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The 12 Awards Of 2023: No.1 Unsexy Business, Wildest Predictions & More

Episode 532: Shaan Puri and Sam Parr bring you…..Part 2 of The 2023 Milly Awards.

Shaan PurihostSam Parrhost

Dec 18, 20231h 9mWatch on YouTube

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Transcript

80 min read · 15,548 words

0:00 – 0:30
Intro
1. SPShaan Puri
  All right, now we're ready for part two of the Milly Awards. We've got a bunch of categories like Breakout Company or Product of the Year, the who is the craziest/most delusional person we met this year, uh, as well as things like our favorite content, books, podcasts that we consumed, what is the best of the best, and, um, one of my favorites is Unsexy Business of the Year. So what's a business that on the surface looks maybe boring or it flies under the radar, but actually secretly crushes it? We each share our own, so enjoy part two of the Milly Awards. [upbeat music]
0:30 – 12:30
Most Delusional Person of the Year
1. SPShaan Puri
  All right, next category that we have is the craziest, most delusional person that you met this year. So somebody who is kinda out there, they broke your frame a little bit, and it, it can be good delusional crazy, it could be bad delusional crazy. There's, this is just saying this person thinks way differently than you, and, uh, and they're, they're a bit like they're living in their own world. And so, um, this was a tough one for me. Uh, it was a tough category. Sam, who did you have?
2. SPSam Parr
  So the easy one was Elon Musk. Do you guys... We already forgot about how Elon and Zuck almost got in a fight. That was hilarious.
3. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs]
4. SPSam Parr
  I think Elon's insane, but I didn't wanna pick him 'cause that's too easy. So I chose this guy named Val, who I've met via Hampton. You probably have seen him on Twitter. His name's, uh... So, like, basically Val was under the radar for years and years. I mean, he's probably 45 years old, so he just u- started using Twitter, but he's built a bunch of businesses. He was a Soviet Union, uh, immigrant, came here to America age 19, built a business that made $10 million in profit in year one. I started hanging out with him, and now he's got this massive set of businesses that probably do, like, 150 or $200 million a year in revenue that he owns. He's never raised money for any of them. I invested in... Right when I met him, I invested into one of his real estate deals, and he was new to it, and I got a great return. And so I did another one with him, and I started talking to him, and he's like, "Yeah, we own this many tens of millions of dollars of Brooklyn real estate." And I was like, "Val, what the hell? How'd you figure out how to do this?" He goes, "Well, I just did the math, and I did this, and I did this." And he was so logical and yet so calm about it, and he was comfortable with the risk, so I gotta give love to Val. And here's a fun fact about him. I started talking to him even more. He wakes up at 4:00 AM, and he starts working at 3:00 PM and basically works until 4:00 AM, and that's his life. And I'm like, "There's so many reasons why that's bad," and he was calmly just saying, like, "Yeah, but it works for me." And he's got five kids. I love people that've got tons of kids.
5. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs]
6. SPSam Parr
  So this guy's the best. He seems like a good dad, a good husband, but he does crazy business stuff. Just absolutely crazy, but he's so calm about it, so he's one of the craziest people that I've ever met.
7. SPShaan Puri
  Andrew, you wanna go next?
8. SPSpeaker
  Sure. So I actually struggled. Um, I think I said Brian Johnson. He was the person [laughs] that comes to mind. Uh, he- really, really nice, interesting guy, but definitely crazy, all the health stuff he's doing. Elon Musk is another obvious answer, but I actually couldn't think of somebody that was crazy, and so I actually inverted it. I said, "Who is the sanest-
9. SPSam Parr
  [laughs]
10. SPSpeaker
  ... calmest, most boring person?" And Chris and I got to meet Michael Dell this year, and Michael Dell is worth $65 billion.
11. SPSam Parr
  That's insane.
12. SPSpeaker
  And we sat down with him. I'm, I'm going like, "Okay, I'm gonna crack this guy open," right? Like, you read his book. It's all very tame. His public persona is very, like, you know, serious and calm and nice and all that kinda stuff. His, his book is literally called Play Nice but Win. And so-
13. SPSam Parr
  [laughs]
14. SPSpeaker
  ... me and Chris, we go into this office.
15. SPShaan Puri
  Selling poor copies.
