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My First MillionBusiness Finds: Hormozi’s Skool Investment, $700M Water & VC Hacks
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Friday Quickie Format and a VC Deal Flow Hack
Shaan explains the new Friday quickie format, where each host shares three finds from the week. He then describes a company that photographs founders leaving top VC offices and sells the list of who is raising to other funds.
- •Format: each host shares three finds from the week
- •Hedge funds go to extreme lengths for an edge, while Silicon Valley tends to share openly
- •A photographer outside top VC offices captures founders leaving pitches
- •The resulting list of founders who are raising is sold to other funds
- •One VC said they don't pay for it but know it exists and others do
StealthCoSpy: Tracking Founders Leaving to Build
Shaan shares a Twitter account that posts in real time when people announce they are working in stealth or leave fast-growing startups. Sam adds that similar signals exist when people remove their employer from their profiles.
- •StealthCoSpy tweets when someone announces a stealth project or leaves a high-trajectory company
- •Examples include an ex-GitHub data science director and a founder coming out of stealth
- •The account has only about 750 followers
- •Sam notes people removing their employer from Twitter or LinkedIn is a similar signal
MVMT Founder's Candid Reddit Post on Life After Selling
Sam describes a year-old Reddit post by the founder of MVMT Watches, who wrote that after selling his company he felt lonelier and more depressed than ever. Both hosts praise him for sharing this under his own name, and Sam brings up the idea of a 'second mountain'.
- •The founder sold MVMT for a reported $100 million and says he optimized his life for ease and comfort
- •Two years later, at 31 and single, he says he is lonely and depressed
- •He is exploring video editing and filmmaking while looking for a new passion
- •Shaan found the post through a Twitter thread, calling it the magic of the internet
- •He says money and ego no longer motivate him and that he wants fulfillment and to help others
The Hormozi Bump: Skool's Traffic Spike
Shaan describes Alex Hormozi buying Skool from Sam Ovens and promoting it to his audience, then asks Sam to guess the traffic jump. Skool went from about 8 million to nearly 17 million monthly visitors, and the hosts discuss the community platform and its competitor Circle.
- •Hormozi bought Skool and called it the biggest bet he has made
- •Skool is a paid community-building tool
- •Traffic went from roughly 8 million to almost 17 million monthly visitors according to Similarweb
- •Skool more than doubled its traffic, and Sam says Ovens put $10 million of his own money into it
- •Top communities skew toward marketing, dropshipping and aspirational lifestyle topics
- •Shaan praises converting YouTube fame into a SaaS asset
Sam Ovens and the "I Delivered My Baby" Story
Sam recalls meeting Sam Ovens, who is comfortable with silence. When Sam let a silence run, Ovens said he delivered his own baby.
- •Ovens is described as a wonderful person who is comfortable with silence
- •Sam deliberately sat in the silence
- •Ovens eventually said he delivered his baby with his hands because paramedics could not arrive in time
- •Shaan jokes he would pay for a daily voice note of that
Breaking Down a $3.7M Household's Monthly Expenses
Sam shares an Instagram post in which a personal finance creator breaks down the spending of a high-earning New Jersey couple. The hosts discuss how a $3.7M income can leave little saved, with Shaan calling the post engagement bait.
- •The couple earns $3.7M and spends about $77,000 per month
- •Costs include a $29,000 mortgage, a $10,000 nanny and $4,000 for personal trainers
- •They invest about $1M a year, leaving roughly $2,300 a month
- •Sam says it takes about $25M liquid to stop working while spending $1M a year
- •Shaan sees the post as rage-driven engagement bait, and Sam says he knows many high earners who spend nearly everything
Liquid Death's Super Bowl Ad Alternative
Shaan describes how Liquid Death sold ad space on its shipping cases on eBay instead of buying a Super Bowl ad, with Coinbase paying $500,000. Both hosts credit the founder's marketing-first bet on selling water.
- •Liquid Death auctioned ad space on the side of half a million cases
- •Coinbase paid $500,000, creating PR when it was announced, again when the sale happened, and a third time through the news that someone bought it
- •Sam recalls the founder's agency background and his focus on advertising over product
- •Shaan says the whole bet was being world-class at marketing for water
How Review Sites Really Work: House of Fresh Exposé
Sam presents an article by House of Fresh, a small air purifier review site, explaining how a handful of media companies dominate product reviews. He says it has made him distrust review sites.
- •16 media companies reportedly get 3 billion clicks per month and dominate Google review results
- •Freelancers write reviews that are syndicated across dozens of owned sites
- •Sam suspects they mostly aggregate Amazon reviews instead of testing products
- •House of Fresh buys products and does not accept free ones
- •Niche review sites are often bought by the brands they review
- •Sam trusts few sources, and is wary even of Wirecutter because of its ownership
Building a Trustworthy Review Business and Wrap-Up
Shaan agrees review sites are driven by SEO and proposes a subscription-based review business that takes no affiliate commissions. Sam compares the media ownership graphic to the grocery store ownership infographic, and the hosts wrap up the first Quickie.
- •Shaan says searching 'best mattress' mostly shows who is best at SEO
- •His idea is video plus subscription reviews with no affiliate links, similar to The Athletic
- •Subscriptions could possibly be shared among a group to make the economics work
- •The infographic of media company holdings makes Sam feel like a conspiracy theorist
- •The episode ends with the hosts settling on the name The Quickie
