Privacy Products Go Mainstream
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Sam Parr and Shaan Puri discuss the growing importance of privacy-focused tech products and predict they will become mainstream, with current practices looking shocking in retrospect.
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Initial Skepticism to Adoption:
- Sam initially thought DuckDuckGo was "stupid" but now uses it as his default search engine
- Both hosts dismissed privacy-focused apps years ago but now see their value
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Current Privacy Success Stories:
- DuckDuckGo:
- Raised $100M in secondary shares
- Generating over $100M in revenue
- Other notable mentions: ProtonMail, Signal, Brave Browser
- DuckDuckGo:
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Barriers to Adoption:
- Switching from established products (like Chrome) is "shockingly challenging"
- Search engine switches are easier than browser changes
- Most users just need basic functionality (Wikipedia, Quora, Facebook, Twitter)
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Future Predictions:
- Privacy browsing will become standard, similar to DuckDuckGo and Signal's growth
- In 10 years, people will be shocked by current privacy practices:
- Giving away location data freely
- Having always-on microphones (Alexa) in homes
- Allowing unrestricted advertising tracking
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Investment Perspective:
- Privacy is viewed as a major "inflection point" for future opportunities
- Similar to how smartphones/GPS enabled Uber's success
- Represents significant investment opportunities, though specific winners unclear
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.