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My First Million

How I Manage My $100M Portfolio In A Google Sheet | ft. Moiz Ali

Episode 518: Shaan Puri and Sam Parr talk to Native founder Moiz Ali about his $100M portfolio, investment strategy, and the three businesses he would start today.

Shaan PurihostMoiz AliguestSam Parrhost

Nov 14, 20231h 9mWatch on YouTube

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Chapter summaries

Moiz Ali’s background, one-liners, and the “learn it in six months” mindset
The hosts welcome Moiz Ali and frame him as a fast-learning operator who built Native from scratch. They trade stories about Moiz’s memorable quotes and Moiz confirms a formative anecdote about committing to master an industry quickly.
- •Shaan introduces Moiz’s track record building and selling Native and his current investing activity.
- •Sam highlights Moiz’s reputation for sharp one-liners and blunt business judgments.
- •Moiz clarifies he sometimes reuses great quotes rather than originating them.
- •Shaan recounts and Moiz confirms the story about learning “everything there is to know” about deodorant within six months.
“Worst way I ever made money”: check-cashing at family gas stations
Moiz describes growing up working in his family’s gas stations and how check-cashing became a major business line. He shares a tense incident with a bounced check that made a small profit feel like the most stressful money he’d earned.
- •Moiz explains the gas station check-cashing model: taking a percentage fee to provide cash immediately.
- •He describes the scale they reached, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks cashed in a day.
- •A bounced $2,000 check created real fear for the family’s finances and forced them to confront the customer.
- •The experience shaped his view of risk: the $100 fee felt like the “worst” money due to anxiety and uncertainty.
- •He answers questions about his age and how he balanced school and working shifts.
Native branding “theft” story: fonts, colors, and the Native Juice confusion
Sam challenges Moiz on whether Native’s branding was borrowed from a nearby business. Moiz explains what he did copy, what he didn’t, and tells stories of real-world confusion and complaints caused by the overlapping “Native” names in San Francisco.
- •Sam asks whether Native’s look was taken from Native Juice; Moiz says that’s false but acknowledges overlap.
- •Moiz admits copying a font style from Harry’s and using colors inspired by Casper for speed and cost reasons.
- •He describes shipping product from his apartment and repeatedly being mistaken for the juice company.
- •The founder of Native Juice confronted them about getting customer-service calls meant for Native Deodorant.
- •Moiz describes steps taken to reduce the in-person interruptions while still ordering juice to the office.
Big business idea: a liquid “stock market” for residential real estate
Moiz proposes building a platform where rental homes are bought and sold as shares, with ongoing liquidity rather than traditional long lockups. He argues residential rentals are easier to underwrite and re-rent than commercial properties, and envisions local sponsors earning reputations through performance.
- •Moiz outlines buying rental homes and selling shares with a liquid secondary market on the platform.
- •He contrasts LP real estate lockups with the ability to buy/sell shares anytime.
- •He argues residential is easier to rent consistently than commercial, where tenants and fit can be uncertain.
- •He proposes enabling local “sponsors” to list properties, raise capital, and build reputations via reviews.
- •He criticizes prior attempts for poor underwriting, commercial focus, and lack of real liquidity.
Rapid-fire real estate models: Home Options vs. “Pipe for rent” vs. Steady Capital
Shaan pitches three real estate-related business ideas and asks Moiz to rank them. Moiz surprisingly favors Home Options, sees “Pipe for real estate” as duplicative of existing financing, and places Steady Capital in the middle while discussing why each model might or might not work.
- •Shaan describes Home Options: paying homeowners now for the right to represent them as broker when they eventually sell.
- •Shaan describes “Pipe for real estate”: converting monthly rent cash flow into upfront cash for a fee.
- •Shaan describes Steady Capital: letting people invest a set amount monthly into vetted real estate deals and receive income.
- •Moiz ranks them: Home Options first, Steady Capital second, Pipe for real estate last.
- •Moiz argues Pipe-like upfront rent advances resemble existing tools such as refinancing and leverage.
- •They discuss uncertainty around realtor commissions following a large verdict against the National Association of Realtors and follow-on lawsuits.
The “Founders Card” concept: collective bargaining for SaaS and ad spend discounts
Moiz describes paying a monthly membership fee to access software discounts that more than pay for themselves, but he won’t name the group. The hosts explore why more niche industries don’t organize similar discount collectives and how to negotiate deals by leveraging competitors and member volume.
- •Moiz says he’s in a membership program that costs about $100–$140/month but saves him far more via SaaS discounts.
- •He notes the discounts apply even without being a new customer (in his case).
- •Moiz argues small businesses could band together to negotiate platform discounts similar to how large companies do.
- •Shaan proposes negotiating by first signing up “number two” providers, then pushing “number one” to match.
- •Sam explains why he previously didn’t pursue a similar card: difficulty differentiating and negotiating discounts.
- •Sam discusses AARP as a reference model for membership fees plus affiliate-style revenue.
“Shopify for $100M+ brands”: why big e-commerce outgrows Shopify
Moiz argues Shopify excels for early growth but becomes limiting for very large brands that want deep customization and conversion optimization, especially at checkout. He describes why some brands move to custom stacks and shares how Native used WordPress/WooCommerce to enable features Shopify didn’t support at the time.
- •Moiz says Shopify is great for 0–$50M businesses but less suitable for brands north of $100M that want heavy customization.
- •He points to checkout flexibility and conversion-rate improvements as key reasons large brands leave hosted platforms.
- •He mentions some businesses “outgrowing” Shopify and moving to custom technology stacks.
