Seven $1M+ Business Ideas To Start in 2023 (#404)
Guy Mafia, Katanas, and Yardstick Reviews - January 5, 2023 (about 2 years ago) • 56:23
Transcript:
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Shaan Puri | Okay, next one: hosted buyer meetings on a plane. B2B decision makers get a free vacation if they agree to have...
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Sam Parr | x | |
Shaan Puri | Number of conversations on a flight... It's like the timeshare idea. It's like, you get a free flight, but you're going to get on a plane full of vendors. It's like that movie "Snakes on a Plane." There it is.
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Shaan Puri | is snakes it's just b | |
Shaan Puri | To be software vendors just waiting to barrage you for the next 7 hours.
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Shaan Puri | on your way to maui | |
Sam Parr | So, here's something interesting. There's a guy who I love, and his name's Anand. Do you know him? He started CB Insights. Do you know him?
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Shaan Puri | yeah listens to the pod love the guy | |
Sam Parr | Yeah, he's a great guy. He's one of my good friends, and I was thinking about this.
There are a lot of things that second-time or third-time entrepreneurs think about that mostly first-time entrepreneurs don't consider. One of them is distribution. They might think, "Oh, I'm just going to make a cool product that will somehow get into people's hands." That's false. You have to have marketing baked in; it has to be part of the ideation phase.
The second thing is pricing. They think, "Oh, I'll just charge $5 a month, and I'll get millions of people to buy this." Then you actually start doing it, and you're like, "Wow, this is incredibly challenging to get 1,000 or tens of thousands, let alone millions, of people to buy something." That's really hard.
I've been thinking about that pricing aspect—things that fit my wants, needs, and skill sets. For example, there's Industry Dive, which probably only has 5 or 10 million people a month reading their website. But they create content for people who own grocery stores. In contrast, BuzzFeed makes content for stay-at-home moms who like cat videos. BuzzFeed is worth $100 million, while Industry Dive, doing the exact same thing with a way smaller audience, was recently sold for $500 million or $600 million.
So, I've been thinking about those pricing differences and different ways of packaging. Anand from CB Insights has this company that's brand new; it's only 90 days old and has been very low-key and under wraps. I recently discovered it and asked him about it.
It's called Yardstick. So, go to yardstick.com and tell me what you see. It's called Yardstick, so it's the word "yard" like a backyard, and then "stick" is spelled S-T-I-Q. He's getting a little cute on us.
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Shaan Puri | Let's see... okay, so "Yardstick Powered by CV Insights." Learn what software buyers really think about their vendors. Great title, great headline.
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Sam Parr | yeah | |
Shaan Puri |
Great. And then it says:
> Access thousands of analyst-led conversations with software buyers to quickly understand pricing, competition, evaluation criteria, and subscription and satisfaction.
So basically, they interview software buyers and they get the scoop on how people really feel about a particular tool. Then they summarize it so that you can see how other people think about this tool before you buy it.
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Sam Parr |
Exactly, that's it. And they charge something like $30,000 or $40,000 a year for this. Yeah, it's really smart. I'll explain how this works, but they charge like $30,000 or $40,000 a year for this, and I think this could be a $100 million a year business. And they're just... I'm downplaying it, but right now the MVP is just interviewing people and showing transcripts. Eventually, I'm sure they're [going to expand their services].
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Shaan Puri | Gonna have really smart... I remember you talked about this back in the day because there's that website, what is it, G2 Crowd?
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Sam Parr | yes exactly | |
Shaan Puri | There's basically like software, which is a massive category. People are like, "Oh, which CRM should I use?" It's like, "Oh, you know, it's HubSpot fighting with ten other people to try to be the answer to that question."
Reviews are always this thing that people are trying to... I think people in general want the idea of a review, but it's hard to trust reviews nowadays. You don't know if the reviews are faked. You don't know if they're from people like you who have the same problems as you. Websites like, you know, G2 Crowd and these other ones, they're pretty bad.
I've seen several people try to create a new software review site to compete with them, and they have to do two things. One, they have to actually be better at the reviews. Two, they have to rank higher in SEO for when somebody searches for, you know, whatever "X tool alternative" or "what's the best sales tool for me to use?" It's really hard to beat their SEO, so they're fighting a very uphill battle.
This, I think, is smart for two reasons. One, they already have a bunch of customers that they could just sell this into. Two, instead of saying, "Okay, well, whoever reviews it, hopefully they're good reviews," they're like, "No, we're just gonna hire people to do these conversations." The math works out. If we get these brands to say what they think about these tools, you know, we might only need to invest, I don't know, $200,000 into the collection of that data, and that gives us better reviews and a better content system.
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Sam Parr | And what you've nailed everything. There's a third thing, though, which is basically G2 or SoftwareReviews.com, or a lot of these websites. The way they typically work is they give an affiliate fee or some type of advertisement fee. They collect that from the brand who wants to advertise on the website, which means they have to go and get traffic and convince these brands to give money.
Whereas this business, Yardstick, it does exactly what I said before. It changes the way they package it. They just go, "No, you're the customer. You're going to read this and you're going to get value from this. You're giving us $30 a year, and so we're just going to make stuff for you. That's our exchange, and so that's what we're going to do."
Basically, the background behind this business is something that I didn't know about until recently, and probably you didn't either because we both had small companies. A small company, in this definition, is anything that's below $1 billion in market cap or value. This typically means the people who buy this stuff have around 500 employees.
The reason that's important is when you buy a software provider, or you buy a CRM, or you buy some type of tool where you interact with your customers and your customer service agents use it... | |
Shaan Puri | do it business I don't know customer happiness I don't | |
Sam Parr | You know, whatever. The software is like Zendesk or something like that. But picking the wrong software, if you are a 500-person company, will cost you so much money.
You have to do a fair amount of research, including looking into who invested in this company to ensure they're not going to go out of business. I never even in a million years thought about that. I was just going to Google, like, "What's better, Gusto or Zenefits?" and just pick one, then switch if it sucks.
So what Yardstik is doing is actually interesting. Anand and seven other employees are the early people starting this company. They basically ask seven questions to people who have bought software in the last two years. They ask:
1. Who else did you consider?
2. Who did you pick?
3. What price did you pay?
4. Would you renew?
5. What's your customer satisfaction?
The people who purchase this Yardstik product are either investment bankers—those making investment decisions from the public or private markets—or people who are going out and buying software. They can see these other reviews, and it's just a really interesting business.
There are companies like GLG, you know GLG? It's like you get paid $2 an hour.
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Shaan Puri | glg calls back in the day | |
Sam Parr | Yeah, you get paid $2 an hour to answer questions, but that's one-to-one. So what they're saying is, "No, we're not going to do one-to-one, but we'll just make it so you can read dozens and dozens of interviews."
