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My First Million10 Startups w/ Stock Grants That’ll Make You A Millionaire | Sara’s List 2024
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WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Sara’s List: 2024 startups where job equity could 5X
- The hosts present “Sara’s List” as a way to get rich from equity grants by joining startups that already have clear product-market fit but still have enough runway to 5X.
- They review their 2021 picks and say the results were mixed, citing widespread valuation markdowns and underwater employee options after the 2021 market peak.
- They debate specific 2024 candidates—OpenAI, Retool, and Mercury—focusing on what must be true for each to compound and what could break the thesis.
- They explore higher-risk or unconventional picks including Cursor, defense startup Epirus (as a category strategy), Neuralink, Perplexity, and the intense-work-culture staffing startup Traba.
- Shaan closes by arguing Replit is his highest-conviction pick, telling its origin story and claiming it now has major AI tailwinds and developer-network momentum without a commensurate valuation increase.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasThe episode frames joining a later-stage winner as a wealth path, not just a career move.
The host explains that a job choice can be treated like a concentrated investment: four years of your time plus an equity grant, ideally in a company that’s already clearly “working” (product-market fit) but still has room to grow.
“Sara’s List” is optimized for realistic upside with reduced startup risk, not moonshots.
Shaan Puri lays out the screen: a company with obvious traction, salary/benefits, and an equity package that could plausibly 5X over ~5 years—aiming for “low-ish downside” rather than maximum upside.
The 2021–2024 market reset is presented as the main reason the earlier picks didn’t look great.
Shaan Puri says their 2021 list underperformed, attributing it to the post-2021 valuation reset, noting many later-stage startups saw large markdowns and many employee options became underwater.
OpenAI is “hidden in plain sight,” but the fight for leadership is the core downside.
Shaan Puri’s bull case is that OpenAI could be a credible challenger to Google-like search behavior, with massive growth and a rare mix of consumer, enterprise, and developer tools; he flags intense competition as the key risk.
Retool is framed as a massive-market internal tooling winner led by an impressive founder.
Sam Parr pitches Retool as a fast-growing internal-tools company, highlighting the scale of internal software and the founder’s profile; Shaan adds personal product conviction from using it and regrets missing the chance to invest.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesMost people don't think of their job as an investment decision, but your time, your talent, where you're gonna spend four years working is a investment decision.
— Shaan Puri
I want a fucking fruit basket. I want a gift basket. If I don't get a gift basket, you don't get my business.
— Sam Parr
Corruption's awesome. Corruption's awesome.
— Sam Parr
It's growing like a staph infection at spring break, so it's growing really fast.
— Shaan Puri
You couldn't buy my stock. You'd have to pay, you'd have to pay, like, a $50 billion evaluation to take my stock right now.
— Shaan Puri
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SPEAKERS
Shaan Puri
hostCo-host of the business podcast My First Million, known for discussing startups, investing, and entrepreneurship.
Sam Parr
hostCo-host of My First Million and entrepreneur known for building and investing in internet businesses.
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
