Time Out's Venue Evolution
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Sam Parr shares how Time Out transformed from a traditional city guide into a successful market venue business.
"Time Out started in the sixties as a magazine and blog for local markets. In 2014 or 2018, they started a new concept called Time Out Market. The first one was in Lisbon, and now they have 7 markets.
They go into touristy places and find the 20 most popular restaurants based on their blogs and reviews. They create a food court in the middle of the city where these restaurants get different stalls. I went to it in Miami and Lisbon - it was awesome and packed. In Miami, you could get a cubano from this famous place, Cuban coffee from that place, all in one location.
What's interesting is that Time Out is publicly traded with a $168 million market cap. In 2019, they did about £70 million in revenue, but in 2021 only $40 million due to the pandemic. Their markets alone did $23 million in revenue in 2019 with just 7 locations, meaning each food court does about $3 million in revenue.
They're now in Lisbon, Miami, New York, Boston, Chicago, Montreal, Dubai, with more coming in Prague and other places. This is an amazing example of a digital media company successfully diversifying. With only 7 markets now, you could easily imagine 50 or 80 of these in various touristy cities."
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.