Sam Parr's Vice Media Escape
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Sam Parr shares a story about almost selling his company The Hustle to Vice Media, which would have been a devastating decision.
"When I was running the company, I was miserable most of the time. This one company emailed me showing interest in buying, so I flew all the way out to New York. I get to their office and it's empty. I ask 'Where is everyone?' and they say 'Oh they're doing stuff.'
They take me to an office for the meeting, and I look in the windows of each office - every employee is in a sexual harassment seminar because the CMO had gone off the rails and did a bunch of bad stuff.
They get me in a room, send me a term sheet, and say 'We'll buy your company for $10 million but it's going to be all in stock.' I asked to see the financials and got a peek into their business. The company was Vice Media.
That deal I was so close to taking would be worth zero today - I'd probably be in debt because Vice's valuation has just plummeted. I almost took it because I was so desperate to get out."
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.