This Family Made $100M+ From COVID!! (#423)

Shaan Puri

Somehow, five years later, COVID hits. And you know what they decide to do? They're like, "You know what? Let's go all in on creating safety equipment for COVID," like masks, respirators, gloves, and things like that. They become one of the core providers right at the start of COVID. They shifted all their production and manufacturing. They're like, "Forget the vodka bottles, forget the LED screens. We need N95 masks, we need respirators, and we need testing kits." They started producing this stuff and began winning all these contracts.

Sam Parr

Alright, we're live, Sean. We have a bunch of stuff. You have a full menu over here, and so do I.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, alright. I want you to look at my menu here and just pick something off the menu. Go ahead, and I'll riff off it. For people who don't know, we only write like 1 or 2 words, so you get a teaser. You're like, "Man, what the hell is this about?" But you don't know what it actually is.

Sam Parr

But I have... I put all my stuff near an accident. I have this new researcher who's crushing it. He just gives me all the content like 5 minutes ahead of time. But, rich neighbor...

Shaan Puri

How did I know you'd pick the rich neighbor? So, there's somebody in my neighborhood who I bumped into. I was just... you know, I sort of get out there and I collect signals. Where do I place this person on the Billy scale? Are they on their way up? Have they made it in life? Are they really balling out of control? Where is this person? These people have been balling out of control. When Christmas time came up, the wife went outside and was just pointing at windows. All of a sudden, the house was lit up like a Christmas tree. They had the most decked-out decorations. They said, "Hey, invite your kids over this Thursday! We have a snow machine. We're building a snow hill in our driveway." You want to do sledding without going to Tahoe?

Sam Parr

what's that like a big snow cone is that what that is

Shaan Puri

It's like a giant truck that comes and creates snow. It piles it up so that their house looked like it was in, you know, Michigan or something like that.

Sam Parr

yeah but it's just like a like like it's like an ice machine or something

Shaan Puri

yeah it's like an yeah something like that

Sam Parr

yeah like a big snow cone like a big shaved ice thing

Shaan Puri

Yeah, you were right from the beginning. You’re right. So, they did this, and they had a fake Santa there. I was like, "Man, this is a lot for a Thursday afternoon," but okay, this is cool. I like these people's style; they seem really nice. I didn't know what they did, so I kind of headed to Google the other day and I was like, "Let's see who these people are." They have a crazy story. They created a company that, back in 2014, did this thing. Basically, it lets you take a vodka bottle. They had a vodka bottle that had an LED sign going around it, so you could give somebody a vodka bottle that would say, "Happy Birthday, Sam," or you could program any message. I could be like, "You’re getting old, bitch," or whatever. I could write any message on it, and it would go on your vodka bottle. Alright, it seems kind of gimmicky. I don’t really... you know, it’s not a bad idea, but balling out of control from that didn’t 100% make sense. But that was the thing.

Sam Parr

sounds like a drop shipping like joke

Shaan Puri

Sounds like my first idea out of college. It’s like, this is me in college thinking, "Bro, next Google! I got it!" You know, like, what if we took this Jägerbomb and we put an LED screen on it? Wouldn't that be incredible? So, they had this thing, and they were licensing it out or something like that. Somehow, Shaq became an adviser to their company. It was really crazy.

Sam Parr

makes sense

Shaan Puri

Yeah, as you would, somehow five years later, COVID hits. And you know what they decide to do? They're like, "You know what? Forget this vodka thing. Let's go all in on creating safety equipment for COVID," like masks, respirators, gloves, things like that. They become one of the core providers right at the start of COVID. They shifted all their production and manufacturing stuff. They're like, "Forget the vodka bottles, forget the LED screens. We need N95 masks, we need respirators, and we need testing kits." They started producing this stuff and began winning all these contracts. So now, if you go look at their website, it's one of those "I know you're rich" websites because there's not a lot of information on it. But if you go to their press release section, it's like PR Newswire: "Company gets a $113,000,000 contract with the government for safety equipment."

Sam Parr

oh my god

Shaan Puri

Local East Bay success story where they are now the sole testing provider for, you know, the Lakers stadium, Levi's Stadium, and all these different places. These guys are getting contracts worth over $100,000,000 for their services. Now, I think it's probably only about a 10% margin when you buy.

Sam Parr

when you sell them that small

Shaan Puri

I think for things like that, probably it's like 10 to 15%. That's my guess. Maybe during COVID, everyone was completely price insensitive and they could just charge whatever they wanted. I'm not sure.

Sam Parr

I would have thought that

Shaan Puri

But, wow dude, what a pivot! You know, isn't that just kind of crazy? That was an opportunity kind of available to a lot of people right when it happened.

Sam Parr

I know a bunch of people who did that. I had a friend who did it, and he's like, "Dude, check this out!" He sent me a picture of a Shopify store that's doing like $2,000,000 a month. I know a lot of people who did that, and I've only followed up with one or two of them. I have a feeling that of the eight people I know who did it, about three of them had success. The rest seemed to have a really quick cash grab, but then they overbought inventory, and it's like... nothing. Do you know people who did that?

Shaan Puri

Yes, we... there was a guy in... I had started this mastermind group. That's actually where I found Ben. But like one of the other guys in the mastermind group, he... like every time we...

Sam Parr

came to the mastermind does he live in texas

Shaan Puri

No, he's in Canada. Every time we came to the mastermind group, I felt like he had a different business, which is not what you want in a mastermind group. But he was a good dude. He would always be like, "Oh, I have this other business that's for auto repair, blah blah blah. We do their SEO." I was like, "Okay, but then what about that thing you told me last time?" Then one time he came and he was like, "Dude, we're doing mobile COVID testing trucks that will drive up to places, and we could just do rapid testing for COVID." We were like, "Alright, that sounds cool, but do you know anything about COVID testing? Does anybody in the world know about this?" He was like, "Oh, I got the scientists. It's gonna be great." Then he came back and he was like, "Hey, really excited to be here. I need you guys' help." Like three months later, he was like, "I really need you guys' help about going public." I was like, "What the hell?" He said, "Yeah, we're gonna do like $85,000,000 this year in revenue." I was like, "What?" He said, "Yeah, we're getting all these contracts with the state, like these countrywide contracts in Canada. And you know, we think maybe we should take this public next year."

Sam Parr

and I was like what the fuck is going on so how did it end

Shaan Puri

I don't even know because that guy... my head was just spinning every time, you know, he would talk. I'm like, "This is either too good to be true or I'm too dumb, and this is amazing." I can't tell which one it is. It's probably some mix of both. But you're right, I know several people that went all in on COVID right when it happened and, like, low key got an absurd amount of traction very, very fast.

