Matt D'Avella

Matt D'Avella is a documentary filmmaker and YouTuber who publishes videos on minimalism, habits and productivity. The Minimalists' website credits him as director of their first documentary, Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, and he directed The Minimalists: Less Is Now, released by Netflix on January 1, 2021, which Wikipedia lists as a 2022 Daytime Emmy nominee. According to the About page on his website, he started making videos in high school, worked freelance on videos for brands such as Red Bull and Reebok after college, launched his YouTube channel in 2017 and went full-time on it in 2018. The same page says he once employed a team of 11 editors, managers and writers, later let that team go, and now releases about one video a month under what he calls a "slow creator" approach.

The terms of use on mattdavella.com name Slow Growth Pty Ltd as the operator and set the laws of New South Wales, Australia, as governing law. The Australian Business Register lists an active company under that name with a main business location in New South Wales (ABN 60 684 077 905, checked on September 14, 2026). UNILAD Tech (Tom Chapman, December 20, 2024) reported that he stopped posting on YouTube on March 31, 2024, returned more than eight months later, and cited his move to Australia among the reasons for the break.

His main YouTube channel, @mattdavella, showed 4.05 million subscribers, 470 videos and about 334.5 million views on September 14, 2026; YouTube lists the channel's country as the United States. His Instagram account, linked from his website, showed 357,000 followers on the same date. He also sends a free weekly newsletter called Snail Mail, which his site says reaches about 94,700 to 97,000 subscribers, and announces a monthly interview show called the Slow Creator Podcast. He also hosted Three Rules, a short-form interview podcast (originally The Ground Up Show) whose latest episode on Apple Podcasts is dated May 12, 2025.

The paid product currently sold on his website is Master YouTube, an online course aimed at people starting a channel and trying to reach their first 10,000 subscribers. The sales page describes five stages: launching the channel, growing without clickbait, planning and writing videos, filming, and editing. It also lists a workbook and access to the MYT Creator Community, which the page says has more than 6,400 members. Checkout and course login run on a Circle community at community.mattdavella.com. The page lists two prices: $495 USD as a one-time payment, or three monthly payments of $165 USD. It also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee handled by email. The testimonials shown there come from the sales page itself; no independent data on student results was found.

He previously sold a habits course called Simple Habits under the Slow Growth Academy brand. The official address slowgrowth.com now redirects to mattdavella.com, and mattdavella.com/habits returned a 404 error on September 14, 2026. Current descriptions and prices for that course appear only on unauthorized course resale sites, which Mentor Explorer does not use as sources, so its price and current availability are not confirmed.

On reputation: a search of ftc.gov on September 14, 2026 found no FTC action under his name. No court case, regulatory sanction or independent press investigation concerning his courses was found in the sources reviewed. The independent coverage located concerns his documentaries and his YouTube career, not his courses. His date of birth was not found in any reliable primary source, so it is not included.