I Spent 7 Days With LA’s Rich & Famous… Here’s What I Learned (#481)

Shaan Puri 0:00 He'd just come back to it. We were, we're talking about a whole different topic and he's like, "B- Big O Tires? Really? You could just own 12 Big O Tires and that's it?" [laughs]

Sam Parr 0:08 [laughs] Yeah.

Shaan Puri 0:08 And he would just come back to a new example of one of these, like, shitty brick-and-mortar chains that are like, you know, so easy, sweaty cashflow business. [upbeat music]

Sam Parr 0:28 All right, we're gonna start the pod, but before we do, we have an announcement. We are looking to hire a new producer. This producer is gonna be the person who sits live on these podcasts, helps us edit them, and make the videos and, uh, podcasts popular, helps us get guests. So we're hiring.

Shaan Puri 0:43 We're hiring. I, I almost call him a band manager. It's like, you know, the band manager's job is to make sure that the band blows up, right? And so this podcast has grown a lot. It's time that we find somebody who wants to take it to the next level, booking amazing guests, uh, helping us brainstorm great content segments and be like, "Guys, people love it when you do the blue collar side hustles. Let's make sure we hit those every week," and, uh, you know, keep us on our A-game. Um, make the audio, the video tighter, make the YouTube channel better, make it pop. Uh, we want somebody who's great at this. Uh, ideally, we hire somebody who's already a fan of the show and is looking to basically hang out with us a few times a week, see how we operate, loves making great content, loves getting content made, and has the, I don't know, like, kinda like the taste and the skills to put out a great content product, and that's what we're looking for. So if that's you, uh, you can reach out. You can email me. Uh, it's shaan@shaanpuri.com, so S-H-A-A-N at S-H-A-A-N-P-U-R-I.com, and I'll forward it to our team, uh, over at HubSpot that is, uh, that is vetting and interviewing everybody. So we're gonna hire somebody this next few weeks.

Sam Parr 1:51 And it's a full-time position. If you're an amateur, you've never done this before, you... Maybe you'll get noticed, but you have to be really good. We're not looking for people who we're trying to take huge risks on. We're trying to find people who are the best. Uh, we've already had hundreds of people apply, so we really want the best people out there. If you've never done this before, you could still throw your, throw your, your resume out there and try to impress us, but make sure you do that. Um, if you've already been there, done that, that, that's awesome too. So check it out. Email Shaan, shaan@shaanpuri.com. All right, let's get to the pod.

Shaan Puri 2:25 All right. You ready for the greatest show I've ever done? [laughs]

Sam Parr 2:31 A, a lot of people have, uh, uh... We got a lot of good comments on the last show. People were saying... Someone asked me an interesting question. They go, "Your guys' cadence is really good. You guys, uh, you talk really fast, and it feels quickly." And then someone said, "Do you do something to one another?" 'Cause we're... Shaan and I are remote. "Do you do something to one another to let each other know that it's your turn to speak?" And I was thinking, I think we just have... We just know each other well enough that we know how to do it. But there is something that we each do. At least I pay real attention to you when you do it, and I try to give you the signal, which is you open up your mouth when you want to say something, and then just you let it sit open for a minute. Do you know what I mean?

Shaan Puri 3:08 Yeah, it's the Zoom hack, 'cause you're like, "Uh." You're like, "Uh." And the little uh is, without the, without the sound, is basically just signaling now, but you know 'cause on the recording, they're not gonna see it. So it's a silent signal-

Sam Parr 3:21 Right

Shaan Puri 3:21 ... whereas if you were doing that in person, it'd be a little, like, strange. Um, but yeah, it definitely works. The hard one is during interviews, 'cause during interviews, the guest is talking. We don't know when they're gonna stop. They're opening up, like, a probably a bunch of, like, paths you could go down. Like, oh, they've mentioned three things. They say it was really hard, then they said they met a guy. Who? Who was the guy? And they said that it really changed their perspective. But how? What did it change? And so you're like... And then we don't know who's gonna go. We're both pretty insatiably curious. I have a bad habit of just, like, talking too much in general in life. And so then it's like we don't know which path we're gonna go, and we don't know who's gonna decide. Um, so a team interview I think is really hard. Uh-

Sam Parr 4:04 It's, it's very... That's very hard. The interviews are easier in person, but what we do this now with just us, I think it's way easier on Zoom 'cause I've gotten so used to it. Also, I've recorded in studios like you have done lately. You're gonna talk about your trip in LA. I cannot stand when there's a third party there because I'm constantly trying to entertain her or him-

Shaan Puri 4:23 [laughs]

Sam Parr 4:23 ... like the, the, like the person there. But, uh, yeah, we, uh, it, it... What people don't see is we do a good job of opening our mouths just a little bit so the other person knows when it's done.

Shaan Puri 4:33 [laughs] Pro tips for everybody. Yeah, that's what you learn after three years of, uh, intense podcasting, one of the top-ranked business podcasts in the world. You don't get these kind of insights anywhere else.

Sam Parr 4:43 No. Oh, my God, someone was like, "You guys are so fast-paced." I'm like, "Yeah, it wears me out."

Shaan Puri 4:47 [laughs]

Sam Parr 4:47 I usually always have to take, like, a 20 or 30-minute nap. I just close my eyes and lay down on this couch.

Shaan Puri 4:51 That guy's definitely just listening to us on 2X and is like, "Wow, these guys are strange." [laughs] You know, he doesn't know he hit the button on his app.

Sam Parr 4:59 Uh, so you just went

Sam Parr 5:00 to LA. Last episode, I asked you about it. You just said, "I'm gonna do a whole thing where I tell you about it." I love these things because you're very observant. You, uh, you, you are... You have great observations, and you don't ever leave your house.

Shaan Puri 5:12 [laughs]

Sam Parr 5:12 So when you do, you're extra. You're e- You have great observations.

Shaan Puri 5:16 Boy Meets World.

Sam Parr 5:17 And, uh, the thing about you is you've got, like, a child's, like, awe of the world because, like, you're so sheltered, and you live in such a bubble. And so you say these things that I'm used to-

Shaan Puri 5:27 [laughs]

Sam Parr 5:28 ... but I love just hearing it anyway.

Shaan Puri 5:29 [laughs] A Sam Parr backhanded compliment, one of the finest.

Sam Parr 5:32 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 5:33 Uh, yes, all those things are true. There used to be a website back in the day, I don't know if you remem- I don't know if it's still up, probably is, uh, Little Big Details. Did you ever see this website?

Sam Parr 5:41 No.

Shaan Puri 5:42 And it's a great little blog. It's a Tumblr blog actually that's, like... Tumblr's not even around anymore. But what they did was-

Sam Parr 5:48 Last post, 2017

Shaan Puri 5:49 ... they would just sw- uh, it was like a swipe file, so they would just capture any example of, like, a small thing that a company did well. So, um-

Sam Parr 6:00 Like on a Google Doc. It... On a Google Doc, when you go to share it and you don't name it, it just takes the first line of what you spoke about And it makes that the title of the Google Doc as opposed to just naming it Untitled Document.

Shaan Puri 6:12 Yeah, exactly. Or like it says on Google, if you Google the word kerning, every word that shows up in the results has a large amount of kerning, right? Like, the, the, the font. Um, or it'll be like, you know, the error, like the 404 page of this site instead of just saying error has this really fun, um, fucking poem or whatever it is. And so, uh, I love this website. I love the name, Little Big Details. Um, I love this site 'cause it just gave me a bunch of inspiration when, back in the day when I was like more of like a PM, product designer type guy. Um, but third, little big details are the secret of life, right? I've said this before, it's the moments in between the moments. Like, it's not the big moments that matter, it's the moments in between those moments that matter. This is the product version of that. It's like here's the little things. I remember the first time I used Slack and our designer typed a hex code. They were like, "Oh yeah, it's gonna be color, you know, number 883344F." And then it just tr- it automatically swapped that to the s- color swatch so we could see it. Or it added the color swatch to it inline.

Sam Parr 7:15 Right.

Shaan Puri 7:16 And we were just like, what the... Like, it was a mic drop moment and our, and our every, like our design team was like, "Okay, I fuck with this product." Like, they-

Sam Parr 7:24 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 7:25 ... like somewhere in this a designer was like, "You know what'd be cool? It'd be cool if you could actually see the preview of the thing, 'cause nobody knows what these numbers mean." And like I don't even know how they did it with the emoji size thing, and it was just like a little big detail. And there was a bunch of those with the great, with great products like Slack, um, that, like kind of like, I don't know, we were in the first 100 users of Slack or something. And so it was very clear that like this thing might become a thing because the care that they took to this. So anyways, m- the things I wanna talk about the LA trip, they're not the big moments. It's not, oh, I met with this famous person and here's the, the groundbreaking insight. I tried to find a bunch of the little big details, a l- a bunch of the moments in between the moments that I think were interesting in their own way. This is for two reasons. One, I don't really wanna brag or I can't really talk too much about the people I met and what they said because it'd be kind of airing out, you know, those private meetings. But two, I think there's just a lot of interesting stuff in these, or at least I think there could be. So I wrote down a bunch of very vague but slightly intriguing bullet points, and you can pick. But I will say here's the structure. So I go to LA with Ben, business partner Ben. Um, we do three things. So we, uh, here's the daily schedule. Morning is basically meetings and a workout. That was the goal. Um, midday was typically recording a podcast live in person with someone that we admired, respected, or thought was really cool. And then the evening was always a dinner with kinda like founder friends who were y- almost always people who had sold their companies, uh, sold one or more companies, uh, in the past. And we did that for five days straight. So we would leave the house at 8:00 AM, we would get back around midnight and crash, and then do it all again the next day.

Sam Parr 9:07 Oh my God.

Shaan Puri 9:07 And, uh, for me, who's someone who's almost always at home, hon- I have two little kids that are under the age of, you know, four years old, so, uh, you know, I'm on a kids' schedule typically. This was crazy. But, um, w- was a, was an awesome, was an awesome experience. So now take it away.

Sam Parr 9:23 All right. So you have a list of maybe 20 things. I bolded about half of

Sam Parr 9:30 them that in- intrigued me. I wanna learn about big company CEOs talking about laundromats.

Shaan Puri 9:37 [laughs] All right. So this is the story. We're out at, um, one of the kinda like after dinner, just like let's go hang at this other place, so we're hanging at this other place. And it's me, it's business partner Ben, and it's our buddy Sully. And we're hanging out and, um, Ben goes, "Hey, that's so-and-so." And we look across, I'm like, "I, I, I don't even rec- I don't recognize the name or the face." So I'm like, "What are you talking about?" And he's like, "We did a call with him two years ago." And I was like, "What?" He's like, "Yeah, we did a Zoom call for like 20 minutes with that guy. He introed us to this gu- other guy." And I was like, "I don't, I mean, I can't for the life of me remember this guy." So it's... And this guy, by the way, doesn't remember our, us either, right? Like, uh, he doesn't recognize us either. Ben, uh, he's got like fricking the, like you know how China has the facial recognition software that, this running at all times using AI?

Sam Parr 10:28 Yeah, Ben has that.

Shaan Puri 10:28 Ben has that. Uh, this happens like five or six times during the trip. He would see someone walking by and be like, "That's that girl from Twitter." [laughs] I'd be like, "What? How, how do you know this?" [laughs]

Sam Parr 10:38 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 10:38 And, uh, and so he does it. He's like, "Hey, blah, blah, blah." And they're like surprised, and he's like, "Hey, it's Ben. We talked two years ago on a Zoom call for 20 minutes." And he's like... And then you see the guy kinda like doesn't really know what's going on. They're having dinner, so we merge dinners.

Sam Parr 10:52 Wait, did you really?