Sam Parr

yeah like a ton

Shaan Puri

My dad actually called me one day and said, "My friend works at this hospital. They need extra equipment; they need extra masks. I talked to somebody in India, and they could produce these masks. I think we could do like a $2 or $3 million contract." I was like, "Fantastic! You should do it." But my dad has this problem where he is addicted to meetings. He thinks winning is like, "This important person met with me," and then he'll tell me the duration of the meeting to show me the value. He's like, "I only scheduled for 1 hour, but we sat there for 90 minutes." And I'd be like, "Okay, so what?" He'd respond, "So, you know, he was really interested. It's 2 hours," right? He just always is obsessed with that. So he had a bunch of meetings, and I was like, "Dad, it's all about that action, boss! You're going to take some action here. What's going to happen? Go for it! Do it!" And he's like, "Well, no, I want everybody to sign off on it and derisk it completely. Pay me up front." I was just like, "Dude, this is like the cheap way to do business. You've got to take a little risk here," and it wasn't showing a risk.

Sam Parr

You're throwing shade on your dad right now. I hope he doesn't listen to this. You just called him "boss." If I said he calls me "boss," he's getting me into a headlock!

Shaan Puri

My dad... yeah, we make fun of each other. We call it like it is. I do a bunch of dumb things, and I say when I do dumb things, this is his dumb thing: he is high planning, low action on these things. He says it all the time. Like, we went... I took him to Tony Robbins, and Tony Robbins is all about taking massive action on the things you want. I was like, "What's your big takeaway?" He said, "Man, I need to take massive action." I was like, "Yeah, that's you! You did it! You learned the right lesson from this thing." He goes, "That's my problem. I don't take massive action." I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." He started slipping back into basically saying, "I've identified my problem," but not like, "Alright, change it." Just like, "So right, so true."

Sam Parr

whatever it worked out for him

Shaan Puri

yeah he did he but he did great like right for like village in india to like live in like owning multiple homes

Sam Parr

In this country, great... the story you tell of your mom, like, I think you said she had never eaten with a fork or something. She just comes to America when she's 17. Is that what you said? I'm not exaggerating; I don't want to be disrespectful. I thought you said they didn't use utensils or she went to a restaurant and...

Shaan Puri

or she didn't know you're right you're right that that did happen

Sam Parr

No, I'm not being disrespectful, Mrs. Perry. That's the story; it's on record. Also, when she used a pay phone to call her brother to say that she was in town, she didn't know that you had to hang it up. So, she just let it hang.

Shaan Puri

She was just crying at the airport when some guy approached her and asked, "Hey, do you need help? Are you okay?" She replied, "I need... my brother's supposed to pick me up. I don't know where he is. I just landed in America." The guy asked, "Do you have a phone number?" She said, "Yeah." So, he picked up the payphone, put in the quarters, and called her brother. He told him, "Hey, she's at Terminal 2. She's waiting here. I'm going to tell her not to move." The brother didn't even know her flight was that day. They had no correspondence. He said, "Okay, I'll hang tight. I'll be there." She talked to him, and he said, "Don't move." Then, the guy who helped her left. She didn't know how to use the payphone. She didn't even understand how to put it back. She was fiddling with it, trying to get it to stick, but she didn't know what to do. She looked around, and nobody was there. So, she just left it hanging and walked away. She said, "I'll never forget feeling so clueless about the world." There are about five stories like that about her just trying to adjust to life in America.

Sam Parr

now they have a house in san francisco so it worked out that's the that's the american dream

Shaan Puri

alright another topic

Sam Parr

what do you got

Shaan Puri

I got a quick one here. I saw this TikTok of a professor. There's some professor at a college; I apologize to her, I don't know her name, but let me see if I can find her real quick. She’s Professor Cooley at Emory University, so shout out to her! Basically, she teaches marketing at this college. For her marketing class, she goes, "Alright class, if you want to do well in this class, if you want to get an A, you have one job: go viral on TikTok." "Alright, I'll see you in a few weeks. If you need help, we can talk about what it takes to get there, but like, that's how you get a good grade: go viral on TikTok."

Sam Parr

awesome how old is she

Shaan Puri

She looks young, or at least younger looking. Yeah, she looks like, you know, if you were 12, she would be your friend's mom.

Sam Parr

got it

Shaan Puri

so so something like that whatever age that is

Sam Parr

perfect description

Shaan Puri

So, whatever. Basically, I thought this was amazing, and it got me thinking: how many more classes at a university should be taught this way? For example, why isn't there a class at school where it's basically like, "Okay, we're going to have four lemonade stands on campus. Break up into teams; you're each going to run a lemonade stand." The top lemonade stand is going to get an A+, the next one gets an A-, B+, B-, and if you're not able to break this threshold of sales, you fail. It's like, just let them go and do their thing and let them learn.

Sam Parr

100% how it should be

Shaan Puri

Or it's like, you know, maybe it's the net profit. They learn about cost management as well. But like, give them $500 and say, "Who can run the best lemonade stand or T-shirt company or whatever it is?" Or writing on Twitter. Like, you know, okay, it's an English class. Should you basically go read Shakespeare and all the stuff, or should I teach you how to write in the modern day? I could teach you about newsletters, cold emails, or Twitter. It's like, yeah, you need to grow an audience around whatever topic you're interested in. It could be *The Bachelor*, it could be world politics, it doesn't matter. You pick your topic, but you have to write to an audience on that, and you have to publish. The first thing is quantity. You have to publish every day for the next 60 days. Then the next thing is quality. Can you actually grow an audience? Can you get a 50% open rate on a newsletter with, you know, 1,000 people on it? Go figure out how to do that. Things like this would be so much better than the way people learn about how to do real-world business today in school. Another idea would be flipping. Like, everybody, you're going to look under your desk. Yep, you're starting with this drill. Okay, everybody's got a drill. Your job is to flip this drill into the most valuable item you can get by the end of the semester. Go! You have to sell this, take the profit, buy something else, sell that, and just keep doing that until you can get to the biggest thing.

Sam Parr

Dude, Ramon, our friend, his son goes to school here in Texas. His kid had a class where he had to haggle. It was like, "You have to get this much of a discount from a retail store or something like that." I was like, "Oh, that's awesome!" It's great for a 12-year-old. I love that stuff. I didn't have that when I was younger. Alright, my sophomore year of college, I was a Division 1 athlete—a runner, nonetheless. I was in peak physical condition, yet they made me take an aerobic walking class. If you add up the tuition, it was like $9 or something like that. So, I'm on it. It was aerobic walking; you show up and you go for a walk. I'm all in favor of this stuff. I think it's awesome.

Shaan Puri

Are you walking at least at a fast pace? Why is it called "aerobic walking" versus just walking? Is that just branding?

Sam Parr

Is that the gym teacher had to justify their pension or their salary? I don't know, it was the stupidest thing ever. Like, it was crazy. It was crazy to me. I had to take aerobics; I remember this. It was ridiculous. You just showed up.

