Lost Luggage Empire
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A story about an entrepreneur who built a successful business dealing with unclaimed airline luggage in Alabama.
"Doyle Owens is the founder of unclaimed baggage. He partnered with every airline and said 'We will take the unclaimed baggage' because after 21 days if no one claims it, the airlines are stuck with it. Someone realized that's not just stuff - that's a suitcase with valuable items inside.
They built this into the nation's only retailer of lost luggage, based in Scottsboro, Alabama. They donate some items to charities, recycle orphaned bags, and sell the rest. What's great about this is it's super simple - it's not fancy, it's in Alabama. People might look down on that because they think Silicon Valley is special, but this guy reduced waste significantly and got very wealthy in the process.
He probably created thousands of jobs for low-income people. It's the definition of turning nothing into gold. It's not complicated - he just took something nobody wanted and built a massive business out of it. They have tens of thousands of square footage in their facility, and they're the exclusive player in this market."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.