workplace, any areas rented or owned by Bryan, any automobiles/planes/vehicles/boats/different strategies of transportation that aren’t publicly accessible, or areas of his residence or such house that aren’t publicly accessible,” based on a duplicate.
In his X put up, Mr. Johnson stated the agreements “have advanced, identical to all the pieces else I iterate & enhance upon.” He added, “The objective is precision.”
Staff at Blueprint, which has a employees of about 30, typically needed to signal as many as three separate agreements. That’s atypical for worker agreements, based on authorized specialists.
One was an uncommon “opt-in” doc, which isn’t a confidentiality contract however goals to guard the corporate from potential lawsuits over what staff may witness within the office.
Beneath that settlement, staff needed to attest that they have been OK with Mr. Johnson’s carrying “little and typically no clothes/no underwear” and with listening to “discussions of sexual actions, together with erections,” based on a duplicate. Additionally they needed to agree that Mr. Johnson’s habits was not “unwelcome, offensive, humiliating, hostile, triggering, unprofessional or abusive.”
The opt-in settlement was “honest to all involved and is in everybody’s greatest curiosity,” Mr. Johnson posted on X.
Many rich people and firms use confidentiality agreements. However Cliff Palefsky, an employment lawyer in San Francisco, stated some points of Mr. Johnson’s agreements have been overly broad and unenforceable.
Mr. Johnson and his firm are “relying on individuals being afraid and never violating it as a result of they’re afraid,” stated Mr. Palefsky, who reviewed the paperwork for The Instances.
Longevity combine
By early final 12 months, some Blueprint staff have been rising annoyed with the confidentiality agreements as the corporate skilled issues, individuals who have labored there stated.
Amongst them have been questions on Blueprint’s well being dietary supplements. The corporate sells a couple of dozen completely different proprietary dietary supplements, together with a $49 “longevity combine,” based on its web site. Dietary supplements are topic to lighter regulation than medicines.
On the time, Mr. Johnson and his management workforce, together with Dr. Zolman, requested for volunteers to affix a examine of the dietary supplements and meals known as “The Blueprint Stack.” The objective was to look at the consequences of the merchandise on individuals’s well being, based on the individuals and inner paperwork seen by The Instances.
Some executives, together with Dr. Zolman, needed to comply with normal medical testing procedures for the examine and select customers to check at random, the individuals stated. However Mr. Johnson had clients pay greater than $2,100 to take part, they stated. He promised them he would launch the outcomes by the summer season of 2024.
Of the roughly 1,700 contributors within the examine, about 60 % skilled not less than one aspect impact, based on inner emails, spreadsheets and different paperwork. Blood assessments revealed that contributors noticed their testosterone ranges drop and have become prediabetic after following Mr. Johnson’s weight loss plan plan. It’s unclear how extreme the unwanted side effects have been.
“Longevity combine: A whole lot of feedback about hating this as it’s making them sick, vomit, have heartburn, and so forth.,” one Blueprint worker wrote to a colleague in February 2024.
Allulose, an ingredient within the longevity combine and a sugar different that Mr. Johnson has pitched to his social media followers, additionally brought about points. “TONS of individuals saying it’s inflicting nausea, bloating,” wrote an worker.
In an electronic mail to The Instances, Mr. Johnson stated the outcomes confirmed “widespread unwanted side effects with any meals, beverage or complement.” Blueprint merchandise are at all times improved, he stated, and are examined for security. He added that it was typical in a self-experimentation examine to not cowl contributors’ prices.
Staff felt they may not share the findings due to the confidentiality agreements, based on the emails and textual content messages.
Final summer season, Dr. Zolman left Blueprint after elevating considerations in regards to the examine’s outcomes, individuals conversant in his departure stated. He had signed a nondisclosure settlement, however Mr. Johnson needed him to signal one other one in return for a month of severance, they stated. Dr. Zolman declined due to the stringent phrases.
Mr. Johnson didn’t publish the examine’s outcomes by the summer season of 2024, as he had instructed clients he would. In January, he released some information for about 300 contributors, displaying constructive outcomes. The dietary supplements proceed to be bought.
In an electronic mail to The Instances, Mr. Johnson stated metrics about Blueprint’s dietary supplements “transitioned to or stayed within the regular vary all through the whole thing of the examine.” He added that Dr. Zolman had resigned “to hunt skilled assist for his critical psychological well being considerations,” with out offering proof. Dr. Zolman didn’t depart for these causes, individuals with data of his departure stated.
On the similar time, Blueprint bumped into monetary challenges. Whereas income elevated final 12 months to about $40 million and the corporate has about 40,000 clients, it was falling under its break-even level by not less than $1 million a month, individuals with data of the enterprise stated. Mr. Johnson, who had put in $25 million as Blueprint’s sole investor, warned executives that the corporate was operating out of cash. Its present funds are unclear.
This 12 months, a recruiting electronic mail described Blueprint as “already worthwhile,” based on a duplicate of the message.
Mr. Johnson has additionally typically cherry-picked the rosiest metrics for his personal well being experiments, former staff and others stated, notably to highlight his “organic age,” which refers to how effectively his organs and different physique components are functioning.
Within the Netflix documentary, which was largely filmed in 2023, Mr. Johnson stated his organic age had reversed 5.1 years. However the outcomes of a variety of inner research of his well being between January 2022 and February 2024 confirmed it had elevated by as a lot as 10 years, based on charts of the blood check outcomes. It’s unclear what his present assessments present.
In an electronic mail, Mr. Johnson stated that the “determination to focus on the 5.1 12 months discount was made completely by the documentary’s manufacturing workforce” and that the statistic got here from an experiment carried out in early 2023. He stated “organic age measurements fluctuate” relying on the check and different components.
