My First Million

Today we have Andrew Wilkinson (@awilkinson) of Tiny. Tiny is a holding company started by Andrew that buys “wonderful internet businesses” with the intention of holding them forever (akin to Berkshire Hathaway). Altogether, Tiny’s businesses do high 8-figures in revenue and employ close to 400 people across 20 companies. If you want to know more about his background, Andrew was interviewed on our podcast so give Episode #63 a listen. Today he answers: How do you find CEO's that you can trust, You've mentioned Warren Buffet a lot, any other leaders you look up to?, Is “company building” a repeatable process? What % of it can be automated?, Can you recommend your favorite business books?, What is your biggest failure and what did you learn from it?, What is a core attribute you look for when you hire somebody?, How do you make connections with other entrepreneurs while residing in a non-startup centric city?, How much of your investments are made up of personal capital vs. OPM (Other People’s Money)?, During your time at MetaLab, what was the best way to acquire clients?, Are you taking Buffett's advice and reading 500 pages a day?, As a person, how have you evolved over the years?, How do you start a fund with money made from an agency?, What's the required mindset shift from running one business to delegating a team to run multiple?, If you internalize one principal into your kids, what would it be?, When you built your house, what are some things that could have made the frustrations easier?, Can I skip building an agency and go straight into investing? and What's the worst & best advice you get from people who tell you how to become successful?. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back on Zoom to talk Sam's new crush and honorary guest Andrew Wilkinson (6:00), $40M a year consulting king Sam Ovens (10:32), Shaan's experience being initiated into the Tony Robbins religion (15:27), Shaan's operating framework for life bible (21:52), Billionaire's of the week (yes, double): Michael Loeb & Richard Barton (26:45), Billion dollar idea playbook: What industries lack transparency? (40:41), Shaan missing out on making $5 million (45:24) and The Hustle making new podcasts - Go check out Moiz Ali's new podcast Exit Strategy! (54:51). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are joined today by Andrew Wilkinson (@awilkinson) who is the co-founder of Tiny (tinycapital.com) - the internet version of Berkshire Hathaway. Shaan also launched a newsletter version of the podcast, subscribe to it to receive startup ideas backed by data in your e-mail weekly: terriblehorriblenogoodverybadideas.com. Want to make your first million with your mobile app? You have to prioritize app performance first. Get your custom HeadSpin benchmark report at headspin.io/myfirstmillion free our listeners! Today's topics: What is Tiny? (4:05), Shaan tried to sell Andrew a business 5 years ago (8:35), Andrew being early on COVID-19 (15:26), Being a control freak & hiring managers (20:35), The perfect cash-flowing companies (31:30), SRED Credits Tax Incentive Program in Canada (36:40), Job board businesses (42:22), No code agencies (48:03), Businesses that didn't work out (56:56), Being broke (59:20), Subscription podcasting (1:02:27) and Modern day newspapers (1:11:18). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) talk trends, startups and your next million dollar idea. Today's topics: Deepfakes, good or evil? (5:00), The credentials business (15:13), Are sam and shaan unethical? (29:41), Studying evil leaders (34:47), IDEA: Lambda school for EA's (38:27) and Shaan's Billionaire of the Week: Xavier Niel (44:11). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) speak to Brent Beshore (@BrentBeshore) today about how he plans to invest $250M in cash-flow positive businesses, how much corona virus will impact the economy and explains why he'd only start non-tech businesses in today's climate. Brent is apart of Permanent Equity which has raised a total of $300M to deploy into businesses that actually make cold hard cash - their collection of companies made approx. $160M of it in the last year. Want to make your first million with your mobile app? You have to prioritize app performance first. And HeadSpin is here to help. With your custom HeadSpin benchmark report, get deep insights into app performance, from cold and warm starts, to errors, crashes, and response times, including audio and video quality and biometric responsiveness. Our state-of-the-art Global Device Cloud provides unique carrier network, device, OS, and app level insights, on real, SIM-enabled devices in hundreds of locations around the world. No SDK required. Get your custom HeadSpin benchmark report at headspin.io /myfirstmillion. Today's topics: Who is Brent Beshore? (4:04), What type of companies is he buying with quarter of a billion dollars stashed? (12:17), Military staffing lead gen is a defensible business (14:53), How to handle owners and managers post-acquisition (16:54), How much do owners of cashflowing businesses take home? (20:34), Why he won't touch debt with his businesses (24:10), How Brent grows the businesses they acquire (25:32), How do owners transition to the passenger seat? (30:36), Corona Virus predictions and impact on the economy (36:16) and what he'd do if he started his career again (51:03). