3 Frameworks To Build A Billion Dollar Company

Shaan Puri 0:00 The, uh, hospital software guy, here's what he said. Uh, you'll like this. His was simpler. He's like, he said, "Yeah, like agree with all that stuff. Uh, here's how we thought about it. Um, we need to have 500 salespeople that can sell $1 million worth of product a year, um, or 250... Uh, uh, oh, sorry, 500 that can sell half a million a year or 250 that can sell $1 million as their sales quota per year. So we just work backwards from that." All right, what features, products, and, like, people do we need to, like, let a salesper- like, get 500 salespeople that can sell half a million dollars a year of, like, sales quota? Like, first, is that even possible? Can the, can this market support that? Yes. The market is very big. Hospitals spend a lot of money in healthcare, and in our category they spend more than, uh, much more than that. [upbeat music]

Sam Parr 0:55 All right. We're live. So look, [sighs] um, I... You said, Shaan, that you didn't wanna, like, do an event because you didn't wanna travel. I decided to host one anyway. It's just, like, a meetup. But do you see the, you saw the link that I posted, like the Eventbrite thing? It's no big deal, but do you see it?

Shaan Puri 1:13 Yeah. You posted like an event in New York with you, uh, and a bunch of our, like, kind of tech buddy friends, Sahil, I think.

Sam Parr 1:18 No, just Sahil. Just me and Sahil. I was just like, "I wanna get out of the-"

Shaan Puri 1:20 Oh, just you and Sahil. Okay.

Sam Parr 1:21 I was like, "I wanna get out of the house. I wanna do something." You said no, and dude, 1,000 people have RSVPed and I have no idea where we're gonna host it. I have no idea what we're gonna do. I don't have a plan. I know nothing.

Shaan Puri 1:33 I don't know. It sounded like you had a plan. You were like, "We're moving it to this other place," and blah, blah. It sounded like something's in the works.

Sam Parr 1:38 Some guy DM'd me on Twitter and said, "I'll help you find a vide- a venue." And I said, "Great. You're in charge." I don't know his name, but [both laughing]

Shaan Puri 1:46 Cool. You're it. [both laughing] No take backs.

Sam Parr 1:53 Yeah. Hope it works. And then I got Nick Gray, the, uh, the small party guy to come and I was like, "Dude, just come and organize this and you can sell books there." But, uh-

Shaan Puri 2:02 That's great

Sam Parr 2:02 ... I don't know what I'm gonna do. Would it be lame if we're just-

Shaan Puri 2:06 That's really funny

Sam Parr 2:06 ... stand around and just say hi?

Shaan Puri 2:09 Yeah, kinda lame.

Sam Parr 2:10 Well, what the fuck? What am I supposed to do? Juggle?

Shaan Puri 2:12 I don't know. Should've thought of that before you posted it, bro. [both laughing] Like, we did the live pod thing, uh, in Austin, Miami, and honestly I don't think it was very good. I don't think listening to a podcast live is that entertaining, and the, like, energy, like-

Sam Parr 2:28 Unless it's, like, a, a planned, like, comedy skit. Unless, like, we, like, planned, like-

Shaan Puri 2:32 [laughs]

Sam Parr 2:32 ... we had a bit, you know what I mean?

Shaan Puri 2:34 Right.

Sam Parr 2:34 It, we did, like, the-

Shaan Puri 2:34 Unless it's a scripted stage play. [laughs]

Sam Parr 2:37 Yeah. Well, no, just like, uh, that's what comedians do, right? You know? It's, like, scripted, but they also kinda flow a little bit. But yeah.

Shaan Puri 2:43 Or you're just so big that people, like, simply the idea of seeing you live is that entertaining. Like, I don't think we're there yet. Like, I went to, Tim Ferriss did a live thing once, and it was just him sitting on a chair, it was a fireside chat. Uh, I've seen the guys who do, um, whatever that political thing is, like Jon Favreau or whatever. They have, like, a political podcast, Pod, Pod Saves America or something like that. They do live shows, and people just, like, geek out about meeting them and seeing them. I don't think we're there yet. Um, and also just in general, I'm a big energy guy, and basically my idea of a good time is where the energy is, like, [laughs] steady, up, and rising to the right. [laughs] And, and like, you know, my idea of any kind of bad time is a dip in energy. Like, the same way people feel about awkward silences in a conversation, I feel about energy dips. Like, if I sense the energy going low in any room-

Sam Parr 3:31 But what does this do with this?

Shaan Puri 3:32 ... or hangout. Because that's what happens when you do, "Hey, we're two dudes from Twitter or a podcast, let's talk in front of you or let's say hi." Like, it's just kinda lame, isn't it?

Sam Parr 3:43 Well-

Shaan Puri 3:44 Maybe the say hi, the say hi is less lame than the talking thing, right

Sam Parr 3:46 ... that's not helpful though. I don't know what to do. I got, I have these people coming. I, here's what I think's gonna happen. I think that they're not actually coming to see me, I'm just the excuse for all these Twitter dorks to see one another.

Shaan Puri 3:56 So I got an idea that I think would be dope, that you could use for this, um, or we could use for something else. But, uh, basically I was like, okay, um, uh, like I'll tell you, I went to this event in LA just now, uh, that my buddy Ramin threw, and it's, like, a whatever. There's a conference, but the day before the conference there's, like, the dinner. And now this was, like, a baller dinner. It was, like, at, uh, the home of an NBA team owner. It's, like, on his rooftop looking at the beach. It was, like, beautiful, right? But, like, even if it wasn't that baller of a s- of a surroundings, like, the, the house wasn't that sick, this still would've been awesome because it was basically the table was full of, like... Basically there was two tables. Each table had, like, one really famous person, and then, like, two kind of famous people, and then the rest were interesting but not famous people. And just sim- like, there was a cocktail hour where they-

Sam Parr 4:44 Which one, which one, which one of those [laughs] were you?

Shaan Puri 4:46 [laughs] I was the just interesting person. [laughs]

Sam Parr 4:50 Got it. Okay.

Shaan Puri 4:50 [laughs]

Sam Parr 4:51 I'm just trying to understand, like, the level of fame we're, we're talking about.

Shaan Puri 4:53 No, no, I'm talking about, like, real fame, like professional athlete, actor. That, that level of fame. Um-

Sam Parr 4:58 Which actors were there?

Shaan Puri 5:00 D- I can't say the names of anybody that was there. It was more athletes.

Sam Parr 5:03 A-list?

Shaan Puri 5:03 It was a ath- it was a athlete event, not, not so much actors. Um-

Sam Parr 5:05 But, like, A-list people?

Shaan Puri 5:08 Uh, of, of athl- of the athletes it was, like, former A-list. It's, like-

Sam Parr 5:11 Got it

Shaan Puri 5:12 ... or former B list, let's say. It's like, uh, I, you know, I... You're not on the cover of the video game, but, like, you know, I remember your name. I've seen you play. I had you maybe in a rookie card or something like that.

Sam Parr 5:21 Right. You kn- you, you know that gamer's attributes. Yeah, I, I, I got it.

Shaan Puri 5:24 Yeah, exactly. I could tell you exactly. I, I have memories of you playing the game, not, like, a benchwarmer. So anyways, but the, my point is these dinner table... Like, basically just, like, a table. And whether that table is, like, you're playing poker or you're eating food or something like that, just, like, a round table of, like, eight people where the expectation is that "Hey, we're all here to get to know each other. Like, we're all here to talk," and then you kind of can rotate. I think we could do one of those for the MFM community where we take the, like, 10 or 15, like, most baller guests. So it's like Andrew Wilkinson has his table, and you have your table, and I have my table, and then Steph Smith has her table, and Ben has his table, and, like, we just do this with, like, kind of, like, well-known businesspeople. We take, you know, w- we get whoever, w- you know, our famous guests, so Rob Dyrdek, or we get Biology or whatever. We get some of these people to show up- And then we curate the rest of the guest list is you are interesting, but you're not necessarily famous. So maybe you got a really interesting business, maybe you're really, like, knowledgeable about some science or domain or something like that. You're just, like, a nerd in your own right. Um, but they're all fans, and we basically just set up these tables, and it's like, whatever, this room of 10 tables. And whether it's food or poker or something, there's some activity to do while you're there, just casually while you're talking. And, uh, and you get to hop. So you get to rotate between, I don't know, three or four of these tables while you're there, random draws, and, uh, and, like, that's the event. I think people have more fun with some- something like that 'cause they participate than sitting and um, and watching other people talk. That's my, my personal guess. So I would do that for an MFM event.

Sam Parr 6:49 Bro, great. That's cool. But I have 1,000 people coming on a, on a... Can we have 10 people and 100 person tables?

Shaan Puri 7:00 It's just a lot.