Shaan Puri

what do you mean you had to seems like they don't

Sam Parr

It forced you to get a certain amount of credits, and it was like this aerobic walking class. It was your...

Shaan Puri

major like pe why why why was this your requirement

Sam Parr

Dude, because they make... I don't know. I don't remember exactly why I had to do this. No, I don't even remember what I majored in. I think it was just like accounting or business or something. So, I left school early. It was accounting, and then I finished online later. I was like, "Okay, you know, just give me any diploma that I can get, please." Why did you need school? Because I moved out. So, the summer... I had to take some summer classes and one extra semester. I heard about Airbnb, and I was like, "That's where it's at." So, I moved out there. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I think I told you this. I had heard about...

Shaan Puri

you applied I didn't know you were in college and dropped out for it

Sam Parr

I didn't drop out. I... well, I don't know if it's technically dropping out. I just quit going, and then I finished online.

Shaan Puri

oh okay

Sam Parr

like I

Shaan Puri

couldn't finish it to an online student

Sam Parr

Yeah, like I took some time off and then I eventually finished. I would have to go to a Kaplan, you know, like those Kaplan testing centers.

Shaan Puri

and I

Sam Parr

Would have to take these nonsense tests, but basically there was this famous runner. I was a runner at the time, and there was a famous runner named Chris Lukaszak. He quit running, which wasn't exactly lucrative, but he was like the 7th fastest miler ever. He said, "I'm quitting running at my peak to join this thing called Air Bed and Breakfast." I was like, "What the hell is that? That sounds awesome!" So, I emailed Joe Gebbia, the founder of Airbnb, and I was like, "Hey, I like Airbnb. I came up with this interesting hack that I think could help you grow. Here it is." And he forwarded it to...

Shaan Puri

what was

Sam Parr

It was at the time when there was this thing called Reportive that had just come out. I built an Excel sheet where you could type in someone's first name, last name, and like their Gmail or their company name. Then it would permutate, and you put it into this thing that tells you which email is theirs. So, not like that sophisticated of a hack at all, but it was new technology. I emailed him, and in his head, he's probably thinking, "This is dumb," but the fact that I came up with this, he thought, "Whatever, we'll interview." So they interviewed me, and he puts me to a minion. The minion was like, "Hey, do you want to come to the Bay Area?" I don't know who the guy was, but he was probably worth...

Shaan Puri

$21,000,000 used word I'm gonna start using that that's an that's an amazing slander I love it

Sam Parr

Well, that minion is probably worth $20,000,000. I mean, you know, at the time there were only about 200 people. The guy who he referred me to was like the 17th employee, and his name was Justin. I'm so friends with him. Sorry, Justin, for calling you a minion, but maybe you were.

Shaan Puri

like that's your friend dude

Sam Parr

I'm friendly with him, a minion. I'm friendly with them, but they go, "Alright, great! Do you live in the Bay Area?" I was in Tennessee at the time. I didn't know what the hell the Bay Area was. When he said "Bay," I had never been west of Missouri. I'd only basically been to Missouri and then whatever the states are when you drive to Destin, Florida, for spring break. Those are like the only places that I'd been. He goes, "Are you in the Bay Area?" and I was like, "Of course, yeah." He goes, "Great! Come into my office on Monday." So I was like, "Shit, I gotta get out there. I gotta figure out what the hell the Bay Area is." I thought it was LA. So I packed up. Like, yeah, Silicon Valley... I heard someone make a joke about Silicon Valley, but that was like where porn is, I think, in LA. They're all the same to me; I didn't know. So I Googled what the hell the Bay Area is, bought a ticket, and flew out there. I interviewed with him on a Monday and a Tuesday, and then I interviewed with Joe, the founder. He probably didn't even remember me because it was like a 10-minute interview. Then I go home on a Wednesday. They offered me the job on a Thursday. A week later, I called my mom and said, "Dude, I got this job! This is awesome!" She goes, "What the hell is this? You stay at someone's home?" I go, "Yeah, I think it's gonna be legit." She goes, "It sounds like a multilevel marketing scheme." I'm like, "Well, they have health insurance." She goes, "Whatever." So my mom drove down, packed up my apartment with me, and then shipped me off. She gave me $1,000, and that was my seed money. I moved out there, and this was all in like a three-week span. The Sunday night before I'm supposed to start, they called me and said, "We busted you, man. You lied about your resume because you have a criminal record." At the time, I'd gotten arrested for DUI, and I was like, "Well, technically, I'm still... the trial's still happening, so I didn't get convicted yet." And they're like, "Yeah, but that was...

Shaan Puri

sneaky too proven guilty

Sam Parr

Yeah, they're like, "But that was sneaky. We asked you if you've been charged or whatever." And I was like, "You're right, I'm sorry." So, I didn't actually get the job I was hired for. I was hired for like a second, but I never had my first day. Then, fast forward two years later, my wife ends up going to work there. I remember walking around and thinking, "My alma mater, my old stomping grounds." So, I never ended up working there, but I had a job there for like, you know, a few minutes. It could have been something great. I would think I would have been like employee 200. I don't know, maybe I would have made some money or not. But that's the story of Airbnb.

Shaan Puri

it's an amazing story I love that story

Sam Parr

Out there, I also had to take these classes. I remember I didn't have any money; I had $1,000, and that was my money. I used to have to take this bike. I lived in the Dogpatch in a warehouse that was $900 a month, and I had to... I used...

Shaan Puri

to have it right live in san francisco they're like you lived in a dog patch warehouse

Sam Parr

It's called Dog Patch. It's like the industrial part of San Francisco by the water. I used to have to ride my bike because I didn't have any money. I had to ride a bike that I took from my roommate all the way up to Twin Peaks to go to the Kaplan place, which is like 6 miles away—literally up the steepest hills in San Francisco. So, I used to have to do those classes and take tests for like months. It was horrible, but it worked out.

Shaan Puri

and now you're here incredible and

Sam Parr

Now, dude, I used to... I learned how to get rid of... like, you could jump on the bus. When they would catch you all the time, they'd be like, "Where do you live?" and I'd be like, "I don't know." They'd ask, "What's your name?" and I would just give a name. Then they'd say, "Do you have any ID on you?" and I'd respond, "No, I don't have ID." I remember there were zero consequences. I mean, that's how little I had. I didn't even have cash for a bus fare, which was $2.50. But yeah, it turned out okay.

Shaan Puri

What did you do to grow that $1,000? How did you not just wipe out? Because $1,000 doesn't get you very far in San Francisco. So, how did you not wipe out in 3 months?