16. SPSpeaker
  You know, he's got this huge-
17. SPSam Parr
  [laughs]
18. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs]
19. SPSam Parr
  Sorry, go ahead. [laughs]
20. SPSpeaker
  So, so we go into this, this huge gray, like, office park. We're in this boardroom, and he sits down with us, and Chris and I just walked away. We were like, "Oh my God, he's like the ca- I can't believe it's not butter of billionaires." Like, he's just, like-
21. SPSam Parr
  [laughs]
22. SPSpeaker
  ... Steady Eddy, super nice. And we're asking him, we're like, "Dude, what do you do with your money? Like, you know, have you gone... Like, have you, you know, do you own 20 houses? Do you own tw- you know, a bunch of planes? Do you do anything crazy?" And he's like, "Nope. I just love, you know, operating my business and, uh, growing it over time. I own two nice..." I think he owns two nice or three nice houses. Obviously, they're very, very nice houses. One plane, and that was it, and we couldn't get anything out of him. And he told us this anecdote. This is how much of a baller he is. He goes, "Yeah, so, uh, about 20 years ago, I took 200 million, and I started a family office. And in the family office, I wanted to make, like, a 10% return, and so I hired these really smart guys, and they started doing private credit." And I don't know if you guys know what that is, but usually it's, um, lending to th- people that the bank won't lend to, so it's higher risk, uh, lending. And one of the people he lent to was a, I think a billionaire who owned a hockey team, I think in Dallas or something. And he goes-
23. SPSam Parr
  When you, when you were saying that, I was just, I was thinking of, like, your cousin Dom down the street who's, like, gonna go buy, like, a rookie LeBron card and flip it.
24. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs]
25. SPSam Parr
  I guess. [laughs]
26. SPSpeaker
  Right. Oh, yeah. Totally. So, so he goes, he goes, "Yeah, and then one day I just got a call, and, uh, they said, 'Well, you own the Dallas Stars now.'" I think it was the Dallas Stars, but some professional sports team, and he had just literally just owned it because he had lent the guy money and the guy defaulted. Like, that's how much of a baller Michael Dell is.
27. SPSam Parr
  Dude, he totally SBF'd your ass. He Elizabeth Holmes you. I bet you Michael Dell is just way more vicious.
28. SPShaan Puri
  Yeah, this guy's... You gotta see the basement, dude.
29. SPSam Parr
  Yeah.
30. SPSpeaker
  No.
12:30 – 41:30
Best/Worst Investments
1. SPSam Parr
  a little bitch when he said that. I was like, "Yeah, yeah, you're, you're, you're right." [laughs]
2. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs]
3. SPSam Parr
  Um, all right, what about best and worst investments for the year?
4. SPShaan Puri
  Yeah, this is my favorite category. Uh, Andrew, you've had the best stories in this. I think you have the most... You're the m- probably the most prolific investor that comes on this pod. So can you give us yours? Give us your best and worst.
5. SPSpeaker
  So, um, yeah, my best was I, I was in New Zealand. I've been working on getting my New Zealand citizenship for the last two years or so.
6. SPShaan Puri
  Oh, really?
7. SPSpeaker
  And so I had this... Yeah, yeah. They have this m- um, there's this... As part of the program, there's this mandatory conference that I had to go to.
8. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs]
9. SPSpeaker
  And I was absolutely dreading it. I'd been traveling a whole bunch, but I f- I, you know, I go- I had to go. And I was thinking about it and going, "Okay, well, who do I know in Auckland, New Zealand?" And I realized I'd met this guy, Matt Buchanan, about 10 years ago at South by Southwest. He ra- ran an, uh, design agency at the time, and he had started this website called Letterboxd. Do you guys know what Letterboxd is?
10. SPSam Parr
  Yeah.
11. SPShaan Puri
  It's like a movie thing. What is it?
12. SPSpeaker
  So- social network for film buffs. And it started out really, really small. It was just like, you know, hundreds of people at first just discussing films. Um, and then over time, and especially over COVID, it had grown like crazy. And so Matt and I met up for coffee and, uh, I just asked him about, you know, how everything was going. I, I wasn't at all thinking about investing or buying it. And he started telling me that they had 10 million registered users, that it had grown like crazy. And at the end of the coffee, I literally just blurted out, "Do you wanna sell?" And he was like, "Well, I hadn't really even thought about that." Uh, and I was like, "Throw me the craziest number you can think of." And so he threw the number out and I said okay. And I sent him an offer within 48 hours and we just bought that business. We didn't buy all of it. We bought, I think, 60% of it, uh, about three months ago.
13. SPShaan Puri
  Did you buy it for the number he said?
14. SPSpeaker
  Uh, yeah, the valuation, I think, I think it worked out to about $60 million valuation, something like that.
15. SPSam Parr
  And there was three guys?