So anyway, it's an interesting company for everything I said. But secondly, it's an interesting company because its business is only 90 days old. I think if you go and sign up for their email list now, it's kind of like you can watch a big business being built in real time.
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Shaan Puri | Yeah, this is really good. I'm jealous I didn't think of this idea. I kinda wish he had just done this outside of CB Insights. I feel like this could have been his next hit. I think it's going to be as big as CB Insights.
So, I think there's a slight... you know, although it's good to be able to sell into the same customers, I think it would have been worth it to spin this out. But, you know, that's a more complicated decision.
By the way, this guy Anand has a giant list of startup ideas. Have you seen this?
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Sam Parr | no where | |
Shaan Puri | I'm trying to find the list. I remember seeing it on Twitter one day, but...
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Sam Parr | Here, well, why look for a second? But the background behind Anand is that he started CB Insights. They're close to $100 million in revenue. He's kind of a shithead, in a really good way.
For example, he writes their daily newsletter and signs it with "I love you." In his Twitter profile, it says, "Please sign up for CB Insights, I owe people money." He is like a cheeky, mischievous guy and very, very likable. His content is amazing, and that's what makes Anand really interesting.
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Shaan Puri | If you want to know what speaks to our heart, you have to be somebody who's trying to do something. So, you have to be ambitious or successful in some way. The second thing is, you need to be a little bit of a shithead. You know, like, I don't like to eat my wings without sauce. You have to have a little dipping sauce to your personality if you're going to get me on board. And yeah, he's got the sauce!
Alright, so let me tell you some of these ideas. I don't have the full list, but I remember seeing this like a year ago or something. We should get them on the pod. Let me just read a couple of the ideas that were tweeted out from this list.
Okay, so the first one: Tough Mudder for kids. Here’s what he says: really, any sort of manufactured adversity for semi-affluent or affluent kids. Parents talk about wanting their kids to have perspective, resilience, and reduce their entitlement, and get them off screens. Tough Mudder for kids is super high margin. Unsure if you know exactly how it works, but there’s money to be made for sure.
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Sam Parr | dude spartan race spartan race is now spartan race is I'm I'm signing up for 1 they actually have a kid's version right now | |
Shaan Puri | tiny spartans I don't know if this house is called but you know we can pretend it's a | |
Sam Parr | good name | |
Shaan Puri | **Startup idea:** Duolingo for teaching finance or accounting.
Teach the principles of accounting or finance via a gamified Duolingo-style app.
What do you give that? 1 | |
Sam Parr | yeah that's cool | |
Shaan Puri | Okay, next one: hosted buyer meetings on a plane. B2B decision makers get a free vacation if they agree to have...
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Sam Parr | x | |
Shaan Puri | The number of conversations on a flight is like the timeshare idea. It's like, you get a free flight, but you're going to get on a plane full of vendors. It's like that movie, "Snakes on a Plane." There it is. | |
Shaan Puri | snakes it's just b | |
Shaan Puri | To be software vendors just waiting to barrage you for the next 7 hours.
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Shaan Puri | on your way to maui | |
Sam Parr | And just tons of coke... and just everything that like a 45-year-old guy named Todd who wears tight blue jeans and brown shoes, whatever they need.
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Shaan Puri | Yeah, this is Jennifer. She wants you to call her Jenny, and she happens to like you.
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Sam Parr | I think it's actually I think you actually could build a business that way if | |
Shaan Puri | I'm not signing up for a free trial. You get to go to first class; that'd be great.
Yeah, this is actually kind of a genius idea.
Okay, here we go: **buyable Google Doc travel itineraries**. Friends often share their travel plans via Google Docs. You know, "Here's what I did in Iceland." Since they're friends, I trust their judgment.
The idea would be, "Let me just buy the whole itinerary with the buy now button." My vacation plan is done! Awesome quick reaction.
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Sam Parr | that's a small business but cool | |
Shaan Puri | Win-loss reporting for employee hiring and attrition.
So, when somebody doesn't accept your job offer, the service would dig in and find out the real reasons why. When somebody leaves, the service digs in and finds the real reason why. It would maybe anonymize or synthesize the insights over time.
Today, the process is very ad hoc. That's a great idea.
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Sam Parr | great idea | |
Shaan Puri | Is a really good idea! Wow, that's a solid one.
Okay, here's a not-so-solid one but more fun: the Nike of baby diapers. Create high-performance, premium diapers. Use sodium polyacrylate to make them super absorbent, like astronaut diapers. Incorporate other technology to increase comfort and make cleanup easier.
Why? Because parents spend a significant amount of money on their kids.
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Sam Parr | Okay, dude. Anytime you say it's the "Nike of something," it's like when I see a restaurant on the side of the road that says "World's Greatest Coffee" or "The Best Pie in Town." I automatically buy it. That's my rule. If it says it's the world's greatest, if you're just bold enough to think that, I'm gonna try it. I'm in.
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Shaan Puri | Dude, I had the same realization yesterday. I was listening to a talk where Jony Ive was speaking. I knew somebody who met Jony Ive and used to hang out with him regularly. They lived near each other in San Francisco.
I was like, "Oh, what's Jony Ive like?" For those who don't know, he's basically the head designer at Apple for all the great products: iPod, Macintosh, iPhone, all that good stuff. This guy is like the greatest product designer in the world. He's the person Steve Jobs trusted the most at Apple.
So, I asked, "What's he like?" They said, "Oh, you know, he's kind of like you would expect. He's got a sort of dry but funny personality. He's a pretty focused individual; he's not messing around a whole lot. You know, he works really hard."
They would come to me and say, "Yeah, Jony had an idea," and I was like, "Oh my God, what's this Jony Ive idea?" Now, I don't remember the specifics; this was like 8 years ago or so.
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Sam Parr | set up for every idea | |
Shaan Puri | But it'd be like a closet that's beautifully designed. What does that mean?
Then I realized I started using this. I'd be like, "You know what you guys should do?" I was giving somebody advice the other day. I said, "You know, when you guys, it's an e-commerce brand, when you send your package, you should put in there just a beautiful pamphlet. Just super well done."
That will make somebody read it. They'll know your story. Just a beautiful pamphlet.
Then I realized, I was like, "Wow, if you just say like a beautiful, a beautiful, and then just like a generic thing and say just super well done," the idea goes from like a whatever idea to like, "That's a great idea. Yeah, I could see that."
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Sam Parr | it's like win now | |
Shaan Puri | Honestly, it's not totally BS. There is something to it. If you said, "Let's just make a really hilarious YouTube video," it's like, actually, that is the correct strategy.