Sam Parr 7:00 Like [laughs]

Shaan Puri 7:01 That's, that's a lot of a lot.

Sam Parr 7:02 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 7:02 But you don't have to let-

Sam Parr 7:03 Yeah

Shaan Puri 7:03 ... all 1,000 build. That was a g- interest list. That wasn't a you're, you're accepted in, right?

Sam Parr 7:08 I don't know. I d-

Shaan Puri 7:09 Yeah.

Sam Parr 7:09 I made... This was a toilet event. I made it on my phone when I was on toilet, and I tweeted it out, and it-

Shaan Puri 7:14 Well-

Sam Parr 7:14 ... and it worked

Shaan Puri 7:15 ... here's what I think you should do. I think you should, uh, whatever. You do something the Sam way. You're like, "All right, everybody. We're all meeting in this junkyard, and we're gonna look for cool scraps."

Sam Parr 7:22 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 7:22 And, like, that'll filter out people you wanna hang out with. It'll be a no headache event.

Sam Parr 7:26 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 7:27 And then separately I will host this cool event that's well planned. [laughs] And you just-

Sam Parr 7:31 Right

Shaan Puri 7:31 ... have to show up to that. You don't have to do any work. [laughs]

Sam Parr 7:34 Um, whatever. We'll see. Uh, can I talk to you about o- one thing really quick, and then I wanna hear about your event? Dude, have you listened to the Full Send Podcast?

Shaan Puri 7:45 Uh, like, not regularly, but I've definitely seen clips, like when they had Dana White or Mark Cuban, I see-

Sam Parr 7:49 So-

Shaan Puri 7:50 ... a bunch of clips

Sam Parr 7:50 ... I don't exactly understand what Full Send is, but I know they're-

Shaan Puri 7:54 [laughs]

Sam Parr 7:54 ... incredibly popular. Like, I- it's... I don't know if it's, like, a boy band where it's, like, four guys doing something-

Shaan Puri 8:00 [laughs]

Sam Parr 8:00 ... or if it's just the two main guys and the rest are co-hosts. But it's basically a group of, like-

Shaan Puri 8:04 So-

Sam Parr 8:05 Yeah, go ahead.

Shaan Puri 8:05 Can I explain what, what it is roughly? So I'm also not an expert, but it's basically the group is the Nelk Boys. That's, like, the main name of the group. Full Send is, like, w- their brand and one of their podcasts and stuff like that. But these guys are basically, the way I think about it is they are like what Jackass was when we were growing up. That's what the Nelk Boys are now. So the j- so Jackass back in the day was basically guys doing, you know, stunts, pranks, you know, punching each other in the balls. Basically, a group of guys who are kind of like they're willing to go all out for your entertainment and for their own amusement. They kind of, um, they, they, they live a certain lifestyle, and it's kinda like the, like if you take a boy's, like, fantasy, you just, like, crank it up to 12, it's like that's what these guys do. The Nelk Boys are a little bit like that. They make YouTube videos. They got big on YouTube. They also have a bunch of brands. So they have one brand that's basically an equivalent of Girls Gone Wild. It's like a paid membership club that's, like, for photos or videos of something. I don't know. I'm not involved with that subscription.

Sam Parr 9:02 I didn't know about... What's that called?

Shaan Puri 9:04 That's called... I don't know. Ben, find the name of that one. Um, so that's one of their businesses that I think is really smart. Probably prints money. They have merch that they drop, and they've done merch drops. Uh, they, like, show the live stream when they're, like, doing it. Obviously, there's a little bit of hype, but, like, whatever. They're basically, like, the Shopify dropshipper bro on steroids. They'll do, like, $2 or $3 million worth of sales in, like, five minutes when they do a drop. Um, and they'll sell-

Sam Parr 9:28 So the New York Times lo- well, New York Times said last year they did about 80 million in revenue, which is pretty good. But on that-

Shaan Puri 9:34 Right. 50 million in merchandise this is, I think.

Sam Parr 9:37 Yeah. And then it said they're on track to do eight- or maybe, uh, 70 the next year, and this article's a year old. And then, uh, they have this new shtick going on, an NFT. They have all types of crap. But then if you go to that link that I sent you, each guy has, like, a video page. And one of these guys, his name is Steve. And I think this is, like, a point where I realize I'm out

Sam Parr 9:55 of touch. He's just, like, giving away a million dollars in every video.

Shaan Puri 9:58 [laughs] Literally, like-

Sam Parr 10:01 Yeah. It's the MrBeast playbook. But he's, like, giving two mi- or s- he's like, "Here, I just gave this guy a $100,000 watch. I just gave this family $2 million." And in all these videos he goes, "Yeah, I'm gonna go, uh, give this guy a car." And then he was with Dana, and he goes, "I'm gonna, uh... Dana, I just got this $400,000 van made. It's yours." Um, o- on one of the videos, they gave a guy 250,000 in cash for his birthday. On another thing, they're giving away $200,000 just to a family in need. Like, so whatever. Fine videos. But he's doing these multiple times a month. These guys are gonna run out of money, right?

Shaan Puri 10:34 [laughs] I have no idea how they give this much away or if they actually-

Sam Parr 10:40 It's so much

Shaan Puri 10:41 ... give it away.

Sam Parr 10:41 It's so much.

Shaan Puri 10:42 If it's actually just, like, you know, you know, like a s- like a staged thing or if there's some, like, caveats or whatever. I have no idea.

Sam Parr 10:48 But wait. They, they-

Shaan Puri 10:49 But I do know-

Sam Parr 10:49 ... they show his apartment. They show the guy's apartment, and he's got, uh, his watch collection. And I know a little bit of wa- watches. It's literally $3 million worth of Rolexes. And then it's like-

Shaan Puri 10:58 Yeah

Sam Parr 10:58 ... in a-

Shaan Puri 10:58 Well, I believe that-

Sam Parr 10:59 ... $4 million-

Shaan Puri 10:59 ... I believe that they could have dope stuff, but g- literally giving away a million dollars is kind of crazy. And if I look at his YouTube channel, he does do that sometimes, but, like, he has other ones like, "Here's my $3 million mancave. Here's, you know, uh, here's me, you know, whatever, buying this car or racing this car." So that, that's a little different than giving it away. But, um, I know, like... M- So did you watch when MrBeast was doing this, when he would go and he would basically give away 30,000, $50,000? Or he'd go into a Twitch stream that has, like, two viewers, and he would just drop 20 grand in a donation, and the person would freak out, and that, that clip would go viral? Like-

Sam Parr 11:33 Yeah

Shaan Puri 11:33 ... did you see those, and do you know how he was doing those?

Sam Parr 11:36 I, I know a, I know they exist, and I saw them. I don't know, like, w- the, anything about behi- behind it.

Shaan Puri 11:41 So one of the things that he was doing, I don't know if this is the full story. Ben, maybe, y- you know, you're friends with MrBeast, so maybe you do- you know. You know, y- he seems to consider you one of his top three closest friends. Uh, [laughs] just playing. Um, you may know better. But I remember meeting one guy who worked at this site called Quidd, Quibb, something like that. Quidd I think it was. And basically, Quidd was, like, these, like, I don't know, little collectible stickers and cards or something like that. Um, it was kinda like aimed at a teenage audience. And what they did was they would go to MrBeast and they would say, "Hey, we'll pay you $50,000 for a sponsor video." And the s- the genius of MrBeast was he was like, "Cool, but here's what we're gonna do. The, that's not you paying me for a shout-out midway through one of my videos. Let's make the video about using $50,000 in an interesting way. How about that?" And so he would do these videos where he would be like, "I'm gonna go to this coffee shop and I'm gonna tip the barista $15,000, and let's see her reaction." And he would go and he would tip her. She would have this crazy reaction. He'd be like, "Thanks so much to our guys at Cri- Quib who made this possible. Um, you know, go check them out. They do this thing." Right? That video would get, like, 5 million or 10 million views. And so for the, for Quib or whatever, they were like, "Dude, this is great. Like, we're getting way more bang for our buck than any other influencer shout-out we're doing." So then they would up the ante. They would do 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 'cause each video, he was getting, like, 10 million views. And it was this, like, perfectly, like, I forgot what it's called in biology, where, like, the parasite actually helps you. It, like, sucks out the toxins, so the parasite's getting food, but you're also getting f- healed. It was basically like a symbiotic relationship like that where the, the, the brand was basically putting up loads of cash, and he was using that to create huge amounts of views and subscribers to make himself the biggest YouTuber in the world.

Sam Parr 13:26 I don't think these guys have s- That's cool. I don't think these guys have sponsors.

