Alicorp's $300K Proof Model
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Sam Parr shares a story about Kevin Ryan's unique approach to building successful companies through Alicorp.
"Kevin Ryan worked in the newspaper business, then became CEO of Doubleclick which sold for billions and eventually became Google Adsense. After making low eight figures from that exit, he and his partner Dwight started Alicorp.
Their model was: we're going to fund companies with $200-300,000, all ideas are going to come from us, and they're only going to be back-of-the-envelope math. We'll hire someone to get it off the ground and give them 6 months to prove if it's a good idea.
Some of their successes include MongoDB, which is now a $20-50 billion market cap public software business; Business Insider, which sold for $600 million; Gilt Group, which was huge for a while; and Zola, a unicorn wedding registry company.
Their process was simple. Ryan would get ideas from everyday experiences - like going to a wedding and asking people where they bought gifts. Then he'd find someone to run it. For example, he knew someone at Gilt Group who mentioned she liked this type of business, so he said 'Hey, here's $300K if you can get this going. You get a small portion, we get most of it. Want to try it?' That's how it worked."
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.