16. SPSpeaker
  Yeah. No, it was about... I think there was about 10, 10 or so employees, all in New Zealand. So totally bootstrapped, uh, New Zealand-based, um, designer and a developer started it, like incredible business. They're gonna keep running it. But, um, it's, it's an example of... You know, we bought a business called Dribbble about eight years ago, uh, which is a social network, and social networks are just incredible businesses. I call them like airports. You know, if you own the airport, you can put a... You can... You've got this group of people that's gonna congregate there, uh, on a consistent schedule, and you can sell them, you know, all sorts of stuff. You can sell them a book, you can sell them a hotdog, you can sell them a massage, and as long as you don't mess with them, uh, and you keep the community happy, um, you know, you can do some incredible stuff. So I'm, uh, I'm super excited about that.
17. SPShaan Puri
  Dude, this is your in for, uh, for Zuck. You can go back to Zuck. "Hey, Mark, uh"-
18. SPSam Parr
  I told you it was a good idea
19. SPShaan Puri
  ... "fellow social, fellow social network owner."
20. SPSpeaker
  Oh, shit. [laughs]
21. SPShaan Puri
  "You, you got one, I got two, but who's counting? Uh, happy to meet. I finally got my in."
22. SPSam Parr
  [laughs] Yeah, you guys can start your own little Facebook group of social media [laughs] -
23. SPSpeaker
  Owners
24. SPSam Parr
  ... uh [laughs] , yeah, social media owners. And your best one last year was Girlboss. Your worst one last year was venture capital in general. What's your worst one this year?
25. SPSpeaker
  So my worst one this year, it was an investment I made about five years ago, and it's a great example of shiny object syndrome, uh, lack of focus, and what I call a money bonfire. So I bought a podcast player called Castro about five years ago, and at the time I was really hopped up about, um, podcasts and subscription podcasting. And, uh, the... You know, it was around the time I started coming on MFM actually. And I bought the business because I was excited about the space, not because I had a plan. And so the business basically, um, just languished. The founders left. Um, I couldn't find anyone, uh, you know, the... We couldn't find the right person to run it. And just every month, I, you know, I, I think I bought it for a million bucks and it just lost 10 to 20K a month, and it was a small enough number that blended into all my other stuff. I just didn't really notice it. It wasn't like an urgent thing. And so this tiny little ember turned into a money bonfire. And so I think I lost $2 million or something over the last five years on this business. Um, and now I'm in the process of selling it, but-
26. SPSam Parr
  Anyone want it? [laughs]
27. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs] Yeah.
28. SPSam Parr
  Good pitch.
29. SPShaan Puri
  If you too would like a money bonfire. [laughs]
30. SPSpeaker
  Maybe, maybe, maybe someone who wants to get into podcasting. Um, but anyway, it is, it is one of those things where, uh, I've done this so many times where I start something and it's a runaway train, and I, I just don't get the right people in, and it just slowly burns money.
41:30 – 45:00
Unsexy Business of the Year
1. SPSpeaker
  and realize that over the long term they'll make more, um, make more good decisions than bad.
2. SPSam Parr
  Yeah, and it's just an emotional... These are emotional issues. But, um, that's mine. Shaan, what do you wanna do now? Which one?
3. SPShaan Puri
  Let's go to one of my favorites. So unsexy business. So what is a unsexy, kinda under the radar, maybe simple business, uh, that stood out to you that you really liked?
4. SPSam Parr
  Let me go first on this one. I've got one that's interesting. So there's this guy I went to high school with named Chris, Chris Hoffman. He just started posting content on Twitter, like, three months ago. So basically he posted a story, but I had known what his father did. So his father owned a heating and cooling company called Hoffman Bros Heating and Cooling out of St. Louis, where I'm from. He posted, he goes, "In 2016, we took over my father's company. Um, I bought it from him, and it was doing 13 million in revenue." And he goes through 2016 all the way up to 2013, where he explains the changes they made and how much revenue, uh, the business is now doing. So in 2016 it was 13, 2020 it was 40, 2023 it's gonna be, like, 140 million in revenue from an HVAC business that he owns, and he's, and he, like- ... tweets out all these interesting bits of content about things he's doing. Like for example, "We're giving an additional holiday off, and here's how I think that that's gonna impact the business." Or, "We created this thing called Hoffman University, which teaches people. We had to buy a whole building for this much money." It's been very, very fascinating. He and Cooley Companies, that's gonna be the new storage business. We're gonna see lots of people going on, uh, and doing that because of this guy, Chris Hoffman. Really fascinating stuff.
5. SPSpeaker
  [laughs] Yeah, so mine is really, really boring. So, uh, in every fashion house or graphic design studio, there's a book of colors called Pantone. So you might see these. They're these big, fat books, and you can literally just flip through them, you look at different colors. And what they've done that's incredibly smart is they've trademarked colors. So they have intellectual property where it'll be like burgundy blue, sapphire orange, you know, whatever. And this company, I found out, makes over $100 million a year of revenue. And one of the most genius things about it is they give you that book, and they say, "You need to buy a new book every year," because the colors fade, right, from, uh, being in the sun or whatever. And so they're just constantly reselling these books. People are licensing these colors, and the entire fashion and graphic design, um, world is, uh, standardized on Pantone. So it's, it's just so boring and wonderful.
