Credit Karma's $8B Exit
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Sam Parr shares how Credit Karma built an $8B business through credit card lead generation.
"Credit Karma - I don't know what they do in revenue but they just sold for $8 billion. I bet they did $1 billion in sales. Their hook was 'we're gonna get you to sign up for a free credit report and recommend credit cards for you to use.' They make $100 per credit card affiliate.
Think about credit cards - huge market, huge referral fees, very competitive. Nerdwallet does the same thing. They bootstrapped to like $50-60 million in sales then raised money.
At first Nerdwallet was simply 'you're just gonna Google best credit card and we're gonna show up #1 and you're never gonna remember us.' But now they're doing all this advertising and commercials and people say 'turn to the nerds' - it's working. That's their commercial."
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.