Shaan Puri 10:53 Yeah, we just merged hangouts. Their crew was awesome. So they're, they're best friends from business school. They went to Harvard Business School together. One of them runs, one of them is now CEO of a public company. Can't say which one, but he's, uh, a, such a funny guy.

Sam Parr 11:06 So mu- uh, uh, assuming multi-billion, multi-billion dollar company.

Shaan Puri 11:10 Yeah, over $1 billion. So, um, we're hanging out, and this guy, who's the CEO of a multi- of, of a multi-billion dollar company at the moment, he goes, um, he's like, yeah, he, he was like, "Oh, you do a podcast? What's a podcast? Oh, what is it called? Oh yeah, I'll check it out," right? And then he, he's kinda like, he's like one of those people that's like busy actually doing something. So he's like, was kind of-

Sam Parr 11:31 Yeah

Shaan Puri 11:31 ... detached from like the world of like Twitter and podcasts and like content creators and all this stuff. But as we're talking, he's like, "Oh, you know one thing I did see? What's with all these, like entrepreneurs who own laundromats?"

Sam Parr 11:42 And HVACs and shit, yeah.

Shaan Puri 11:44 "They, they're just buying laundromats? They're just making like a million dollars a year owning a laundromat? Like what, what is this? That can't be true." He's like this, he's like, he's like, "This... Either this is not true and they're lying, or this is true, and what the hell are we all doing? Why don't we all own, own like 15 laundromats?" He's like, "It's a, it can only be one of two situations." [laughs] And so we had this hilarious conversation with this guy.

Sam Parr 12:07 But there's not a third situation of it is true, and it's kinda stupid?

Shaan Puri 12:11 No. He was like, "If it's true that these things are as, you know, sorta simple and cash flowy as po- as they sound- Why would we all not just own 15 of these and call it a day? And he's like, "And if it's not true, why the hell are they talking about it like it is?" And, um, I just thought it was so funny 'cause it was like smart person... It's kinda like when you... If you took a really healthy person to, like, a grocery store and walked through the snack aisle, they'd be like, "So this is all just sugar?" You'd be like, "Well, yeah." There's like, "So all the kids' food is sugar, and then all the adult food is, like, sugar and salt. Like, what... D- you eat this? Why wouldn't you just eat normal food?" And you're like, "Well, I mean, I can't defend it. It's just the way... I don't know. It's just what it is." That's how he was talking about, like, entrepreneurial content that he's run into on, on social media, just, like, in passing while he's, like, trying to, like, go see friends' photos. He's like, "Why is this entrepreneur telling me that they make so much money so easily doing something so, so stu- so stupid and hands-off?" He's like, "It's either not hands-off, it doesn't make that much money, or we are all idiots, and it... 'cause it is hands-off and makes that much money." And I just thought it was such a, like... It was so funny the way he was ranting about it, and he just, like, kept... And then every 15 minutes during the conversation, he'd be like... He'd just come back to it. We were, we're talking about a whole different topic and he's like, "B- Big O Tires? Really? You could just own 12 Big O Tires and that's it?" Like [laughs]

Sam Parr 13:32 [laughs] Yeah

Shaan Puri 13:32 ... and he would just come back to a new example [laughs] of one of these, like, shitty brick-and-mortar chains that are, like, you know, so easy, sweaty cashflow business.

Sam Parr 13:42 I went through this period, so I was public about this. I bought property, uh, to do an Airbnb 'cause I was like, "You know, let's see if I'm interested in that." And what I've learned is exactly what that guy feels, which is if you can make money on the internet or, like, through content or software or something like that, the business is so much better. You can create a huge amount of money from nothing.

Shaan Puri 14:05 Right.

Sam Parr 14:05 You need nothing except w- you gotta work on it. With real estate and laundromats and shit, you make... We're talking, like, single digits. If you're really lucky, tens of thousands of dollars a month in profit. And it's a pain in the butt, man. It is so hard, and you have to have a ton of money to do it. Uh, like, it, it, it's quite challenging. So I understand now. I'm like, "Oh my God, like I, I have the skill set. This is so stupid to do this other thing when this other, when this internet thing is so much easier."

Shaan Puri 14:32 [laughs]

Sam Parr 14:33 I feel... I, I totally understand what he's saying.

Shaan Puri 14:35 [laughs] And so the, the other great story this guy told, um, so I'm gonna try to do this without giving away too much info. So he, um, you know, he takes over as

Shaan Puri 14:45 CEO of this company. He wasn't the original CEO. He becomes... He gets hired as CEO or become CEO. Um, and now this company has, like... It, like, has big scale, but it's not profitable. So the stock was getting kinda hammered, and the company wasn't doing so well because it's not profitable. And, um, so there's all these theories. So if you, if you just listen to, like, the pundits, they would be like, "It's a category problem," like, "This category can't be profitable because of A, B, C, and D." They're sorta like, it's a... more like they're all theorizing about it, and they've made it sound-

Sam Parr 15:18 Right

Shaan Puri 15:18 ... like it's just a law of physics, that it's just not gonna work. Bad category.

Sam Parr 15:21 Like, um, like, like gr- like grocery delivery.

Shaan Puri 15:23 Like, yeah, like 15-minute grocery delivery or whatever, right?

Sam Parr 15:26 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shaan Puri 15:27 And so that was... If you just listened to the smart pundits, you would've just been like, "Well, impossible." Um, and if you listen to the original team, they'd be like, um, you know, like, "Yeah, it's... We're working on it." It's like, "No, you're not. Dude, every single customer, we lose, [laughs] we lose money every time someone buys from us. Don't you s- recognize how big of an issue this is? Like, how did you let this go on for this long this way?" And then he's like, "Okay, so first act as C- as CEO," he goes to, um, like the kind of like, let's say the place where the, the kind of the product is, is, is developed or made. Um, like it has, like, a real-world product. It's like a, it's a, it's a business that's, like, tech-enabled, but it has, like, a real-world, world component.

Sam Parr 16:07 Yeah.

Shaan Puri 16:08 Um, similar to, like, an Uber or a, um, uh, like Airbnb has, like, phy- you know, there is the physical place. So the guy goes, and he's like... We're like, "So what'd you do?" And he's like, "I just sat there. I just sat. I got a chair and I sat down in the middle, and I just watched for eight hours straight." He's like, "I just looked. I just looked at what was going on. I had no preconceived judgments. I said, 'Let me just watch what's actually happening here.' How is it that we are losing so much money? For ev- every order that we get, every customer that we get, we lose money. How is this possible?" Um, and he just sits there and he watches. He watches and he's like, "Oh, okay, I see. We got too many people doing too little shit, and the manager is not doing what they're supposed to be doing." And so he's like, "I, I..." Like, "That guy, you're outside for half the time, and therefore this person is not doing what they're doing. And these three people are all trying to do the same thing." And he's like, "I didn't have to, like... Like, it wasn't a theoretical problem, and it wasn't an inevitable problem. It was just a everybody's too distanced from the thing problem. Everybody... Nobody just sat here for eight hours straight and just watched what the hell is actually going on." And he's, and they told the story how they actually, like, turned it around, now it's profitable and, like, so on and so forth. And so, um, I think that's all I can say without giving too much away, but I just love this guy. I love the story. The two things that he, that he said out loud was the like, "Hey, hey, wait, wait, wait. Pause. Time out, time out. We can all just own Big O Tires and, and call it a day. Like, if it's that easy, we should be doing it. If it's not that easy, screw those people for saying it." And secondly, he's like, "I'm just gonna go sit for eight hours and watch, and just really get to a first, like a, like a, a clear understanding of what is actually happening before we come to any other conclusions."

Sam Parr 17:55 Will you ever do one of these things? So I, I dip my toes in it, and, and my thing, like, it's, on paper, it's successful. It's just, like, ugh, it's just, uh, it's emotional baggage. What, what do you think about yours? Or are you ever going to do anything like that?

Shaan Puri 18:09 You mean a business that has real-world sweatiness?

Sam Parr 18:14 Yeah. Yeah.

Shaan Puri 18:15 Um, yeah, like for our e-com thing, we ran our own warehouse for a while, so that was, like, you know, ultimately my problem if it, if things went wrong, and I spent many weekends, you know, like- Breaking down, uh, pallets and reorganizing the warehouse and making it work and looking at the numbers and being like, "Why is this person's... Well, you know, maybe we should measure their rates and, like, this guy's picking 80 products per hour and this one's picking 40. Is it a person thing or is this guy just lazy or what's going on?" Like, and then just dealing with all those issues, you know. One guy threatened to kill another guy today at work. All right.

Sam Parr 18:47 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 18:48 Um, there's nothing in the handbook for that [laughs] . You know, this doesn't make me money, but I think it can lose me a bunch of money.

Sam Parr 18:55 Did you really have that incident?

Shaan Puri 18:56 Yes.

Sam Parr 18:56 You had that incident?

Shaan Puri 18:57 [laughs] Got a call that was, uh, "Hey, um, this one guy just threatened to kill the other guy. Like, what should I do?" Like, it was a kind of a serious threat. He's mad, like I don't think he's gonna do it, but he did yell it in front of everybody. And I was like, "Well, I think you gotta fire that guy, um, right now, and I don't know why you're on the phone with me." And then the other person, like, why are they... Why does that guy wanna kill him? What did he do instead? Like, you know, can we just replace all these people with somebody else? You know, it was a, it was not a... I mean, there's, there's... It's a very hard thing, right? It's just hard, like, getting warehouse crews that are happy, productive and kind to, you know, and, and reliable is not, like, a thing for anybody. I have a friend who ru- runs an e-commerce store, and they go, "I'm shutting down my warehouse to- tom- tomorrow. Like, where can I move?" And we're like, "Oh, what hap- what happened?" He goes, um, "Someone just shit all over the floor in the warehouse for no reason."

Sam Parr 19:49 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 19:50 And we go, "Dang, like, what did he do?" He goes, he goes, "She. What did she... Why did she do it?"

Sam Parr 19:55 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 19:55 I was like, wow, just for, for a woman to just shit on the floor in a warehouse, it's like-

Sam Parr 20:00 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 20:01 ... what, what happened? Like, what did it take to get there?

Sam Parr 20:05 Was it a, was it a spite shit or was it an accident shit? I mean, the, the, the intent matters.

Shaan Puri 20:11 I, I-

Sam Parr 20:11 Was it like-

Shaan Puri 20:11 I asked all the wrong questions apparently, 'cause I didn't g- I didn't ask that one.

Sam Parr 20:14 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 20:14 I had 10 questions, but that wasn't one.

Sam Parr 20:16 [laughs] What, what about the NBA player?

Shaan Puri 20:20 All right. NBA [laughs] NBA player. So we-

Sam Parr 20:21 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 20:22 ... meet an NBA player in LA. Um, this isn't my story. I wasn't there for this, but Ben, uh, relayed it to me. It was very funny. He's like, um, he talked about like, yeah, so is it, uh... It's kinda like what do you say to these guys, right? So, like, they get a bunch of fanboys, and you don't wanna be a fanboy. In general, I would say there was really two learnings. The first was, um, we go to this thing, there's a bunch of NBA players, but who cares? Uh, like, you know, they're cool. I, I think they're cool. I think there's co- it's cool what they do, but, like, wh- this event, you know, it's like, ah, it's hard to, like... What are you gonna do? They're not, they're not gonna be your friend. Like, this is, like, a unl- very unlikely... Like, what do you think is gonna happen here? Like, you go in excited. It's like, "Ooh-

Sam Parr 21:04 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 21:04 ... this person's gonna be here."

Sam Parr 21:05 Well, you know what they're thinking. You know what they're thinking, which is like, "Damn, Shaan, you're pretty tall. You ever lace up?"