6. SPSam Parr
  Well, we talked about WGSN, their competitor, um, and how I think it's publicly traded, but they're trying to sell it for like... I think they're trying to sell it for like $800 million because-
7. SPShaan Puri
  But I, I don't think they're competitors, dude. This is like the lower level. This is literally the colors. It's not saying which co- WGSN's like, "We're gonna research and report. We'll tell you which color to buy."
8. SPSpeaker
  No, that's what-
9. SPShaan Puri
  This is like-
10. SPSpeaker
  Pantone does that, too. They do like... They'll do like color forecasting and trending and all that kind of stuff, too.
11. SPShaan Puri
  Where, where do they make the money? Is it on the books? Is it on the, the dyes, or is it on the reports? Do you know? Like-
12. SPSpeaker
  I think all of it, and then if they use the color. So they'll say like, "This color of red is gonna be in next season or whatever, and if you wanna use it, we have some IP around it."
13. SPSam Parr
  So WGSN did 50 million in EBITDA last year. Um, and they've been around for like 30 years. We, I, I've been like obsessed with this space for a minute. I, I remember, Shaan, you remember I used to bring this up, I think, at our old office. Um-
14. SPShaan Puri
  Yeah
15. SPSam Parr
  ... I've, I've been loving this stuff. Uh, Pantone's a good one, and I, I think it's WGSN
45:00 – 53:30
Content of the Year
1. SPSam Parr
  and Pantone, like own this space. It's basically like when Starbucks is gonna come out with their new uniforms or their new like Christmas sleeves or the cups. They refer to each of these companies to figure out which colors are gonna be popular in six months. Uh, yeah, it's a really fascinating company, and they've been around for a long-ass time, too.
2. SPShaan Puri
  Love it. All right, let's do next category. So next category is Content of the Year. What are the either books or blogs or TV shows or podcasts? What was the best of the best, right? We're all inundated with so much content, and we all kind of want a little bit less content, but we still want the best. So what was the best content that you consumed this year?
3. SPSam Parr
  What was yours?
4. SPShaan Puri
  Okay, I'll give you one. Uh, so on the TV side, The Bear, Season 2, Episode 7.
5. SPSam Parr
  Yeah.
6. SPShaan Puri
  Have you guys seen this e- this, this show?
7. SPSam Parr
  Stressful, but that's a great episode.
8. SPSpeaker
  I've tried to watch it so many times. Side jacks. I like Breaking Bad. I love stressful shows. There's something about the way that that show is cut where I just can't watch it. I get too stressed out, and I have to turn it off.
9. SPSam Parr
  It's like Uncut Gems.
10. SPSpeaker
  Yeah.
11. SPShaan Puri
  I heard about this for this show so many times. I started it. I, I, I wasn't stressed. I was actually just kind of like, "Cool, it's kind of slow." You know? Like I'm, I'm not... Like there's not really that much going on. It's like almost so real. It's like the, you know, a restaurant is not that exciting. But I kept hearing about this episode, so I powered through. I watched the whole first season, the whole second season, just to get this one episode. And I... By the, by the time I got there, I was like, "There's no way this is worth it." Totally worth it. That is one of the best episodes of television I have ever seen. It is such a emotional, uh, you know, high. I love that episode. I lo- I, I remember where I was sitting when I watched that and just thinking, "Whoever made this, you are incredible."
12. SPSam Parr
  T- and it teaches you a ton about business. Like everyone after watching that episode went and read the book. What's it called? Like, Great Hospitality?
13. SPSpeaker
  Yeah.
14. SPSam Parr
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
15. SPSpeaker
  Un- it's Un-un something. Unbelievable Hospitality or something.
16. SPSam Parr
  Right. It's... So there's a lot of business takeaways. What was the other one, Shaan?
17. SPShaan Puri
  I'll give you one more. So I'll give you a book that I r- I liked this year. Um, it's called... Have you guys read this? It's called Talk Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln.
18. SPSam Parr
  No. What is that?