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) today go over more YC batch companies! Sign up to the new Trends report that Sam mentioned at https://trends.co. Today's topics: Sam might have corona virus (5:46), is YC better this year going digital? (10:15), Smile Direct Club for Latin America (14:56), Education in India (17:56), EzeWholesale - Marketplace for Used Phones (23:28), Offerup and LetGo Merger (28:13), Build a Plane - Project Management for Construction (30:03), Strippers leaving their jobs to become delivery drivers (34:24), Ditto - Collaborative copywriting tool (38:12), Shaan's marketing intern challenge (46:14), Ugly food delivery services (48:49), Automating collections using Upflow (52:52), Teiv - Adblock for in-store TV's (58:31) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) today go over some of YC's best startups to come out of its recent demo day. Want to make your first million with your mobile app? You have to prioritize your user experience first. And HeadSpin is here to help. With HeadSpin’s mobile app benchmark reports, know where you stand against your peers and get deep insights into your mobile experience and app performance. Get your custom HeadSpin benchmark report at headspin.io/benchmark. Topics for today: Sam's good luck and bad luck (3:26), Teachable selling (7:30), Can Airbnb withstand a recession? (12:48), Cron - Superhuman for your calendar (21:40), Superhumans for x - Pitch and Casuel (29:51), Art in res - fine art installment plans (32:00), Line of credit to influencers (38:53), Freezing eggs (44:34), $100K and pick one to invest in (50:17), Campus delivery startups - Duffle and Puff (53:31) and Unsexy great new businesses like BuildPlane.com and Truenorth Fleet (55:19) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Shaan (@shaanvp) is joined by producer Ishan (@ishanhaq) to talk Corona virus and where they think it's at, where it's headed and what you can do to prepare for the worst. We also announced we started a new podcast! 9 Minute Morning Routine should be your daily listen on the way to work in the morning. Feel relaxed, calm and focused on how you're going to kick ass today. Subscribe here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/9-minute-morning-routine/id1504340799 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are chatting over the internet about Corona virus and all things business, markets and life impact it's having. Come hang: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Want to make your first million with your mobile app? You have to prioritize your user experience first.HeadSpin is here to help. With HeadSpin’s new all-in-one platform, you can now test, monitor, and analyze mobile applications across devices, locations and networks. With state-of-the-art Global Device Cloud can help you obtain unique carrier network, device, and OS level insights for your app in more than 150 locations around the world. No SDK required. Learn more at headspin.io. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) is by himself today without Shaan (@shaanvp) to tell you about what he thinks are 4 essential skill sets that will withstand a recession. Questions about any of these? Ask the hosts directly on www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) talk ideas, news, trends and businesses. Why aren't you in our Facebook group yet? www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. For detailed show notes: https://bit.ly/3aOxEBz. Topics for today: Sequoia Memo (5:00), Virality in startups and viruses (8:51), Lead Gen Businesses (14:39), Islamic Finance (30:06) & Rebranding actions & lifestyles (42:18). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) talk ideas, news, trends and businesses. We've partnered with Rippling! The startup that gives you back your time from payroll to employee compliance, making it unbelievably easy to manage your company’s HR and IT – in one system. If you want to try it out, visit www.rippling.com. Also, we had a listener actually start building an idea mentioned in our last podcast with turning tithing digital. He's documenting his journey and uploaded a video to share with you all in our private FB group -- which you are free to join: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Here's Paul Graham's awesome essay on Do Things That Don't Scale: http://paulgraham.com/ds.html For detailed show-notes Topics for today: Greetings in the corona world & viral trigger content (0:14), Our run the world event is canceled (1:09), Henry has a mic now... but he's leaving the pod (1:49), A listener is building the tithing app (3:47), Cursing in meetings (5:55), Curly girl hair (8:27), Workout app making $100m/year (12:45), Mixed race shampoo (14:13), Atrium closing down and what Justin said to Sam at Hustlecon (16:24), Paul Graham's Do Things That Don't Scale (22:45), Trader Joe's founder passing away and it's fantastic business (29:25), Hotel franchising (33:49), B2B Gifting (36:14), CEO's discussed actually listen to the pod (42:30), Q&A: What's your best SEO hack for a new website? (43:53), Q&A: How to make your podcast profitable? (46:47) and Best interview questions featuring Henry (49:02). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) talk ideas, news, trends and businesses. Sign up for our Run The World conference: https://organizer.runtheworld.today/invitation/313. We've partnered once again with the online business broker Quiet Light Brokerage, they want to give you guys a FREE 25-point checklist to see how sellable your online business is. To receive this free guide, visit quietlightbrokerage.com/myfirstmillion. oin our private FB group if you haven't already: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. It's free to join yet provides so much value through meeting other hyperactive business people and having discussions around the type of stuff discussed in the podcast. Topics for today: Bernie Sanders proposed tax on vested shares (2:17), Biggest regrets in structuring companies (9:08), Internet conferences like Run The World (14:25), Book clubs (19:12), Copy masters and publishing giants like Agora (26:34), Online services for older people (32:13), Which single digit unicorn will become the next $100B behemoth? (37:53), Turnkey bathroom renovations (47:38) and Sam's angel investment in Nicotine Gum is working (49:10) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) talk ideas, trends and businesses. We're joined by Zak Kukoff (@ZCK), a 25 year old VC of $500M Emergence Capital (emcap.com) who's home runs have been Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva, Yammer and more. Topics for today: Introducing our guest Zak Kukoff (1:22), Equity vs Cash comp debate (3:40), Zak leaving school at 16 to raise money (6:49), Does investing in young people work? Should they be building businesses or partying? (11:12), Deskless workforce (17:49), The passion economy (23:43), How and when to build a sales team to accelerate growth (33:07), Buying engineering-led businesses and raising the prices (36:22), AI teachers in sales & language (38:35) & Optimizng your copy (46:39). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) is back from his New York trip to chat with Shaan (@shaanvp) about ideas, trends and businesses. Today, mid-way through we're joined by Julia Cheek (@JuliaTCheek) who is the CEO and Co-Founder of $50M backed EverlyWell, a digital health startup providing at-home medical testing kits and redesigned lab results - which did $40m in sales last year. Topics for today: Sam's time in New York (2:05), Preparing for podcasting and interviews (5:22), Meetup at Sam's Airbnb (8:47), Reality 2020: Shaan's upcoming trip to Israel (12:20), Their thoughts on Corona Virus situation (15:12), Transparent numbers in a business (24:27), New fintech platforms like Pipe.com (32:17), Julia Cheek joins the pod (38:00), Julia's background at Harvard and starting her company (40:20), Her experience on Shark Tank (44:41), How rich are the sharks? (51:31), How much traffic did she get from being on the show (52:56), How her business works (56:10), Sam thinks food allergy testing is BS (58:02), Sexual health is a massive opportunity (1:00:17), Her best customer acquisition channels (1:02:18), Bootstrapping businesses (1:04:12), Turning her idea into reality (1:07:36), Price transparency is the next big thing in healthcare & Insurance (1:12:28), HR Systems (1:16:11) and Stay at home tests (1:17:35). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With Sam (@thesamparr) gone, Stu (@StuIverson) takes his place. Remember Ramon’s soap opera blog that he sold for $9M in cash? He did that through the online business broker Quiet Light Brokerage. We’ve partnered up with them to give you guys a FREE 25-point checklist to see how sellable your online business is. To receive this free guide, visit quietlightbrokerage.com/myfirstmillion. Topics for today: Who is our guest Stu (0:14), Podcast studio is looking legit thanks to @henrybillings5 (1:33), Importance of building a community to be successful (2:51), Why you should still cold email (7:24), Investing in listeners startups (9:14), Religion isn't declining like you think - beautiful bibles, digital tithing, music & merchandising (15:38), Deciding whether to earn, learn or legacy (24:43), Uber driver revenue streams (30:06), Influencer based cloud kitchens (36:04), Tyson Fury fight (44:10) and App store for business templates (51:44) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