Shaan Puri 21:10 [laughs]

Sam Parr 21:10 Like, you know, we, we, [laughs] we need, we need a fifth. Like, are you interested? [laughs] Like, that's what you want to happen, right? [laughs]

Shaan Puri 21:18 Yeah, exactly. It's like we, we've been waiting for this sk- you know, this Indian guy with no athleticism. Like, you know-

Sam Parr 21:26 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 21:26 ... w- would you like to become my best friend and come on the road with us? Like, you know, what, what, what's gonna happen here?

Sam Parr 21:30 Or, like, meeting Drake, it'd be like, "Hey, you're really, like, you're really good at speaking. Do you happen to have a mixtape on you that I could check out?"

Shaan Puri 21:36 You wanna just-

Sam Parr 21:37 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 21:37 ... wanna just hit the, hit the studio real quick? [laughs]

Sam Parr 21:39 Yeah. [laughs] That's what, that's what you want to happen. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 21:46 So I think the realization was, we got excited to go to this event, but it's also like, cool, this event is cool, but that's not gonna happen. Nothing's gonna happen that's awesome from this event in that way. Um, two things happen. We meet a team owner. Again, Ben runs facial recognition software. He's like, "That guy's a minority owner of the Philadelphia 76ers," or something like that. And I was like, "How do you know the minority owners of this..." He's like, "I recognize him from something I read." And I was like... And nobody's talking to this guy, 'cause nobody knows this all kind of, like, older-looking dude. So we go up to him. We're like, "Hey, you're blah, blah, blah." Normally, when Ben does this, the person is so elated that somebody kinda knows them, that you're a fan of theirs. They're li- nobody's talking to them otherwise. They're kind of like, they know they're actually pretty dope, but nobody at this event knows they're dope. This was the opposite. This guy just totally big dogged us and made us seem like we were pieces of shit. So we're like, "Oh, cool. Um, I asked you 10 questions. You gave me exactly 10 words as answers, so one word per question."

Sam Parr 22:44 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 22:45 And, uh, you left your AirPods in the whole time, and then you looked at us at the end like, "If you ask one more question, I'm gonna fucking slap you."

Sam Parr 22:51 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 22:52 And so we, uh, we had that experience.

Sam Parr 22:53 Just farted and walked away. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 22:54 And then we had the basketball player experience where Ben takes a ph- Ben's like, "Oh, look, I got this photo with this, like, famous NBA player." And, uh, we had a realization. The realization was this: It's dope if these guys were our friends, but it's not gonna happen this way. The only dope situation is not that we meet them and we're a fan of them and we, they recognize us as a fan, but that they're a fan of what we do and we're a fan of what they do. That's the only cool version of this, is do something dope so that they have respect for you as you have respect for them. So you should actually spend your time, instead of chasing them to meet them and get a picture with them and whatever, just do dope shit, become a magnet where other people who are awesome will respect you and wanna meet you and wanna talk to you. Or, or have something that they, you know, some common ground that they can find. Peer versus fanboy.

Sam Parr 23:43 Yeah, so like sh- sh- sh- showing them your calves was not gonna, like, cut it.

Shaan Puri 23:47 [laughs]

Sam Parr 23:47 Like, oh, like-

Shaan Puri 23:48 I run a 5.4 40. Does that do anything for you? [laughs]

Sam Parr 23:51 Can you jump high? Can you jump high? Those calves are looking great. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 23:57 Yeah. Uh, I, I wear a, I wear a Fitbit. [laughs] We have so much in common. Um, so okay. Next thing

Shaan Puri 24:05 was NBA player's like, right, we're, so, so I have nothing to lose at this point, so we're like, uh, "So, like, what's it like just, like, having, you know, p- tons of chicks that wanna be with you? Like, how do you do that? How do you navigate that?"

Sam Parr 24:17 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 24:18 He's like... 'Cause we're like, you know, he's got, he's like, "I got a wife, I got kids." And so he's like, um, he's like, "I told my wife, I said this." Uh, uh, anytime somebody has that voice-

Sam Parr 24:28 Yeah, I'm in. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 24:29 ... only good things come after that tone.

Sam Parr 24:30 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 24:31 He goes, "I said, 'Baby- Um, you're happy, right? Yeah, I'm happy.

Sam Parr 24:36 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 24:37 Baby, you got the house of your dreams, right? Yeah, yeah. Baby, I gave you three beautiful children, right? He s- sure did. They're beautiful children. He goes, "Baby, you can buy anything you want on this credit card, right?" Yeah, yeah, yeah. Baby, you got to be called my wife, right? All right. What more do you want, baby? [laughs] Yeah, what more do you want? [laughs]

Sam Parr 24:58 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 24:58 And he goes... I just had it out, open conversation with my wife that, like, look. You're gonna have a bunch of amazing things in your, in your life and so am I. [laughs] And I thought it was-

Sam Parr 25:09 Oh my God

Shaan Puri 25:09 ... I thought it was-

Sam Parr 25:10 I hate that, by the way

Shaan Puri 25:11 ... I thought-

Sam Parr 25:12 I hate that.

Shaan Puri 25:13 Well, of, of course you hate that. I mean, it's, uh, it's not necessarily something that's admirable. I'm just saying it was something that was fucking hilarious-

Sam Parr 25:21 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 25:21 ... and nobody's that honest. And I thought, wow. To have the u- the honesty to tell a stranger that story is a confidence level that I could only admire. Um, the, the, you know... Do I do that with my wife? No, of course not. Would I want to even? No.

Sam Parr 25:36 Oh, I do it with my wife, except it's a little bit different. It's like, "Hey, Sarah, look, you know if someone comes in this home, I'm gonna go and fight to the death to protect you, right? Whatever you want, I'll give you. I'll do anything for you. Now take out the trash, please."

Shaan Puri 25:49 [laughs]

Sam Parr 25:50 Usually it's more like that. [laughs] It's like, "Will you be the one who takes out the, the, [laughs] the dishwasher today?"

Shaan Puri 25:55 [laughs]

Sam Parr 25:56 "Let, you do it this week, and tomorrow when someone breaks into our home, I'll die for you."

Shaan Puri 26:00 [laughs]

Sam Parr 26:01 Normally it's, normally that's the argument that I make.

Shaan Puri 26:03 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, these are all not great traits, I would say, but, uh-

Sam Parr 26:07 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 26:08 ... I found it hilarious. This

Shaan Puri 26:10 falls in line with just a general thing, which was people in LA say wild shit.

Sam Parr 26:16 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 26:17 Like, [laughs] people in LA are so, like, name droppy and money droppy.

Sam Parr 26:23 It's disgusting, isn't it?

Shaan Puri 26:25 It is. But they're not even really even aware of it. It's crazy. Like, they'll be like, um, this is a made-up example, but they're like, [laughs] uh, "Yeah, yeah. We can meet at my place. It's over on, um, you know, Beverly and whatever. It's a $4.2 million property." It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Why, [laughs] why did you add that at the end? [laughs] Like, completely unnecessary information, complete brag, uh, outta nowhere. And I just kept getting sideswiped by brags as I was walking through LA. Just, "Oh, oh, sir, you dropped this. Oh, that's, oh, that's a producer you know? Yeah, that's a name? Okay, here you go. Take, take that."

Sam Parr 26:59 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 26:59 You know, like I couldn't believe it. And I think SF is obnoxious. San Francisco is as obnoxious in its own way.

Sam Parr 27:05 Which ways?

Shaan Puri 27:07 You'll be like, "Oh, I'm gonna eat dinner." They're like, "Dinner is, you know, actually unnecessary. Studies show." It's like, what? Dude, I just wanna eat dinner. Like, don't, like, make me... Like, we don't have to, like-

Sam Parr 27:16 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 27:16 ... be transhuman right now. Like, you know, we don't have to, like, um, like, not everything has to be a thing, or, like, you know, we don't have to use AI to, like, you know, go get a smoothie right now. But, like, y- you know, s- uh, uh, San Francisco's obnoxious in its own ways, but the LA version of being obnoxious I found to be very strange.

Sam Parr 27:35 Yeah. I, it, it makes me really uncomfortable whenever I'm there. It's, um, e- e- e- every, every city is a dick-measuring contest, but, uh, the type that they measure in LA, I-

Shaan Puri 27:45 It's, like, the ruler changes

Sam Parr 27:46 ... I ain't comfortable with.

Shaan Puri 27:46 Right? In, in San Francisco it's like-

Sam Parr 27:48 Yeah

Shaan Puri 27:48 ... "How ambitious are you?" Right? "No, you say the craziest thing you're working on. No, no, no, you say the crazy investment you just made." It's like it's an ambition contest. And New York is, like, some power contest, and LA is basically, like, a fame, uh, a fame contest or a network contest. Like, who do you know and who knows you?

Sam Parr 28:06 When I, uh, when my wife used to work at Facebook, one time Facebook rented out the baseball stadium, AT&T Park, and I remember going there, and we wore nice clothes, like a suit jacket or whatever. But then the engineers would wear, it was like a contest to see who could look the most schleppy. So it, it would be, like, one guy wearing a tuxedo T-shirt. It's like, oh, I see. It's like you're ironic. That's funny. And then another guy would be, like, just only wearing pajamas and Birkenstocks.

Shaan Puri 28:31 Right.

Sam Parr 28:31 Or another guy, like, only pajamas but, like, dress shoes. It's like, oh, it's cute.

Shaan Puri 28:36 [laughs]

Sam Parr 28:36 You make a joke like, "Oh, you think that that means you're dressing up. Get it. I get it. You're, like, a brilliant guy. You're Einstein."

Shaan Puri 28:41 [laughs]

Sam Parr 28:42 And that's the type of contest that you would see there, whereas in LA it's, like, uh, Land Rovers, Range Rovers, and, uh, fancy cars, and, um, everyone has beautiful white teeth.

Shaan Puri 28:54 [laughs]

Sam Parr 28:54 And, like, have you noticed that there?

Shaan Puri 28:56 Dude, I-

Sam Parr 28:56 The teeth in LA?

Shaan Puri 28:57 ... I put down veneers. Let's-

Sam Parr 28:59 Yeah, what about that?

Shaan Puri 29:00 So veneers were, I don't know, just, it was a blind spot for me. I didn't even know what the hell venee- veneers were. Didn't know who had them.

Sam Parr 29:06 Do you know how you get them?

Shaan Puri 29:07 I, dude, I went down the rabbit hole. I w- I went on YouTube for, like, three hours. What are these things?

Sam Parr 29:11 You, like, drill each tooth so it's almost looks like a spike, and then you, like, put up these fake things on there and glue 'em on there. So your teeth are, like, ruined, I, I believe. Like, they're, they're changed forever.

Shaan Puri 29:22 They are. They shave them down. I think the bad version is when they really shave too much and it becomes, like, little spikes and you look like you have little baby teeth. I think the good version is they just take a layer of the enamel off and then they basically glue a fake tooth front onto your thing. And y- it lasts-

Sam Parr 29:37 Well, it's awful

Shaan Puri 29:37 ... for, like, a decade and then you, like, get 'em switched. And you have these pearly white-

Sam Parr 29:41 Well, they look awful

Shaan Puri 29:41 ... perfect teeth. They-

Sam Parr 29:42 They look like Barney teeth. You remember Barney, the, the-

Shaan Puri 29:44 [laughs]

Sam Parr 29:45 ... puppet or the, like, it was just, like, o- one strip of white.