Sam Parr

On my way to the interview for Airbnb, I stayed at the cheapest Airbnb available, which was a bedroom in this guy's house. He had told me he was starting a business. So, when I moved back out there, I said, "Hey dude, I don't have a job anymore. Can I join you?" I only had about 2 or 3 weeks of payment left. My mother and father had given me a pickup truck for college, and I asked them to sell it. They sold it and gave me $4,000. I thought, "Alright, I've got like 3 weeks of rent or living expenses, and now I've just got an influx of $4,000 to $5,000. I've got like 6 months of cash. Let's do this!" So, I started and co-founded a roommate matching company with this guy. We would post ads on Craigslist saying we were hosting these roommate parties where we would match people up into 3 or 4-bedroom apartments. Normally, if you're a single person who just moved there and doesn't know anyone, you have to move into an existing bedroom, and there's a lot of competition. We would post fake existing bedrooms and get 300 people to apply on Craigslist. We would say, "Hey, this doesn't exist, but we'll team you up with 200 other people who want the same thing as you." We would host these parties and charge people money to attend. After they got an apartment, we basically spun that up on Weebly and made money right away. That's how I lived.

Shaan Puri

amazing wow great stories I love this I feel

Sam Parr

like yeah

Shaan Puri

I feel like there's a bunch of I've heard bits of these but not all of them this is great

Sam Parr

And I would ride my bike to collect this money. I would knock on their door after they got the apartment and say, "Hey, you got my money?" It was ridiculous.

Shaan Puri

that's so good

Sam Parr

After this, I have to go get a hearing aid, and I'm going to get fitted for one. I have to tell you why—I forgot to mention this. We were at the Vancouver event, and there were these two women speaking to me afterwards. It was loud, so the problem with my hearing is that I can't hear the difference between background noise and the person speaking. For me, it's hard to tell the difference. These women were talking to me, and you probably noticed this: I lean in hard. I'm only deaf in one ear, but I lean in, I turn, and I get really close to you.

Shaan Puri

it was a super loud after party by the way

Sam Parr

It was like a club. It was loud, and I also stare at people's lips. So, I'll either stare at your mouth or I'll lean in.

Shaan Puri

mister rude signals over here

Sam Parr

The horrible worst signals. This woman comes up to me, and I'm leaning in. I'm starting to get really close, and I can tell she's really uncomfortable. I go, "Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot to tell you, I'm deaf. I can't freaking hear you. That's why I'm leaning in so hard." It was at that moment I told Sarah, "I gotta go. I gotta get a hearing aid. I can't... I'm making people uncomfortable."

Shaan Puri

This is why you bring your wife with you to all events. Just to, like, you know, totally make it clear what's happening here.

Sam Parr

Dude, Anne, I have a rule: I don't travel alone. I love having her around when I travel. That is definitely the icing on the cake—having her around for that reason.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, you did the opposite of the billionaire hug. You went in with the "brooke boy lean." You had the "brooke boy lean."

Sam Parr

I just stared at her lips as she spoke, literally trying to watch as the words came out of her mouth. I was just staring down at her lips and looking, and then leaning in. Oh man, I could tell she was uncomfortable. I was like, "Oh, I forgot to tell you I can't hear, so I'm gonna go get one of those things [hearing aids]."

Shaan Puri

Did you ever learn that trick from... this might be it. It might have been in like those pickup artist things. I'm not 100% sure, but you're...

Sam Parr

like looking at their the triangle yeah yeah yeah like the 3rd eye or something like that

Shaan Puri

No, no, it's... if you ever wanted someone to want to kiss you, let's say you're close, you're in range, and you want to kind of almost hack their little biology to get them to want to kiss you. You do this by creating triangles. You basically look at one eye, then the second eye, down to the lips, and back to the first eye. It traces a little triangle. If you do that, you'll just see immediately the person just pucker up. Baby, it's happening! Yeah, right? It just happens! Yeah, right.

Sam Parr

I don't

Shaan Puri

You know, if it's because you're signaling that you want to kiss them or that it just makes them want to kiss you, but this stuff works. This was like in college. You would have thought I was in the Illuminati with how many triangles I was throwing up everywhere. I was like, "This is like a magic trick. This thing is amazing!"

Sam Parr

did you get any girls in college probably you're really charismatic did you do both

Shaan Puri

king baby

Sam Parr

Oh, you're the pro! You had a good batting average but not a lot of home runs. That lead off and never got a second... Yeah, oh well. That's good, I know.

Shaan Puri

too is my roommate was like just unbelievably good with girls and so well

Sam Parr

he's really good looking he's a good

Shaan Puri

looking guy and he was trevor

Sam Parr

is he right

Shaan Puri

Yeah, Trevor. He's an athlete and he was just like a professional flirt. Somehow, this guy was just pulling crazy people from... you know, you have like an RA (Resident Assistant) who's like the person who's four years older that lives in the freshman dorm. He just started dating the RA's girlfriend. Then, he started dating this girl on the basketball team and began dating all these seniors. He even started dating this one really rich girl who was giving him gifts all the time. I was like, "I don't know what's happening here," but you know, this guy is definitely sucking up all the alpha male energy in this room. I'm just sort of here along for the ride, but it's okay. It turned out alright.

Sam Parr

well you know you worked out alright

Shaan Puri

By the way, my dating life was a lot like my startup life. It was basically like fail, fail, fail, fail, fail... home run! It's like, you know, most people in their career sort of get this like 10% raise a year or whatever, where it's this linear, steady climb up the ladder. But if you're in the startup world, you're often making nothing, or in debt, or broke.

Sam Parr

then all of a sudden

Shaan Puri

For like 7 or 8 years, and then all of a sudden, you're rich. That's what my dating life was like. I was broke for like 10 years, and then all of a sudden, I was rich.

Sam Parr

100% same it like it didn't it didn't start picking up until my twenties it was that 100% same

Shaan Puri

twenties but you're trying to what were you trying to do in your teens bro

Sam Parr

I tried... I tried a lot. Trust me, I tried. I just looked like Napoleon Dynamite. With braces, it just didn't work out.

Shaan Puri

Dude, I didn't even talk to a girl. I was sitting there reciting lines from The Rock in WWE when I was in my teens. Bro, I was jumping off the top rope in my bedroom, trying to... you know, I loved wrestling and basketball and stuff. I didn't have time for girls when I was like 15.

Sam Parr

It was a numbers game for me. I knew, like, you know, a 3% conversion rate. Therefore, you had to try a hundred times.

Shaan Puri

right yeah you never want war of attrition to describe it

Sam Parr

Whatever, it worked out. We both... it worked out for both of us. Before we get into this, we gotta remind people there is a gentleman's agreement. Except this time, it's different. So we have this thing at this podcast, unlike everything on YouTube and on Spotify and all that stuff. Our content actually isn't free. You're only getting this episode for free if it's your first one. If it's your second or third one, you have to go do something for us. What is it?