But there's not much more to it. This is a question of: can you do something that's actually beautiful, or really well done, or really funny?
But honestly, that's not a bad business plan for most things. To just say, "Just a beautifully done, just all the details nailed." It's like when...
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Sam Parr | andrew wilkinson andrew wilkinson says we try to buy wonderful companies | |
Shaan Puri | right | |
Sam Parr | and like our beautiful businesses we would have | |
Shaan Puri | buy beautiful businesses depends on | |
Sam Parr | what is like a job board | |
Shaan Puri | yeah I was like wonderful | |
Sam Parr | you're right that is it's wonderful | |
Shaan Puri | He's like, "Okay, we're gonna bake this cookie, but it's just gonna melt in your mouth." And they're like, "Okay, alright, alright, I'm in." It's like, you know, otherwise it's just a cookie.
So I think there's something to this. But alright, I'm gonna keep going. By the way, I feel like I'm reading this guy's diary, and I just... you know, I feel wrong just taking all these startup ideas here.
So, rapid fire, this could be like 12 episodes of content for us, but I'm gonna come down to it.
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Sam Parr | let's just steal it | |
Shaan Puri | Well, I know, but I'm like, I want to just use them all now. I want to binge eat this whole tub of ice cream right here.
Let me give you a couple more happy cam highlights: a highlight reel of the best moments of your life. How about a wearable camera that records audio and video only when you're laughing? It captures the conversations of who you're with and great moments.
Alright, victorious!
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Sam Parr | even the great ones are gonna miss once in a while | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, just to show a little balance here.
Okay, how about let me pull up another one?
How about this: he also wrote "Bad Startup Ideas." I think it's "Bad but Sexy." So, these are startup ideas that suck you in, but they're actually bad startup ideas. Here we go.
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Sam Parr | yeah personal crm always a bad one | |
Shaan Puri | preach into the choir yeah here is the news recommendations | |
Sam Parr | well in most cases it's bad but hey look that's what you be in austin prefer | |
Shaan Puri | we gotta did that one yeah | |
Sam Parr | It's something that's going to be like a college campus version of Craigslist, and then like laundry on-demand, like delivery laundry.
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Shaan Puri | Here's one: What are my friends up to right now?
These apps promise you, "Hey, what if your friend was two blocks away? You didn't know this, but with this app, you could have met up with them."
No, wrong, dude. Bye.
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Sam Parr | Did you know that girls share their location on their iPhone with other girls? My wife does this with her friends. Do you know people do that?
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Shaan Puri | safety purposes | |
Sam Parr | I don't know why they do that, but I was out with my wife and a bunch of her friends. They all did the same thing with themselves, like that group of friends and other people. They know where their real-time location is at all times.
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Shaan Puri | Hold on, wait... Honey, why are you going to the car? My friend's going to the restroom and she wanted somebody to go with her. I'm trying to meet up with her.
So, dude, it's crazy! I don't even know how to use that feature, or where the feature is on a phone.
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Sam Parr | I don't know you click a thing and it says like share location for an hour or share indefinitely | |
Shaan Puri | yeah seems like a trap | |
Sam Parr | yeah not gonna happen | |
Shaan Puri | To-do list software. Yep, that's one classic startup idea that everybody does.
Glassdoor for VCs—a website that rates VCs. Nobody really cares very much about VCs; they're infrequent decisions for most entrepreneurs. They'll take money from who they can get.
In most cases, founders are lucky enough to have a good choice; they probably already know who's good.
Okay, so those are some of...
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Shaan Puri | the anything bad | |
Shaan Puri | bad bad start up ideas but he's got a bunch here I'm not gonna | |
Sam Parr | we should have him on yeah the guy is interesting he's pretty | |
Shaan Puri | he's earned his he's earned his spot for sure | |
Sam Parr | I forgot to remind you these last few times, you being the listener, about our gentleman's agreement.
So, like, have you ever... yes, there's like... have you ever gone to 7-Eleven and you've seen like an Alzheimer's or like a sick children's bowl? And you leave a quarter and take a piece of candy?
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Shaan Puri | right | |
Sam Parr | So, that whole thing works, and they use this thing called an **honor system**—a gentleman's agreement—where you put down a quarter and take a piece of candy. It just works.
That's kind of what our podcast is like a little bit with subscribing to our YouTube channel. Sean and I spend all this time talking about what we're going to do on the pod. I live an epic life, actually, just so I can talk about it on the pod. I dedicate my life to this, and all I want in exchange is not even a quarter; it's just for you to click **subscribe** on YouTube.
So, if you're listening to this on iTunes or Spotify or whatever, just go to your YouTube and click **subscribe**. That's all we want because that helps the algorithm. We get a little bit higher, and then it helps our ego. I mean, that's really all.
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Shaan Puri | If you're making the choice between Alzheimer's, children, and us, make the right choice. Choose.
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Sam Parr | us yeah it's great | |
Shaan Puri | It's crazy! **60%** of our YouTube views come from people who don't subscribe. That's crazy! I can ask them, "Are you not entertained? Do you not want more of this? Click subscribe!"
Alright, so that's that gentleman's agreement reinforced.
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Sam Parr | Well, everyone's been doing it lately. So if you don't do it, you're going to look silly. I think you should do it. Alright?
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Shaan Puri | Okay, I want to talk about a different little trend that I've seen on Twitter. I call this the "Guy Mafia."
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Sam Parr | And you saw that line? I thought that was really funny. I mean, I would have called the guy "Mafia," just "the Mafia," but the guy "Mafia." | |
Shaan Puri | well so what what am I what am I calling the guy mafia you've probably seen this trend | |
Sam Parr | like guy mafia | |
Shaan Puri | It's kind of new, but it's basically a whole bunch of Twitter accounts that are branded like "Car Dealership Guy," "Mobile Home Park Guy," "Strip Mall Guy," and "Self Storage Guy."
They're basically just saying it's an anonymous account, so you don't know who's behind it. The promise is basically, "Hey, I've been in this space for a while. I've been doing this for 10 to 20 years. I will share insights, but also kind of like industry secrets about the way our industry works—the dirty laundry."
These accounts are blowing up; they get really big.
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Sam Parr | blowing up | |
Shaan Puri | Really fast, I just bought a car from a car dealership.
Guy, did you really? Who is this guy?
I just... yeah, I just dropped. Dude, I almost bought a car from him too. I almost bought a...
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Sam Parr | car from him too tell people who he is | |
Shaan Puri | well the I don't wanna say his his identity he did he did actually tell me his identity but I know | |
Sam Parr | who he is too | |
Shaan Puri | So, he's a car dealership guy on Twitter. He basically tweets out insights into the car market, right? I like following him because I want to know about the car market without doing any work.