Shaan Puri 29:48 Yeah. I think the good-

Sam Parr 29:49 Ugh

Shaan Puri 29:49 ... version, 'cause I was like, again, I went down the rabbit hole. Like, the good doc makes them look like they're your teeth and not just, like, the generic thing. Uh, but I said a really, like, like, uh, uh, in LA I was, like, kind of enamored by this veneers thing, and I go, "Okay, I figured it out. There's only two types of people in the world, people who have veneers and people who need veneers." [laughs] 'Cause, like, once you see people who don't have veneers, almost everyone's teeth are pretty, pretty nasty. Like, most people's teeth-

Sam Parr 30:16 Yeah

Shaan Puri 30:16 ... they're kinda yellow, kinda out, m- you know, misshapen, whatever. The, people generally don't have great teeth, and the people who do have veneers. So there's only two types of people in life. This is now my belief. People who have veneers or people who need 'em. I'm currently in the people who need 'em category, and maybe, who knows, I'll go do 'em. But I, but for some reason, tell me this, um, plastic surgery. Like, I don't think you or I would ever be like, "You know what? Just I wish my eyebrow was a little higher up or whatever. You know, like-

Sam Parr 30:42 Dude, I'm-

Shaan Puri 30:43 I wish my-

Sam Parr 30:44 I'm not-

Shaan Puri 30:44 ... my nose was a little different. Um-

Sam Parr 30:46 The cool thing about being a man is, like, older men can be, like, pretty smoking to women.

Shaan Puri 30:51 [laughs]

Sam Parr 30:51 You know, like George Clooney is, like, a fine wine, you know what I mean? Like, people still like him. Brad Pitt still looks smoking. My wife's been trying to convince me that, like, Botox for women is okay, 'cause she'll talk about, like, Botox. I'm like, "No, F that. Just age. You look beautiful."

Shaan Puri 31:05 Yeah.

Sam Parr 31:05 Like, it, it's cool that, that we're gonna age together. Then I met a couple people who get Botox and they're like, "It's not that big a deal." So maybe my opinion is changing on Botox, but in general, I would say plastic surgery, I'm like, let it be. Let's age together and we're gonna look awesome. So I'm generally pretty against that.

Shaan Puri 31:19 Me too. Uh, totally was in that camp. As I've met more people, I'm like, it's way more prevalent than I realized 'cause I'm in a dude tech bubble. Uh, so it's way more prevalent than I realized. And secondly, there's some things... Like, I kinda get the teeth thing. It's like, it, it's like there's, there's grades to it, right? It's like, well, you do get a haircut. You do... You know, maybe you'll shave your beard. All right. Might buy nicer clothes. Okay, that's, that's a thing. Like, uh, you know, what if you just, like, you know, get the, get like a, a facial treatment? Maybe that makes your skin looks a little better. Okay, the, the... It's like a, kind of like a, almost like a slippery slope of, of the beauty thing. And like-

Sam Parr 31:59 Yeah, but what did you see there? Like fake asses and fake boobs, or stuff on men?

Shaan Puri 32:03 Everything, dude, everything. Saw everything. [laughs] Men with Botox. You know, fake everything. Everybody's nose had, was everybody had the same nose. Um, so that was insane. Uh, the power of veneers. I was like, ah, this k- I just love... It's a pl- it's a pleasure to make you laugh 'cause I like seeing that smile. [laughs]

Sam Parr 32:21 [laughs] No. Don't fall down this trap. Do not do it, man. Do not do it.

Shaan Puri 32:26 Yeah, so I might show up to one of these podcasts with, uh, veneers and a nose job. Who knows? We'll see.

Sam Parr 32:31 What about the thing, and, and-

Shaan Puri 32:32 Or like, I, I don't know if I told you this, I have a, like, a deviated septum. I went to a ENT person. I was like, "Yeah, I don't know. I never been able to breathe through my nose very well." And they're like, "Yeah, 'cause you have, like, a super screwed up thing. Like, it's, like, horrible." And he's like, "You should get that fixed." I was like, "Okay, cool." And I was like, "Does that change how my nose-

Sam Parr 32:49 But then they're like, "While-"

Shaan Puri 32:50 ... looks?"

Sam Parr 32:50 Well, yeah, they're like, "While we're there-

Shaan Puri 32:52 That's the thing

Sam Parr 32:52 ... we'll also do this, this, and this."

Shaan Puri 32:53 He's like, "It doesn't have to change how it looks, but, like, we're doing the surgery anyways. It's very easy to, like, you know, just shape it." And I was like, "But does that make me lame?" And he's like, "That's a personal question." Like I [laughs] you know what I mean?

Sam Parr 33:05 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 33:05 I was like, "What if you could s- Like, if I did that, would I have to tell my boys I got a nose job?" Like [laughs]

Sam Parr 33:10 Wha- what are you, like, telling the doctor? You're like, "Doctor, am I gay?" [laughs]

Shaan Puri 33:14 I was like, "I, yeah, I need a 360 opinion here on this. Like, you can't just hit me with the medical. I need the medical, the personal, the social. Like, I need all the opinions." [laughs]

Sam Parr 33:21 [laughs] He's gonna diagnose you with being a douche.

Shaan Puri 33:24 Yeah, he's [laughs] exactly. He's like, "Well, your douche levels will go up if you, if you have veneers."

Sam Parr 33:28 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 33:28 But like, you know.

Sam Parr 33:31 Uh, all right. Maybe last one, but what about the, uh, rich g- Who... Did you meet with someone who donated

Sam Parr 33:35 hundreds of millions of dollars to a high school?

Shaan Puri 33:36 [laughs] Yeah, so, uh, rich people do really stupid things is the name of my, my, of this topic, which is actually, they do misguided things to help their kids. So I met multiple people who had donated somewhere between single digit millions to double digit millions. One person said 100 million plus. But I, I don't believe it 'cause where, I don't even know-

Sam Parr 33:58 To a high school?

Shaan Puri 33:58 I don't even know where that would go. To a high school. Uh, I'll give you one, I'll give you one fam-

Sam Parr 34:02 Where would even 10 million go to a high school?

Shaan Puri 34:04 I'll give you one public example, which is that, uh, you know the Fertitta brothers, the guys who owned the UFC before they sold it, the guys who own casinos in Vegas. They, uh, their kids like to play football, as many kids do. But unlike many football parents, these guys decided that their h- their high school, their alma mater, needed a, uh, like, a, a Division 1 f- s- college level football facility, and donated tens of millions of dollars. They, they haven't said the exact number, but you can kinda triangulate it because they later donated, like, 10 or 15 million bucks to a college, and it's less than what they gave their high school for their football facility.

Sam Parr 34:42 Oh my gosh.

Shaan Puri 34:43 And it's like basically they gave at least $20 million to a high school to build a better football facility so their kids would have a better shot at becoming a better football player. And I was like, "This is such a misguided way, such a, like, inefficient way-

Sam Parr 34:57 It's, yeah

Shaan Puri 34:58 ... to help your kids." Um, and I've met many people like this. I know people who are wealthy beyond measure, and I ask them, "Why, why, why are you still working, like, so many hours? What are, what are you doing? Why are you taking all this risk?" They're like, "Okay." They're like, "My dad, when I wanted to be a entrepreneur, um, said, 'You're never gonna do it,' and he refused to give me any money to start, start, so I, I struggled so hard at the beginning. Um, I, when my kids turn 18, I'm gonna give them each $20 million and say, like, you know, 'I will support you in building any business you want with that.'"

Sam Parr 35:28 You know someone who's said that?

Shaan Puri 35:29 This is their literal plan. Uh, they're like, they, and they're saying it bragging to m- again, crazy brag.

Sam Parr 35:35 How old are their kids?

Shaan Puri 35:36 To me. Their kids are currently, their oldest is maybe 10 years old. Um, and their youngest is four. So they have four kids. That's $80 million, uh, uh, you know, allowance [laughs] that they're gonna, that they're creating. Trust, a trust fund that they're creating, creating for the kids to start these businesses. And I, I told him, I was like, "Well, you know that, like, because you didn't have the resources, you developed all these skills, which is what made you successful in business. Like, you weren't, if you were handed $20 million, I don't think you would actually be who you are today. Um, so I, I love that you're trying to help your kids, but I just don't think what you're doing, which is working super hard when they're kids, being so busy being busy that you're kind of away from them, making all this money that you plan to hand them at 18. Like, I, this sounds like a recipe for disaster." But you know, people-

Sam Parr 36:22 It's a horrible-

Shaan Puri 36:23 People don't really wanna hear that-

Sam Parr 36:23 ... that's how you create drug addicts

Shaan Puri 36:24 ... uh, so, you know, I, I don't think that message was, [laughs] was received very well. Um, but you know, I, I just found that people do crazy things in the name of, of, like, their kids and money.

Sam Parr 36:33 No, I think that that's crazy. I think that's exactly how you create, like-

Shaan Puri 36:37 Little bit-

Sam Parr 36:37 ... a future heroin addict.

Shaan Puri 36:38 I'll tell you a couple other ones I think are good. Talked to an investor friend. So I have a friend who was a VC at one of the big VC firms. He's left. He left and started doing his own thing. But- He has a style and a strategy I think is very different than most people. I find it very fascinating. So if I asked you, I said, "What's... What is... Like, draw me, like, a picture of the typical Silicon Valley VC." Like,

Shaan Puri 37:00 can you just describe some things about them? Like, you know, what, what are they like? What are they doing? You know, like just the n- the average VC, let's say, average VC.

Sam Parr 37:07 A, a ta- a tall looking white guy who wears, um, a sweater, um, [laughs] and brown shoes or shoes that have white soles, like white bottoms.

Shaan Puri 37:17 [laughs]

Sam Parr 37:17 Uh, [laughs] and they basically m- meet tons and tons of people of-

Shaan Puri 37:22 Tons of coffee meetings.

Sam Parr 37:23 Yeah, tons of coffee meetings, lots of introductions from other people who come from really amazing universities, and they'll pass on most of them, but then they'll invest, uh, like 50 to 100 companies, uh, smallish checks, and then never hear from... Uh, they, they don't really talk to the founder often unless things are going really bad and then they bitch at them.

Shaan Puri 37:41 [laughs] Yeah, exactly. They say they're gonna be value add. They invest in, uh, dozens, uh, say maybe f- 40, 50 companies over their lifespan of, like, a couple of years. They're taking tons of coffee meetings. They're super agreeable. They'll only kinda smile and say nice things to your face typically. They, um, cast a wide net. They're, they love going to meet- mark, uh, networking events.

Sam Parr 38:01 They'll say that like, uh, "We're a founders first company."

Shaan Puri 38:04 We're founder first. We're founder-friendly.

Sam Parr 38:06 We invest in world-changing ideas.

Shaan Puri 38:08 Yeah, all of them m- all of them only invest in the best somehow. Um, yeah, every single VC only invests in the best. Uh, they, they do all those things. This is an investor friend that has a Twitter egg profile picture. They go to no networking events that are, like, VC run and, a- and/or, like, kind of gen- generic founder events. Um, they do go to random events that are like, "Oh, I'm going to this biohacker meetup in downtown Oakland where people are gonna, like, shoot themselves up with DNA." [laughs] It's like, "Okay, I'll go to that." Like, they go to those types of events.

Sam Parr 38:42 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 38:43 Um, they have a strategy, which is basically, here's what he told me. He goes, "Every year, one company becomes, like, kind of the center of the universe, and my job is to have invested in that company three years ago." And I go, "Wow, okay."

Sam Parr 38:59 That's great. I like that.

Shaan Puri 39:00 I go, I go, "So what are... Give me examples." He goes, "Well, like, you know, uh, back when we met, I met this person in 2012 or 2013. They were like, you know, Stripe was actually the center of the universe at that time. Stripe was the company that, like, was the clear breakout." Recently, he's like, um, most recent ones last year would've been OpenAI. So, uh, OpenAI before kinda, like, or, like, kinda early ChatGPT or before relea- releasing GPT-3. Um, right now, I go, "Right now, who is it right now?" He goes, "Ozempic. Ozempic is the center of the universe right now."

Sam Parr 39:30 Yeah.