19. SPShaan Puri
  Uh, so I go down these random rabbit holes while I try to get better at, let's say, storytelling or public speaking or, you know, things like that. This is one that's on speaking and, and storytelling that I, I really liked. Didn't expect to like it. I like the title, though. Talk Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln. And it's a very simple book, and a lot of it is kind of obvious things, but I found it to be a very useful book. And it is, uh, it's about how to speak better and how to carry yourself better in different situations. Sam, you'll love it. There's a whole ep- there's a whole chapter-
20. SPSam Parr
  I'm already down
21. SPShaan Puri
  ... on, on dress. How you sh- how you, how you should dress and why you should dress the way you dress. Uh, there's a whole, whole chapter on that, and it's very short chapters that are on simple principles with a ton of examples. And it's an, it's a very old book. Uh, so like I don't think a lot of people will read this book in general. Um, and all of the examples are from like, you know, old presidents and stuff that happened, like you know, before 1950. So and I think it's just like a... I don't know. It's like an old book or uses old examples. But it's a good one. I recommend it. Uh, it's not the best book I've ever read, but again, I just found it a very simple, useful book for anybody that wants to get better at, uh, how they carry themselves and how they present themselves.
22. SPSam Parr
  That's a good one. Um, all right, so there's this idea with, uh, stoicism, that philosophy of stoicism. I forget the exact term, but basically it's where you imagine all the worst things have happened. They say you've got cancer, your kid's sick and dying, your parents are dead. Now open up your eyes and none of that's true, and you're grateful. I love that idea. And so this year [laughs] I went on a spree where I read books about people's hardship. So I read The Wager, which was a 10 out of 10. It's about a shipwreck, and these guys are stranded for two years. And I read like literally four different shipwreck books. I read about Lewis and Clark and how they spent two years going through, um, America in order to find the other side of the country and, and all these hardship, because it makes my life feel better when I'm just complaining about like a blog post. So another thing that I really got into It's on Netflix. It's called World War II From the Frontlines. And there's two things that I've been obsessed with the, this year. A, hardship. And so seeing, like, these soldiers, and the Jews, and what they went through through the Holocaust, and the soldiers on D-Day, it makes me so much, so thankful that I don't have to do that. And I'm like, "Oh, this shit's easy. This money sh- stuff's way easy." The other thing that I'm obsessed with is charisma, even evil charismatic people. So I got, like, I read all these books about Charlie Manson, about Hitler, about Lincoln, about George Washington, and I love seeing this. And you see that in this World War II documentary. What they do is they take real-life footage from that era, and they colorize it. And you see, like, uh, you know, Joseph Goebbels, one of the, um, one of the folks in, uh, one of the guys who led propaganda for Nazis, you see him giving a speech. And you see all, you see literally a million people in the crowd, like, g- being convinced to do all these evil things, and I find it so fascinating how cult leaders, like, use their charisma to do, to force people or convince people to do bad stuff. And so World War II From the Frontlines. It's on Netflix. It's awesome. That's my, probably the best thing that I've consumed this year. What's yours, Andrew?
23. SPSpeaker
  So, um, like everyone else, I've been freaking out about AI, and I go through these phases where I try not to think about it too much, and then I go down a rabbit hole. And I decided to read two books at the same time that kinda counterbalance one another. So one book is called The Coming Wave. It's by one of the co-founders of OpenAI, and it's really fascinating. Usually, you get these kind of, like, think-piece analysis books by academics or professional authors. Um, and this guy actually is... You know, he's been on the frontlines for the last 15 years, um, built DeepMind, and has been at Google, uh, working on, you know, their AI programs for years. So, um, and he, he has a very, um, extreme view that effectively AI will disrupt all work and that the second and third-order consequences are just endless, uh, and we can't really contemplate them, and he kind of argues for regulation and containment. And then on the flip side, at the same time, to counterbalance the anxiety of reading that, I've been reading Morgan Housel new, Morgan Housel's new book, Same as Ever, which is about how things don't change. What are the things that stay the same over the long term? You know, people still eat the same candy bars. They still enjoy reading a book. They like going for a walk in nature, et cetera. So tho- those have been two, uh, books that I've absolutely loved. And then I second the book The Wager. Like Sam, before I go to bed, uh, I always read books about people in terrible situations or in worlds that are very different than the world I inhabit, and The Wager is amazing. I'm just at the part where they're going around the horn, so I'm pretty early, but oh my God, it's amazing.
24. SPSam Parr
  It's hard to put down, isn't it? That's one of the only books I've ever read in one sitting.
25. SPSpeaker
  Wow.
26. SPSam Parr
  Shaan, you gotta get on that shipwreck, uh, train. Uh, uh, I've got about three more shipwreck books if you want, uh, Andrew.