Shaan Puri 13:30 Well, they must have it somewhere, right? Like, the, the model must be that, uh, either it's the same thing. The money comes in one, one door, then they reinvest it in stuff like this 'cause they know that seems to be a pretty good formula. I give away, you know, a, I give m- I'm gonna give this family in the hood $100,000. Uh, you know, let's see what happens, and it's him standing with, like, three, you know, three Mexican people in front of a Home Depot. That's literally the, the second most recent video, and it's got 2.7 million views. So clearly that works. This video will monetize. Um-

Sam Parr 13:58 No

Shaan Puri 13:59 ... and then on top of that-

Sam Parr 13:59 That, that's, that's their whole shtick is they got banned. They can't monetize their videos.

Shaan Puri 14:04 Oh, okay. Yeah, I don't, I don't know how it's sustainable. Maybe it's not sustainable. But by the way-

Sam Parr 14:08 And, and it's also explicit. I don't think you could put ads on a, in an explicit channel. But just, like, the economics behind what these guys are doing, it's, it's, uh, it's outrageous to me. Something is crazy. I, I, I, I don't think I'm the... I, I think when I see this and I predict that they're gonna go broke, I don't think I'm the crazy one.

Shaan Puri 14:24 [laughs] Yeah, maybe. Uh, I, I could see that. I could also see these things being money printers. So, like, in the same way that I think the Jackass franchise ultimately was successful, right? You see, like, oh, dude, there's, like, a, a midget in a thong, you know, kicking this other guy in the balls. You're like, "Well, this doesn't seem like good business." But in actuality, as long as they have a good man- as long as they have their Kris Jenner in the background that's like, "Yeah, go. Act the fool. Like, this is, this is what drives ratings," then this will work. And, like, The New York Times headline about them is, "What Won't the Nelk Boys Do?" And this is like, how s- like, that's a brand, right? That's a really powerful, valuable brand to own is... The question isn't what do they do, it's what they, what won't they do. It's like they do pranks, parties, crude humor. They get in trouble, but the backlash is the brand. That's literally the, the headline. Now, would they go broke?

Sam Parr 15:12 It's crazy to me.

Shaan Puri 15:12 I don't know. I don't, I don't know enough about them, but, you know, I'm a f- I'm actually a fan of what they do. I think they're pretty cool. Uh, we should get them on the pod. I wanna hear, hear their business.

Sam Parr 15:19 I agree. I think one of the, their manager asked to come on. Maybe we can talk

Sam Parr 15:22 to them. I heard, um, a story about a friend, a, a person I know, who made $60 million a handful of years ago, living in, living out of their car now. I learned that this weekend.

Shaan Puri 15:33 Wait, what? Wait, wait, what? Oh, are you saying-

Sam Parr 15:34 So I know a person who made $60 million, like, 10 years ago, and now they are homeless.

Shaan Puri 15:41 Yeah. Dude, that's fine.

Sam Parr 15:43 It's fucking crazy.

Shaan Puri 15:43 That's, that's not even crazy. That's normal, bro. Like, uh, Jack Dorsey is, like, you know, starts two multi-billion dollar companies and then, like, actively tries to dress like, you know, a homeless guy. Like, you know, the, that's, that's the thing you do when you get rich. You then go on some journey to, like, find the meaning of life. In fact, I was telling somebody this the other day. We were reminiscing. It's like, "Dude," at the event, I was like, "Dude, I haven't seen you in so many years. Like, oh, when was the last time I saw you?" It was like, remember we were advising that kid on his company? And we were both afterwards like, "Yeah, but that's never gonna work." Like, you know, "Uh, you know, I, uh, uh, good kid, but, like, you know, he'll be, maybe he'll be successful in, like, five years." And then his company currently is, like, a multi-billion dollar company and I was like, now that motherfucker's 25 years old, running around, like, with a huge beard, trying to, like, figure out, like, basically trying to figure out the meaning of life. Like, oh, shit, you're on a spiritual journey already? Damn it. You're like, you are so far ahead of us now after we kind of were joking around about how you, you know, you, you don't have this thing figured out. That is the per- like, the classic tech cliche is to, like, be like, "Get... Oh, I made all this money so that I'm gonna live like somebody who has no money." That's, like, the stereotype.

Sam Parr 16:50 I wa- I wanna get to your event, but really quick, one more thing, 'cause this is, uh, um, the new cliche.

Sam Parr 16:55 So I hate talking about these guys. But Elon, um, in the Wall Street Journal, it came out yesterday that Elon Musk slept with Sergey Brin, the guy who started Google, his wife.

Shaan Puri 17:06 Right.

Sam Parr 17:06 And Sergey aren't friends at all. Elon tweeted two things that were hilarious. The one, he goes, "This isn't true. I haven't had sex in forever." [laughs]

Shaan Puri 17:15 I haven't had sex in months, yeah.

Sam Parr 17:17 And then the next thing-

Shaan Puri 17:18 Parentheses, sigh.

Sam Parr 17:19 Yeah. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 17:20 Like a, like a middle school, like a middle school girl. Like-

Sam Parr 17:22 And then the next thing that he tweeted was, "Here's me and Sergey hanging out right now on a boat," and it's them, like, drinking wine together, like, partying and having a good-

Shaan Puri 17:31 Did he post a picture?

Sam Parr 17:32 Yes. Or yeah.

Shaan Puri 17:33 Oh, wow.

Sam Parr 17:34 Either he did or someone did and he rep- he replied to it and said, "Yeah, that was us literally yesterday."

Shaan Puri 17:39 That's so funny. Yeah.

Sam Parr 17:41 It's so funny.

Shaan Puri 17:42 [laughs] Here, here's what I, here's how I was feeling about this. I was like, all right. I saw the th- saw the news break or whatever. It was like, "Scoop," on the Wall Street Journal. "Scoop. Exclusive scoop. Elon Musk sleeping with whatever," blah, blah, blah. And, uh, and I was like, okay, that's kinda interesting I guess. Like, all right, got some TMZ shit. And, um, I was like, well, pretty sad for, like, you know, the Wall Street... It was the Wall Street Journal. Uh, f- f- pretty sad that that's, like, the Wall Street Journal's thing, but of course, I get it. If I had that story, I'd pr- I'd publish it too, no, no doubt. Then he tweets out, like, the, like, the thing, like, "Not true and haven't had sex in months, sigh." And I was like, "Ah, now another sad thing." Like, first Wall Street Journal disappointed me, then Elon Musk disappointed me. Like, dude, I want-

Sam Parr 18:28 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 18:28 ... my billionaires, like, being cool, not like... Dude, that was, like, my MSN, like, away message, you know, just a, a cry for attention back in middle school-

Sam Parr 18:38 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 18:38 ... or high school. I was like, "Oh, man, wouldn't it be nice to get a... Like, I wonder what a kiss feels like," you know?

Sam Parr 18:43 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 18:43 Some, some shit like that. I was like, "Dude, lame." And then [laughs] and then I was like, "Well, so did the Wall Street Journal just make that up?" 'Cause that's even lamer. [laughs] So it was just, like, a lame sandwich that I was not into. Uh, but I thought it was funny.

Sam Parr 18:56 But I just thought it was hilarious how he, he tweeted a picture of him and Sergey just hanging out. Uh-

Shaan Puri 19:01 [laughs] Yeah

Sam Parr 19:02 ... I enjoy this drama. I'm here for it. I don't care about the cars, I don't care about the solar stuff. I just like this type of crap.

Shaan Puri 19:07 [laughs] Yeah, somebody had this great tweet. They were like, "Uh, Elon Musk is like, you know, he's on some pirate shit. He's taking over companies like Twitter. He's trying to, like, conquer new lands like Mars. He's sleeping with his friends' girlfriends." [laughs] Like, he's, he's on that, he's on that pirate shit. And I was like, "Oh, yeah, it's true. That's cool if true, but it sounds like, you know, maybe this one's not actually true." Uh-

Sam Parr 19:30 All right. What's this, what's this event?

Shaan Puri 19:32 Uh, by the way, we forgot to say on the Nelk Boys, they have, like, their beer, which I think is also, like, a big thing. Their Happy Dad, like, seltzer or beer or whatever the heck that is. Um, Happy Dad is, like, everywhere on Instagram. Like, it's, like, the main brand.

Sam Parr 19:45 I've seen a lot of people drink it. Yeah.

Shaan Puri 19:47 Um-

Sam Parr 19:47 I've seen a ton of people

Sam Parr 19:48 drink it

Shaan Puri 19:48 ... all right. So I wanna tell you some things about this event, and these are gonna be kind of rapid fire little nuggets. You can choose to say the following. You can either say, "That's stupid," and I'll simply move on, I won't defend it. You'll say, "That's cool, I have nothing to add," and I'll simply move on. Or we can talk about any of these things. All right. So I go to this event in LA. Uh, my buddy Ramin, who, uh, we run our fund together, he hosts this event. Um, and it's basically, like, athletes and big shot investors. So at this event were, like, three or four owners of, like, sports teams. So these are basically, like, billionaires or billionaire families, like legacy families. Um, that-

Sam Parr 20:28 How did he get these people?