Shaan Puri 39:30 And I was like, "Oh, interesting." So not just, like, tech companies. When I t- last time I talked to this person was maybe three years ago, um, i- in earnest, and I was like, "So what are you up to nowadays?" And generic- usually, the answer is like, "Oh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that." This person said, "I quit my job, and I am just hunting down a way to own a piece of OnlyFans." I go, "What? The porn thing?" And he's like, "Yeah. OnlyFans I think is gonna be massive. I think it's, you know, it's one of these. It's the center of the universe right now, and people are... It's gonna be the center of the universe. People won't realize it. I think it's gonna be one... I think it's gonna be the one of this, like, this year kinda cohort. This is gonna be the company that matters. So my only mission is to add so much value to the owner of OnlyFans that, um, I can invest in it or own a piece of it somehow. And if I don't, whatever. At least I was helping that rocket ship go." And, you know, previously it might've been SpaceX or Tesla was, like, you know, the, those, that com- the company. And, um, Bitcoin, Ethereum, like those are, like, some of the other ones that had their, their... They owned that, that year. There was no more valuable company that was, like, g- creating more value that would then s- in the future be realized. And, uh, I just thought it was awesome. I thought it was an amazing... I was, I'm just so happy that this person's a friend that, like, thinks so differently, operates so differently than the, the average, uh, person that-

Sam Parr 40:54 Ha- has he been successful?

Shaan Puri 40:55 Has been successful. And he told me, I was like, I go, "So what's the strategy here?" He goes, "Oh, I'm trying to make all the best investments I can so I can make the worst investment of my life and buy this, like, soccer club in Europe that I grew up loving." And he's like, uh, he's like, "I'm, I'm trying to make the best investments ever so that I can make the one worst investment ever." And, um, I just thought it was awesome.

Sam Parr 41:15 And does he use other people's money?

Shaan Puri 41:17 Uh, in the past he did. I think now he's doing a lot of his own, or he'll raise SPVs. Like, I was like, "Oh, you invest in this company? Cool. Well, what, what, how much do you invest?" He goes, "A hundred million dollars." And I go, "A hundred million?"

Sam Parr 41:26 Oh my God.

Shaan Puri 41:27 I was like, "You have $100 million?" He's like, "Yeah, I, I raised a $100 million SPV 'cause I believe in this company." And I'm, and you just, it puts your own conviction and ambition in check. You're like, "So what's the company I believe most in? How much have I plowed into that, and why is that number not 100 million?" [laughs] Right? Like, you can only h- like self-check when you hear stuff like this in a good way. It, it's a frame breaker. I said, "Where, where'd you get the 100 million?" He goes, "From one LP. I convinced one person." And they, they were actually already convinced actually. That person was kind of already convinced that this was a good company. I b- busted my ass to get the, the ability to put $100 million check in, and they put the money in.

Sam Parr 42:05 What did he put $100 million in, can you say?

Shaan Puri 42:07 I can't say.

Sam Parr 42:08 Has it worked?

Shaan Puri 42:09 Uh, I don't know. S- s- again, it's you bake these things three, four years ahead, and then we'll find out, like, did that company... Was that the right place to concentrate, like, a laser beam of conviction? So I loved that conversation and meeting that person. So that was one, uh, that I think is great. Um, let me give you one more that I think is... Oh, here's a quick

Shaan Puri 42:30 one. Neighborhoods, not cities. You're, I think, a great person to talk about this 'cause you've been traveling around trying to find cool places to live. You don't pick at the city level. You pick at the neighborhood level. Um, it's actually what is the best neighborhood to be in, not what is the best city to live in. I just, that was just like an obvious understanding to me once you go to a place like- LA or, you know, you, you've done this in, in New York or, uh, Brooklyn or

Sam Parr 42:54 And it's really hard to do that, by the way. Like, the idea that, like, let's say that you're a normal person. Your home is likely gonna be the biggest purchase of your entire life, and it will unfortunately be the, uh... For most people, it'll be the largest portion of their net worth. And it's pretty insane that you make that decision, a 20 or 30-year decision, off one, maybe two one-hour visits.

Shaan Puri 43:13 Right

Sam Parr 43:14 Uh, like in, like for a, uh, uh, open house. It's, it's, it's insane.

Shaan Puri 43:19 And you did this, I think, way back in the day. I think you created one of these for San Francisco. I think it was the, um, the roommate infographic for neighborhoods in San Francisco. It's like, "If you live in this neighborhood, here's who your roommate's gonna be like," which is so brilliant because it's, A, about neighborhoods, and B, it's about people. Um, because people is also what makes your experience when you're in a, in a city. It's not the s- it's not the environment that's doing it.

Sam Parr 43:44 Yeah. Basically, in 2014, we had this app, and in order to make it popular, we launched in five cities: San Francisco, Boston, Manhattan, LA, and Chicago, I believe. And what we did was we're like, "All right. In order to make things go viral, we have to name as many names of local restaurants and local people that we can think of 'cause those people will share. And if we name, like, 50 of them, and each one, that's 50 people sharing in that city. That's how we'll get, uh, that's how we'll get popular." And so we created this thing called the Stereotypical Roommates of Los Angeles, Stereotypical Roommates of San Francisco, and if you Google them, you can find them. And we just made, like, a infographic that made fun of each neighborhood and all the brands and places that they shopped at, and that way you could, like, figure out what restaurants were like that neighborhood. But those restaurants and the people in those neighborhoods would share. And here's the thing. At that period, I don't think I'd... I had never been to New York. I had never been to Boston. We just looked at Yelp. We just went to Yelp [laughs] and look at what are the most popular things, and we found the jokes that people were making about it. And then that's how we made the infographic, and it went, like, crazy. I think we got tens and... many, many tens of thousands of downloads for the app in the first day.

Shaan Puri 44:47 I saw that. Before I ever met you, I read that thing. When I moved to San Francisco, somebody shared it because it was so funny, and like, kinda like, "Oh, that's funny 'cause it's true."

Sam Parr 44:54 Yeah.

Shaan Puri 44:55 Like, it... So it was actually useful, too, because it was like... It was a little, little bit stereotyping, generalizing, but it was, it was true for the most part, so I thought that was so, so good, and I kinda wish somebody did that for every city now. Like, just keep doing that.

Sam Parr 45:06 Exactly. Whenever I go and look at new neighborhoods, I, I try always to go to a bar and I say, "What's the stereotype of this neighborhood?" And I'll ask the bartender or whatever. I'm like, "Tell me the stereotypes." Uh, and they'll be like, "Oh, a lot of gay people are moving in." And I'm like, "All right. Up-and-coming. Got it."

Shaan Puri 45:19 [laughs]

Sam Parr 45:19 That's what that means, like g- gentrifying. Or like, "Oh," like, "What's the stereotype of this neighborhood?" "Tons of strollers," so I'm like, "All right. Rich, uh, young families."

Shaan Puri 45:27 Right.

Sam Parr 45:27 "All right. Got it. What else?" You know what I mean? Like, there's all these, like, things you can look up in your head.

Shaan Puri 45:30 Yeah, there's like co- codes. It's like that's a... It's like, you know, if, if you're in the government, it's like, "Oh, it's a, it's a 38333. That's the government code that means X." Uh, this is the same thing. It's like when somebody says critically acclaimed. Cool. Code for not profitable. Thank you. Uh, mov- moving on.

Sam Parr 45:44 Yeah, or boring. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 45:48 Yeah. [laughs] Yeah. Um-

Sam Parr 45:50 For the everyday man. Got it. Okay. Yeah.

Shaan Puri 45:53 I got a couple other quick ones for you.

Sam Parr 45:55 Ra- rattle off, uh, one more.

Shaan Puri 45:57 Uh, I'll give you a networking hack. So Tim Ferriss,

Shaan Puri 46:00 back in the day, did this blog post called How to Build a World-Class Network in Record Time or something like that. I loved that. I, I, I remember reading that and, like, kind of, like, getting inspired by that. Um, so I don't know if you know this, but business partner Ben I think is the greatest networker in the world actually. I have now come to realize this. I had no idea. Um, I had no idea what was going on until recently. I've f- now, now learned this. Um, he is working the phones, and he is just, like... Uh, it's so funny, too. What, what he does is he just checks in on people. Like, just this morning he texted my friend from college that I had been introduced him to once. This is my... one of my best friends from college that we're helping buy a business. And he goes, "Yo, I, uh, yo, I remember you said that the close date was supposed to be 7/31. Did it end up closing?" I was like, "Bro, how did you even remember-"

Sam Parr 46:47 Oh, my God

Shaan Puri 46:47 ... to check in? Like, he's the, he's the perfect boyfriend, basically. He's just fucking checking in and supporting everybody. Like Barshop, you can probably attest to this. In our, uh, in all of our t- we work together. I probably text you, I don't know, couple times a year max, uh, and it's, uh, usually about something that's, like, urgent and sort of transactional. Can... L- I'm just guessing that you talk to Ben fairly often. Uh, could you just describe this for a second? Because I think there's something to learn here out of this whole thing.

Sam Parr 47:16 Yeah, I can pull up my texts. He, he probably hits me up, like, two or three times a week. Like, "How's the X project going?" Or, um-

Shaan Puri 47:23 How's, how's X going?

Sam Parr 47:25 Yeah, he's a beast. [upbeat music]

Speaker 47:27 This data is wrong every freaking time. Have you heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform where everything is fully integrated. 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. HubSpot. Grow better.

Shaan Puri 47:47 So I noticed this because I would meet people, and then somehow afterwards they're only keeping in touch with Ben. I'm like, "Dude, am I just unlikable?" I was like... And I think there's something to it. I de- I definitely give off some, some stink that's like, you know, repels people.

Sam Parr 48:01 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 48:01 But Ben has the opposite effect on people. He draws them in.

Sam Parr 48:04 He's like a golden retriever.

Shaan Puri 48:05 Yeah, he's-

Sam Parr 48:05 And he's always smiling.

Shaan Puri 48:06 And he's just harmless, and people, people like him, and he's helpful. He's just supportive and helpful to everybody. And so he's like, he knows... Here's what he's figured out. He's figured out that most people just, nobody checks in with them. So he's, he checks in on how's that, the, your mission in life. How's that going?

Sam Parr 48:23 Does he do it on his cellphone or on the computer?

Shaan Puri 48:24 On his phone. Then they res- reply with, like, a long-ass update, and I'm like, "You're basically just saying 'Sup.'" And then the sup is generating this, like, highly interesting response, and then what he does is he's just, like, connects dots. So he'll be like, "Oh, you should talk to that guy." Like, "Oh, you, uh, you, you really like this TV show? We just met the writer. You should meet him." And he'll just connect dots. And, like, he's, he's just a dot connector. And then people are like, "Oh, that was helpful." Or, like, once he knows you're trying to do X, like let's say he knows, Sam, you're trying to, um- Do some, uh, body fat thing. He'll then just st- st- start sending you tweets.

Sam Parr 48:59 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 48:59 Just little links, uh, like-

Sam Parr 49:01 He does that to me all the time

Shaan Puri 49:01 ... that are related to it. And then he, he's also, what's it called? Like, indefatigable. Like, you can ignore, like you probably ignored the last four that he sent. Don't matter. No hard feelings. Gonna keep them coming. [laughs] And I'm like, wow, this is just

Shaan Puri 49:15 a recipe. So this kinda led me to this understanding of, okay, Ben is world-class at this, fantastic, but in general, Ben's kinda like my wing man. He's like my number two. And everybody's got, like, a number two at some... At s- Once you get to a certain level, you get, like, a number two. And actually, the number two guy network is the most under-tapped resource. So why were we meeting these NBA players?

Sam Parr 49:37 Mm.

