Here’s how a college janitor built a $50 BILLION empire!

12 Jan 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:24

YouTube short by Dan Novaes profiling Tom Gores: his rise from a college janitor to founder of Platinum Equity and owner of the Detroit Pistons. The narrator traces Gores’s family immigration to Flint, Michigan at age four, his college years working as a janitor to pay for school, his founding of Platinum Equity (described here as a private equity firm worth over $50 billion), and his 2011 purchase of the Detroit Pistons for $325 million. The video also notes Gores is reclusive (rarely interviews or posts on social), runs operations from Beverly Hills, is reported to be worth over $9 billion, and there’s a rumor he built a three-story private suite inside Little Caesars Arena.

Questions this video answers

Four years old.

Janitor (cleaning bathrooms).

Platinum Equity; claimed to be worth over $50 billion.

2011 for $325 million.

Beverly Hills.

Chapters

This guy used to clean bathrooms in college just to get by. And now he owns an NBA team worth billions. Meet Tom Gores, the owner of the Detroit Pistons and possibly the most mysterious owner in all of sports. Tom's family immigrated to Flint, Michigan when he was just four years old. Growing up, his whole family worked in a small grocery store until he went off to Michigan State University. At college, he worked as a janitor, cleaning bathrooms to pay for his degree. But after graduation, Tom didn't chase a 9 to 5. Instead, he started flipping failing companies right out of his house. His philosophy was find overlooked businesses, fix their operations fast than scale or sell at a massive profit. That hustle became Platinum Equity, which is a private equity firm now worth over $50 billion. And in 2011, he pulled off the ultimate full circle moment when he bought his hometown team, the Detroit Pistons for $325 million. Tom grew up watching the bad boys Pistons and always dreamed about buying a piece of the team. But Tom didn't just buy the team. He moved them back to downtown Detroit in partnership with the Red Wings. There's also a rumor that he built a three story private suite inside the arena, which is wild because he doesn't even live in Michigan. He run operations from Beverly Hills. Despite being worth over $9 billion, no one really knows much about Tom or his three story private suite inside Little Caesar's arena. He rarely does interviews, doesn't post on Social, and is never in the spotlight. He's just quietly running a 50 billion dollar empire in one of NBA's most storied franchises. For more entrepreneur stories and information like this, follow UBK.