Shaan Puri 20:31 They just wanted to come, I guess. I don't know. He just cold reached out. He's not paying anybody, and it's a free event, so there's nothing, there's, like, no money to be made. But this is just, like, in network. Then there's pro athletes, mostly retired athletes, but some active players, like, kind of like some guys from the Lakers, some guys from o- other, other teams that are younger guys, but then some older guys that are retired and they're, like, on to the next phase of their, their business life, and they maybe are doing content now, they got, like, a media brand, or they're doing real estate or whatever. And so the idea was let's get together, like, 50 p- people from the world of sports and 50 people from the world of, like, tech and business, and let's see what happens. So I went last year. I went this year again, and I have a couple of, like, little stories. So the first is, um, I'm gonna tell you, th- th- there was one talk that was good. There was a... It was, like, a bunch of talks on the day of the conference. Um, there was only one talk that I thought was good, and th- th-... By the way, that's shitting on myself, too. W- I, I, I was, I hosted a panel, too, I didn't think was very good. Um, but the one was really good was basic- lessons from billion-dollar founders.

Sam Parr 21:31 Yes.

Shaan Puri 21:31 So on stage was the CEO of Carta. So, uh, Carta, they do cap table management. They're a multi-billion dollar company. Um, somebody called, um, oh, shoot, what was it? It's, like, a, a therapy app. Uh, the name will come to me. It's basically, like, mental health.

Sam Parr 21:46 Like BetterHelp?

Shaan Puri 21:47 It's like a BetterHelp, but it's not them. It's, like, some other competitor to them.

Sam Parr 21:50 Talkspace?

Shaan Puri 21:51 Uh, another one. But basically, they, they basically do, like, therapy and mental health, um, o- uh, t- through telemedicine, like, online. And, uh, and there's another one that was, like, some hospital software, Athelos, and then there was, uh, this most interesting one was something called Relativity Space. And by the way, you can basically tell, you know... I wouldn't say that the most interesting person at a conference is always the one who dresses differently, but somebody who's dressed very differently is almost always very interesting [laughs] at these conferences. Uh, last year when I was there, I told you I saw this kid who looked like a breakdancer wearing this, like, tie-dye shirt with, like, a black stud earring. It looked different than every other, you know, suit in the room, and it was the founder of Bolt, who now has become a lot more famous 'cause he, like, you know, went on these Twitter tirades, and Bolt is a multi-billion dollar company and all this stuff. But I met him there and invested in his company 'cause I was like, "This dude's just really interesting." So that happened again. This guy's the founder of Relativity Space. He's competing with Elon. His two competitors are Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Uh, like, you know, no big deal. I'm, I'm competing with the world's richest man and, like, second richest man, [laughs] basically.

Sam Parr 22:49 Is this Tim Ellis?

Shaan Puri 22:51 Tim Ellis, yeah. And so I'm just gonna share with you two things. One is th- this dude's company is insane. So Relativity Space, what they do is-

Sam Parr 22:58 Bold

Shaan Puri 22:58 ... they 3D print rockets, and then they send them into space. So basically there is a huge am- huge demand for rocketry, so, but the ability to take satellites up to space to do, you know, some scientific missions, whatever. And right now, SpaceX is, like, the number one. Blue Origin, which is Jeff Bezos' company, is number two, and Relativity Space is number three. Uh, but they kinda have a, a, a differentiator, which is all those other companies, like, to build a rocket, they need, like, whatever, hundreds of parts, like, specialty parts. And they might 3D print individual parts, but, like, the whole thing is, like, a very expensive, complex structure that where a million things can go wrong, whereas these guys basically 3D print the entire rocket, um, with only a couple extra parts. And, uh, and so because of that, they're, like, you know, cheaper and whatever. He said this line, this throwaway line. He's like... So he's explaining, he's like, "You know, our mission is to make humani- hu- like, humanity multi-planetary, uh, through 3D printing rockets. We're one of only two companies on, on Earth that has a mission of cr- making the human race, like, multi- multi-planetary. The other is SpaceX." He goes, "The launch bar- market today is 8 billion a year," so 8 billion gets spent launching things into space, "and it's growing to 30 billion. Uh, there's really only three companies that possibly can serve this right now." Um, and he's like, "You know, um, we, in the last three months, we have, we've sold over 1.2 billion in, uh, [laughs] launch, in launch sales." [laughs] I was like, "What?" He's like, "Yeah, one-"

Sam Parr 24:18 Dude, he st- and, and he start, he started the company when he was 25. He's 32 now.

Shaan Puri 24:22 So he used to work at- Jeff Bezos' company, Blue O- or Blue Origin?

Sam Parr 24:25 As an intern. He, his Wikipedia says as an intern

Shaan Puri 24:27 And he was trying to do 3D printing there. He was like, "Hey, I think this is, like, one of the ways we can dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of rockets." And it was like, yeah, nice R&D, but, like, it wasn't the main way they were doing things, so he left and he starts this thing. He goes, "We have 850 employees. 500 are ex-SpaceX." [laughs] And I thought that was literally the funniest shit anybody could say. [laughs] I was like, what, what kind of absurd statement is that? That's so amazing to me. Um, and he's like, "You know, we have a launch site now." That was, like, the big progress of last year. We have a launch site, so we're gonna be doing our first big, like, uh, like, uh, like our n- I don't know if our first big or next big launch there. Uh, there are only four launch sites in the country. None have been built since 1960, and we now have exclusive rights to one for the next 25 years. It's like, you know, he's basically ... 'Cause in this talk, he's like, "What makes a company worth so much? 'Cause people will see me, okay, I'm a young guy, I'm a young guy, company's not that old, and it's worth how many billions of dollars? Like, that's crazy." And he's like, "Well, here's what we did." He's like, "We hopped into an emerging wave. So we basically, like, there's surging demand for, um, for going in, for missions into space for satellites and more. Um, there's not enough supply. Like, there's n- basically, like, not much competition. Everybody's sort of scared away. So in actuality, like, just going into the space, we're not competing with most companies. Um, the next one is, you know, we, um, basically, we're, like, defensibility. We have a launch site. There's only four of these. None have been built in, like, you know, 60 years and, um, and we have, we have one of them." And so, like, you know-

Sam Parr 25:59 But wait, what's this have to do with-

Shaan Puri 26:00 ... it's just hard. Even if we wanted to do this, it's hard.

Sam Parr 26:01 What's this have to do with the billionaire lessons?

Shaan Puri 26:04 Well, these are lessons. What does it take to build a billion-dollar company? These are the core elements, like defensibility. That's, you know, that's one of their moats. The next one is, like, this, uh, like, this com- extreme imbalance in supply and demand. Um, the, the-

Sam Parr 26:17 Dude, how lame must you feel if you're, like, a, a software guy like Carta, like, following this guy? You know what I mean?

Shaan Puri 26:23 Well, they each had to say their thing, so I'll tell you what each of them said. So this is what this guy was saying. All right, the next guy, the, the telehealth guy. Or that's not telehealth, sorry. The, uh, hospital software guy. Here's what he said. Uh, you'll like this. His was simpler. He's like, he said, "Yeah, like, agree with all that stuff. Uh, here's how we thought about it. Um, we need to have 500 salespeople that can sell a million dollars' worth of product a year, um, or 250, uh, oh, oh, oh, sorry, 500 that can sell half a million a year or 250 that can sell a million dollar as their sales quota per year. So we just work backwards from that." All right. What features, products, and, like, people do we need to, like, let a salesper- like, get 500 salespeople that can sell half a million dollars a year of, like, sales quota? Like, first, is that even possible? Can the, can this market support that? Yes. The market is very big. Hospitals spend a lot of money in healthcare, and in our category they spend more than, you know, much more than that. Okay, cool. So it's possible. Then he's like, "All of our product team, they know. They work for sales." And I thought that was very different than what most people say. He's like, bu- uh, Silicon Valley loves to preach that, like, product is king, product is the God, you just need a great product. He was like, "We build great product if it's gonna help us sell better. And, like, we build great cus- customer support so that it helps us sell better. Everything is in service of sales." So I really like that guy's kinda like one-liner approach. The Carta guy basically w- was like, um, you know, we, uh ... He's like, "Here's how I think about it." He's like, "You need, uh, you need to..." He basically is like, "You wanna find a multi-billion dollar wave if you're gonna be a billion-dollar company." He's like, "So find an emerging wave." So for example, the, the telehealth guy, his is that, his was that, uh, mental health coverage was now required. So, like, a bunch of, I don't know if it's, like, uh, insurance companies or companies, they were h- now requiring that, like, uh, mental health is part of a healthcare package. He's like, "That changed." He goes, "Second thing that changed was mental health is getting de-stigmatized. You're seeing all kinds of famous people talking about mental health. It's not, like, this taboo subject like it was 10 years ago."