27. SPShaan Puri
  I've never bought into the sto- this, the stoicism, uh, ima- the negative visualization stuff. I didn't enjoy that. I do like reading about hardship or, like, kind of, like, people who went through things, just to give yourself perspective, uh, more than it, more than to make myself feel good. Uh, although that's a good side effect, but I think it's im- more important to have a broader perspective than just w- the little narrow stuff you see in your day-to-day life. Um, but doesn't that stuff just kind of, like, bum you out? Like, you know, I k- I feel like-
28. SPSam Parr
  No
29. SPShaan Puri
  ... I get the same effect of feeling good just by, um, you know, uh, being thankful for what's going good and imagining things going well, and I can sleep easy doing that. Am I just, uh-
30. SPSpeaker
  But I, so o- the, one of the most relaxing things for me is when I'm really, really stressed, I watch a show called Survivorman. Have you guys ever heard of this?
53:30 – 57:00
Wildest Predictions
1. SPSam Parr
  these pussies know that they'll just g- they just have to eat a lemon and they won't get scurvy? What a bunch of morons. [laughs]
2. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs]
3. SPSpeaker
  [laughs]
4. SPSam Parr
  Um, w- all right. Wildest predictions. Um, what's yours?
5. SPShaan Puri
  Dude, I didn't, I didn't do any here. Andrew, you gotta carry us.
6. SPSpeaker
  Yeah, so mine is that I think assistant and admin jobs could go away or change radically. I think that, um, if you think about a lot of the tasks that personal assistants do, um, I think a very well-trained Google AI that understands your Google Drive, your calendar, and your email, um, will be able to do probably 80% of those tasks, maybe more, and I think that's coming in the very near term. Um, you know, these things are just progressing at such an exp- exponential rate, and so that's something I've been thinking a lot about. And I'm, I'm excited. You know, I think it frees up a lot of people to do, um, you know, more interesting work. But, uh, it's gonna be pretty wildly disruptive.
7. SPShaan Puri
  Well, we, we gotta read our predictions from last year, right? That, I think that's where we gotta start for this one. So Andrew, your prediction for 2023 was that we would see a lot of copies/competitors to GPT-3/AI. Correct. You said Google jumps in. Correct. AWS has something and Azure will have something. Azure did the big... You know, Microsoft did the big deal with OpenAI, so you were pretty spot on. Sam, yours was Elon dies or gets canceled in a serious way. And then you said OpenAI gets regulated. [laughs]
8. SPSam Parr
  The inputs happened. The inputs for Elon Musk were there. The output was not
9. SPShaan Puri
  Dude, he's, he's getting kind of like a long, slow cancellation, you know, progressively, uh, through, through the-
10. SPSam Parr
  And by the way, that's my same prediction for the, for the next year. I think Elon will admit that buying Twitter was a mistake. Although I think he's already acknowledged. He's like, "This is hardship that I didn't necessarily need." But I think that like s- uh, with all the advertisers leaving... I've been buying ads on Twitter. I tested it. It... Like, the cost per click are like stupid cheap. I don't even wanna mention that on here because it's-
11. SPShaan Puri
  Yeah, yeah
12. SPSam Parr
  ... going good.
13. SPShaan Puri
  Cut that shit out. [laughs]
14. SPSam Parr
  Uh, but basically I think, I think that the Twitter experiment, I think it's gonna live, but not under Elon or something in a drastic way. So I'm extending my '23 into '24.
15. SPShaan Puri
  Okay. I like that. My prediction was, uh, selfish. I said, "This is the year that I turn the corner and actually get shredded up." You know, so get ripped, get in great shape. And then I s- also said, uh, I would start a company that's, uh, you know, special or like maybe a legacy company. I definitely did not do the second one. Didn't... But, but I also didn't... Like, after that podcast, I stopped thinking about that completely and I made actually my goal to not start a company this year. Um, but I, uh, and then the getting ripped, I actually got to my fattest this year. But then before the end of the year, fourth quarter was, you know, uh, the clock was draining, and I came through in the clutch. And I'm now down about f- uh, let's see, 13, 14 pounds. And, uh, I've been eating clean for, what? 45 straight days. Uh, like perfect, perfect eating. Exactly what I wanna be doing. And, uh, for... To put that in perspective, 45 days probably doesn't sound like much. It's a month and a half. Um, probably the longest I went of actual perfect eating where I'm not eating a bunch of chips or, um, you know, ordering a pizza or something like that w- you know, one night when I'm tired or stressed. By pr- pr- probably the last time I did a stretch would've been like seven days, would've been like the longest I had gone just of actual clean eating. And now I'm at 45, so it's going great.
16. SPSam Parr
  Is this with Ozempic or without? He's, he hates it.
17. SPShaan Puri
  No Ozempic, baby. I'm on that no Ozempic plan.
18. SPSam Parr
  Daddy.
19. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs]
20. SPSam Parr
  He, uh... And in the YouTube comments, you, every
57:00 – 1:03:00
Coolest Moment of the Year
1. SPSam Parr
  video is commenting either your skin or your look-
2. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs]
3. SPSam Parr
  ... so it's working. People are, people are loving your, uh, glow up. What about coolest moment of your year?