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Sam Parr | So, he'll like go to YouTube. He said the market is literally flooded with Buicks. They're sitting on car lots like trash. You could score a deal on these if you're willing to suffer the embarrassment of being seen in one.
Buicks are at a 121-day supply. For context, Toyota is less than a 30-day supply. Ridiculous!
In simple terms, "day supply" means the number of days it would take to deplete the current new car inventory at the current rate of sales.
So, immediately I thought, "Let's go look at a Buick."
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Shaan Puri | Yeah, these guys are very influential. I'm telling you, I spent a lot of money on a car through this guy that I never saw.
So, what he's doing with his contract buyers service... Okay, let me give you the full idea, then I'll break it down. We'll use him as an example. So, he creates the car dealership. I don't think he's been at it for very long.
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Sam Parr | let me | |
Shaan Puri | pull up kind of the | |
Sam Parr | the december 21 | |
Shaan Puri | So, December 21. That's 1 year, basically. He added 93,000 followers in the last 30 days.
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Sam Parr | oh my god he's at 225,000 now | |
Shaan Puri | Literally, when we wrote this thing, like, you know, two days ago, we did the research for this. He was at $219,000. So, in just two days, he added $6,000. This guy is blowing up!
What he's doing is tweeting out insights. He shares information like, "Okay, you know, here's what the used car prices are doing. Here's what the market is. Here are which models and makes are hottest right now. Here's why G-Wagons are selling for this and here's where I think that's going. Here's what's happening with auto loans and here's what that means for the industry." All that good stuff.
So, he gets the following because he's tweeting out interesting content. Secondly, he then says, "Okay, well, what do I do with this? What do I create?" A newsletter? A paid community? You know, people are like the Sam and Sean playbook. They open up their little red book and they're like, "Is this what I want to do?"
But actually, he got some good advice from a buddy of mine who said, "Screw that! Don't make a newsletter and then try to find ads or sponsors." He goes, "Just help people buy cars. You're building up a load of trust on Twitter. People will buy cars from you. In fact, go buy me a car!"
So, my buddy is like, "I want to buy a Toyota Sequoia." And I think there's like... the Toyota Sequoia was telling me there's some crazy things where it hasn't been updated in like 15 or 18 years or something like that. The last update was like in 2004 or some stuff like that. And there's like a 100,000 person waiting list for the Toyota Sequoia—some crazy number like that.
And he's like, "Yeah, but I bet there's gotta be one somewhere in the country. You know what? I'll get it! I'll buy it in any color, any goofy color." And this guy, because the car dealership guy has a background as a dealer, he can...
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Sam Parr | at least we think | |
Shaan Puri | Accessing the car dealership and the car dealer network allows them to buy cars. They have their own little MLS system, right? This system enables them to buy cars out of auction. That's how dealers acquire cars, and then they can sell those cars at the retail market.
So, what he's doing is buying cars out of the auction, not really applying the retail markup, and just charging a flat fee as a concierge for purchasing the vehicle. | |
Sam Parr |
Which we talked about before... We talked about negotiating car prices as a service from a guy who knows the ins and outs of car dealerships. [He] knows the time of month, who to talk to, what to say, things like that. This is like that, but more in-depth.
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Shaan Puri |
So I told the guy, "Hey, I want an Escalade," and he said, "Wanted Escalade?" I said, "I want an Escalade."
And by the way, hilarious thing... I go, "You know, let me just..." I was like, "I'm not gonna go test drive these cars or anything, so let me just go read the reviews online real quick." But if you search for reviews, you get these... it's like, dude, is this just some SEO-optimized website?
So I go...
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Sam Parr | red right | |
Shaan Puri | Let me go to Reddit and see what people are saying.
Let me tell you how people on Reddit feel about car dealerships. It's the same way that people in prison feel about pedophiles. People on Reddit do not like Escalades. They are like, "Dude, I've never met a non-jerk in an Escalade," right? It's like the Escalade starts smoking cigars.
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Sam Parr | drug | |
Shaan Puri | Dealers and desperate housewives. Then I was like, "Hey guys, category number 3: Indian podcasters. Here we go!" | |
Sam Parr | wait are you getting the hybrid one or the electric one or something like that | |
Shaan Puri | no no no no you gotta go full on | |
Sam Parr | well they have good self you know they have great self driving technology I actually like that one too | |
Shaan Puri | I didn't do that much research, to be honest with you. I just got the big one, the extended version. So, anyways, my... is a lot of trust. But anyways, I bought a car with this guy. So, dude, you live in...
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Sam Parr | The suburbs of San Francisco, and you drive an Escalade. You are warping into something. I don't know exactly what it is, but there's definitely a stereotype that you're fitting into. You're like the Tony Soprano of Danville. I can't believe that it's still one.
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Shaan Puri | Some of these other guys...
So we have the **strip mall guy**, who has basically bought little strip malls. I don't know what you would call them, like these little B-class shopping centers.
Then there's the **Wool franchise**. Wool is a guy who talks about buying franchises and what franchises are doing. For example, **Crumble Cookies** is exploding like crazy. Here's what's going on with that franchise. That's a great niche to be in because interested franchise buyers are super, super valuable.
That customer lead who's interested in buying a franchise is worth tens of thousands of dollars to these companies.
**Secret CFO** is another great name.
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Sam Parr | that's a | |
Shaan Puri | Beautiful name with the guy, but I like "Secret CFO." I also like "Franchise Wolf." These are great names, great brands, and I think they work for a couple of reasons. | |
Sam Parr | Number 1: About the watch guy. I talked to him; I almost bought a watch from him. He just will post.
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Shaan Puri | even know about him | |
Sam Parr | Yeah, there's a... it's a watch guy. It's called, I think, just "Watch Guy" actually. I... | |
Shaan Puri | See a new one like every day right now. By the way, this is the past. Good is going to get flooded. It's already getting flooded because people see it now that we're talking about it and breaking it down. Everybody who's like, "I am a dental hygienist," you know, like there's going to be just a ton of these coming out. But honestly...
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Sam Parr | And they all use cartoons as their avatar. By the way, I sent you in the Riverside chat the luxury watch guy, and he does the exact same thing. He goes, "Here's what I'm seeing: this Rolex retails for $20,000. It's an 8-month wait, and so therefore what we're actually seeing is people are buying it for $35,000."
This month, mostly because of the crypto guys, this particular model of Rolex is going way down because they're selling it to afford rent.
