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My First MillionHow This +$80M Founder Launches A Startup In A Weekend | ft. Noah Kagain (#546)
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Now Not How: Starting Right Away
After a quick joke about getting touchy-feely, Sam introduces Noah and his book, and Noah explains its core idea of "now not how": start immediately instead of waiting to be ready. He shares a Shaan quote on experimenters and suggests getting a first dollar right away.
- •Noah's book was developed like a tech startup, with surveys and beta testing
- •Shaan's quote: show me an experimenter and I'll show you a future winner
- •Survey results pointed to "now not how" as the top takeaway
- •People wait to be ready and never are; Noah suggests just getting a dollar from a friend or relative
Sam's Monthly 1K Course and the Act Now Tattoos
Sam recalls how Noah's Monthly 1K course changed his life, from asking for a coffee discount to pre-selling before building. He explains the stick-and-poke "act now" tattoos on his feet, and the group jokes about them.
- •Sam paid about $300 for the course at age 23 and started a business from it
- •The first lesson was asking a coffee shop for a discount, which terrified him
- •Course taught getting customers before building the product
- •Sam tattooed "act" and "now" on his feet as a daily reminder
The Power of Asking and the Airbnb Sales Formula
Noah names asking as the book's second big idea, citing the coffee challenge, and Sam says the shameless asking of immigrant families changed his outlook. Shaan shares Airbnb founder Joe Gebbia's formula, "some will, some won't, who cares, move on," and Noah recounts how Airbnb started by emailing a designer conference.
- •The coffee challenge: ask for a discount and learn to handle rejection
- •Sam says hanging out with children of immigrants made him ruthless about asking
- •Noah: business is just asking people to be sponsors, customers, partners or employees
- •Airbnb formula: some will, some won't, who cares, move on
- •Airbnb tested its idea by emailing a designer conference attendee list about staying on a couch
Silicon Valley Luck, Variance, and Failed Projects
Sam and Shaan discuss friends shifting from startup investing to cash-flowing businesses. Shaan argues most Silicon Valley winners succeeded through market selection and luck rather than talent, and the three count how many of their projects failed.
- •Shaan says the "losers of the Silicon Valley lottery" now want cash-flowing businesses
- •Of 100 friends, five to seven built billion-dollar companies; he doesn't credit intelligence or hard work
- •Winners picked the right market and had fewer near-death moments, though Airbnb stands out for grit
- •Shaan has had 15 to 20 failed projects, and Sam says about 10% of his have worked
- •Noah says successful CEOs aren't much smarter, just more experienced
Quiet Compounders: AppSumo and Carrd
Sam says AppSumo has quietly built a big business after early hype, and Shaan offers Carrd as a similar example, bootstrapped for about a decade by two people. Noah credits longevity and choosing a growing market.
- •AppSumo is almost 14 years old and bootstrapped
- •Carrd grew in part because political causes used it for websites
- •Carrd stayed small and then raised a single round after about 10 years
- •Noah credits longevity and picking a market that keeps growing
AppSumo's Numbers and Reinvestment Strategy
Noah shares AppSumo's figures: $76.7M gross sales, $56M net revenue and $7.5M profit. He explains reinvesting nearly all profit each year, the Amazon-style approach, and notes he paid himself nothing for five years while having saved about $1M by 30.
- •Gross sales were 76.7M, net revenue 56M, profit 7.5M
- •Net margin over 14 years is about 0.5% by design
- •Profit goes to team trips, ads, servers, sponsorships, prepayments and team bonuses of nearly $2M
- •Noah paid himself nothing the first five years
- •Earlier ventures and day jobs left him with about $1M liquid at 30
Joining Facebook in 2005
Shaan asks Noah to tell the Facebook story. Noah explains how he got hired with mock-ups, what the chaotic early office felt like, and Zuckerberg's early moves, which leads to a debate about conflicting stories of the rejected acquisition offer.