Sam Parr 28:27 I call it, uh-

Shaan Puri 28:28 It's only-

Sam Parr 28:28 ... inflections. So there's, like, regulatory inflections, which is like, all right, now you can do telemedicine. That's a new thing. There's, uh, cultural inflections, which is, wow, it's not weird to talk in front of your camera anymore and, like, make a video. There's tech-

Shaan Puri 28:39 Right

Sam Parr 28:39 ... technology, technol- technological inflections, which is like, oh, wow, our phones all have GPSes. So you wanna, like, look for different inflections.

Shaan Puri 28:48 Right. E- exa- that's exactly what he was saying. And the last one he mentioned was, like, the pandemic was another inflection because it forced everybody, if they needed a doctor visit, to do it, to, a ver- video one. So it's like a everybody had to try it for this two-year period. And so video visits and telemedicine, now, now the hospitals know they need to have it, uh, doctors know they need to be willing to do this, and patients have, like, tried it once. Uh, all right, the next thing he goes, he goes, "Team." He goes, "Billion-dollar companies are almost never bootstrapped. So you kinda have to know that going in. Like, a b- if you're gonna build a billion-dollar company, you almost certainly are gonna raise money because you're gonna hire A+ players. They need to have an A+ mission. And secondly, you need to have a high velocity customer acquisition model." And I just thought that phrase is very good. High velocity customer acquisition model. It's something you can just kinda ask yourself. Do I or don't I have a high velocity customer acquisition model? Every business wants one pretty much. Um, and you gotta say, like, okay, what's our current velocity? So at what rate are we currently adding customers? How high would it need to be for us to get there? And, like, what are we gonna do to make this s- this little wheel spin faster? Um-

Sam Parr 29:50 All right, but let me ask this

Shaan Puri 29:51 ... so I thought, I thought that was good.

Sam Parr 29:51 Those four guys, it was four people, right? Four guys.

Shaan Puri 29:55 Yeah, yeah.

Sam Parr 29:55 Did, were they, A, tired and exhausted looking, and B, do you think they were happy?

Shaan Puri 30:03 All right, I'm gonna give you the scale. The mental health guy honestly looked not tired and happy. Um, he was, like, fit. He didn't have, like, crazy bags under his eyes. He, like, spoke with energy, and he was, like, sitting upright.

Sam Parr 30:14 That makes sense.

Shaan Puri 30:15 Um-

Sam Parr 30:15 That checks out

Shaan Puri 30:16 ... Carta guy, he looked calm. Like, he didn't look like he was facing death, but he looked like he, like, had been facing death for some ex- extended period of time.

Sam Parr 30:25 Yeah, yeah.

Shaan Puri 30:26 The guy looked tired.

Sam Parr 30:26 He's still, he only has five lives left.

Shaan Puri 30:27 Kinda hunched over Yeah, like, you know, I could tell... He wasn't in bad shape at all, but, uh, you know, like it didn't look like, you know, he was springing around with energy necessarily.

Sam Parr 30:38 Right.

Shaan Puri 30:38 Uh, space guy, that guy looked like he just walked... You know, he looked like he just walked out of a room. You know, like those scenes in Game of Thrones where like, "Oh, shoot, we're going to war," and the guy, like, gets up and out of his bed scramble like four nude women and he's like, "Ah, okay, yeah, let me just go do my next thing." That's how this guy looked. He had the swagger of a guy in Game of Thrones who was just sleeping with four women, four beautiful women. He had the Tyrion Lannister energy. Um, he... And then that's when he was like, "Yeah, a billion dollars in sales in the last three months," and like, you know, "We have 500 ex-SpaceX employees." Yeah, they leave Elon to come work for me.

Sam Parr 31:12 So he seemed like he was happy.

Shaan Puri 31:13 Like, that's the energy he was carrying. He looked happy.

Sam Parr 31:16 Damn. Well, fuck these guys, man, right?

Shaan Puri 31:18 And you know what? I also-

Sam Parr 31:20 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 31:21 I was sitting with, I, I was sitting with him at lunch, and he was asking questions to everybody else, and, like, that was one of the re- most... That was one of the coolest parts of this event. I don't know how they did it, but nobody had an ego. Like, everybody who was there, I don't know if they just filtered people out who had egos or they just, like, everybody got the vibe, which is like everybody here is equally valuable. Be curious about others. You're not just, like, the star. And, and all these people are used to being the star. It's like, yeah, you're, you own that N- that, that NBA team. You own that football team. Or like, you're like this superstar. Like, you know, the guy on my panel with me, I think he had, like, you know, $90 million. He had a 90... He just signed, like, a $90 million contract. He's, like, one of the highest paid NFL players. And, uh, the guy was like, "Dude, I'm just here to learn, man. I would love to just, you know, subscribe to your newsletter," and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, wow, this is incredible. You are gonna go so far in life because you are obviously skilled and successful, but you're so humble. It was crazy.

Sam Parr 32:10 Damn. How many people were there?

Shaan Puri 32:13 About 100, 120 maybe.

Sam Parr 32:15 Ramin organized this?

Shaan Puri 32:18 Yeah. So basically Ramin and then Tribe, which is, like, a VC fund. Um, uh, Tribe was one of the hosts, and then TPG, which is, like, one of the biggest private equity-

Sam Parr 32:26 Dude-

Shaan Puri 32:27 ... companies in the world. Like, they-

Sam Parr 32:27 ... why is this guy working with you?

Shaan Puri 32:28 They manage, like, $120 billion. What?

Sam Parr 32:31 Why is this guy working with you?

Shaan Puri 32:33 Bro, I always have that Tyrion Lannis- Lannister energy, regardless of what, what my situation is. [laughs]

Sam Parr 32:39 Holy crap. This guy's amazing. Well, that's badass. That was in LA?

Shaan Puri 32:43 It was in LA. I'm gonna give you a couple other things that I, I took away from this. Ben, so Ben Levy, who's not producer Ben, my business partner Ben. He has a superpower that we talk about. Now, have I told you about his superpower?

Sam Parr 32:56 His superpower to me is, um, people just tell him shit, and he just smiles and laughs, and then he uses it against them if, if he needs to.

Shaan Puri 33:06 He's like a fucking trust magnet. Yeah.

Sam Parr 33:08 Yes.

Shaan Puri 33:08 I don't know what he does. Everybody trusts him. Like, me and you, I've known you for I don't know how long, eventually like eight years. We've spent time together. We've gone through ups and downs and, and adversity. We've... I've seen each other, whatever. We know each other very well. You might have met Ben twice in your life, but even you will be like, if, if there's something interesting or something going on, you'll, like, text Ben, like, "Dude, my new business is doing awesome," or something like that, and he just has that pull with people. Everybody wants to talk to Ben. Everyone wants to tell him how things are going.

Sam Parr 33:34 Because he's so enthusiastic.

Shaan Puri 33:37 I don't know what it is, but I saw his super on blast. So I'm gonna tell you a little story here, and I don't even know how much we can take away from this. I'm just gonna kind of explain that it happened just so that... Just 'cause I think it was amazing, and because I think that if there is a way to learn this skill, everybody should learn it. I'm trying to learn it myself, so I'm gonna talk out loud about it. So we go to this event. At the event, I get a text from Ben. Ben's sitting across the room. We, we split up at the events. We don't always just sit together and just only talk to each other 'cause that kind of defeats the purpose. And he's like, "Yo, the dude next to you, uh, is awesome." And I go, "Who?" He goes, he goes, "That's Chris Johnson," or "That, that's this guy who... He trains, like, some of the best NBA players on the planet." Um, and I was like, "Oh, really?" Like, I, I'm a big NBA fan. I was like, "I, I don't know this guy. Like, you must follow him on Instagram." Like, Ben's just, like, even deeper down the rabbit hole. So I was like, "Okay, cool." But I was like, I don't know what to do with that information. Like, I guess, like, if the opportunity kind of presents itself, I'll, I'll go introduce myself. Like, you know, I have nothing to... You know, I, I don't know how to force my way in. He seems busy right now, but okay. Ben does something where he... I don't know wha- I don't know what he did, but he approached this guy. Ben approached this guy, and he starts talking to him, and I, I think two things happened. I think, number one, in a room full of the guys who are usually on screen, um, this guy, who himself is obviously, like, a heavy hitter in his space, p- a lot... The average Joe did not know who he was, right? Like, every tech nerd who was in there doesn't know who this guy is. Even people who like sports probably didn't know that this guy's, like, the, you know, the skills trainer for all these top guys. And I'm talking about, like, this guy will train with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James and, like, other guys like that, like the top of the top. And, um, Ben goes up to him. He's like, "Dude, I follow you, man. I love your videos." He gives him a compliment. They start chatting a little bit. I don't know what Ben said next, but I think... I, I'm gonna skip to the end, and we'll fill in the middle. The end is the event's over. Everybody's leaving. People are going to the airport. This guy comes up to me, and he, he's... I'm talking to Ben. We're, we're just figuring out if we're gonna get our Uber. He goes, "I knew I was coming to this event for a reason, but I didn't know why. This man was the reason." He points at Ben.