Shaan Puri

They gotta fire up YouTube, youtube.com, or the app, whatever it is, and type in "My First Million." They're going to see our pretty little faces right there. You don't even have to watch the video; just click "My First Million," click subscribe, and turn the notifications on. We need this. This is what we need, right? Everybody's got needs: food, shelter, and YouTube subscribers. These are your core, core primal needs, and we have ours.

Sam Parr

And that's why it's called the **Gentleman's Agreement**. We're not on the other side, so you just have to do it. Everyone's doing it lately, so you should do it. That's what we expect out of you. Also, do me a huge favor and actually click **follow** on the podcast app and Spotify because those help us actually go up the rankings. When we go up the rankings, we get more dopamine, and we do dumber stuff. That's why we're here, so do that. I have a story for you. So go to **jupe.com**. It's spelled J-U-P-E, jupe.com.

Shaan Puri

it's k

Sam Parr

they have a slick looking website so tell me what you see

Shaan Puri

I see some sort of mega tent contraption. I don't know what this is. This is like some sort of structure. Is this like a basically an outdoor unit that's not quite a house but more than a tent?

Sam Parr

so I met these kinda I met these guys recently and they're really fascinating and so basically the one of the founders he's like this artist type he's his name's jeff wilson and before this he like wrote a book because he lived in a dumpster for a year like he like slept in a dumpster it was like some like art project as well as like to show like for what I don't I don't know I mean he's he's a wacky interesting guy but he lived in a dumpster and then he then he started this like prefab house I guess it was like marketing for like a pre prefabricated homes or something like that and they eventually launched this startup it's called jupe and I originally saw it because gary tan famous investor billionaire investor gary tan made this youtube video where he stayed in one of their things and so basically what it is is it's I don't know they would be mad if I called it a tent but it kinda looks like a tent but basically they ship it to you on in like a a huge container and you pop it up and on the inside it's like a fancy or like a nice mattress and then there's like a heating and cooling unit and it's got lighting that's all solar powered and so it's like a stand alone like house and the way that their business model works is you can do one of 2 things you could just buy it for $30 outright or you can do a thing where you they give it to you for free and they take something like 40% 30 to 50% of the revenue and you rent it out and these things are renting out and I was like I don't know man who wants to stay in this thing and he was like dude we rent them out for $250 to $500 a night and they're always booked and they're trying to pitch it to me to put it on my land and I'm not sure if I'm going to do it or not but they're it's a pretty interesting thing this year they're supposed to do like 12,000,000 in revenue and it's break even and they've deployed 400 of these things and their future what they're doing is they've got these guys that are just buying plots of land and then putting 15 or 20 of these on there and then jup the company if you do the profit sharing with them they kinda run it for you so they have like their own little platform and they like will help manage the thing for you but it's pretty fascinating and I've been thinking about putting one of these on my on my property I'm not sure if I'm gonna do it or not because I don't know if I want more work but really fascinating interesting idea that I came across I've been loving these ideas where you just make more money off the shit that you already have so like I have land and I was like should I just like put these all over my place but it looked kind of fascinating and I thought you get the kick out of it

Shaan Puri

Yeah, I mean, these look super cool. I gotta give credit because I see a lot of these, like, this kind of... I forgot what they call them, ADUs or whatever. It's like this additional dwelling unit or something. They're often just like vaporware; it's just a render of something that looks sick. What I really like is if you click their vision tab, it opens up a notion and explains what they're doing. Four times in this thing, it just says, "Here's our thing" (not a render). Here's what it looks like after it gets delivered. Here's what it looks like the next day, again, not a render. Like, "Hey, we actually build the thing. It exists. This is real. This is not like some futuristic dream." So, I think that's pretty, pretty, pretty amazing. This looks super cool. I don't know why you wouldn't do this, just for even like the story.

Sam Parr

So, I can give you an update. I have this property, [marathonranch.com](http://marathonranch.com), and you can see it. It's doing like anywhere from $13,000 to $17,000 a month in gross revenue. It's doing well! I'm finally making money on my Airbnb. I have like 40 or something 5-star reviews on Airbnb, and I finally started going up the rankings. It's been really fun to do. I have 20 acres of land, but I'm not sure if I want to screw anything up. At my Airbnb, we have like 20 cows. My neighbor owns these cows, and they use our property. In exchange, we pay less property tax. People wake up to the sound of mooing cows because they sleep on my property for some reason. They decided that's the best spot. I don't know if I want to mess that up. It's so peaceful going out there, so I'm hesitant about adding more units on the property.

Shaan Puri

Dude, marathonranch.com. Your photo here... you chose the wrong photo. You chose a not awesome looking photo for your hero photo. Then, if you click on the gallery, you all of a sudden see all these awesome photos.

Sam Parr

it's a work in progress my friend it's a work in progress

Shaan Puri

it's a work in progress still in beta

Sam Parr

Yeah, I... it's because one of the pictures, you couldn't see the writing. Anyway, it's a whole thing I gotta fix. But, anyway, it's going well. I basically send Sean updates on my Airbnb, and he's like, "Oh, that's neat! You're making a 5% return. That's really lovely."

Shaan Puri

What did I tell you? You were like, "Dude, this is 5% or 7% a year. This is great!" I go, and I told you, "I've lost more money in crypto than you'll ever make on your Airbnb." Yes, damn! Somehow that felt like a good statement to me.

Sam Parr

It's been awesome, man! The Airbnb game has been fun. It sucked for a minute, but once I started rolling, it is pretty dope. So maybe one day you'll be convinced, but right now it's killing it. I don't know if it'll still be killing it in June when it's like 100 degrees, but we'll see.

Shaan Puri

To me, the only reason I would do this is the tax benefits. If I bought property, the actual rental income and/or slow real estate appreciation is not worth it, especially given the headache of doing stuff. So, you said, let's say from...

Sam Parr

A financial investment... it's only been okay, but from a reward perspective, it's been quite exciting. What is...

Shaan Puri

The margin... So you say $13,000 a month gross. Okay, so now we take out what Airbnb takes, we take out property management, we take out utilities. How much is the gross on that? So...

Sam Parr

A record month recently was about $17,000, but let's round down to $15,000 because that's what it's been lately. So that's gross. I give away... So I own the property outright, but I assume that I have a mortgage. If you assume that I had a mortgage plus utilities and taxes, yeah, that's in the $7,000 range.

Shaan Puri

okay

Sam Parr

I don't have that, but let's just assume that I do because I will get one eventually. Property management is 20% of like the $14,000. So if I do $16,000 in revenue, $300 per stay goes to my cleaner. So whatever that is, let's just say that's $2,000. That brings us down to whatever that is. What did I say? $15,000 minus $2,000, that's $13,000. Then management gets 20% of that. The rest, I assume, goes to property taxes and a fake mortgage. So all said and done, on $15,000 in revenue, I'll walk away with only $3,000, maybe.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, that's nuts. So that means, let's see, we have $15,000, so 20% margins.