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Shaan Puri | and by the way if anybody wants to do the the nft guy you know for for for crypto you know we'll hire you for the bill card we'll pay you to build this account if you're good so so so basically this is the trend okay so why do I think this works number 1 the the value proposition is in the name you don't even need to click to the bio they're a walking billboard for what value they're gonna provide to you what what they're gonna teach you about I think that sets them apart from just like oh this is steve you know steve irwin you you know you don't know that he's the nature guy right like you don't know that you have to there's still a leap of faith you have to click in read the bio then you get the then you understand the value here it's right on top second thing they promise basically data insights and industry secrets and people really like industry secrets and so you can go viral with some of these like here's the dirty little secrets about buying a used car or buy go about what happens when you walk into a car dealership I sat in these rooms for 30 years I know what conversations the the seller is having when you walk in like a fish and it's like I gotta click this I gotta read this and at the end of it I'm gonna trust them as a niche expert so I think those are the 2 kinda like core reasons that it works it's also just a focused feed so versus my account sometimes you're gonna hear me talk about sports I'm gonna crack a joke I'm gonna complain about my kids and then sometimes I'm gonna tweet tech stuff and in reality people just kinda want you for one of those things at at upfront upfront a focused feed is gonna do better so I think that's why these are these are working and and I think all of these people who do this are gonna make at least low 1,000,000 of dollars and a few of them who've really learned how to capitalize capitalize on this are will make tens of 1,000,000 of dollars of a business that basically the core of their business is just this twitter account where they are the you know the gas station guy like I saw one yesterday it was mobile home park guy tweeted one interesting thing about mobile home I instafollowed I have no real desire to buy a mobile home park but I kinda wanna know about it be smarter about it and then turns out the guy who dm's it's my friend I'm like you you do this and he's like yeah tell me what the hell is going on here and so you know you never know what's going on with the | |
Sam Parr | Because your dad... your dad's doing this side hustle. I think this is a really, really good insight that you've had, and I completely agree. I think someone like the car guy could make tens of millions of dollars. | |
Shaan Puri | Now, let me give you the "so what" about this. Let me add to it, right?
By the way, another good thing about this is that you can have ghostwriters or contributors because you're just under this anonymous umbrella brand. So that's another benefit here.
Okay, so what can you do with it? First, I think you should avoid the "let me do shout outs," "let me do paid ads in a free newsletter," or "let me do a community." If somebody says the word "community," you should stiff-arm them. If you're doing these, you've got to want to do it where you just sell.
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Sam Parr | the thing over | |
Shaan Puri | You actually get towards the transaction. Maybe a high-ticket course can work, but I do think you want to be more like the car dealership guy who's actually doing this. Or you want to be the strip mall guy, and you want to raise a giant fund off of this.
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Sam Parr | Well, dude, have you asked why? Because I'm the same way. I almost sold my car recently and I had him give me a quote on it to tell me how much they're selling for. Then I go, "Oh, I'd..." and I made a $100,000+ decision because of his advice. Have you asked yourself why we trust just these guys? Like, they don't even... they use a cartoon.
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Shaan Puri | It's the same reason people trust us from this podcast or from Twitter. I think when you get to see somebody think out loud, which is what writing is, or talking on a podcast, and they're not talking to you—you're overhearing them—and they're not selling you anything. They're just giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, right? That's the Gary V playbook.
The jab, jab, jab, hook is give, give, give, ask. So that's what they're doing right now. They're just in give mode, and I think that's the absolute right way to be: give, give, give, give, give, give insights.
There's a surprising number of wealthy people who will say, "Hey, can you help me? I want to do this. I want to buy one of these, or I want to get your opinion on this." They will come to you hat in hand, like me and you did to these guys.
Okay, so that's the first thing. Secondly, I think that you would get away with it. I called it the guy mafia, but I'm calling it right here: it's time to start the gal mafia. We need car dealership ladies, we need strip club queens, we need the female version of...
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Sam Parr | mlm queen | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, exactly. We need the... it's called network marketing or some shit like that. By the way, that's how that... it's like when you meet somebody who's proud of being in an MLM, you're like, "Wait, you know you're in MLM?" They're like, "Yeah, I'm a... I'm a... I'm great at network sales."
So what the fuck is network sales? If you can say the words "I have a downline," like if those words have come out of your mouth...
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Sam Parr | like yeah yeah yeah | |
Shaan Puri | you're a pimp that's what the that's what the that's | |
Sam Parr | What should the Twitter profile be like? Does the word "downline" make you weak at the knees? If yes, you're at the right place, my friend.
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Shaan Puri | Right, if I presented you with the shapes: circle, square, and triangle, and you immediately gravitate towards the triangle, it's like those psychological tests, the Rorschach tests, whatever.
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Sam Parr | okay so I think you should brand it as | |
Shaan Puri | A woman, whether you're a guy or a girl, to be honest with you, I think you know, catfish away. I think that's the first opportunity.
Second, you gotta go find all the valuable niches: luxury watches, sneakers, cars, gas stations, real estate. I mean, what else? There are franchises.
But are women using Twitter? I surveyed my audience and I go, "Select if you're a male or a female."
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Sam Parr | And it was 93% male. It was all dudes, probably all looking for a father figure. It was all young men.
Have you seen when Sahil and I did the meetup? It was literally a 100 to 1 ratio of men to women. It was crazy! If you're a single woman, you have to come to our meetups; you will love it.
Do you have any women followers, do you think? Or is all of Twitter this way?
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Shaan Puri | No, I think it's more us than it is all of Twitter. I think Twitter probably skews, but not to the 90%. That's like, that's kind of a crazy ratio there.
But okay, by the way, here are my crazier ideas. First of all, I think Twitter is the wrong place to do this. I think it works on Twitter for sure, but I also think LinkedIn could be a better option. There are other networks where you should probably be able to do well with this.
I don't know if LinkedIn allows anonymous accounts or fake names; maybe it doesn't.
The second thing is, honestly, I think there could be a whole social network that's basically just, "Yo, you join here, and there are just verified people who are industry insiders that you get to read their content from and subscribe to and follow."
I think you could literally create that. It is not likely to work, but it's more likely than a lot of stupid social app ideas because it has a really clear value proposition.
So anyway, that's my long shot idea around this.
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Sam Parr | Yeah, I think this is a really, really good insight that you've had. I completely agree that there's a massive opportunity here.
I tried to make the argument this summer that there's going to be a $1,000,000,000 empire started on Twitter, just like there has been on YouTube and all these other platforms. I think one of these people could be that person.
Another thing that I've noticed on Twitter—and I didn't entirely plan this, but because you brought it up, I'll mention it—have you noticed people doing affiliate marketing for agencies?
Basically, a question that you and I probably get asked a lot is: "Who's a good accountant or accounting firm?" or "Who's a good growth marketer for newsletters?" You know, there are like eight questions that you and I get asked all the time.
I did this with my Body Tutor. They were like, "Hey, do you just want to earn money for every person you send to us? Because you're already sending tons of people." I said, "Hell yeah, give me a look!" I'm already...