4. SPShaan Puri
  I have a fun one. So, um, last year my coolest moment was all about me. This year it's all about somebody else. So I have a buddy who I went to college with, my buddy Dan. And Dan, um, we started our first business together straight out of college, so we were like the three amigos. Um, but then w- we, you know, that company wasn't really working out, and two of the three of us went to Australia and had this, like, really cool opportunity. But, like, there wasn't really a spot for Dan on that boat. Uh, meaning, like, you know, I got a spot, and I was able to get one other guy a spot, but it was really too much for me to, like, convince this Australian billionaire why I need two of my friends to come with me to go do this thing that was, like, kind of this unspecified project. And I felt bad about that. And I felt bad about that for, like, a decade. And I was like, "Damn, I really wish, like, even if he didn't come, that we had gotten him into a good landing spot before we made that decision." I felt like we kind of a b- left, you know, no man left behind. We kinda left a man behind, and I felt bad about that. I carried that guilt. He did totally fine, by the way. He went and got a job at Facebook and he, uh, when he was at Facebook, he [laughs] went from, like, the bottom to the top. The bottom was his job at Facebook initially was to, like, make sure that, like, no penis will show up on our newsfeed. [laughs] So he's, like, building, like, penis detection, like, systems to, like, make sure that you ne- And, and by the way, you ever logged into Facebook and seen a penis? Never. He, Dan did a great job. And so while he was there, he went and enrolled in the Facebook Developer Bootcamp and, like, taught himself to code. And, um, then he became... Then he went out in the marketplace and did a genius thing. His job application, he's like, "Well, I could say that I've been an engineer for two years. That's not really gonna get me that good of a job." So he's like, instead he went out and he, he reframed it. He goes, um, "I'm a Facebook-trained engineer. I know how to do engineering at Facebook. I can make your engineering team run like a Facebook engineering team." People loved it. He got a job as CTO of a startup that, uh, went on to raise, you know, B round, C round, D round. But unfortunately, the startup fizzled out. And I catch up with Dan and I say, um... He's like, "Hey, man, you know, unfortunately my options I thought were gonna, you know, make me a bunch of money didn't really work out. Uh, you got any other, like, kind of, uh... I'm looking for a job. Let me know." And I said, "You know, I met this guy, Andrew Wilkinson, and then I met this guy, Saeed Balkhi, and I've been listening to this podcast that I create, and it's all about there's a bunch of these people that are buying businesses." I said, "Dan, have you ever considered buying a business?" He's like, "I don't even know where I would start." And I was like, "I'm gonna help you." And I was like, "I'll... I don't, I don't know a ton about it, but I know more about it than you do, so l- you know, like, let me be a blue belt and help a white belt here." And so I basically helped Dan do this search process. I had no stake in it, no investment in it except for this is one of my best friends from college. And Dan bought a business. He bought a, uh... So after six to nine months and several, like, close calls, but, uh, you know, last minute we said, "No, no. This is not a great business. Don't buy it," um, he buys this business and he buys this bag manufactu- a bag, like, bag sales company. I don't even know how you describe it. They don't make the bags. They, they, they get them made. Uh, but they sell them to big retailers. So, like, if you go walk into, like, a, like, a Ulta, all the bags at Ulta, that's my boy Dan's company. And this guy had been running it for, you know, years. He had no contracts with any of these companies. He kind of ran it off pen and paper. Um, and so he, my, my friend Dan, was able to negotiate and buy this business at a great price. And he just texted me yesterday saying that he's only owned this business now for, like, three or four months, that in the, just in the, the sort of five months that'll be this year, he will, out of the profit of this business after paying all the debt that he used to buy the business, he will make more than he made at his highest paying job as CTO already in the first five months. And he's like, "Dude, the lifestyle is great." He's like, "I'm kinda working more, but it's totally different. A totally different feel, right? Like, I own my own business. I come in every day. I'm excited." He's like, "I see this path where we're gonna grow." He's like, "I'm the bag... I'm Dan the bag man." And he's like, "I can, I can do this, and this can be, like, my, you know, like, my asset that I build." 'Cause, like- He's like, "You know, even though I'm making more than I did at my job, it's even better 'cause you can't ever sell your job. But with this, I know if I build this business up and it's making more profits, one day I could sell this business and cash out like a life-changing-
5. SPSam Parr
  Mm
6. SPShaan Puri
  ... sum for me." And I feel so good that I got to, you know, sit shotgun for him while he went on this ride.
7. SPSam Parr
  Kudos to Dan. What's the name of the company? Can you say?
8. SPShaan Puri
  I don't know, but if you email me, uh, I'll intro you to Dan. If you need bags for your business, Dan's got you.