Shaan Puri 49:37 'Cause we're friends with the number two of an NBA player. And it's like... And guess what? Nobody knows that guy. Everybody wants to get to the NBA player. Nobody even knows this guy's name, but he's got all the access. He's got 98% of the access that the NBA guy has, but he's got 2% of the, like, um, the, the, the busyness. And-

Sam Parr 49:56 Which we did with, uh, with Huberman's guy. Um, God, I'm blanking on his first name. Uh-

Shaan Puri 50:00 What? Rob?

Sam Parr 50:01 What's his name? Um, Rob. Rob Moore. Uh, yeah, I went out to, I hung out with that guy in LA, and he was like, he runs the Huberman Show. Huberman's the face, but this guy has got all the keys. And he's like, "Oh, yeah, we interviewed this person-

Shaan Puri 50:13 Exactly

Sam Parr 50:13 ... this person, this person"

Shaan Puri 50:14 They have the keys to the kingdom.

Sam Parr 50:14 "If you ever wanna talk, let me know."

Shaan Puri 50:15 They have the keys to the kingdom. And generally, these people are nicer, less busy. Um, they're the ones who actually do a lot of the fucking work, so they're actually more interesting people. Um, uh, they also are kinda like the gatekeeper. Like, they decide who gets in, who gets out, what opportunities come in, what gets out.

Sam Parr 50:30 And they're hit up way less.

Shaan Puri 50:31 They're hit up way less, so they're, they're way more available, and they're very helpful. Like, they, they know a bunch of the other people. And so I'm like, oh, shit, the number two guy network. I don't know what I'm gonna do with this, but I've had the insight now. And I'm like, I, I actually get along better with the number two guys be- for all those reasons I just mentioned, and I just think that this is, like, an under-tapped resource. And I get why everybody hits up Ben now, 'cause he's the number two guy. And some people have figured out this arbitrage, that you should hit up the number two guy 'cause he's, you know, nicer, smarter, better, faster, more accessible, all the things. And, um, so this was just a realization for me on the networking side. One of the, one of the few, like, big unlocks, I think, that I've had.

Sam Parr 51:12 Before we wrap up, did you... What was this thing about Bucked Up? Is that someone you met with in LA?

Shaan Puri 51:18 I didn't meet them, but I heard... I met somebody who told me their story, and I was blown away. Had you ever heard of Bucked Up?

Sam Parr 51:24 No, what is it?

Shaan Puri 51:26 So Bucked Up is a-

Sam Parr 51:26 Is it a hunting thing?

Shaan Puri 51:28 No.

Sam Parr 51:28 Is this like a hunting thing?

Shaan Puri 51:28 No, no.

Sam Parr 51:29 Oh.

Shaan Puri 51:29 Okay, let me tell you. L- l- don't even look it up. Let me just tell you the story. So, um, starts basically in the two, uh, in the, in early 2000s. There's these two guys, two twin brothers, I think, and they just do affiliate marketing. So they're like, affiliate marketing, they're like, "Hey, um, it's 2001. Google is not that competitive. We can basically say, oh, you want leads for your lawyer practice? Cool. What are you gonna pay us? We'll get you leads for that. You want leads for your apartment thing? We'll get you that. You want leads for this, uh, this supplement? We'll get you that." So, uh-

Sam Parr 51:59 And at that time, those guys killed it.

Shaan Puri 52:00 Those guys are killing it.

Sam Parr 52:01 Those guys are killing it.

Shaan Puri 52:02 Uh, by 2010... So they've been doing, they do this for about 10 years. They're making money. By 2010, they're generating 25 million a year in revenue with only three employees.

Sam Parr 52:10 Yeah.

Shaan Puri 52:10 That means they're basically pulling in, like, 20 million a year of profit, uh, as my-

Sam Parr 52:14 Yeah, i- if their, if their, if their, uh, CBCs are low, or the, the cost per clicks were low, which bet- back then they were.

Shaan Puri 52:21 Maybe I'm super aggressive. Yeah, I thought it was, uh, it'd be pretty low then. Maybe I'm super aggressive. Let's say it's 8 to 10 million in profit, I think is a very safe-

Sam Parr 52:27 Yeah

Shaan Puri 52:27 ... estimate.

Sam Parr 52:27 A, a, a ton.

Shaan Puri 52:28 Which is just amazing. Three people doing this. So this was, like, you know, what they were doing.

Sam Parr 52:32 My partner, my partner Joe, by the way, Joe Speiser, my partner in Hampton, he started this, and when he was 25 he sold the business. It was called Epic Advertising. He was the affiliate marketer. He sold a portion of the business for $250 million.

Shaan Puri 52:46 That's amazing. Amazing.

Sam Parr 52:47 And it was all this affiliate marketing stuff.

Shaan Puri 52:49 And so these guys, they're doing the affiliate marketing thing, and a guy comes to them and says, um... This is now, like, a decade later, right? And they, he comes to them and says, "Hey, I have this supplement called L-Arginine. Uh, L... And, and the brand's called L-Arginine Plus." And he's like, "I don't know what L-Arginine does, but, like, um-"

Sam Parr 53:08 It's like a vitamin. I think it helps make you sleep, or does it give you energy? I think it, uh, gives you energy.

Shaan Puri 53:13 Or does it help your brain function better? Who the hell knows? I don't know. Maybe this thing's even more.

Sam Parr 53:15 It's one of those things. I think you're supposed to drink it with caffeine and it gives you energy, I think.

Shaan Puri 53:19 Yeah, maybe. Uh, like right now, theanine-

Sam Parr 53:20 It's just some generic fucking supplement

Shaan Puri 53:22 ... is the, is the, is the one. But back then it was arginine was the one. And so-

Sam Parr 53:25 Yeah, whatever

Shaan Puri 53:26 ... the guy goes, "Hey"

Sam Parr 53:26 Acai bowls and shit.

Shaan Puri 53:27 [laughs]

Sam Parr 53:28 It's all the, it's all d- or acai berry or whatever the fuck that thing is. But it's all a different thing every time. What's that shit called? [laughs]

Shaan Puri 53:35 What's that Brazilian shit called? [laughs] Acai? I ain't eating no acai berries. [laughs]

Sam Parr 53:40 [laughs] It's like whenever I see the word, uh, quinoa-

Shaan Puri 53:42 I don't eat purple foods, all right?

Sam Parr 53:43 [laughs] What's that? Quinoa? Keen-you-ah? Uh, no.

Shaan Puri 53:47 [laughs] Quinoa.

Sam Parr 53:47 It's one of the... [laughs] Quinoa. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 53:50 I don't know. Queen-wah? [laughs]

Sam Parr 53:52 [laughs] Queen-wah. Yeah, it's like, what do you call, uh, do you ever use a call, uh... I used to think that La, La Quinta Inn was La Quita.

Shaan Puri 54:00 [laughs]

Sam Parr 54:01 You know what I'm talking about? [laughs] The La Quita Inn. [laughs] I didn't know it was La Quinta.

Shaan Puri 54:07 The funny thing is, the thing you said you say it, how do you say it now?

Sam Parr 54:09 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 54:10 'Cause I think it's also completely wrong. [laughs]

Sam Parr 54:11 What's it called? La Quinta? [laughs] What's it supposed to be called?

Shaan Puri 54:17 Uh, I think it's Quinta, but I don't know. Uh-

Sam Parr 54:19 La Quita.

Shaan Puri 54:20 [laughs] So, so a guy approaches him, says, "Hey, I'm making $250 a day on this L-Arginine thing. Will you guys be my affiliate marketers?" Quickly, in three weeks, they ramp it up. It's now making, like, over $3,000 a day. Okay, that's pretty good. $3,000 a day, that's like 100K a month. They own 50% of this thing. And they buy l-arginine.com to get an exact match. They're ranking number one. That's doing pretty well. And then he reads this article. So he's interested in this supplement game. He reads this article that Major League Baseball just banned deer antler spray. Never heard of it. What the hell is deer antler spray? Looks it up, f- finds that deer antler, uh, has some extract that's supposed to help you with recovery. Damn, must be s- if it's so good that the MLB bans it, that means [laughs] shit must be fire. Like, th- th- there's gonna be-

Sam Parr 55:06 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 55:07 ... a lot of... So he, he t- he takes, he m- he has the right... What is that Chris Farley thing? Did you learn the right lesson? He learned the-

Sam Parr 55:14 Yeah

Shaan Puri 55:14 ... right lesson from that news, which was, "This shit must be fire, and every athlete-"

Sam Parr 55:18 Yeah

Shaan Puri 55:18 ... "is gonna want it."

Sam Parr 55:19 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 55:20 So he buys deerantlerspray.com for $8, and he's, uh, he owns the domain. He's the number one rank. And it goes okay at first, not, not a huge demand, but he's kind of, he's there. And then, I don't know if you remember this, but one year before the Super Bowl, Ray Lewis, who's the, the-

Sam Parr 55:37 Killed a guy?

Shaan Puri 55:38 Uh, no, he killed a guy, I think, the year before, but during the s- playoff run, he gets hurt.

Sam Parr 55:43 Got it.

Shaan Puri 55:43 And there's a two-week, yeah, there's like a, there's like a extra week rest between, like, the Super Bowl and, and the playoffs or whatever. I think the story goes, Ray Lewis is hurt, but he's gotta play in the Super Bowl. And then he plays amazing, and they win the Super Bowl. And he's, and it comes out that he used deer antler spray to, like, recover during that week and to, like, ge- get rid of the pain and allow him to play well. Demand explodes through the roof, baby. And, uh, GNC comes to him and says, "Hey, we'd like, um, 30 units." And he's like, "Okay, cool. No problem." They're like, "Oh, no, no, sorry, 30,000 units." And he's like, "Oh, what?" They're sold out everywhere as soon as they, they, they, they, they get all this influx of demand. And they're, they're trying to keep up. So for one to two years, they're just keeping up with the new demand and being the number one player in this deer antler spray thing. But as they go, they're like, "Okay, we, we're kinda limited. It's, like, very niche. What if we expand this to, um, to something a little bit bigger?" So they change the name from Deer Antler Spray to Bucked Up. They kinda stay with the deer-

Sam Parr 56:41 Oh my God

Shaan Puri 56:42 ... thing. They change it to Bucked Up because one of the-

Sam Parr 56:44 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 56:44 ... GNC franchisees who they were chilling with goes, "Yeah, you know what sells really well but, like, you know, look, it, it doesn't look that good, is these pre-workout supplements." So basically, the powder you take before you work out that-

Sam Parr 56:58 Remember N.O. Explode?

Shaan Puri 56:59 Yeah, N.O. Explode. Uh-

Sam Parr 57:00 Dude

Shaan Puri 57:01 ... that was the big one

Sam Parr 57:01 ... that thing was acid. That would, that would [laughs] you could remove paint with that thing. I used to take that shit, and you would lift so much weight, but it would make you feel miserable after. I don't even know what was in it.

Shaan Puri 57:11 Yeah, your, it felt like your heart was gonna explode. It should've just been called, like, you know, Artery Explode, and, like, you know, one out of 10 people die of this thing.

Sam Parr 57:17 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 57:17 It was crazy. But, like, that category of pre-workout supplements, turns out, is a very big category. Um, so Bucked Up, today, they say, is the number one pre-workout supplement. This thing does... Guess how much revenue this does.

Sam Parr 57:32 I have no idea. 10?

Shaan Puri 57:34 250 million a year, apparently.

Sam Parr 57:36 Bucked Up does?

Shaan Puri 57:37 [laughs]

Sam Parr 57:38 Dude, the flavor's so... It's called Mother Bucker. That's one of their things is the Mother Bucker, and it just says [laughs] like, their slogan should be, like, "Strong as an ox." Like, this is, like, ridiculous. "Pump-"

Shaan Puri 57:50 Do you, um-

Sam Parr 57:51 "... focus, strength, energy. The mother of all pre-workouts, Mother Bucker." That's crazy to me. This is nuts.