Sam Parr

yeah it's it's not like it's not cap

Shaan Puri

rates tax on 15th

Sam Parr

Well, I have depreciation, so I'm able to save a fair bit there. But yeah, like, it's a cash-on-cash return. It's going to end up being like 5% or somewhere between 5% and 8%. However, if you assume appreciation—which is a big assumption—but I looked at the trailing 30 years, it'll probably be a 15% to 20% annual return if I own it for like 10 years. Right? So, that's a big if. That cash-on-cash return is only okay. It's only okay, but I'm completely hands-off, and I also like it. I've learned how to do something, so I didn't do everything right here at all. I think I paid a premium; I definitely paid a premium for the property.

Shaan Puri

Dude, I know you paid a premium. If I look at this, like if I go to the gallery, it's got the kitchen with like the white... everything's like white and like this one look of wood that I'm just a sucker for. If it looks like this, I'm like, "It's a nice place." People who know about construction are like, "This is cheap and easy." You know, I would walk into a house and be like, "Well, this is a good house. I'm going to pay a premium for this house." And they're like, "Why? Because the countertops are nice?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I mean, look at this! It looks fantastic. It looks modern." They're like, "Dude, that costs nothing. You need to pay for location, you need to pay for square footage, you need to pay for all these other things." But I'm a sucker for just like the countertops.

Sam Parr

But I have 20 acres. My plan, originally, before the markets tanked, was to build more structures there. However, when the markets tanked, I got cold feet and thought, "Let's just sit on it and see what happens." Now, I'm just sitting on it, and it's going awesome! It's booked constantly, and I'm happy with it. I don't regret it; I would do it again. I learned that it was a lot of money to get in the game—it was 7 figures. I was nervous as hell, but it's worked out, and I've learned how to do it. Now, I know more about it, so I'm happy. I can find this client info. Have you?

Hubspot

Heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform. It shares its data across every application, so every team can stay aligned. No out-of-sync spreadsheets or dueling databases. HubSpot: grow better.

Shaan Puri

Alright, let me go. I got two blue-collar hustles for you. These are in the trash business. So, I've heard of two trash businesses recently that I thought were pretty interesting, and I wanted to share them with you. I want you to tell me which one you like better, okay? So, the first one our buddy Ceeva told me about is called "Smash My Trash." Have you ever heard of this? Has he told you about this?

Sam Parr

No, but you want to know something funny? I've been very close with Cieva for like 12 years now, and I still don't know how to say his last name.

Shaan Puri

kosinski right

Sam Parr

Is that about it? I had to like... yeah, I just... he's in my phone book as the very first time I ever met him. He said he was Russian, so he's just saved as "Szeva Russia." I just assumed he was Szeva Russia. I mean, this guy was like in my wedding, close.

Shaan Puri

siva tall handsome smart

Sam Parr

yeah I just called him adonis

Shaan Puri

yeah first name and then attributes like visual attributes that I remember you by

Sam Parr

6 pack 6 three got it yeah

Shaan Puri

I have a system, and it serves me well. Alright, so Steven was telling me about this franchise called "Smash My Trash." What they do is basically imagine a giant crane. They drive to any business, and if you've ever been to a warehouse, you know that our warehouse produces an ungodly amount of trash—just cardboard.

Sam Parr

you don't just burn it yeah just be normal

Shaan Puri

So, we have Charlie. Charlie burns the trash, but I do not have that option. You would basically have a dumpster, and you get charged per filling of the dumpster. You call them up, and they come and empty your dumpster. What Smash My Trash does is, when you sign up for them, they drive around and come to your dumpster. They use this giant crane arm to smash the trash in, compacting it. This allows you to get way more volume, and it takes less fill, which lowers your trash bill. You know, that could save you **hundreds of dollars** every month if you do this. So, basically, the cost of Smash My Trash should just be less than the savings they provide from having to do fewer dumpster fills. This is like a franchise that really crushes it. You can run this with just two guys. The numbers on this are impressive: you invest around **$400,000**, and typically, they'll make about **$1,000,000** a year in revenue, with around **$300,000** of net income (EBITDA) at the end of the day. So, you're getting an amazing cash-on-cash return—not the kind of trash return you were getting on your Airbnb; this is some real, real returns. I think they have a significant number of locations—around **160** or something like that. They’ve probably made **$40 to $50 million** just from the franchise fees by franchising this concept out. So, I think this is kind of an amazing business, low-key.

Sam Parr

It's amazing, but there's a big downside. When was the last time you had a blue-collar job? Do you remember? Have you ever had one? Restaurant?

Shaan Puri

yeah when I was restaurant like 21 yeah

Sam Parr

what happens at a restaurant when it closes do you remember

Shaan Puri

just carnage carnage

Sam Parr

Everyone goes and gets super screwed up. They get drunk, take pills, get high... they just do all types of shit. Then, hopefully, they show up the next day. There's lots of... I remember I've been a janitor before, I've worked in restaurants, I've done all this stuff. Particularly in restaurants, there were constant issues with this type of person who works there. It sounds classist, but it is kind of the facts of my experience. I don't know, what do you think? If a trash person has a job, maybe they get up early. When I think of a trash guy, I think more of a family guy... yeah, a trash person.

Shaan Puri

I trust a trash guy. You know, I feel like a trash guy is reliable, dependable, and salt of the earth. I feel like it's not the degenerates that you'll get. I would rather hire any trash guy than a barista at Starbucks. I feel like the barista is a flake, and we never know what's going to happen.

Sam Parr

But... well, the worst is like a bartender or a waiter at a fancy nighttime restaurant. Like a... or like a... PGI Fridays, you know what I'm saying?

Shaan Puri

The worst of the worst. There's someone out there right now listening to this that is a waiter at TGI Fridays who just slammed their phone in disgust. Dude.

Sam Parr

I've worked at

Shaan Puri

all these places to them

Sam Parr

I've worked at all these places, and like, this is probably why I had a little bit of a habit. It's... I don't know, man. This is the downside of... if you...

Shaan Puri

have unlimited access to loaded nachos then something just happens to you

Sam Parr

Yeah, yeah, like the Blooming Onion. It's like... it's like the full moon, you know what I'm saying? Like I turn into a werewolf, and if I get that every night... it's bad. I turn into like a Guns N' Roses after-party. I'm going wild, I'm throwing furniture out the window. So yeah, is this cool? Yes, I think there's a lot of headache. And I would be curious... we have a good friend, or I think you're friends with him, his name's Brian. Brian Scudamore [or Scutamore], he owns...