POR FAVOR: Sam is going on Gary V's podcast monday. It would be hilarious if hundreds of us tweeted @garyvee how lucky he is to have @thesamparr on his podcast. Topics for today: Debate a new canned water brand (Liquid Death) (1:31), The "Silicon Valley Clock" (8:03), Sam's crazy story meeting the founder of Silk Road who had $10B worth of Bitcoin (and then got arrested) (11:27), Boy scouts files for bankruptcy (20:13), The next big membership groups (26:30) and Dealing with rejection the right way (36:15). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. Topics for today: Playboy for Snapchat generation & Patreon for Porn (1:49), Seven sin investing (6:44), Fast loading porn GIFS (8:26), Back to building NSFW brands (12:56), HQ Trivia and why it died (14:07), Limited edition food launches (17:12), Back to HQ Trivia and repurposing it for education (22:21), Children allowance apps and cards (24:51), Sleep products (25:52), DIY perfume (29:34), Auctions & Marketplaces (32:19), Shaan's career advice on which company to work for (41:00), Where would Sam and Shaan work at today if they were 21 again (47:29). Please if you can leave us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts and show your friends the pod! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. We've partnered once again with the online business broker Quiet Light Brokerage, they want to give you guys a FREE 25-point checklist to see how sellable your online business is. To receive this free guide, visit quietlightbrokerage.com/myfirstmillion. Topics for today: Paying to lose weight (01:26), Private equity rollups in cleaning, dental & locksmiths (04:22), Buying nursing homes (08:47), Back to private equity talk (10:30), Baby locked in a room story (13:02), Public dental companies (14:26), Barstool's genius marketing with 'Zillion beers' campaign (17:58), Mr Beast & Content burn out (21.44), Rupert Murdoch's elite meeting at CES (This one's good, 26:14), Revenge against spam callers & robot lawyers (32:13), Charlie Munger thoughts on Elon Musk and if you'd hire a wildcard or someone prudent (37:02), Risky investing (41:31), Listener's chess tutoring biz and if he should continue (45:00), Restaurant refills & other boring but large businesses (50:05) and lastly the crazy world of auctions and collecting (53:10). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. Today Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) happened to drop by to talk investing and celebrity life. Join our FB group: facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Topics for today: Brandless.com shutting down (2:58), Buying dying businesses (7:53), Hybrid VC's (9:32), Launch of Ramp Capital (11:13), Corporate universities & online degrees (13:47), Lance Armstrong joins! (18:26), New beverage companies (21:07), Is investing boring? (22:47), Hotels offering more experiences (27:07), Are celebs on Cameo broke? (30:12) and Shaan's last minute meeting idea (33:35). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. Today we’re joined by Furqan Rydhan (@FurqanR) who is a tech badass. He was paid $120K as a 15 year old programmer during the Dot Com Boom, made a million dollar e-com biz at 17 and was an early employee at Applovin that was valued last at $2 billion. Remember Ramon’s soap opera blog that he sold for $9M in cash? He did that through the online business broker Quiet Light Brokerage. We’ve partnered up with them to give you guys a FREE 25-point checklist to see how sellable your online business is. To receive this free guide, visit quietlightbrokerage.com/myfirstmillion. Topics for today: Our Guest’s @FurqanR Background (00:36), Funny Story about Vungle’s Jack Smith and Lance Armstrong (07:12), The Process of Brainstorming Ideas (09:36), VR/AR Experiences (10:16), Opportunities in Reviving Stale Franchises and Company Turnarounds (17:07), iPad Whiteboard Meeting Idea (22:44), Reinventing the Phone Call through Airpods (27:51), Furquan’s House Hackathon Ideas (29:49), Serialized Story Apps like Hooked (37:09), Drone Washing Windows on Big Buildings (38:38), Money Printing Mobile Apps (44:44) and What Furqan learnt being Applovin (50:20). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. Dear all loyal listeners: 1) Please, please, please give us a review on Apple Podcasts!, 2) Screenshot your review and tweet it to Shaan and Sam, 3) They'll give you a present!. Also, if you're looking to promote your own podcast, visit castro.fm/promote - they push your podcast out to thousands of people. And last promo for the day... the way to make a million is by surrounding yourself around other people who want it. Join our Facebook group where we share ideas and help each other out: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Alright the topics for today: The first Hustle office was also Craiglist's office (01:43), Taking craiglist sections and turning them into unicorn startups + Sam's first startup (05:34), New email clients like Superhuman, Hey.com and Front (12:06), Pay to get a reply from influential people like Earn.com (21:23), Getting paid by the minute instead of bi-weekly (23:26), Donation business models (25:52), Taking on Wikipedia (29:39), Menstruation apps (32:01), Life schools (36:29), Prenups (38:49) and Negotiation tactics / How to keep your star players (43:12). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam and Shaan are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. The way to make a million is by surrounding yourself around other people who want it. Join our Facebook group where we share ideas and help each other out: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Sam and his team happy about Twitter earnings (01:20), Long term stock exchange (03:11), NYSE bid to buy Ebay & direct listings (05:39), Commercial laundry businesses (07:39), Jessica Simpson's billion dollar clothing line & other influencer IP businesses (14:06), Secretive founders making the big money (17:12), Company universities (20:10), What would you do once you have all the money in the world (23:51), Remote Year (28:32), Shaan gives Sam a gift...(33:45), How to get your team to take bigger risks (36:35) and their book recommendations (45:20). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam and Shaan are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. The way to make a million is by surrounding yourself around other people who want it. Join our Facebook group where we share ideas and help each other out: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Harry's (D2C razor brand) sale blocked & D2C selling to PE strategy (0:55), /r/WallStreetBets & Tesla shorts (6:05), Drew Houston sitting on Facebook board & Professional board sitters (11:39), Labor law posters, MailChimp for governments & other weird compliance rules (14:48), Turnkey compliance, contracting remote workers & Letsdeel.com (18:11), Huge unsexy business: exec headhunting (21:23), Influential people curating job boards (27:52), Crowd-sources salary comparison sites like levels.fyi (33:08) & The Ringer selling to Spotify & why it makes podcast acquisitions make sense (35:41). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

** In our Facebook group yet? We hang out there so come join and let's talk ideas: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion ** Amanda Bradford (@amandabradford) was 28 years old, in business school and using dating apps. She got tired of stalking every match on Linkedin, Facebook etc.. to see if they were legit. Why doesn’t the dating app do this for me?So against all her advisors advice, she started a dating app called the League that checks your Facebook & Linkedin to verify that you are who you say you are.Strange idea, but It’s kinda working! They have over 100k paying members, profitable & been around for 5 years. We talk about: how she got her first 400 users at launch, how they figured out if people would pay $$ for subscription and what the future of dating looks like. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

*** JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP for share ideas and insight with each other: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion *** Today we first chat to Tom Wang, who has sold a 7 figure Amazon FBA biz + runs a 7 figure FBA Masterclass. Some stuff the guys talk about today is Utah as a new startup hub, Sam ignoring Andrew Yang before he became a democratic candidate, a social network built on Airpods, dry toothpaste, emergency bags, educational content and the recent Barstool acquisition. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We interviewed the founder of Rev.com (they transcribe audio into text), to hear how he built this into a $206M (to be precise) business. We used them to transcribe the My First Million podcast episodes, and realized how badass of a service this was. Super simple concept - create a workforce (currently 50,000) that works remotely, transcribing audio from podcasts, conferences, meetings etc.. into text, for less than $1 per minute. Jason talks about freelancers making money in their pajamas, why they opened an office away from Silicon Valley, the impact of AI on remote work, working for free to show your worth, buying his domain for $400,000 and a clever way come up with and test a killer startup name. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. Long episode today! First half is with 8-figure ad agency founder Brendan Gahan to talk biz models, overhead and profitability. Then the second half is with Daniel Gross who sold his startup to Apple in his twenties and rolled that win into multiple unicorn investments. Enjoy! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ever think your side-hustle could become a million-dollar company? Paul Anderson (@paul_d_andersen) did. Today on My First Million, we sit down with Paul who quit his 9-to-5 to focus on his Amazon FBA and how his passion became a full-blown multi-million dollar company. Side hustles, getting ‘em out there, increasing your profits, credit lines and more this week! Also, go sub to his new personal finance newsletter: https://wealthfam.com/newsletter/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. Today Shaan kicks it off with food industry ideas: keto peanut butter, vintage fast food chains transitioning into the modern era, modifying US chains and taking them global. Then the guys chat about Aliexpress, pop-up esport tournaments, Tough Mudder bankruptcy, data privacy tools, targeting wealthy alumni for fundraising, networking hacks and a discussion about Silicon Valley mistruths. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Shaan sits down with Peter Dering (@peterdering), Founder & CEO of Peak Design, maker of beautiful, highly functional redesigns of photography equipment. He quit his construction job and traveled the world with $25K in savings. After awhile, he found it to be a pain in the ass carrying his camera around with him. So he thought of a camera holder clip that’d go onto your bag strap. Next thing you know, he filmed a kickstarter video to accompany his simple yet revolutionary product and within 90 seconds of launching he had his first sale. Bags, tripods, straps. Almost every year Peak Design releases some sort of iteration of an outdated piece of equipment and it SELLS. Last year they employed 38 people and did $70m in revenue. He owns 100% of it. Like I said, you want to be this guy. He talks about the process of how you actually create a physical product from scratch, how to work with international distributors, why and how he structured a public benefit entity, how to offset business carbon footprint and how much it ACTUALLY costs (it's tiny!). Have a listen to learn how to kickstart your own carbon-neutral Kickstarter empire. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. We're going to try and keep these consistent -- about every Thursday and even maybe even 2 a week. Today Sam kicks it off by telling some of the most promising technologies he found at CES 2020, meeting some D2C guys and being astounded by their insane growth rates, the 3 bro's shamelessly knocking off US startups and getting rich, how lucrative trade shows/membership programs/courses can be, why compliance education packages could sell for $$$ to large companies & Shaan reflects on his decade goals and talks about what he wants accomplished by 2030. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're back with Season 3, brought you by Microsoft: The latest episode of My First Million, Shaan sits down with Vlad Magdalin (@callmevlad), Co-Founder & CEO of Webflow: a visual tool to build web apps. Vlad shares the several attempts in 6 years to get his no-code brainchild going. Persistence paid off as it quickly got to $20MM in revenue and raised a monster $72M Series A round led by Accel. He talks about the emotional rollercoaster of getting into Y-Combinator, the video that made him quit his high paying job immediately, kickstarter kicking him off their platform and the trick to get investors interested without changing anything. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We've got a different flavor today for you. We sat down with Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) join us today and instead of hearing his backstory, we bounced around a bunch of topics. Scott has done it all. He's been a founder (Behance), angel investor (Uber, Pinterest), VC (Benchmark), Tech Executive (CPO of Adobe currently), and Author (The Messy Middle). So sit back, grab a salad (cause we're healthy in 2020) and enjoy this conversation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mike Brown is my new hero. He's an ex military man, who came back & built a super lean business (5 employees and 10's of millions in revenue annually) - hired best friends and brothers to share the experience. Mike Brown (@mb_abides) and his gang went on a mission to buy small pieces of real estate from hundreds of families because they were potentially (and quite literally) sitting on a gold mine. They'd then package them up and sell it to the big oil & gas funds - which meant tens of millions of dollars for them. The business part is good - but I love the philosophical and practical advice around optimizing for quality of life. Let me know what you think! [email protected] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

LifeAid’s Aaron Hinde (@aaronhinde) stopped by to talk “vitamins that you’ll enjoy drinking.” He built a new beverage brand from zero to $100m+ in value, taking on the big boys like Red Bull, Monster etc.. He talks about coming up with the formula, and their distribution strategy thru CrossFit gyms. We also chat about his unique decision to live off the grid: chicken, solar & batteries and more. Got feedback? email us at [email protected] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This time, it’s live with you guys who came to the Trends meetup last Thursday and answered some of burning questions.They also explore this week powder diets, turnkey instagrammable moments, building products around the distribution & why Facebook groups is the place to be. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Carey Smith sold Big Ass Fans for Big Ass Money. As you can probably tell, he found a way to make ceilings fans sound sexy, but more importantly a sexy business. Find out how this unconventional self-appointed CBA (Chief Big Ass) turned a failed bootstrapped Mom & Pop into a 1,200 person $500M giant. Hear him talk about re-branding his company name to include ‘Ass’ & how that changed his entire business’ trajectory, a random meeting that turned into selling for half a billion dollars, writing $50M worth of checks to his employees after the sale and how the secret to making money isn’t to make money. Like our podcast? Join our Facebook group to share feedback, ideas and advice so we can all make that first million: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Faraz Jaka (@FarazJaka) is a Poker pro who’s made $10M on the felt... What started out as a fun game during his spare time in college turned into big money FAST. Turning a few hundred dollars into $180k in 6 months as a 19 year-old. He was on top of the world appearing in articles, throwing massive parties, flying to Vegas every other weekend and ambitious plans to make millions a year… until it all came crashing down, went into debt and battled depression. Obviously, he rose from the dead and became hugely successful, so join this roller coaster story on My First Million, and also listen to how he uses the “+EV” method for all decision making, why you shouldn’t be results orientated, meditation exercises to overcome stress and tackling depression by confronting your issues like ‘folding a rug’. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. We're hosting a meetup on the 21st November in San Francisco, check out details here: https://bit.ly/354TQ7H. This week these two discuss: the top businesses using Shopify (Check the ranking tool here: https://myip.ms/browse/sites/1/own/376714), millennial apartment plants, science fiction workout bikes, D2C hallucinogenics and businesses that you can start with $1000 this weekend that could turn into a $100M+ revenue biz. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

He's not on a mission to make money, quite the opposite. Xavier Helgesen is a mission driven founder, who uses money to do more good in the world. His first company, Better World Books sells 10 million used books a year that's collected by leftover books at libraries - in and shares revenues with literacy partners (Over $25M given to non-profits). This business lead him to Africa, where he noticed 20,000 people in a village had no electricity - so he decided to change that. He created Zola Electric, the largest solar power company in Africa, providing 1 million people with electricity per day. He talks to us about how he turned his college side hustle into a $70M biz, moving next to his customers in Tanzania, selling electricity to people who never used electricity and how ‘Mutual Improvement Societies’ could help you 10x your life. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This week they talk about creating a Y-Combinator for content production, signals that predicts future unicorns, transferring your work desk into your home, AirBnB for concerts, alternative milk boom and re-positioning existing products. We are holding a Q&A episode next week, send us your questions to: [email protected] you enjoy this and would like a weekly briefing on super in-depth research in these trends, Sam has offered a discount on The Hustle's Trends newsletter, go to https://trends.co/million. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Henrik Werdelin (@werdelin) is your dog's best friend. No really, he sends your dog gifts every month. Millions of dogs around the world love this guy, and that's why his dog treats & toys monthly subscription box business is booming. BarkBox is reported to have made $250 million last year. Damn, I wanna be his best friend too. Listen up as he talks about creating Disney experiences for dogs, meeting his co-founder on a cruise (and shared a heart-shaped bed), hijacking MTV at 2am, having 150+ doggy influencers on payroll, reverse engineering online dating to meet his wife and most importantly, how to set up systems in place to make better life choices. Read more about his 8 + 1 system here: https://bit.ly/2X17GVW. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This week they talk about food joints that no one visits and only serves people through delivery, bars that get you semi high, making products from the largest free IP: religion, businesses that eliminate choice, non-alcoholic beverages, profiting off book summaries and fixing dog owner issues.If you enjoy this and would like a weekly briefing on super in-depth research in these trends, Sam has offered a discount on The Hustle's Trends newsletter, go to https://trends.co/million. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I want to buy your business. What's your discretionary earnings? or how about you buy mine, can you get an SBA loan approved? No idea what we're talking about? Don't worry, Joe Valley (@JoeValley2) from Quiet Light Brokerage breaks down exactly the specific concepts and the tactical approach you will need to learn to value, buy and sell online businesses. He's one of the best in the biz so listen up because he knows his sh*t. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The infatuation of Celebrity is something we can all relate to and Steven Galanis (@Mr312) is making sure to take opportunity of that. When was the last time you got a celeb to sign something of yours? Nowadays you'd grab your phone in a heartbeat to snap a pic and share it on the gram or "it didn't happen". Steven built Cameo so you can just pay your favorite celebrity to say (almost) whatever you want. And it's becoming huge. It's a great story that I think you'd love to hear. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This week they shoot the sh*t about the no code movement, reinventing fireworks through drone light shows, creating a brand around miniature things, putting tiny houses in your backyard, the huge business of website plugins and social agencies. If you enjoy this and would like a weekly briefing on super in-depth research in these trends, Sam has offered a discount on The Hustle's Trends newsletter, go to https://trends.co/million. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ever wonder who owns all the internet domains like .com, .co, all the way to goofy domain names like .george and .plumbing? Well it turns out, many of these are owned by billionaires & big companies. Our hero today - Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) created an online auction site (like Ebay, but instead of selling beanie babies, he auctions off internet real estate). He has hosted $100M+ worth of auctions, keeping a 4% cut for himself along the way. Hear how he found this wacky niche, got the auction platform off the ground - and how he went from living on $1/day in India to becoming a self-made millionaire. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This week they shoot the sh*t about hyper-focused job boards, digital AA meetings, D2C hunting & fishing brands, GaaS (Ghostbusters-as-a-Service), keto ceral, miniature cooking sets, payroll software and a live unboxing of Sam's sperm... If you enjoy this and would like a weekly briefing on super in-depth research in these trends, Sam has offered a discount on The Hustle's Trends newsletter, go to https://trends.co/million. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents a new weekly show: Million Dollar Brainstorm. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This week they shoot the sh*t about some real estate hunting, pets on socks, TRT subscription service, digital museums, voluntary suffering retreats, cord blood banking, sperm freezing and remote enterprise software ideas. If you enjoy this and would like a weekly briefing on super in-depth research in these trends, Sam has offered 50% discount on The Hustle's Trends newsletter, use code "MILLION" while signing up to https://trends.co. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.