Shaan Puri 57:58 You know, sometimes when I'm flipping the channels on TV, I'll see, like, um, you know, Hasan Minhaj, and he's just, like, you know, this guy who's, who's this comedian. He makes the world laugh. He's so good-looking. He's, you know, happy. He's having all this su- success. And I think, "You know, I was maybe one or two, you know, like, turns away from, from going down that path." When you see Bucked Up, do you think this? 'Cause I feel like you-

Sam Parr 58:22 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 58:22 ... were one or two right turns away from being the creator, owner, and sole proprietor of buckedup.com-

Sam Parr 58:28 [laughs] Dude

Shaan Puri 58:29 ... selling Mother Bucker pre-workout powders to people on the internet.

Sam Parr 58:34 Yeah, maybe. Maybe. I mean, I don't know. I, I guess I could have-

Shaan Puri 58:37 With like a 90,000 square foot factory in Missouri, um, and just, like, you know, having an antler-

Sam Parr 58:42 And a soul patch

Shaan Puri 58:42 ... a huge antler-

Sam Parr 58:44 Yeah

Shaan Puri 58:44 ... tattoo on your back and a soul patch goatee.

Sam Parr 58:46 [laughs] Dude, listen, the flavors are Woke AF. Another one is the-

Shaan Puri 58:52 That's funny

Sam Parr 58:52 ... Banff High S- the, [laughs] the, the other one is the Banff High Stimulation. Uh, another one is the LFG Pre-Workout, Let's Fucking Go. Another one is called Rut. This is hilarious. These are all, like, really good names of, like, really mean dogs. You know what I mean? Like, I'm gonna have, like, a really, like a, my junkyard dog named Buck. "Get 'em, Buck."

Shaan Puri 59:12 [laughs]

Sam Parr 59:12 That's, like, what this stuff is. You know? Or, like, Rut. You know? [laughs] Like, th- this is crazy. This is the whole... Deer antler? Are you s-

Shaan Puri 59:22 From-

Sam Parr 59:22 This is-

Shaan Puri 59:22 From that to this. It's, it's kind of an in- an insane, uh, insane story. And, uh, yeah, I just-

Sam Parr 59:28 And they still kill it?

Shaan Puri 59:30 Yeah, they're doing really well right now apparently. I mean, I, I mean, I, I'm talking to one... I, I know this from one guy, and then what you Google about them, but, like, apparently just crushing it.

Sam Parr 59:40 Oh my God. I have no idea what's in this stuff. I would like, I mean, this might be a legit performance-enhancing drug. Is it still le- illegal for the MLB? 'Cause maybe I will order it.

Shaan Puri 59:49 [laughs] Yeah, exactly. You're like, "Ha ha, that's so insane," you know, as you check out. [laughs]

Sam Parr 59:57 Well, people talk about performance-enhancing drugs like it's a bad thing, but I'm like, "I would love my performance to be enhanced."

Shaan Puri 1:00:02 [laughs] Right.

Sam Parr 1:00:03 Do you, do you know what I mean? Like-

Shaan Puri 1:00:04 In fact, it's the main problem with my performance, that it's unenhanced-

Sam Parr 1:00:07 Yeah [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:00:07 ... right now. [laughs]

Sam Parr 1:00:07 Yeah. [laughs] How do I enhance my performance? I really want it to be enhanced. I prefer it to be enhanced than unenhanced.

Shaan Puri 1:00:14 [laughs]

Sam Parr 1:00:14 So, like, give me the PEDs. So I'm, like, in favor of some PEDs. Uh, not, not if it means you break the rule, but, uh, Bucked Up, man.

Shaan Puri 1:00:22 Well, we, we haven't talked about this. Did you see that thing, The Enhanced

Shaan Puri 1:00:25 Games, that somebody was creating?

Sam Parr 1:00:27 Uh, was that the, um, was that just the, uh, different sports but for steroid users?

Shaan Puri 1:00:32 It's basically, like [laughs] it's like, you know, I feel like every college bro had this, like, conversation in their dorm room, which was like, "They should just do the Olympics but with the drugs." Like, you could take anything and see what happens. Like, I wanna see somebody run, like, a two-second 100-meter dash, and it's like, these guys created it. It's called The Enhanced Games, and it's happening. [laughs] And I don't know if you've, uh... It came out, and it almost looked like, um, s- like satire, like it wasn't happening. So if you go to, it's enha- enhanced.com.

Sam Parr 1:01:03 It's like a, a better version of the Olympics. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:01:06 Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Sam Parr 1:01:08 That's a great, that's a great ta- [laughs] We're basically Airbnb but better. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:01:14 Performance, performance enhanced. Um- I can't find-

Sam Parr 1:01:18 Their, their website, uh-

Shaan Puri 1:01:19 The website's down right now

Sam Parr 1:01:20 ... the website's down, but Enhanced Games is a-

Shaan Puri 1:01:22 So it's-

Sam Parr 1:01:22 ... planned international sports event where the athletes will not be subjected to drug testing. It's meant to take place in December of 2024.

Shaan Puri 1:01:29 So the guy, Aron D’Souza, is the same guy that Peter Thiel funded to take down Gawker, by the way.

Sam Parr 1:01:37 Okay. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:01:38 So-

Sam Parr 1:01:38 Sign me up. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:01:39 Prolific. Um, [laughs] you know, uh, best LinkedIn ever. So he, uh-

Sam Parr 1:01:44 Here, here's how he does it. He says, "Athletes are adults. They have the right to do with their body as they wish. My body, my choice. Your body, your choice. And no government, uh, should be making these decisions for athletes, particularly those around the FDA." [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:01:58 Yeah. So here's what he said. He goes, "Here's the game plan." He goes, uh, "Every athlete who participates is gonna be a, a part owner in the thing because you're, you're generating, you know, part of the opportunity. I assumed that if you were an Olympian, you won a gold medal, your life is made. It's not the case. It's sad to see the people who've achieved the highest level of human excellence are living, living an objectively impoverished existence afterwards." Um, but, you know, the bureaucrats who own these things make millions. Um, we took-- The Olympics has 13,000 athletes. We're reducing that to maybe 1,000, um, with no special infrastructure, so instead of costing 100 billion to deliver this, it'll cost us, you know, just double-digit millions. And, um, yeah, they have, like, a bunch of things. Uh, you know, here's kinda like their, their belief system. So it says, "The Enhanced Games will be a competitor to the corrupt and dysfunctional Olympic Games. The first internat- It'll be the first international sports event without drug testing. Olympics are about the past. It's about Gree- Greek gods from history. The Enhanced Games are about the future. We're building superheroes." [laughs] And, um, it talks about how the IOC is corrupt, like the, the committee that runs the Olympics, and, um, that, you know, anti-aging gets stymied because of all the anti-science, like, you know, authorities trying to, like, take drugs out of a- out of, uh, performance. And we're trying to do the opposite. It's my body, my choice. Um, [laughs] he says, uh, "Thinking-- Think back 50 years ago. Being a gay man was like being an enhanced man today. It's stigmatized, marginalized, and illegal in some senses." I don't know about that. Um, yeah. And then I don't know if it's actually gonna happen or not. This seems, seems a little-

Sam Parr 1:03:32 Well, [laughs] their website doesn't work, so, like-

Shaan Puri 1:03:36 Yeah

Sam Parr 1:03:36 ... we'll see. They can't afford their GoDaddy renewal for the domain. But, uh, no, I think I'm, I'm, I'm... I think I'm cool with that. My, my, uh, a big... I mean, besides Lance Armstrong kinda used to be my hero, and then he, like, got in trouble for lying, and I kinda, like, got upset about that. But besides that whole lying thing, I was like, "They're all doing it," and he's doing it as well, and he still won. So, like, it's kinda fair.

Shaan Puri 1:03:57 Right.

Sam Parr 1:03:58 Uh, so I... and so I do get that. I, I, I, I'm, I'm kind of on board with that, and I think a lot of the PEDs are pretty amazing. Like, do you know what, uh, EPO is? It makes you, uh, get more red, red blood cells in your, in your blood. You can carry more-

Shaan Puri 1:04:09 Yeah, you just have, like, infinite endurance, basically.

Sam Parr 1:04:11 Yeah, yeah, better endurance. And I hear about that stuff, and I'm like, "That sounds great. Give me more of that."

Shaan Puri 1:04:16 [laughs]

Sam Parr 1:04:16 "I want that." Uh, you know what I mean? Like, there... and there are some, uh, anabolic steroids that, you know, you'll die young. There was this, um, w- which I don't like, but there was this one... Have you seen the guy on Instagram? He was only 30, but his... I think his name is Joe. I forget what his, like, handle was. It was, like, Joe, like, All Ripped or something, and he was the guy who you would see flexing, and he was so lean and big that you would see... It looked like he had little spiders in his chest 'cause all the little muscles were, like, flexing. I think it was called... His name was, like, Joe Flex. Have you seen that guy?

Shaan Puri 1:04:44 No. That sounds awesome.

Sam Parr 1:04:45 Well, he died, like, last week. He died, like-

Shaan Puri 1:04:47 Oh, that was that guy? Okay. Yeah, yeah, I've, I've seen a few-

Sam Parr 1:04:49 He died last week because, uh, I... he definitely was on the juice. Uh, and he was just... It, it's really hard to be that lean for that long, so you have to be on a ton of stuff, and he died. And so, like, I'm not in favor of that type of stuff. But, uh, some of the other performance-enhancing drugs, like, I actually think that you could, you c- [laughs] you'd be a healthier, longer-living human being if you took some of that stuff. Or, like, blood doping. So, like, in the '60s, this runner in Finland named Lasse Viren, he would, like, go up in the mountains and no one would see him when he was training. And what they allege that he did with blood doping, you could just take out some of your blood, and you could put it in a refrigerator, and that gives that, oxidizes it. It gives it, i- i- i- or, or, uh, it gives you more red blood cells ultimately, and you just inject it back in your body. That's considered illegal. That's crazy to me. It's not illegal. It's a- it's against, it's against rules, uh, for, for the Olympics. But that's insane that blood doping like that is illegal. It's like, well, dude, it's just your blood. You're just freezing it and putting it back in you. Things like that you can't do, but I've thought about that. Uh, I think it'd be amazing. There was a guy on Netflix who did it where he was an amateur cyclist, and he was like, "I'm gonna blood dope, and I'm gonna document this," and this was, uh, the whole documentary. And it was awesome. He crushed it.

Shaan Puri 1:05:55 Right.

Sam Parr 1:05:55 He killed it. He, like, improved so much, and I thought, "That's pretty cool."

Shaan Puri 1:05:59 I think this actually

Shaan Puri 1:06:00 would be a good, uh, YouTube or podcast, um, channel. Have you ever gone on YouTube down a rabbit hole of college ethics classes? Have you ever seen this?

Sam Parr 1:06:09 No. No.

Shaan Puri 1:06:11 Sounds boring as hell, but it, it's actually kind of interesting. It's not g- very interesting 'cause it's not made for YouTube. But basically, if you go... Like, you can basically sit in on a Stanford or Harvard e- ethics class where they'll pose some question like, "Should you be allowed to..." Like, "Are p- are performance-enhancing drugs, should they be allowed in the Olympics?" or whatever. Like, some philosophical question, like the version of the trolley thing where it's like, "If you could save five lives and pull the trolley and kill one, would you do it?" Right? Like that, those kinda, like, moral and ethical, like, thought experiment questions. And you see people just stand up in a college lecture hall, and they're like, "Uh, I say no because blah, blah, blah." And then somebody stands up and says, um, "I disagree. I would say yes because I think that what about blah, blah, blah, blah." And you just see the debate. I think debate is actually, like, pretty, um, interesting. And I think if somebody did that well, you could do a kind of, like, NPR style or Gimlet style, like, intelligent but entertaining podcast series-

Sam Parr 1:07:07 Right

Shaan Puri 1:07:07 ... or YouTube channel that, like, just gets... Like, find these things, like the, the equivalent of, like, um, uh, somebody... I w- I was at one of these dinners in LA. Somebody goes, "I had jury duty, and the case that I had jury duty for was actually kinda interesting. This guy, um, was-" This guy goes online and he's in this co- uh, online forum or community for, like, kinda like kinky meetups. Okay, nothing illegal about that. And, um, there's a woman there who says, um, "Hey, me and my husband really wanna do a thing. It's, you know... Here's our thing. It's kinda weird, but, like, we want somebody to come over and we wanna role play, like, a kind of, like, a rape scenario." And, uh, she's like, "So, you know, um, I'm looking for somebody who wants to do that." This guy's like, "That's fun. I, I can do that."