- •Noah got the job by sending mock-ups of a Facebook Maps feature with his resume
- •The office was chaotic, yet felt like something special was happening
- •Noah's boss was fired the day he started
- •Noah says Zuckerberg copied ConnectU in a weekend to launch
- •Sam and Shaan trade conflicting versions of the Yahoo offer story, and Shaan warns about startup lore
Product-Market Fit Energy and Zuck's Focus Culture
Shaan asks whether Facebook's office had the feel of a company with real pull, and Noah says yes, citing internal growth metrics and serious threats. He describes how Zuckerberg removed distractions for employees, and Shaan links that to MrBeast's disregard for social norms, while Noah notes the downsides.
- •Shaan describes how a friend's messy, thriving office showed him his own startup was "playing house"
- •Noah saw users grow from about 10 million to 50 million while he was there
- •Zuckerberg paid for parking tickets, cleaning and housing so staff could focus on work
- •Shaan sees disregard for social norms in successful people like MrBeast
- •Noah recalls a coworker's death met with no acknowledgement as a negative
Getting Fired, Facebook's Core, and Billionaire Patterns
Noah explains he was fired over the Coachella episode and a TechCrunch tip, then critiques Facebook's focus on its core. Sam asks about his billionaire friends, and Noah says they rarely set out to be billionaires and stuck with one thing for decades.
- •Noah was fired after tipping TechCrunch and emailing Zuckerberg, and also felt frustrated as the company grew corporate
- •Shaan notes that the bigger a company gets, the harder it is to move the needle
- •Noah says to make the core excellent before adding new things, as with AppSumo
- •Billionaires he knows focused on one thing out of curiosity
- •Slow compounding over a lifetime is overlooked compared with getting rich in a weekend
Saying No Until Something Is 10x
Shaan says his main Camp MFM takeaway is that he's spread too thin, and relays Hormozi's idea of only saying yes to opportunities worth 10x. He explains he shut down two projects and now reserves his first three hours each day for content.
- •Shaan says he's doing more and getting less by spreading himself thin
- •Hormozi's framing: the hardest no is to something matching your current income level
- •Top performers only say yes to something about 10x better
- •Shaan shut down two working but 1x projects
- •He protects the first three hours of each day for content
Prototyping Content and the ROI of Writing a Book
Shaan describes prototyping content formats, including earlier podcasts nobody heard. Sam challenges Noah on the four years the book took and its ROI, and Noah says the payoff is pride and helping people one at a time, prompting banter about his evolution since his shirtless days.
- •Shaan prototyped podcasting before committing to it
- •Sam compares writing a book to marathon training, complaining throughout then signing up again
- •Noah says doing something hard is the real ROI
- •He dismisses grand goals like helping a million people
- •Sam notes how much Noah has matured from his wilder past
Shaan's $1,000 Weekend and the Action Mindset
After Sam's book giveaway plug, Shaan shares how nine months and a 300-page plan produced no revenue until he set a goal of making $1,000 in a weekend. They sold custom wristbands, and Shaan says that experience made action his defining trait.
- •Shaan and his co-founder spent nine months planning without earning a dollar
- •He set a goal of making $1,000 by Sunday night
- •They sold customized wristbands sourced from Alibaba and drop-shipped
- •Noah says a limited weekend forces what months didn't
- •Shaan decided overthinking was other smart people's weakness and chose to take immediate action
Morning Reminders, Tattoos, and Wrap-Up
Noah recommends putting a reminder where you see it first each morning, and the conversation turns to Sam's tattoos and tattoo artists. Sam wraps up the episode.
- •Noah picked up the idea from a book called The Art Thief about what you see first when you wake up
- •He suggests placing a goal by your bedside
- •Sam says he has "bold, fast, fun" tattooed on his thighs
- •Sam prefers homemade tattoos because you get what you want, unlike shops
Publisher timestamps
- 0:00Intro
- 1:00Now not howRead this chapter
- 4:30The upside of askingRead this chapter
- 6:00Airbnb sales formula revealedRead this chapter
- 13:00Appsumo quietly crushing it with $80M arrRead this chapter
- 20:00The lore of Zuck and early facebook
- 33:30Only say yes to 10x
- 42:00Million Dollar Weekend giveawayRead this chapter