Shaan Puri

sounds like a good friend

Sam Parr

oh another guy another last name guy

Shaan Puri

trash in your yeah

Sam Parr

And no, not trash... junk. Junk! 1-800-GOT-JUNK. Brian has been on the podcast, and I don't know if I can say this, but the company's 100% bootstrapped. Revenue, this is public, is in the $250 million to $350 million a year range. He owns 100% of it. He parlayed that, and now they own a painting business and they do all these other services. I would be curious what he would have to say if his trash guys or his franchisees are like degenerates or not, and what's the headache with those types of people.

Shaan Puri

We should definitely ask him. I feel like he's going to give his sign-off on this. So, this is one trash idea. The other one comes from Twitter. I gotta give credit to the mobile home park guy. I know the guy behind this; he's actually pretty awesome. But I don't know if he's trying to be public with his identity here. He's part of our "guy mafia." We got the restaurant guy, we got the car dealership guy, and now we have the mobile home park guy. He goes, "I just found this trash business that is called Bin Scrub." What they do is clean off your trash cans. They wash and power wash your trash cans because everybody's trash cans are filthy. He's like, "Here's how I would take this business and turn it into six figures a year of profit." He goes, "Why do I love this business? Everybody's got trash bins, so your market is every home. It's a very young industry with low market penetration, so you'll probably be the only person offering this service. It's not like there are a bunch of competitors yet. You just need one truck and some hustle. In a post-COVID world, there are lots of germophobes, and you can play on that. This has word-of-mouth virality. You can see the actual service being done." So he goes, "You've gotta buy a truck. The trucks are about $40,000, but it's a hard asset. You're going to be able to get a loan against this, so you might only have to put down $5,000 or $10,000 and get a bank to finance the rest because the truck will do this." He goes, "Now here's how I juice this business to make it more valuable. We're going to make this like the ice cream truck. We're going to put a speaker system on top, and every time we're coming around your neighborhood, we're playing the same song." He's like, "You know I'm going with OutKast, 'So Fresh, So Clean,' just because it's a pun." He says, "We're going to play this every single time. This song is our branding. We're going to drive around from 3 PM to 8 PM when people are home from school and home from work, and they can look out the window and be like, 'What is that?' Then they will see us power washing someone in their neighborhood's bins."

Sam Parr

sounds like a horrible idea

Shaan Puri

So hold on, hold on, hold on. He goes, "We're gonna basically leave little flyer brochures on top of everyone's bin. So when they take out the trash, they're gonna see that, you know, this trash can is dirty. We clean them out. We leave your trash can so clean you could eat cereal from it." And he's like, "That would be my... I put a spoon in it, be like, 'You're so clean you could eat cereal out of this.'" So he's like, "That's what I would do for my marketing." He goes, "I think one truck can do about 100 to 200 homes a day. It's a few thousand dollars a day per truck in revenue. You'll use that to finance the second truck. Your costs are gas, water, maintenance, and some chemicals, assuming you're the one doing the truck." And he's basically like, "This is a blue-collar side hustle. If somebody wants to get out there and reach that $10K a month of income that they may not be able to get out of their job, this is his idea." So he goes, "What do you think, fella?" So Sam, you said it's a horrible idea. Tell me why.

Sam Parr

Okay, so I'm completely uneducated here. I have two doubts: 1. I don't think that many people would want this. 2. A hundred to two hundred a day? That's so many! I would... how much would it take? It would take 20 minutes to drive somewhere. I don't... that math is wild to me.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, you basically have to get to a dense area and then do a route. But that would kind of assume that they're all your customers, which they're not going to all be your customers at the start.

Sam Parr

did he call us out and say what do we think

Shaan Puri

No, but... oh, you know he listens to the pod. By the way, there are two people in the comments here. One is **Sparkling Bins Business**; they make the trucks. There's a woman in the comments who says, "It's a fantastic business. We manufacture the trucks, and it's been going great since 2020." Then another guy goes, "Yeah, I do this. Mine's called **Bin Busters**. I'm 2 years in, and it's going great."

Sam Parr

okay well I mean what the hell do I know

Shaan Puri

and by the way that guy his bio says living the american dream

Sam Parr

yeah not sure dream

Shaan Puri

not dream not dream yeah yeah dream yeah living an american's

Sam Parr

"Dream? Yeah, yeah. One person's good... Good for him. This is their dream and they're pulling it off." "I don't know, man. I'm out. I'm out on this one. I don't wanna do this."

Shaan Puri

it was like start a newsletter

Sam Parr

Yeah, start a newsletter, dude. I've... people make fun of me because I bring this up so much. I had hot dog stands, whatever, but I used to work with my hands outside. It's so hard, man. It is *so* hard.

Shaan Puri

you were a janitor when were you a janitor

Sam Parr

When I was in 8th grade, I worked at a bakery. It was my job to mop the floors, take out the trash, and clean the dishes. That was my first job, paying $6 an hour. Yeah, that's what I did.

Shaan Puri

Dude, I am so mad at my parents for never giving me my grind story. Like, can I blow up a little hardship? Yeah.

Sam Parr

like yeah you ain't gangster at

Shaan Puri

All right, dude. I worked in my uncle's store for a month, and just give me that story. I made $5 an hour, and I had to empty the trash. Nobody knows how long I did it. I got nothing, dude. I grew up.

Sam Parr

a lot of asian parents don't want you to do that they say do your homework

Shaan Puri

I have no calluses. Yeah, and my kids... I'm going to give them one hustle story. You know, they're going to have some very token small hardship that will sound good later when they make it because you need that story. I just don't have it.

Sam Parr

A lot of my Indian friends, which I have a ton of, their parents were like, "You don't even clean your room, just do your homework."

Shaan Puri

just study

Sam Parr

is that what they said to you like like yeah don't cook don't clean just study

Shaan Puri

Well, they didn't say it like that, but I wasn't asking to cook or clean, so it just never came up. They were like, "Yeah, your job is to study and do good in school so you can get a good job. Don't go be a janitor." And I was like, "No."

Sam Parr

I did it all, man. I did the janitor stuff, I was a waiter, I was a busboy, I was a valet driver. I did it all, and I'm happy I did it, but I don't want to do it anymore. Oh, and by the way, I need to redeem myself. I made fun of someone the other day who mentioned the retail class. So this is like the blue-collar class. I read this funny article on Business Insider that had the worst but hilarious title: "I'm a Millennial Manager Who Works with Gen Z." It said that with Gen Z workers, they have a lot of feelings. So look, you're either going to like somebody, or you're going to have drug issues working with one group of people. Or you're just going to have to talk forever about bringing your whole self to work and all that nonsense. We all have our faults; we're all screwed, you know what I'm saying? I hate when people say, "Bring your whole self to work." I'm okay with you just bringing your work self to work. That's cool too. You don't have to do it. I prefer that. Yeah, I prefer that. If you want to bring a little bit more of yourself, we could talk about that too, but it's not mandatory. You don't have to bring your whole self. I'm okay with just your work self. So, every class and every generation has issues, so I don't mean to throw shade just at one.