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Shaan Puri | A bunch of... like a bunch of shout outs. I was like, "Are you getting kickbacks here or what's going on?" I feel like you've tweeted all of these.
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Sam Parr | I haven't. I just started doing it for my body tutor because they're like, "Dude, you send us so much. We'll just give you some money if you want." But no, I've not. Who have I tweeted out lately? I just... I just... | |
Shaan Puri | call out bullshit them and it was one other one that I saw that I was like | |
Sam Parr | jason janowitz | |
Shaan Puri | it it was your | |
Sam Parr | oh diego my video guy | |
Shaan Puri | yeah yeah | |
Sam Parr | No, no, I just like... I'm just like, "Fuck it, dude. You've done well." What I told him was, "Hey, if you're good..." | |
Shaan Puri | do it for free for you | |
Sam Parr | Right, I go do it for free for me, and if you're good, I'll tell people about you. So, I made him do it for free for me for six months. I was just like, "I'll just share it with you."
But then you and I have friends, and I've seen people do this. I think they're making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by referring people to certain agencies. The right way to do this is to find a product or a service that you're already a fan of and ask for an affiliate link, or go and start the thing with someone and just be an affiliate.
I think there's this world... We had Neil Patel on the podcast, and he basically founded an agency. The reason why he was considered the founder was that he did start it, but he wasn't running it. A lot of the early leads, and probably a lot of the leads to this day, came from NeilPatel.com because people were using his website to search for SEO stuff.
We haven't seen people do that on Twitter, but it actually is really good because Twitter, unlike the other social media platforms, is ideal for link clicks. That makes it really easy to attribute growth. I think there are a lot of people making a significant amount of money referring people to these high-ticket products, and I think we can continue to see that. It might be quite big. I've thought about doing this.
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Shaan Puri | So, one thing I've been thinking about doing is post-Milk Road.
Okay, we sold the Milk Road, and now I have some time. What do I want to do next? I kind of want to focus on the podcast, make the podcast bigger and better—all that good stuff.
One of the ways I think the podcast can provide value is that, you know, the podcast itself is free. If you're listening to this right now, you've paid me $0.00. So, how does this ever become something that you could justify saying, "I'm not going to go build another business; I'm going to do this instead?"
One way is to see if the podcast can provide some kind of win-win value for people.
This one thing I was thinking about was that I kind of want to buy a bunch of businesses from people that I've worked with. For example, I could go to my accountant, my lawyer, or my estate planner and basically buy the majority stake in their firm. In exchange, I could say, "Cool, there are a lot of other founders like me who also want estate planning, legal help, trademark help, and accounting."
I want to build an MFM-style back office set of businesses. Instead of just being an affiliate, I would actually own them, ensure that they're great, and build trust in them. Then, I could drive a bunch of value to those businesses.
In return, there would be a bunch of founders like me who are constantly asking for recommendations, like, "Yeah, I'm trying to find a good [service], and I've burned through seven accountants before I found one I like." The same thing goes for estate planning and other services.
Not everybody should have to redo that work. So, that's one thought I've had about a cool business to build that just helps founders and entrepreneurs. I would own a collection of those businesses, and then, you know, have people in this audience who want those same services be able to just go find who we use.
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Sam Parr | Yeah, and the cons are like, can you possibly vet the right people and have actual quality? But the pros are like, this is pretty much what Richard Branson did with Virgin, and so it's definitely possible.
I often wonder why more celebrities, like the Kardashians, don't own an equity stake in more things than they do. It doesn't seem like they do for a lot. They have done it for one or two things that ended up being quite big.
So I wonder, what's the strategy? Where does... where are the stakes at? Because every celebrity has thought about this too, and I think, well, where's the downside? Where are the stakes?
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Shaan Puri | Like, you know how much... how many equity stakes you can take? You know how many things you can promote? You're better off, basically, in those cases, finding the one or two product categories that you can own a large chunk of and go big.
Right? This is like Skims for Kim Kardashian. This is Kylie's lip stuff. This is Conor McGregor's Irish whiskey. It's like, you know, he took the Irish whiskey thing and was like, "Oh, I'm just gonna put this on blast. I'm gonna own a chunk of this."
I think they sold it for $500 to $600 million within three years, something like that. So, you know, that was worth a lot more than affiliate linking out to 20 services or trying to own tiny chunks of 20 businesses and then having to use your clout to promote 20 different businesses. That's kind of exhausting, so I think that's why.
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Sam Parr | You want to do it for a topic? Yeah, let me brainstorm. Or do you want to go to "Is Your Pain for Tainment" really good?
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Shaan Puri | both of my things here I think are pretty good but I can save them because | |
Sam Parr | I'm going | |
Shaan Puri | to the end | |
Sam Parr | go go go go | |
Shaan Puri | which one do you want painfotainment | |
Sam Parr | yes | |
Shaan Puri | or the katana store | |
Sam Parr | The Katana Store is a horrible name. So, what is that actually? You want to know? I've seen this. Is this the guy who keeps tweeting about his YouTube page?
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Shaan Puri | yes yes | |
Sam Parr | I thought that was beautiful. I kept thinking, "Wait, Katana, is this a joke? Like, you literally just sell swords?"
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Shaan Puri | Yeah, exactly. Okay, so I see this guy. I've been seeing this guy for a while now, and he sells... I think his website's called **mini katana.com**. So, it's mini katanas.
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Sam Parr | but what does that mean like a tech deck like a like a like a tech deck but a sword | |
Shaan Puri | what's a tech deck I don't know what that is | |
Sam Parr | you remember the midi finger skateboards | |
Shaan Puri |
Oh no, no, it's not that tall. It's like, you know, 2 feet in length instead of like a full samurai sword, which is like, you know, 5 feet or whatever. This is... you know, like half the size of a normal thing. Maybe, you know, 2 feet instead of 4 feet.
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Sam Parr | I didn't know this I didn't know the standard size of a katana if I'm | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, I realized I said that, and like, you know, the katana guy is gonna come after me here. That's not who you want on your bad side.
Alright, so if you go to this website, you'll see that it gets about 1 to 2 million monthly visits, which is a lot. That is a lot of traffic for an e-commerce store. He tweets about their revenue sometimes. Wow!
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Sam Parr | the the website is actually awesome it's like the supreme of like swords | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, actually, that's a good thing. So, I think this business does... He said 8 figures. It does at least $10,000,000 a year in revenue. I think it's probably closer to $20,000,000.
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Sam Parr | way more | |
Shaan Puri | So, I think it's probably closer to 20 based on the traffic. One of the main ways that they do it is through YouTube.
