Bring A Trailer's Curated Success
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Sam discusses Bring A Trailer (BAT), a curated marketplace for enthusiast cars from the 70s to early 90s that reached massive scale with minimal infrastructure. The company demonstrates the power of focused curation in high-value marketplaces.
Key Points:
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Business Model:
- Curated marketplace specifically for enthusiast cars
- Focus on vehicles from 1970s to early 1990s
- Built on WordPress - relatively unsophisticated tech platform
- Small team of ~80 employees
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Performance:
- $1.2 billion in car sales in trailing 12 months
- Generated ~$100 million in net revenue
- Recently sold (acquisition)
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Key Success Factor:
- Highly targeted niche market
- Simple but effective platform
- Strong focus on curation over technology
- Built passionate community of car enthusiasts
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Business Insight:
- Demonstrates opportunity in curated marketplaces
- Shows how focusing on a specific niche can lead to massive scale
- Proves sophisticated technology isn't always necessary for success
- Example of how small teams can build highly profitable marketplaces
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.