- •Moiz says Native ran on WordPress/WooCommerce and lists capabilities they leveraged (e.g., post-purchase offers).
- •They discuss how even small conversion lifts can be worth enormous dollars at very high revenue scales.
The $20/month Shopify apps thesis: cloning expensive add-ons with flat pricing
Shaan and Moiz complain about the high cost of Shopify app ecosystems, especially for larger stores with tiered pricing. Moiz outlines an opportunity to clone common apps cheaply and charge a simple monthly fee, while Shaan shares examples of surprisingly profitable tiny apps.
- •Shaan says his Shopify app spend is extremely high and criticizes revenue-based pricing for basic features.
- •Moiz suggests a team could clone popular apps and charge a flat low monthly price, especially from lower-cost development hubs.
- •They argue many apps are overpriced relative to the complexity of what they do.
- •Shaan shares an example of a simple “max items per cart” app generating millions in revenue with high profit.
- •They note low friction in Shopify billing makes it easy for merchants to accumulate recurring app charges unnoticed.
- •Moiz frames a “clone the top 100 apps” strategy as a large potential business.
Moiz vs. “real estate Twitter”: fraud claims and why capital calls are a red flag
Moiz delivers a blunt critique of real estate influencers, claiming many misrepresent returns and performance. He describes how floating-rate debt and rising rates lead to capital calls, and why he refuses to reinvest with most of the people he’s seen online.
- •Moiz says “Twitter real estate” is full of frauds and claims some sponsors publish returns inconsistent with LP realities.
- •He explains how floating-rate mortgages and rising rates can break deals, leading to requests for more investor money.
- •Moiz argues real estate sponsors shouldn’t need extra capital after acquisition unless the structure was flawed.
- •He criticizes sponsors who pitch new deals as “great timing” after prior deals underperform.
- •Moiz says he avoids naming names but cites one sponsor he respects for conservative underwriting and reputation focus.
Portfolio update: more bonds, concentrated stocks, and why he kept buying Facebook
Shaan asks Moiz to update his asset allocation since a prior appearance. Moiz explains shifting more into short-term Treasuries, increasing stock exposure, and concentrating holdings—especially in Facebook—while describing what gave him conviction to buy when sentiment was negative.
- •Moiz says his bond allocation increased and remains heavily in short-term Treasuries, with some gradual move to longer duration as the curve changes.
- •He says he has increased stock market exposure and is heavily concentrated in Facebook, Shopify, and also holds P&G.
- •Moiz describes outperforming the market in a recent period and attributes it largely to Facebook.
- •He explains conviction by observing how dependent many online retailers are on Facebook advertising.
- •He connects contrarian buying to lessons from his father’s real estate purchases during the financial crisis, emphasizing conviction during downturns.
Underpriced assets now: San Francisco real estate and distressed office, plus DTC caution
Moiz identifies San Francisco real estate—and possibly office real estate in other cities—as potentially underpriced, while cautioning about timing and the need for more distress to surface. He also responds to Shaan’s question about beaten-down DTC public companies, arguing some may need bankruptcy before they’re investable.
- •Moiz calls San Francisco real estate a key underpriced opportunity and mentions office real estate as possibly distressed in other cities.
- •He recalls difficulty getting loans during earlier downturns and describes his family effectively “dollar cost averaging” into property with rental cash flow.
- •Moiz says timing the bottom is hard and suggests more deals may still need to “light on fire” before the market resets.
- •Asked about battered DTC stocks, Moiz says some may need bankruptcy first due to obligations and structural issues.
- •He mentions evaluating brands and distinguishes between different failure modes (e.g., cost structure vs. broader systemic problems).
Why he avoids hype (AI/Bitcoin), manages money in a Google Sheet, and distrusts wealth managers
Moiz explains he’s cautious about investments without clear monetization and exit paths, citing reduced exposure to Bitcoin and skepticism toward hype cycles like AI. He then describes how he tracks investments with his brother using a shared Google Sheet, and tells stories about why he believes wealth managers primarily sell products rather than provide objective guidance.
- •Moiz says he prefers understanding how money is made and how an exit happens before investing heavily in new themes.
- •He notes his Bitcoin exposure has decreased and implies similar caution toward AI investing.
- •He says he and his brother manage investments themselves using a shared Google Sheet tracking commitments and amounts invested.
- •Moiz describes a partially shared “family pot” approach to money with his brother.
- •He recounts experiences with wealth managers pushing products and likens them to car salesmen selling financial instruments.
- •He gives an example of exiting a longer-duration bond strategy after disagreeing with assumptions and switching to short-term Treasuries.
Should Moiz start another company? Hosts push for a bigger “magnum opus”
The conversation turns to whether Moiz will build again, with Moiz saying he can’t simply compound $100M into $1B and needs to build a billion-dollar business. Shaan and Sam offer different paths—acquisitions versus creating from scratch—and challenge him to avoid becoming a one-hit wonder while reflecting on Native’s growth under P&G.
- •Moiz says he expects to start another company and frames it as the only path to a much larger outcome.
- •Shaan suggests using Moiz’s current advantages and capital to buy and scale an existing sizable business.
- •Sam argues Moiz is more of an artist/creator than he admits and encourages building something meaningful from scratch.
- •They debate whether Moiz should avoid another DTC brand or choose a category that matters more to consumers.
- •Sam pressures Moiz about time since the Native sale and jokes about the risk of becoming a one-hit wonder.
- •Moiz shares Native is doing significantly higher sales now, and says he doesn’t regret selling because he learned from P&G’s scaling strengths.

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