‘Simply didn’t really feel proper’
Worker considerations flared final spring when Blueprint despatched the opt-in settlement, requiring employees to say they have been OK with many office behaviors. It landed in electronic mail inboxes with directions to signal as a traditional course of enterprise.
Many staff signed, however their considerations mounted. With Blueprint run from Mr. Johnson’s residence, the road between his private life and enterprise typically was hazy, former staff and others near Mr. Johnson stated.
Throughout workdays, Mr. Johnson steadily walked round with little clothes on, and typically flirted with Blueprint’s largely feminine employees, they stated. However due to the opt-in settlement, nobody felt capable of might complain.
Ms. Contento, who had additionally labored at Kernel, stated she had been at Blueprint for a 12 months when she was requested to signal the opt-in settlement. She agreed as a result of she didn’t wish to lose her job, she stated, however “the doc simply didn’t really feel proper.”
Final fall, Ms. Contento left Blueprint. On the time, she emailed human assets to boost considerations in regards to the work setting, which she stated “started to vary in ways in which made me really feel uncomfortable,” based on a duplicate of her message.
“There have been sure skilled boundaries that, from my perspective, appeared to blur over time,” she wrote.
It’s unclear if Blueprint investigated Ms. Contento’s considerations. She didn’t signal one other of Mr. Johnson’s confidentiality agreements upon exiting the corporate.
Mr. Johnson stated in an electronic mail that Ms. Contento had “raised no materials complaints or considerations concerning the work setting or her position to my data” whereas at Blueprint.
A name for motion
Whilst considerations grew over what Mr. Johnson was saying publicly versus privately, many staff have been afraid to problem him and his confidentiality agreements.
They’d a cautionary story: Taryn Southern.
Ms. Southern, 38, was Mr. Johnson’s former fiancée and an worker of his brain-technology start-up, Kernel. In February 2020, Mr. Johnson fired Ms. Southern from the corporate after breaking apart together with her whereas she had Stage 3 breast most cancers, based on a 2021 lawsuit she filed in opposition to him.
Mr. Johnson had pressured her to signal an employment separation settlement with confidentiality phrases, the lawsuit stated. One model of the confidentiality phrases included a $500,000 penalty every time she broke the foundations.
“It’s all he appeared to care about, that settlement,” Ms. Southern stated in her first interview in regards to the expertise.
Many Blueprint staff adopted the developments in Ms. Southern’s lawsuit, during which she contended that Mr. Johnson had breached a promise to pay her $150,000 in trade for hire and transferring out of their residence after their breakup.
Mr. Johnson efficiently moved the lawsuit to arbitration. In 2023, an arbitrator dominated that Ms. Southern should adhere to her employment separation settlement, which included phrases that stated she couldn’t sue Mr. Johnson.
He then countersued for his authorized charges, with Ms. Southern ordered to pay greater than $584,000 to him.
Mr. Johnson took the authorized battle public. In 2023, he posted a 16-minute YouTube video saying he was a sufferer of “the darkish underground accusation economic system.” He adopted on Valentine’s Day 2024 with a 2,400-word put up on X naming Ms. Southern, saying that he feared she would attempt to kill him with a pair of scissors and that his well being routine had saved her from most cancers. It received greater than 500,000 views.
Ms. Southern felt she couldn’t reply due to the confidentiality phrases. (4 individuals near the couple stated that that they had by no means heard Ms. Southern threaten to kill Mr. Johnson and that his well being routine didn’t save her from most cancers.) Her social media accounts and electronic mail inbox crammed with assaults from Mr. Johnson’s followers.
“Most cancers remedy and my termination and all the pieces I needed to undergo — that was all terrible,” stated Ms. Southern, whose most cancers is in remission. “However what felt worse was not having the ability to share the reality after I was being publicly attacked.”
Mr. Johnson has not paid Ms. Southern the $150,000. In his YouTube video, he stated he would arrange a belief so funds from “his accuser” for his authorized charges would go towards her medical bills. Emails seen by The Instances confirmed he opened the belief final 12 months, then closed it with out placing cash into it.
Final summer season, Ms. Southern filed a criticism in opposition to Kernel and Mr. Johnson to the N.L.R.B., saying the confidentiality phrases violated a provision of labor regulation that protects staff who wish to discuss office situations.
Whereas Ms. Southern remains to be sure by the settlement’s phrases, she stated she selected to talk to The Instances about her working situations to symbolize Mr. Johnson’s staff.
Different staff heard about Ms. Southern’s authorized technique. In February, Ms. Contento, the previous assistant to Mr. Johnson, filed the same criticism to the N.L.R.B. by way of the identical lawyer, Mr. Bruenig. Ms. Southern stated Ms. Contento had discovered about him by way of her criticism. A 3rd former worker of Mr. Johnson’s quickly filed a criticism just like the opposite two.
As a result of the workers filed in a concerted effort in opposition to Mr. Johnson, federal regulation protects their capacity to discuss office situations, Mr. Bruenig stated. He added that the N.L.R.B. was investigating Ms. Southern’s criticism.
The N.L.R.B. didn’t return requests for remark. Ryan Subject, Kernel’s chief government, stated the corporate was cooperating with the investigation. Mr. Johnson has introduced in David Broderdorf, an employment lawyer at Morgan Lewis, based on filings with the N.L.R.B.
A few of Mr. Johnson’s present and former staff are actually commonly chatting with each other about their experiences at his firms, Ms. Southern stated.
“We hope to convey some form of constructive ending for different staff,” she stated.
Kirsten Noyes contributed analysis.