Shaan Puri

we throw shade at all here we're an equal opportunity shade thrower

Sam Parr

yeah we're all

Shaan Puri

I'll hit my dad, Sam. Hit the trash man. Who else did we get? Who else cut a stray today?

Sam Parr

I'll make fun of myself. Someone made fun of me the other day because I've had these surgeries on my ear. I was talking about my ear and how my glasses sit funny. I don't know if you noticed, but my glasses sit crooked because of my ear. Someone said, "It looks like Sam got brain surgery. He didn't pay for them to put the rest of it back in," because his glasses are sitting funny. I was like, "Yeah, that's kinda true." Kinda.

Shaan Puri

accurate too

Sam Parr

Yeah, yeah, you're kind of there, dude. I told you the other day I want to tell you about a media company that most people have no idea about, but they kind of killed it and I love it. So, I told you the other day about Parcast. Did I tell you about Parcast?

Shaan Puri

yeah yeah this was the podcast network that was doing true crime stuff

Sam Parr

Yeah, so I learned about the story. I think the guy who started it just tweeted saying that he was done at Spotify, so I guess his time there is up. But listen to this: it was a 3-year-old startup that sold for $50,000,000 to Spotify. The way it started was with a guy named Max Cutler. At the time, he was a 27-year-old graduate, and he bootstrapped this thing. His dad, Ron Cutler, worked in radio. I don't think his dad was a rich guy; I think he was a radio broadcaster, so he had industry experience, but I don't think he was in the business type of thing. They bootstrapped this project, and by 2018, just two years in, they had 16 shows with 100,000,000 downloads. By 2019, they had 40 weekly shows. Now, they have a staff of something like 150, of which 75 are voice actors. I listen to these shows every night when I go to bed. I've got my favorites. I listen to one called "Serial Killers," there's another one called "Deathbed Confessions," and then there's another one called "Murder Couples," which is about Bonnie and Clyde. There are all these different shows, and it's not like our podcast at all. There's zero riffing, and it's all voice actors.

Shaan Puri

we should just make up fake true crime shows like stabbed but not dead yet

Sam Parr

Yeah, the black eye... I just, yeah, I'm just like stories that people just got to tell. Was it really an accident? Yeah, stories of people just...

Shaan Puri

got behind of her was it really an accident

Sam Parr

Yeah, spit on by a homeless guy. Stories of NYC, exactly.

Shaan Puri

not injured but it was gross

Sam Parr

yeah barely assault

Shaan Puri

you hurt my feelings true crime thrills

Sam Parr

Dude, this is the reason why I like this. It's not like... they're just like, you know how we were talking about people who do things beautifully done, like "This American Life"? It's thoughtful. Like, today on "This American Life," we're going to talk about the opioid crisis, and they go out and interview people. This is not that. It's just someone who read a book, summarized it, and then is reading it. They pump out literally one a day and they have like, you know, 40 shows an hour. It's just a volume play. This guy was like, "Dude, this true crime stuff, their audience is 75% women." And then me and their audience... it's like crack. I cannot stop listening to this. It's the same thing every single day. You know, it's kind of like "Family Guy." They've been doing it for like 25 years now. It's the same stuff all the time. It works every time. I'm going to watch it every single time. It's just like that—same shtick over and over again. They were acquired for something like $53 million or $54 million in cash, and then another $50 million in earn-out. It's pretty fascinating that this guy bootstrapped this. They're not popular on social media—20,000 followers on Twitter, 36 on Facebook, and 50,000 on Instagram. They just dominated people searching for their one podcast called "Serial Killers." That's all it's called. They just dominate when people search these. So it's like long tail... what's the SEO for podcasts? PEo? I don't know. They just crushed it. Really fascinating business. I brought that up because I needed to do the proper research, so I needed to kind of close that loop.

Shaan Puri

You know, there's a... we had talked about the beautifully done, like, you know, just X but beautifully done. There's another version of that that we haven't talked about. I don't know about you, but when I was growing up, if I had a plate of food, let's say it was a bunch of veggies like broccoli and Brussels sprouts, I didn't really want it. I was kind of tired of eating it, but it was still there, and I knew I should eat it. My sister and I used to have this thing where if one of us was in that spot—where we wanted to eat it but just couldn't bring ourselves to do it—we would look at each other and say, "Savage it." Just savage it.

Sam Parr

it you

Shaan Puri

Start to eat just like an absolute animal. In like 30 seconds, you do... they say it's like chugging for food. We used to say that, and then we'd be like, "Alright, we gotta savage it," and we would just quickly down the whole thing. Now, there's a version of that for businesses. That's kind of what you described here. This guy was like, "Oh, okay, people like this true crime."

Sam Parr

the airplane this out

Shaan Puri

I'm gonna savage it. So basically, in 2 years, to pump out 40 shows and get 100,000,000 downloads, there's only one way to describe that: he savaged it. He wasn't trying to have it beautifully done. I bet you it's imperfect in all these different ways. You know, he might have been hiring random voice actors in Paraguay and doing whatever it took to get these out there and pump them out. But that's exactly what he did. I think actually, way more often than the beautifully done, you see people just savage it and scale up like an absolute savage. They find something that works, and then they're not perfectionists. They don't get limited by what's the normal pace. They're like, "Oh, that works!" More theoretical limit of this.

Sam Parr

And that works more. I remember when I lived in San Francisco and started the hustle. I was like, originally, "Let's just pump out blog posts." And people were like, "Well, what about quality over quantity?" And I was like, "Dude..."

Shaan Puri

did you bring yourself to work again

Sam Parr

yeah steve I was like dude I I

Shaan Puri

I was I would

Sam Parr

always turn up I go no our quality is quantity

Shaan Puri

right

Sam Parr

We are not an article business. We are focused on how these operations can be structured to pump out lots of articles. That's the product we're building.

Shaan Puri

you're not a journalist you're a blogger go go blog

Sam Parr

It was like... and then another. That was always one where I'd be like, people are always like, "Quality versus quantity." I'm like, you need both. Or if I wanted to play with their heads, I'd be like, "No, the quality is the quantity." Another thing people would say is, "Well, it's a marathon, not a sprint." And that was like a reason for them to slack. I'm like, "Yeah, but have you ever run a marathon at world record pace? It's gonna feel like a sprint." So, you know, it feels pretty fast when you're running. Real top marathoners are running fast, so it's gonna feel like a sprint. But yeah, this guy is a quantity over quality guy, and I love it.

Shaan Puri

I love it! Exactly. Okay, I think we should wrap it here. That's the pod.