Sam Parr 35:37 No way. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 35:39 And I go, "What?"

Sam Parr 35:40 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 35:40 And I was like, "What do you mean? Like, what did he do?" He's like, "I don't even know, man." He goes, "This... I am so happy I met this guy. Ben, I will always remember our conversation." He goes... He said something. He goes, like, he goes... He, he's like, he's like [laughs] , he's like, "Bro, brother, anything you need, anything you need, I got you." And I was like... And he w- this is not the type of guy. He's not schmoozing. This is not... This is a guy where when words come out of his mouth, they mean something. And I'm just like, I'm just sitting there. I'm not even laughing. I'm not even asking questions. I'm speechless. I get this look on my face like, "What the fuck did you do, Ben? How did you do this again?" And it... And Ben, still, he's just smiling. He doesn't even say anything back to this guy. He's just smiling. And I go, I go, "What?" I go, "What did he?" I go, "What happened, man? Why?" He goes, I goes, "I don't even..." He goes, "I don't even know." He doesn't even know the spell he's under. He goes, "I don't even know." But he goes, "You know- I'm a trainer, man. I work with athletes. When they need something, they call me. When they're, when they're in a slump, they call me. When they're trying to get better, they call me. When they want their next contract, they call me. I help these guys get paid. I'm always helping. I drive to this guy's house, I drive here, I fly there, I do this, I do that. I'm always pouring into other people." He goes, "Ben, you filled me up. You poured into me today."

Sam Parr 36:49 What the hell, man?

Shaan Puri 36:50 And I was like, "What just happened?"

Sam Parr 36:52 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 36:53 I was so amazed. And the guy goes, the guy goes, "When are you flying out?" And Ben's like, "Tomorrow." He goes, "Come train with us tomorrow." Ben goes with him the next morning to his facility and does a session. The guy spends two hours correcting Ben's form. There's other NBA players there.

Sam Parr 37:09 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 37:09 He's locked into Ben. Ben sends me this video. He's wearing, like, a fucking weighted vest.

Sam Parr 37:14 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 37:15 He's got a glove on his hand, 'cause this guy, like, invented a shooting glove. He made a experience out of it for Ben, and I, I really appreciate... Like, this guy didn't have to do that. That was incredibly nice of this guy. He was just a very f- like, I don't know, he was very, like... You could see why this guy works for so many people, because there's something magnetic about this guy's personality.

Sam Parr 37:32 What's his name?

Shaan Puri 37:33 But two magnets met, dude, and B- I don't, and I don't know how, I don't know what Ben's superpower is. I don't know how he does this consistently. These sorts of things happen where people are just very, um, attracted to him in this way. I don't know what it is, but he, he's amazing.

Sam Parr 37:47 It's... You know who else is really good at that? Me.

Shaan Puri 37:50 Who? [laughs]

Sam Parr 37:51 I'm fucking good at that. [laughs] I'm good at that.

Shaan Puri 37:55 You, you are good at that. Can I tell you a story about you?

Sam Parr 37:56 I'm not that good, but I'm good, yeah.

Speaker 37:58 [upbeat music] This data is wrong every freaking time.

Sam Parr 38:03 Have you heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform where everything is fully integrated.

Speaker 38:09 Whoa, I can see the client's whole history: calls, support tickets, emails, and here's a task from three days ago I totally missed.

Sam Parr 38:17 HubSpot. Grow better.

Shaan Puri 38:20 So yesterday... We'll talk about it in a second, but yesterday I did a interview with Martin Shkreli, and, um, and I wanted it to go well. I was like, "Yeah, okay, you know, I think people are gonna be interested in this, so let me do a good job." And I'm five minutes into the interview and I find myself doing the, like, bullshit socialize. I'm like, "Ha ha ha, yeah." I'm, like, smiling, I'm laughing. I'm like, "So that must have been hard for you to blah, blah, blah. And what would you say..." I'm just, like, falling into some fucking, like, script. Like, I don't know what... I, like, became some character, this, like, generic podcast character, and literally the thought in my head was, "Sam would never do this."

Sam Parr 38:57 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 38:57 Sam would... Like, he's, he, he said something, he was like, he was talking about, like, yeah, how he, like... He's like, "Yeah, dude, I s- I, like, got a contraband cellphone. I was on the internet the whole time I was in prison." And I was like, and I was like, uh, I started to... And I was like, "Dude, if Sam heard that, he'd be like-"

Sam Parr 39:10 Well, no, you know what, you know what I would ask, right?

Shaan Puri 39:13 What?

Sam Parr 39:13 "What websites were you using? Like, what were you, where were you going?"

Shaan Puri 39:15 Exactly.

Sam Parr 39:16 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 39:16 You would've been like, "Wait, what? How do you get it in there? Do you, like, get it, like, do you have to put it between your butt cheeks?"

Sam Parr 39:20 Yeah. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 39:20 And, like, you would've said something like that to kinda disarm him, to get him to share an interesting nugget, and you would've just genuinely been like, "Wait, what the hell?" Like, "Hold on, no." And you would've just reacted like a normal person rather than, like, "That's fascinating. You know, um, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on blah, blah, blah." It's like, dude, that's podcaster versus real person. And so as my... I, like, literally switched into Sam mode and I started being, like... I was like, "What are you doing?" And he, and then he shares this in- hilarious thing, he's like, he goes, "Yeah." Dude, and you, you, you would've been like, "How much was it?" I was like, "How much did you get the phone for?" He's like, "Dude, it's crazy." He's like, "You have to buy these things for, like, thousands of dollars." He's like, "I paid $15,000 for one phone."

Sam Parr 39:56 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 39:57 And I thought, "Shit, this phone must be made out of gold," because he's like, "But you have to do it because to get the phone in they gotta grease, you know, one guy to get one guy to get another guy. You gotta bribe five guys to get this in. And so, like, you know, you gotta pay that vig." And he's like, "Most guys..." I was like, "So what do you use it for?" Exactly your question. He goes, he goes, "Yeah, most guys just get to use-"

Sam Parr 40:15 He said porn, right?

Shaan Puri 40:15 "It's for porn." He's like, he's like, "For me, I'm in, I'm on GitHub and, like, Khan Academy, and porn. I did that too, but, like-"

Sam Parr 40:20 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 40:20 "... you know, I'm one of the only guys using this for, like, advanced math also, you know, under the covers listening to this." And that little magic moment that came out-

Sam Parr 40:28 Yeah, it was great for the newsletter

Shaan Puri 40:28 ... it's like that doesn't happen. That doesn't happen unless you kind of act the way that you act, that Ben acts, where it's, like... Yours is a little different. Yours is, like, you get to, like, real talk really fast. Ben just kind of, like, seems so curious and earnest, I think, that people really, like, they like how genuinely interested he is in their life and how he, how helpful he tries to be without, like, seeking anything or talking about himself.

Sam Parr 40:52 Have you read the book How To Win Friends And Influence People?

Shaan Puri 40:57 I read, like, the first chapter where it was like the, the f- people's favorite word-

Sam Parr 41:00 The most-

Shaan Puri 41:00 ... in the English language is their name

Sam Parr 41:01 ... is their name, yeah.

Shaan Puri 41:02 And I was like-

Sam Parr 41:02 Yeah

Shaan Puri 41:02 ... "Oh, this is great," and then I never read any of it.

Sam Parr 41:03 Dude, that book, that book, like, changed my life, and in one of the chapters he talks about how, uh, there was a story of a man, like, sitting with the, with a young guy, and the young guy, like, wanted something, like a job or something from the, from the older guy. But the young guy, you know, used Dale Carnegie's practices and basically, like, he just listened to him the entire time, and, you know, the older guy did all the talking. And at the end of the, uh, the end of the conversation the older guy goes, "Wow, this was the best conversation I've ever had with anyone ever."