Okay, so really, there are two kind of hardcore takeaways that I have out of this. I'm calling this my new theory—my updated theory on what it takes to have a great e-commerce brand.
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Sam Parr | by the way these are dope I'm I'm gonna buy me a fucking sword these are yeah | |
Shaan Puri | you went from making fun of this to add to cart in like 6 seconds okay | |
Sam Parr | so I'm gonna buy me a gold sword who doesn't like that | |
Shaan Puri | This is the "Stranger Things" law, which is basically if you want to make it in e-commerce, one of the things you have to do is find people who are strangely and unapologetically obsessed with a certain lifestyle. Then, you just need to sell them things.
So, you know, that's the whole model.
Alright, here's an example: a katana store. You have people who are just obsessed with Japanese culture for some reason.
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Sam Parr | and they're always fedora and like it's a little foreigner | |
Shaan Puri | Guy who loves Japanese culture, right? Like, you're finding white people who are super into Japanese culture, not Japanese people. And there are people who are really into something that's kind of irrational.
I remember one time I met this guy who was the first product manager at Twitter. He joined when Twitter was maybe like 10 or 15 people total. I remember talking to him and I asked, "So, was it obvious at that time Twitter was going to be huge?" He said, "No, no, no. Twitter was basically nothing at the time. It was very small. It was just kind of this thing that tech people were doing."
But even the tech people who were using it kind of felt like, "Well, this is stupid, right? We're all just text messaging what we're having for lunch right now. That doesn't seem like the next big thing."
He said, "But luckily, I had learned a very valuable lesson, which is anytime you observe a weird behavior or a phenomenon where people are en masse just doing this thing that makes no sense, your first reaction is to say, 'That's weird,' and you kind of judge it. But what I've learned is you gotta lean into that phenomenon if people are doing it."
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Sam Parr | it playing video games | |
Shaan Puri | There's a reason. Exactly. This reminded me of my experience when I was in college. I remember my freshman year of college. I walked into my buddy Tofique's dorm room, and I saw him playing video games. He had his back to me, and he was playing, I don't know, Starcraft at the time, I think.
Then I said, "Yo, Tof!" He turned around, and I was like, "Oh, sorry! I didn't realize you were in a game." He took off his headphones, turned around, and I noticed that the game was still going, but he wasn't touching the mouse anymore. I was like, "What are you doing? Are you in like a demo mode? What is this?"
He goes, "Oh no, I'm not playing. I'm watching." I was like, "Wait, what? You're watching somebody play video games?" He said, "Yeah, I always do this." I was like, "You woke up at 8:30 in the morning and started watching somebody play Starcraft? Why don't you just play?"
He said, "No, this is like one of the best players. I just want to watch him." I was like, "Nerd!" I thought, "Hold on, let me go get four friends so we can make fun of you together because this is not going to be fun alone."
I literally went and grabbed my roommate and said, "Come see what Tofique's doing! This guy's literally..." I was like, "Do you know him?" He was like, "Well, no." Then we started making fun of him, but I actually sat next to him and was like, "Well, hold on..."
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Sam Parr | like oh | |
Shaan Puri | my why is he doing that with a dragon you know like yeah | |
Sam Parr | well yeah wait | |
Shaan Puri | well why | |
Sam Parr | did he go left he should've gone he should've gone left he went right | |
Shaan Puri | He's like, "This guy is the best player on the Korean server." So they played this match last night, Korean time. I'm watching it now, and I was like, "You are the weirdest nerd." But this guy is the weirdest guy, you know? He does many, many weird things. This was one of them, and I remember just laughing out and making fun of him.
Fast forward 10 years, I go and I'm announcing on our LinkedIn or whatever, like, "Hey, we sold our company Bebo to Twitch! Super excited to join the exec team at Twitch." I get this call from Tofi. Tofi calls me, you know, twice a year. I pick up, expecting congratulations, and he just goes, "You little bitch." I'm like, "What?"
And he's like, "You used to make fun of me for this shit, and now you're Mr. Twitch." I was like, "Oh yeah, that's right! I forgot about that. Dude, you were way ahead of the curve. I should have listened to you. I could have created Twitch if I had leaned into this insight that people want to watch other people play video games."
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Sam Parr | god I love a guy who holds a grudge for 10 years by the way | |
Shaan Puri | dude he was he was ready | |
Sam Parr | I like the cut of your jib guy I'm about it | |
Shaan Puri | And so, anyway, that's kind of the learning. If you see people doing strange behavior, right? Like, I remember seeing people wear those Vibram five-toe shoes. You're like, "You're going to run barefoot? Why do you do that?" And they're super into that lifestyle.
I saw a video of Joe Rogan talking about people who hunt white bucks or some type of deer. He goes, "Dude, people don't realize how crazy this lifestyle is." He started explaining that people will build fields of food and lounge areas to try to attract these bucks in to hunt. They spend months building these man caves for bucks just to attract them, and then they hunt them. I was like, "That's crazy!" I bet...
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Sam Parr | they're so hot getting people getting cold ice baths every morning | |
Hubspot | People ice bath every morning, just like you. I met a guy yesterday who makes $5,000,000 doing a woodworking course.
Woodworking is a passion, and it's like, why? Because people who are into woodworking are not just kind of into it; they can be really into woodworking.
So there's this strange obsession that is the basis for a store. Our software is the worst. Have you heard of HubSpot?
See, most CRMs are a cobbled-together mess, but HubSpot is easy to adopt and actually looks gorgeous. I think I love our new CRM. Our software is the best. HubSpot: grow better.
So that's the first thing. The second thing is these guys are crushing it with YouTube organic content. They built their YouTube channel up to 2,000,000 subscribers. | |
Sam Parr | well when I got | |
Shaan Puri | This is one of those really cool growth hacks. I think it's worth going and looking at where they just do these unboxings. They have cute girls who are into katanas, nerding out about them as they unbox.
It's like, yeah, I can see a bunch of dudes getting really into this channel. That makes sense to me. I think there's a lot of people who are going to like this brand and this content.
So, I think they're just doing a really good job. I would rate it a 10 out of 10 for execution, but maybe a 5 out of 10 for opportunity. Nonetheless, there's a lot you can learn from this.
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Sam Parr | Dude, I'm looking at their YouTube. I don't understand a lot of these references because it's like anime-based, but they don't do that many videos. It looks like they do 1 or 2 a month, and they all kind of hit. This is crazy.
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Shaan Puri | A lot of TikToks, maybe. So, I think they do TikToks, and they basically just moved their Facebook ad budget into hiring a full-time female creator to do this content and that sort of thing.
So, yeah, I think it's a really cool brand. I just wanted to...
