Rocky Aoki's Benihana Rise
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Sam Parr shares a brief story about Rocky Aoki, the founder of Benihana, and his fascinating journey.
"We wrote about it and it was one of our most trafficked articles for a long time. He's basically an immigrant who came here with nothing. His son is Steve Aoki, the DJ. Rocky was one of those 'most interesting man alive' stories - he had been involved in porn, then Benihana got big, then went bankrupt, then he bought it back and it went big again. He was like this international man of mystery. It's a really interesting story and people love that company and it's still crushing."
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.