Side Benefits Generate Money
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Shaan Puri and Sam Parr discuss how side activities or secondary ventures often end up being more profitable than primary business focuses, sharing personal experiences and notable examples.
Key Points:
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Scott Galloway's Experience:
- Made more money from board positions than from his main companies
- One company sold for ~$200M, but board equity exceeded primary venture earnings
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Shaan's Personal Example with E-commerce:
- Started an e-commerce brand that required significant time investment
- Despite tens of millions in revenue, hasn't taken any money out
- Made more money investing in e-commerce tools than running the store:
- Invested $75k in Triple Whale at $5M valuation
- Company now worth hundreds of millions
- Investment could be worth ~$3M
- Similar success with other e-commerce tool investments (Postscript, Final Loop)
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Key Investment Strategy:
- Being an operator gave insight into valuable tools
- Used operational experience to spot good investment opportunities
- Time investment comparison:
- Store: Constant daily operation
- Investments: "one hour of emails back and forth"
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Colin and Samir Example:
- Started with niche lacrosse content that didn't work well
- Led to investing in a lacrosse league early
- League now worth hundreds of millions
- Will likely make more from that investment than their primary YouTube business
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Common Theme:
- Success often comes from "being in the arena"
- Secondary opportunities often arise from primary activities
- Time invested doesn't correlate with financial returns
- Being in the game creates unexpected opportunities
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.