Shaan Puri 41:30 [laughs]

Sam Parr 41:30 And the younger guy was like, "Well, I didn't say a word, so..." But, like, that, that's funny how that works. And the older guy goes, like, "You know, you should... We're friends now. You should come and, like, apply at our company." You know, like, things like that. And that, like, changed my life when I learned, when I learned that strategy. And so when I wanna get stuff from people, I usually amp 'em up. So I'll do one of two things. One, I'll either insult them a little bit, like if I know that their business is doing above 100 million in revenue, I'll be like, "That's a, that's a nice little business. What do you guys do, like, 50 million?" Like, and, and then they're gonna, like, tell me the exact.

Shaan Puri 41:59 [laughs]

Sam Parr 41:59 So I'll, like, nag 'em a little. Or the thing that I do more often than not is I just encourage 'em like crazy. Like, "Wow, you did that? You are so amazing. You're my hero, dude. How did you do that?" You know? And they'll, like, start, like, gushing, and I'll just make 'em feel really good about themselves. This sounds manipulative, which I guess it is, but I don't think it's a bad manipulative. But yeah, it works.

Shaan Puri 42:19 Yeah, the way I put it is, like, you go to these events to make connections with new people, right? That's the point, or we wouldn't go to an event if it wasn't for that, but it's kinda hard to do that. I find myself, like, feeling uncomfortable in a lot of those situations. You go, like, "Okay, I need to introduce myself to this person. I... How do I quickly, you know, like, are they interested in me? Am I interested in them?" There's very much, like, a, like, a dating component to that, to this, like, a speed dating component to these events. And you sorta see their eyes start to wander, and it's like, oh, they're clearly, like, looking for the next conversation-

Sam Parr 42:44 Right

Shaan Puri 42:44 ... or, like, you know, the, the bathroom or w- some excuse to get out of this sort of thing. Or You're like, or you find yourself tuning out 'cause you're like, "Oh, shoot, I'm just kinda judging them, like, really quickly." Like, everybody's got something to offer. I just wanna... I, I should be in the mode of, like, finding out what that is rather than, like, looking at their badge and trying to figure out, like, are you, you know, valuable at this conference or not? That's sort of a stupid way to do it. But, like, I am fascinated with Ben and this guy Chris. Their, their ability to connect was so strong. Like, the way Chris talked to me too, I felt like a friend of his within two minutes. And it's not 'cause he was manipulating me. No, he's just like, that's his energy he carries around. So if I think about why has he been able to connect with these athletes who everybody wants to connect with them. Everybody wants to connect with LeBron James. Everybody wants to connect with Kevin Durant. Everybody wants to connect with Dwyane Wade. How does this guy do it? Well, obviously he's gotta be good at his job, but that's not enough. You also have to have the people skills. He told me a story. I think I can share this on here. And by the way, he, he wants to come on the pod. I'll, I'll tell him, tell him to come on. But he showed, he told me this story. So I don't know if you pay... You probably don't pay attention to this, but-

Sam Parr 43:43 Did any of the people he met listen?

Shaan Puri 43:46 Oh, yeah. There were some people who listened to the pod. Um-

Sam Parr 43:48 Nice. Got 'em.

Shaan Puri 43:50 Yeah, not a, not, not a ton I would say, but, like, definitely a few. Um, one of the franchise owners listens, which is kinda cool.

Sam Parr 43:56 Really?

Shaan Puri 43:57 Um, a- and so... Or, like, he had listened. I don't know if he's super regular. But, um, uh, so, so okay. So he was... So basically this guy was talking about, the, the trainer, he was talking about, like, a, a fear. And so he, so he was like... He was, he... Somehow we got on the topic of fear. He's like, "Yeah, man." He, he's like, "I work with these guys. In the gym they can hit, like, you know, whatever, 80, 90 sh- 93-pointers in a row, like 80, 90%. But in the game, it's obviously lower. And sure, it's, the speed is h- there. The defense is a little tighter. But, like, take free throws. There's no defense. There's no speed. Still, the guys in the gym perform one way, and in the game they perform another. And it's 'cause there's a huge mental component to this." He's like, "So I train their mental just as much as their physical." And he's like, "You know, um, LeBron recently went to play at this thing called the Drew League." I don't know if you've ever seen this, but it's basically like-

Sam Parr 44:43 Yeah, I saw it

Shaan Puri 44:43 ... it's in downtown LA. It's, like, in the hood, basically, the Drew League. LeBron, I don't think, has ever played, and it's usually, like, kinda like former players or, like, jou- fringe guys, journeyman guys who wanna make the league. They're very good at basketball, but they're not, like, stars. And, um, LeBron was like, "I'm thinking about going and dropping in and just playing." And, and this trainer was like, "That would be awesome, man. That would, like, mean a lot. Like, I think it would mean a lot to the people. I think you would, you would have... It's a legacy thing." Like, just, it's like one time Kevin Durant went to Rucker Park and he played in Rucker Park. He dropped like 50 points or something like that, and the crowd, like, mobbed him. And they just, like, ended the game because the crowd just rushed him 'cause he was being so awesome, and he just, like, hit a three from, from half court basically, and, like, he just gets mobbed by people. It's like this very memorable thing. And so the guy was like, "You should do it." But, like, LeBron has a lot to lose at something like this, right? LeBron's already one of the best players in the world, already one of the richest, most famous athletes in the world, so he doesn't need the fame. He's not gonna get any money. He's al- he's not gonna get better, like, just by playing in this one game with people who are worse than him. Like, um, and there's plenty of things that could go wrong, like he could get hurt. He could get dunked on or embarrassed in some way-

Sam Parr 45:45 Yeah

Shaan Puri 45:45 ... crossed over in some way, like, you know, that sort of thing. Or he could just, like, miss shots and, like, oh, man, he went, and it was like, dude, you couldn't even... Like, you weren't, you ain't all that. Like, you know, it wasn't, like, hype. So he had something to lose. And, um, but he decided to go, and then the, the trainer was... He, like, pulls up his cellphone, and it's like the NBA All-Star game is his iMessage. Like, just one star after another. He's like, he clicks the text message with him. He, he's like, he told... He's like, "I told him, 'Your victory is in your vulnerability.' Like, this, you felt, you were vulnerable. That's why this was a win for you." 'Cause he, he went. It was amazing. Everybody loved it. He played super well, dropped 40 points, and, like, it was awesome. Uh, and the clips go viral on Instagram, and people really respect him for it. And he goes, "Your, remember that. Your victory is in your vulnerability." And he looked around the circle. He was just like, "Remember that." And all of us were, like, nodding, like, "Yes, sir." [laughs] I was like, "I will... I, what do I need to be vu- I will take my clothes off right now and be more vulnerable if it helps me be like LeBron," and be, be... You know, like, but he was really inspiring telling these stories. And so I love meeting people like this. I love hearing stories like this, and I love getting these golden nuggets, these little things you can take away that, like, you can use in your own little, your own life.

Sam Parr 46:52 You know what my takeaway when I hear this shit is, is, damn, these guys are cool. I wanna be fucking cool. Like, [laughs] like, I want a schtick. How the fuck do you have to be cool? I just Google at Amazon how to be cool. Where's this book? I need one of these books. I want, I want men to want me. Like-

Shaan Puri 47:07 [laughs]

Sam Parr 47:07 [laughs] I wanna be-

Shaan Puri 47:09 I wanna be idolized by young men

Sam Parr 47:10 ... yeah.

Shaan Puri 47:11 [laughs]

Sam Parr 47:11 How do you be cool, dude? Where's that book on how to be cool? I want that. This guy read it. I wanna read it too.

Shaan Puri 47:16 Yeah.

Sam Parr 47:16 That's crazy. That book's on everything.

Shaan Puri 47:18 I wanna, I wanna read that book too.

Sam Parr 47:19 Yeah. [laughs] I'm so envious when I hear people like this. I'm like, damn, they got a good schtick.

Shaan Puri 47:25 L- I'm gonna tell you one other little nugget here.

Shaan Puri 47:27 Do memorable things. I wrote this down. All right, what does that mean? I went to the conference last year. I went this year. In between, I've, like, launched a business. I've, you know, the podcast has grown, blah, blah, blah. Guess what the number one thing people remembered me for at the conference this year?

Sam Parr 47:42 Like, e-commerce stuff? Oh, last ye- this year?

Shaan Puri 47:45 This year. Where they, when they, when they're like, "Oh, I remember you talked about X."

Sam Parr 47:49 Probably investing.

Shaan Puri 47:52 The Michael Jordan house thing that we talked about on the podcast.

Sam Parr 47:54 Wait, really?

Shaan Puri 47:56 The idea of buying MJ's house. So two things happened. That went kind of semi-viral in the sports and sports media and sports agent world. Um, people shared that clip. Like, remember the Twitter clip has like 100,000 plus views? Uh-

Sam Parr 48:09 Yeah, I think the, I think, like, the-

Shaan Puri 48:10 ... people shared that with important people

Sam Parr 48:10 ... I think, like, the TikTok thing was, like, millions.

