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Sam Is Staying in His Nemesis's House
Sam opens with a story: he spent years trying to reach a media CEO who ignored his 15 emails, and now he's unknowingly renting that man's home. Shaan suggests petty pranks, and Sam wonders how to leave a message.
- •The CEO ignored about 15 emails from Sam
- •Sam recognized the house through the Netflix and YouTube profile images
- •Shaan jokes about changing the Wi-Fi password
- •Sam admits any message will be borderline creepy
The Podcast Make-Out Bet and 400K Followers
Sam brings up the show crossing 400,000 followers and asks about a make-out bet. Shaan explains he was referring to other podcasters who kissed at 50K, and they joke about how little attention that video got.
- •The show crossed 400,000 followers
- •Shaan clarifies he never promised to make out at a million
- •The other podcasters' kiss video has only about 25,000 views
- •Shaan's worst fear is doing it for content that goes nowhere
Sam's Mother-in-Law Starts a Pillow Business
After a sponsor break, Sam tells how his mother-in-law, who loves to sew, started an online business after he gave her basic advice. She built a Shopify-style site, sells high-end throw pillows on Etsy, and has passed a million dollars in revenue.
- •She asked Sam how the internet works and launched a site within three weeks
- •Etsy shows close to 10,000 sales and a small New Jersey warehouse with four sewers
- •She sells swatch samples for $2 against $79 pillows
- •She turned down Sam's urging to scale
Marcus Lemonis Replies and the Lessons of the Story
Sam's tweet about his mother-in-law drew a reply from Marcus Lemonis offering to sell her pillows at Bed Bath & Beyond. They discuss how she got her first sales through friends, reviews and word of mouth, and Shaan lists what he admires about her.
- •Lemonis replied publicly, saying he and Bed Bath & Beyond would like to invest
- •Her early traction came from friends buying at cost, reviews and about $100 of ads
- •She also sells wholesale to doorman buildings in New York
- •Shaan admires that she took action and found her own version of enough
Mad Muscles and the Ukrainian Media Empire
Sam traces the catchy Mad Muscles ads back to two Ukrainian founders behind a holding company called AMO. Their business grew from viral news pages to a YouTube soap opera channel to a set of fitness and meal apps.
- •AMO started with clickbait news sites and Facebook videos reaching 53 million followers
- •Dramatize Me has 2.4 million subscribers and 500 million views
- •Apps include a period workout app, UNAMEAL and Mad Muscles
- •Mad Muscles gets about 11 million monthly visits and the company has close to 400 employees
Scrappy Launch-and-Iterate Strategy and Shaan's Reaction
Sam says the founders just follow the numbers and launch, tying it to the Midwit meme. Shaan is impressed but confused by the four unrelated businesses, which he says is common among bootstrapped Eastern European startups.
- •The founders follow the numbers and iterate
- •The Midwit meme says to launch and see what works
- •Shaan says bootstrapped Eastern European companies often become conglomerates
- •Sam found almost no press about the founders
Why Audience-Builders Win as Entrepreneurs
Shaan argues that creators who master viral titles and thumbnails will eventually build successful products. Sam recalls Tim Chen's view that making money is easier once you can build an audience, and Shaan adds that gamers and eBay flippers follow a similar path.
- •Shaan says videos on universal human themes signal an entrepreneur who understands what makes people click
- •Tim Chen told Sam that monetizing an audience is easier than building one
- •NerdWallet took three years to reach about $5M in revenue, then about $30M in year four
- •Shaan says elite gamers and teenage flippers tend to move on to business
Dumpster Enterprises: A Small Lead-Gen Business
Sam presents Dumpster Enterprises, run by a Hampton member named Ian, who sells dumpster rental leads to vetted vendors. In year two it did $2.1 million in revenue and about $280,000 in profit with little ad spend.
- •Ian began with SEO and web design and partnered with a vendor to get a list
- •Leads are forwarded to vetted vendors who pay about $100 each
- •He spent only $26,000 on marketing
- •Sam notes viewers asked for small business examples
The Niche Lead Gen Blueprint
Shaan lays out the blueprint of taking a local industry whose owners don't know SEO and selling them leads, which works best with high-ticket services. Sam adds examples including swimming pool quotes, trucking and lawyers, where clicks cost enormous amounts.
- •Build a lead-gen site and charge a fixed amount per lead
- •Higher-ticket industries like senior living and pools work better
- •A friend's swimmingpoolquotes.com made about $2M a year
- •Lawyer-related keywords have the highest cost per click, with some lead-gen firms doing hundreds of millions
Apple Vision Pro Reactions
Shaan asks Sam about the Apple Vision Pro. Neither plans to buy one, though both want to try it, and they note their history with abandoned VR headsets and Casey Neistat's review.
- •Sam wants to try one but not own one
- •Shaan has three VR headsets sitting unused
- •Casey Neistat's review focused on using it for fun
- •Reviewers found it a magical glimpse of the future that isn't there yet
If You're Great, You Don't Have to Be Good
Shaan recounts a Paul Buchheit blog post arguing hit products are great in a few categories rather than good in all. He applies it to the Vision Pro and points to private video, theater-style viewing and sports as its strengths, citing Apple's airplane ad.
- •Gmail shipped without an address book but excelled at storage, search and threaded conversations
- •The iPad was criticized for missing ports but was instant-on and great for video
- •Shaan says to look for extreme strengths rather than limitations
- •The 15-second airplane ad convinced Sam more than reviews did
uBiome Fraud Update: Founders Still on the Run
Sam gives a follow-up on uBiome, the gut-testing startup that raised $100 million but turned out to be a fraud billing insurers for fake results. The founders fled to Germany and remain fugitives, and the hosts joke about the founder lying about her age for Forbes 30 Under 30.
- •uBiome raised $100M at a $600M valuation from top investors
- •It billed insurers about $3,000 per test and took roughly $35M
- •The FBI raided the office, and the founders fled to Germany
- •The co-founder was 45 when she made Forbes 30 Under 30
Honeypot Ideas and Police Lying
The hosts riff on catching the fugitive founders with a fake awards contest. They discuss other white-collar cases and Sam says police can legally lie during interrogations, then wrap up.
- •Shaan proposes a fake 40 Under 40 Berlin award as a honeypot
- •Sam describes cops luring people with warrants using fake free ticket offers
- •Sam says police are allowed to lie to suspects
- •The Wall Street Journal tracked a postal address in Germany but not their home
Publisher timestamps
- 0:00Intro
- 0:30Sam rents his nemesis’s houseRead this chapter
- 2:00Should we kiss?Read this chapter
- 5:00Sam's mother-in-law's pillow hustleRead this chapter
- 15:30Mad Muscles
- 22:00How to know which entrepreneurs to bet onRead this chapter
- 27:00Dumpster enterprisesRead this chapter
- 30:00Niche lead gen business blueprintRead this chapter
- 34:00The Review No One Asked Us For: Apple Vision ProRead this chapter
- 44:00uBiome’s $100M scamRead this chapter