Sam Parr 1:07:56 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:07:56 And she's like, "Cool. Um, so here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna come over to this place. I'm gonna act surprised. I'm gonna say no. That's part of the bit. We're gonna do it anyways and, you know, we're all good." Guy shows up-

Sam Parr 1:08:11 Was it like a setup? Was it, like, a different woman?

Shaan Puri 1:08:14 No, the gu- the husband-

Sam Parr 1:08:16 Oh, then like is it the-

Shaan Puri 1:08:16 ... was roleplaying it. It was bad. So the husband was on this forum as, acting as if he was the woman, saying they're both-

Sam Parr 1:08:21 That's what I mean

Shaan Puri 1:08:22 ... in on it. She wasn't. His wife was not in on it.

Sam Parr 1:08:25 Oh, no.

Shaan Puri 1:08:25 So this happens.

Sam Parr 1:08:26 Oh, no.

Shaan Puri 1:08:26 Now this guy's... So the jury duty was should this guy be, go to jail for rape? Um-

Sam Parr 1:08:32 What a horrible scenario for everyone involved

Shaan Puri 1:08:35 ... lose, lose, lose, right? Like, just a, a terrible friend.

Sam Parr 1:08:38 Oh, man.

Shaan Puri 1:08:39 But it was kind of, like, an interesting question. It's like, well, like on one hand, yes-

Sam Parr 1:08:42 What a conniving husband

Shaan Puri 1:08:43 ... yeah, it was like, okay, definitely the husband should be in trouble. Like, that's kind of a se- type of scenario, but this guy, like, should he go to jail for like 20 years-

Sam Parr 1:08:51 Oh, my God

Shaan Puri 1:08:52 ... because of this scenario or not? Like, and the, the vote was basically like should this go to tri- like, it is like an indictment. So it's like should he go to, should this go to trial or no, should this not be, not go to trial or whatever. And we had this just like fascinating dinner conversation about it with, you know, just hearing everybody's kind of opinion, k- hearing like a little bit of a, a healthy kind of debate or just like a perspective on it. Z- similarly, there was another one that was like, uh, you know, uh, this couple, um, uh, looks like they're holding, um, drugs, like crack or whatever. Cop starts chasing after them. They throw something away in the trash. Um, cop op- yeah, cop grabs them. They don't have it on them. He's like, "I saw you dump it in the trash." They, he opens the trash, sees it there, but who's to say they didn't throw something else away?

Sam Parr 1:09:36 Right. Right.

Shaan Puri 1:09:37 Should they go to jail for this, like, uh, this offense? And it's like, well, on one, if you're the jury, like, you kinda do think like they, they probably did it. But you don't have like, um, uncontroversial or whatever, like, e- evidence that, like, leaves no shadow of a doubt that they, that they did it and it's like kind of a non-violent offense. Do we really wanna punish them? You're, you start bringing your own subjective opinion into this versus what you're supposed to do as a jury member. So anyways, I just, the conversation was so interesting that I thought, I think this could make for an interesting pod or YouTube channel. Do, what do you think? You have a good sense for content. What do you think?

Sam Parr 1:10:10 Yeah.

Shaan Puri 1:10:10 How would you do it?

Sam Parr 1:10:11 I, I think, I think it would be great. I think I would, I think you could do a YouTube channel, uh, 10 min- 10-minute videos where you could, uh, dissect some of these interesting things and just have one take a, take a side of the debate and the people live vote. Um, uh, I, I think, wasn't there an app that was trying to do this where it was like live debates and you vote on who's the winner?

Shaan Puri 1:10:29 Maybe. I'm not sure.

Sam Parr 1:10:29 Do you not remember that? Yeah, happened in 2014. Yeah, I think you could kill it. It's, it's where it's, uh, you know, almost like, remember, um, you know, drunk rap battles where it's like Napoleon versus-

Shaan Puri 1:10:38 [laughs]

Sam Parr 1:10:38 ... like Caesar?

Shaan Puri 1:10:39 Yeah. [laughs]

Sam Parr 1:10:39 Uh, yeah. [laughs] Yeah, you do this, uh, i- in that situation. I think, like it's a, it's an incredibly,

Sam Parr 1:10:45 uh, interesting topic. I mean, clearly if you've gotten, gotten into it, yeah, I think it could work.

Shaan Puri 1:10:49 Cool. Um, all right, that's all I got from my trip to LA. Hope to, I actually, I had a bunch more but, uh, I think that's, that's enough. Also, Erewhon, you been to this place?

Sam Parr 1:10:58 Yeah, I went there before and I, um, wanted to buy the most expensive bottle of water they had to see what it was about-

Shaan Puri 1:11:04 [laughs]

Sam Parr 1:11:04 ... and it was like 20 or 30 bucks. But it's fun. A fun, a fun experience.

Shaan Puri 1:11:09 How's the water?

Sam Parr 1:11:11 It, uh, it was fine. The, the, the, the-

Shaan Puri 1:11:13 [laughs]

Sam Parr 1:11:13 ... it was normal but, and I also bought like the most expensive, I, I wanna tell, I was like, whatever, like, the most expensive chocolate is and water, I'm getting it. I think they have like asparagus there, like asparagus water-

Shaan Puri 1:11:21 By the way-

Sam Parr 1:11:21 ... that's really expensive

Shaan Puri 1:11:22 ... I think this is also a layup TikTok channel. Um, the, you know, Erewhon experiments or the Erewhon taste tests. You just go to Erewhon-

Sam Parr 1:11:30 Do you see any famous people there, though?

Shaan Puri 1:11:31 What's that?

Sam Parr 1:11:31 That's why you go. But did you see any famous people? That's why you go.

Shaan Puri 1:11:35 No, I was just looking at the snacks. Is that what I was supposed to be doing? Oh, God, this is like, it's like in college when I used to go to the bar and, uh, you know, I'm there to listen to the music and I, so I didn't meet anybody. Like, I, I-

Sam Parr 1:11:46 [laughs] Yeah

Shaan Puri 1:11:46 ... I missed the point.

Sam Parr 1:11:47 [laughs] Yeah. You're like doing Long Island Iced Tea tasting. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:11:51 Talking to the bartender. I forgot.

Sam Parr 1:11:53 [laughs] Yeah. Uh, yeah, you're supposed to go and see famous people. No, it's a fun experience. That place kills it. Uh, the, I, they're expanding, I think, aren't they? Don't they have mult- there used to be one just in Santa Monica, I think.

Shaan Puri 1:12:03 There's like 13, like 13 or something like that. Um, for those who don't know, Erewhon is basically like the bougiest Whole Foods.

Sam Parr 1:12:09 It makes Whole Foods-

Shaan Puri 1:12:10 [laughs]

Sam Parr 1:12:10 It makes Whole Foods look like the dollar store. Yeah. [laughs] You're like, you look down at Whole Foods people as peasants.

Shaan Puri 1:12:17 Yeah. Erewhon is to Whole Foods as aioli is to mayonnaise.

Sam Parr 1:12:21 Yeah. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:12:22 [laughs] It's, it's the like s- just, uh, jazzed up version. The cool part about it is it has a lot of products that are like, almost like it's like a D to C, D to C pop-up shop. It's like here's a bunch of products that are not the normal things that are on the shelves, so you could try them and they're all three times more expensive than they should be or maybe five times more. And, um, I think a layup content thing would be go to Erewhon, buy all the chocolates or buy all the chocolates versus-

Sam Parr 1:12:45 The fancy shit, yeah

Shaan Puri 1:12:45 ... it's like Erewhon versus Walmart, and you do blind taste tests and you like-

Sam Parr 1:12:48 Absolutely

Shaan Puri 1:12:49 ... try to rank them and you just give your recommendation. You spend the money on the stuff and you just do like Erewhon shopping. You're just, you become the Erewhon guy. Like, dude, if I was broke again, I'd be back, I'd be back so fast 'cause I just know-

Sam Parr 1:13:04 Eat this, not that

Shaan Puri 1:13:05 ... where these little content niches are, right? You just see it and you know it. Like, another one is pranks.

Sam Parr 1:13:10 I hate the pranks.

Shaan Puri 1:13:12 Dude, have you seen this guy who does the pr- [laughs] I think his name is Jody or something like that? Like, um, what is this guy's channel? The guy who went to sleep at an NBA, at WNBA game. Did you see this?

Sam Parr 1:13:23 No. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:13:25 So-

Sam Parr 1:13:25 No, but I hate the pranks where it's like people like prank pick a fight with you and then the person responds and actually beats him up and then the recipient is like, "It was just a prank, bro."

Shaan Puri 1:13:32 So this guy, Jidion-

Sam Parr 1:13:33 I hate that

Shaan Puri 1:13:33 ... or Jidion, Jidion, I don't know how you say it exactly I love his video. So he goes, he went to the WNBA All-Star game and he bought four courtside seats, dropped like, you know, like whatever, 25K on these seats, and then he came with a blanket and like his, it looks like, like an eye mask and like a face mask.

Sam Parr 1:13:51 Oh my God.

Shaan Puri 1:13:51 And he just took a nap.

Sam Parr 1:13:51 What an asshole.

Shaan Puri 1:13:52 And he's like, the funny thing is they asked him about it. They, he was like, "Dude, I had the idea 'cause I knew this would like go viral, just falling asleep." 'Cause he's done it before. Like, he goes to a b- a basketball game courtside, and he brought his barber, and they put like the, the, the bib on him, and he gets a haircut during the game. But like, if you're just watching TV, you're like, "Is that guy getting a haircut?"

Sam Parr 1:14:09 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:14:10 Like, this is like very obvious.

Sam Parr 1:14:12 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:14:12 And so he had this idea. He's like, "I wasn't gonna do it. I thought it might be too mean. I told my friend about it. I was like, 'Yo, maybe you wanna do it.'" And that guy was like, he's like, "That guy got so excited 'cause he knew this would go so viral."

Sam Parr 1:14:20 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:14:21 I was like, "Nah, fuck it, I'm gonna do it myself." He's like, "So I did it." He's like, "But then it turned into like a political thing," which is not how I intended it. Like-

Sam Parr 1:14:27 [laughs] He got banned from all NBA events.

Shaan Puri 1:14:30 He got banned from all NBA and WNBA events for, for doing this. But this guy's just so good at trolling the world, and it's like, that's just like a, it's a, uh, it's a niche that will never get old.

Sam Parr 1:14:42 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:14:42 Like, you can-

Sam Parr 1:14:43 What an asshole though. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 1:14:45 [laughs] There's just like a-

Sam Parr 1:14:46 It sucks

Shaan Puri 1:14:46 ... infinite demand for, um, just like-

Sam Parr 1:14:50 He also caught one of the NBA balls and sh- tried to shoot it from his seat, like, 'cause he was courtside.

Shaan Puri 1:14:56 Dude, he's so, [laughs] he's so f- he's so funny, this guy.

Sam Parr 1:15:00 Um, all right. I think we should wrap up there. That's the pod. We done. [upbeat music]