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Sam Parr | Share the guy a shout out because I forget his name, but on Twitter, he's showing all of the back end. He's taking screenshots of their YouTube, and he's a really, really good follow. He's been fascinating. I forget his name too.
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Shaan Puri | I'll find it in a second but | |
Sam Parr | He said something like they got around 200 to 300 million views in the last year, and they only started this past year. He's like, "We're getting 8 million a month." Isaac, what's his name?
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Shaan Puri | Is Isaac. He's the Isaac Med MBD, and his bio says, "Scaling a sword brand to 9 figures with organic video marketing." Well, that ain't exactly what we just described, you know? Like, perfect description.
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Sam Parr | yeah you did a really good job | |
Shaan Puri | He's really cool. Also, I like his profile picture a lot. He kind of looks like a madman. He did a good, clear headshot, but he kind of looks like a madman instead of a try-hard. I just appreciate anybody that's not a try-hard.
By the way, pet peeve: I feel like all of Twitter is so cringe and try-hard. I don't know if anything changed or if I changed.
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Shaan Puri | but do | |
Shaan Puri | You feel this way? Like, I feel like 90% of tweets, including my own, are cringey. Is there a tweet that's not cringey?
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Sam Parr | I think that we were the try-hards, and now we're over it. We're making fun of people that are doing the exact same thing that we did.
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Shaan Puri | yeah I love that you you use the ladder climb up and then you pull the ladder up behind you | |
Sam Parr | yeah yeah yeah I think that's what we're doing you know | |
Shaan Puri | when I did it it was cool but when you do it that's small boy stuff | |
Sam Parr | Yeah, I think we're just being haters, which is cool. That's a natural thing. Let me explain. I'll wrap up with one quick thing.
I posted a researcher job. Basically, I don't really have a researcher, and I’m envious of that. I want that. I need a little help because you always come with fire. I need a little help coming up with good content for the pod.
By the way, if you want to see the job, just go to my Twitter and scroll down. You'll see a Google form. So, I tweeted this out and got like 300 applicants. In order to apply, I was very specific. I was like, "If you screw up one thing on these directions, I'm not even going to consider hiring you." I was like, "You have to bring LinkedIn here."
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Shaan Puri | more job application | |
Sam Parr | Well, yeah, because I was like, "Dude, if you're not gonna sweat the details on this, then you're not gonna..." That's what I said. If you don't do a good job on this, I don't believe you'll do a good job on anything else.
I made it really simple: come up with three ideas, make it in a Google Doc, and put the Google Doc link in this form. Make it so it's readable, so I can just click it. If it's not readable, I'm not even gonna ask to look at it.
I got hundreds of applicants. About half of them followed directions, and about a good chunk, 25%, were actually pretty legitimate.
What do I do with like these 100 decent people? You know, it's kind of like an interesting business problem.
So, we did this with apartments. My first business, which was an online company, was basically looking in San Francisco for an open bedroom in a $1,200 a month apartment. An open bedroom in a three-bedroom house gets like 500 applicants, and all 500 are interested in living in the same neighborhood. They're all interested in this ad, so they clearly have similar interests.
We should just group them into their own thing and move them into their own apartment. That was the premise of my first company.
With this, I'm like, "Man, I got like 300 people, 100 are somewhat qualified. What do you do with this group of people?" It kind of seems like such a waste that I'm just using one of them. Do you know what I mean?
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Shaan Puri | Yeah, unfortunately, not a lot of people need a researcher like this. So I think you just need to translate it to something like, "Most people don't have a podcast that requires researching random business stuff."
So, what could these people do? What's a job that's more common that these people would be really good for? Is it like chief of staff type roles? Is it something like that you think?
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Sam Parr | I don't know. I just started thinking about this ahead of time, right before we started recording.
I did think this is like the application process. This is just a little small thing. Imagine if you're Burger King or some huge company and you get, you know, a million applicants a year. It's kind of interesting because you can only hire a couple of them. So you're wasting 98%.
In the same way that Ford decided to make charcoal out of their burnt wood that they were using to heat their furnaces when they were making iron, I wonder, what can my charcoal be of these 299 applicants that I don't actually hire?
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Shaan Puri | yeah that's a great question | |
Sam Parr | I don't have an answer. I'm sorry. Yeah, sorry people, this is the letdown. But yeah, it's an interesting question.
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Shaan Puri | The thing to do would be to identify what common job these skills translate to. Then, you would have a cohort or a pool of people that are somewhat vetted. You could create a job board or some sort of matching marketplace or service where people could hire others for that common job. But I'm not sure what that job would be.
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Sam Parr | I wonder, like, the people who have enough probably don't care. But the people who are in engineering companies or someone who's starting a startup that needs engineers to apply, what they should do is just say, "Hey, I'm sorry you didn't get the job, but here are like 5 other gigs that are kind of cool." They could just take the $30,000 referral fee. Do you know what I mean?
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Shaan Puri | So, our buddy Ryan Hoover kind of did this. He was hiring a researcher or an analyst for his fund, and he said, "Dude, I got like hundreds of applicants. I've interviewed them."
He mentioned that there were, let's call it, 30 candidates who were really good. He said, "I just can't hire 30; I only need one."
So, he emailed me and a bunch of other people who had funds. He said, "Do you need an analyst? Here are the vetted analysts that we thought were good. If you need one, I'd love to help these people get a job." He wasn't asking for any money because Ryan's a nice guy, and this is not how he's looking to make money.
But at the same time, I was sort of like, "I'm not looking for the sloppy seconds. These people weren't good enough for you; why are they good enough for me?" There's a part of me that feels that way too.
So, I think you have that challenge. If I'm a tech company, I'm looking for engineers.
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Sam Parr | that's fair | |
Shaan Puri | And I hire these people, and you didn't hire me. But you know, Facebook didn't hire you, but Google should. I think Google's got a little problem with that, so you have to find some way around that.
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Sam Parr | that's fair | |
Shaan Puri | Signal problem. Same thing with investments. If I send an investment to you, I'm like, "Hey, great deal! Not doing it though. You should... yeah, you should invest in this."
It's like those are the worst. Those are the worst emails because sometimes it's true. It's like, "Oh, this is just your niche," or "It's your stage," or whatever. But a lot of times, it just adds a negative flag to it for no reason. | |
Sam Parr | Well, the answer to this might be, "There's nothing I could do. Fuck them." Sorry, guys. You did all this work for me, and you're just not going to get the job.
There are some guys who have applied for like 8 jobs that I've had throughout the years, and I feel so sad. I'm like, "Sorry, yeah, you missed again."
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Shaan Puri | We're not hiring that many people, right? So it's just a hard, hard thing to do.
Alright, let's wrap it up there. Good episode, and we have...
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Shaan Puri | to see you guys come today |