Shaan Puri 48:14 Maybe. It got shared with a lot of people. They were like, "Oh, I remember. You were gonna buy Michael Jordan's house. What happened with that?" And they were like... It's like, dude, you remember that from over a year ago? And, like, I've done a bunch of other things way more seriously. That was just one brainstorm with Sam about this idea. Like, that's crazy. So that was the first thing. Uh, people remembering me for that. Then the, then we, um, while we were there, Ben took a call to potentially invest in this company. And, uh, and I'm like, "Cool, what's this guy's background?" And he, it, the guy's done many things. Ben goes, "You remember the, uh, Taco Bell Mexican pizza dish?" I was like, "Uh, kind of, I guess. Like, yeah, I know it exists." He goes, "They took it away off the menu, and people like, like were outraged on social media, and this guy got like a million people to sign the petition to bring it back, and they brought it back." [laughs] And I was like, "What?"

Sam Parr 49:00 That's what he was known for?

Shaan Puri 49:02 And it... Well, that's what Ben remembered. And like this guy's done a bunch of interesting things.

Sam Parr 49:05 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 49:05 And he had like three st- this guy had three stories like that.

Sam Parr 49:08 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 49:08 And once you have like three stories like that, it's like, "All right, I need to know this guy." And I feel like you do that really well, too, where you have these little things where it's like, ah, the hot dog stand, like, called, you know, Sam's Wieners is as Big as a Baby's Arm. Um, or it's like, you know, the Pawn Star- Pawn Stars guy, the pawn shop thing. Or like I feel like you have these things that are like that, these little nuggets or stories that are like, they're memorable, but not for the thing you actually spent years of your life building. [laughs]

Sam Parr 49:35 Yeah, but dude, the problem is, is that I'm like trading on old stories. I need to do some cooler shit now. I'm like, you know, we gotta like do some stuff. I gotta do something.

Shaan Puri 49:43 Well, I, I think that's the thing is like do more memorable shit because these punch above their weight. You know, they don't take that long. They're not that hard to do, but like-

Sam Parr 49:53 I was gonna do like a... The other day I thought maybe I'll like spend three weeks riding around on a motorcycle. And I was like, "That's lame. I already did that." I gotta, I gotta think of some... I gotta do something cool, you know?

Shaan Puri 50:04 Right.

Sam Parr 50:04 I think maybe I'll have kids next year. I gotta do something. I gotta go out with a bang. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 50:10 [laughs] I don't think you understand what I'm talking about, but fair enough. [laughs]

Sam Parr 50:14 [laughs] Let's do something cool, man. We gotta do something cool.

Shaan Puri 50:20 Yeah, let's, let's do cool shit, yeah. I, I think there's a bunch of things that would be cool to do, but they don't make any sense. And what I'm learning is that those things-

Sam Parr 50:27 Those things are awesome

Shaan Puri 50:27 ... do make sense, just on a different timescale. And, uh, you gotta let... And in a different weird way. And the, having the, having that little collateral of like cool shit that you could talk about is worth it.

Sam Parr 50:38 I thought about walking across the country and I was like, "That'd be, that'd be pretty sick." And then I kinda like thought about like playing it out and I'm like, "Huh, it's pretty far."

Shaan Puri 50:48 [laughs]

Sam Parr 50:48 "It might take like six months." [laughs] Like, I don't know, like, [laughs] you just listen to audiobooks all day? Like, I don't know. Like, I, y- you know what I mean? I gotta think of some- something like kinda cool.

Shaan Puri 51:02 It's gotta be your authentic, right? Like extreme for extreme's sake doesn't work because, again, you don't know if these are gonna pay off or when they're gonna pay off. So you gotta do it where the, the, the act of doing it or talking about it or like, that has to be I- itself enough [laughs] for you. But, uh-

Sam Parr 51:16 I was like, maybe I'll just like use Twitter and like see if I can hitchhike from like New York to California. I don't... I gotta figure out something.

Shaan Puri 51:23 Right. [laughs]

Sam Parr 51:24 I, I'll, I'm gonna figure something out. But this stupid podcast, I gotta be here all, twice a week to record.

Shaan Puri 51:28 [laughs]

Sam Parr 51:28 It holds me back. I thought about walking across the country, but I gotta like, gotta carry around this lame-ass mic for this stupid podcast.

Shaan Puri 51:36 [laughs]

Sam Parr 51:37 But I gotta figure something out. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 51:40 That's hilarious. Uh, yeah, let's do another topic.

Sam Parr 51:43 Um, you remember how I tweeted out that thing about Hasan? How do you sp- pronounce Hasan's name? Minhaj?

Shaan Puri 51:48 Yeah.

Sam Parr 51:48 The comedian.

Shaan Puri 51:49 Yeah.

Sam Parr 51:50 I tweeted out this thing that basically I like saw him walk by me and I went and grabbed him and goes, "What's up, man?" And it wasn't him, and it was really embarrassing. I, you know, I've never like really talked with him. Did you give him my number?

Shaan Puri 52:00 Yeah. [laughs]

Sam Parr 52:01 Oh.

Shaan Puri 52:01 He text-

Sam Parr 52:01 Yeah, so like-

Shaan Puri 52:02 He texted me. He w- he was like, "This is funny." He's like, "Give me Sam's number, uh, and I, I'll text him." And then I, I send him your number.

Sam Parr 52:08 So I'm getting dinner with him, um, and, uh, it's gonna be the first time. I, I didn't get to meet him when you did that podcast. But I thought that was also a cool example of just like these cool things just happen when you, when you take a lot of chances.

Shaan Puri 52:18 Wait, would you say that maybe your victory was in your vulnerability here?

Sam Parr 52:22 [laughs] Yeah.

Shaan Puri 52:23 By sharing this embarrassing story-

Sam Parr 52:25 By sharing this embarrassing story-

Shaan Puri 52:26 ... you act-

Sam Parr 52:26 ... where I looked like a racist

Shaan Puri 52:27 ... actually gained him?

Sam Parr 52:27 Yeah. [laughs] Yeah.

Shaan Puri 52:29 All right.

Sam Parr 52:29 The victory was-

Shaan Puri 52:30 Your victory was in your vulnerability, baby.

Sam Parr 52:32 And it was... You hooked it up, so I appreciate that. Yeah, it was, uh-

Shaan Puri 52:35 [laughs]

Sam Parr 52:36 I'm gonna, I'm gonna go hang out with him. You, you guys are like homies, right?

Shaan Puri 52:40 Uh, yeah. I, I really like him. We, uh... You better be funny, dude.

Sam Parr 52:44 I'm not. And so- [laughs]

Shaan Puri 52:45 Isn't, isn't that like you gotta go one way or the other? If you're gonna hang out with a comedian, you either gotta be like funny or just like blatantly unfunny. [laughs]

Sam Parr 52:54 Is he funny when you're like just hanging out with him?

Shaan Puri 52:57 Yeah, he's a funny dude.

Sam Parr 52:58 Shit. I'm not prepared at all. I gotta go read a book. [laughs] This is why I need that cool book. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 53:03 Fuck it. Try to be hot instead. [laughs]

Sam Parr 53:05 No, I can't do that either. [laughs] I'm-

Shaan Puri 53:07 You're closer to hot than funny. [laughs]

Sam Parr 53:10 [laughs] That's still a far... I'm average at bo- I'm, I'm, you know, I'm average at best. [laughs] Like it's... [laughs]

Shaan Puri 53:17 All right, rich. Try to be rich instead. [laughs]

Sam Parr 53:19 Dude, I'm still a six out of 10 on that, too.

Shaan Puri 53:22 Oh, man.

Sam Parr 53:23 I'm just like a six across the-

Shaan Puri 53:24 The pan- the panic of meeting, the panic of meeting, uh, famous people is so funny to me. Uh, [laughs] like I just think it's like a hilarious thing that happens when people, people meet fun- we- people meet famous people. Their instinct is like to just like throw all, all good common sense out the window and start behaving like an idiot. [laughs]

Sam Parr 53:43 Dude, it just sucks being a seven at everything, you know what I mean? I'm just a seven at everything, so... [laughs]

Shaan Puri 53:48 Always the bridesmaid, never, never the bride.

Sam Parr 53:50 Yeah. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 53:50 Al- always the seven. [laughs]

Sam Parr 53:52 A jack of all trades, a master of none. I'm just this fucking seven. [laughs] And even like it, it just doesn't work out. Um-

Shaan Puri 54:00 Yeah, but you're a h- you're a hard seven, though. You're not a soft seven.

Sam Parr 54:02 Yeah, I'm, [laughs] I'm a hard seven. All right. That's the pod. We'll talk to y'all later. [outro music]