9. SPSam Parr
  Mine's a bit... Mine doesn't have any great story. So Andrew, I saw what you put. That is also mine, but I'm not gonna say that one. I'll go to the next one, which is actually the most important one. I had a kid this year. That was my... That was the coolest moment this year. Um, t- I think, Andrew, you, you told me... What did you say? You said, "You're gonna feel so much endo- uh, dopamine every morning when you look at your kid," and I get it now. So now it's my turn to gatekeep people and tell people like-
10. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs]
11. SPSam Parr
  ... "Oh, you'll understand when you have kids. You'll understand it."
12. SPShaan Puri
  [laughs]
13. SPSam Parr
  I understand a little bit, and it's been awesome. So that's mine, but, uh, Andrew, you do yours.
14. SPSpeaker
  I think I said, um, it's like liquid MDMA gets shot into your brain every time you look at your ba-
15. SPSam Parr
  Yeah, it's awesome, man.
16. SPSpeaker
  Um, mine-
17. SPSam Parr
  It's... And it's brought me closer to my wife, too. I have more... You know, I've alr- I always respected her, but now, uh, there's more, like, of a, of a spiritual respect. It's kinda funny. Um, but what's yours?
18. SPSpeaker
  Totally. Um, so yeah, we had our first ever live MFM in Vancouver. Uh, what was that? February, I guess, uh, this year. And I kinda put it on, like, so I, I like, you know, texted you guys and I was like, "Hey, we wanna do this event. Let's do it in Vancouver." We rented this huge theater, and I remember getting the photo of the theater and sending it to you, and we were just like, "Holy shit," like, "How are we gonna fill this thing?" Or I was really nervous about it. And, uh, we... I remember we were backstage, and we were, like, peeking out, and the entire theater was packed. There was a line down the street.
19. SPSam Parr
  Yeah, it was crazy.
20. SPSpeaker
  Like, it was really, really crazy, and this was like... This is a massive multi-level theater. And Sam-
21. SPSam Parr
  Wouldn't it seat like 1,200 people?
22. SPSpeaker
  1,200,
1:03:00 – 1:09:34
Breakout of the Year
1. SPSpeaker
  1,300 people or something.
2. SPSam Parr
  Yeah.
3. SPSpeaker
  And I remember Sam was like... We're backstage and he goes, "I don't use Facebook, but I do today 'cause I want everyone-
4. SPSam Parr
  [laughs]
5. SPSpeaker
  ... in high school to see that I filled a theater."
6. SPSam Parr
  [laughs]
7. SPSpeaker
  And he's supposed the photo of, uh, of, of us on stage.
8. SPSam Parr
  [laughs]
9. SPSpeaker
  I just love that. That was such a great moment. There... I remember, uh, Sam, you posted this photo of Alexis Ohanian with Serena Williams, and he just looks like a, like a, like a pasty white nerd with this-
10. SPSam Parr
  A bag of milk [laughs]
11. SPSpeaker
  ... like, beautiful, like, beautiful, uh, Amazon. And you go, "The nerds win."
12. SPSam Parr
  The n-
13. SPSpeaker
  And in that moment, I was like, "Okay, the nerds won." [laughs]
14. SPSam Parr
  [laughs] Yeah, he didn't like when I said that, by the way.
15. SPSpeaker
  He did not like that.
16. SPSam Parr
  He was not a fan.
17. SPSpeaker
  Yeah.
18. SPSam Parr
  But it was awesome that we sold out that theater. That, that was a really exciting thing. And you did the dumbest thing ever. You made people pay, but then you gave the money back if they showed up. People would've just paid. [laughs]
19. SPSpeaker
  Yeah, I know. In retrospect, we should've charged.
20. SPSam Parr
  [laughs] Um, let's go to breakout of the year. Shaan, what do you, what do you have?
21. SPShaan Puri
  Yeah, mine's real simple. Um, breakout of the year I think has to be Ozempic. I feel like Ozempic kinda changed the world. Um, it's not just, like, a tech thing or a business thing. Like, Ozempic is everywhere, uh, p- and, and there's... I, I don't know. The jury's still out on it, but there's a lot of evidence that even if Ozempic has, you know, maybe side effects or you gotta stay on it to maintain the gains or whatever, like, that people not being obese and people not being sort of, uh, controlled by their cravings, whether it's for food or they're even seeing maybe effects for, for alcoholism, that seems just like a really, really big deal. And I kind of... It's kind of the cliche idea. It's like what if, what if there was the magic weight loss pill? And now there kind of is. That's mind-blowing to me, that there... We did it. There is a magic weight loss pill.
22. SPSam Parr
  Well, I was picking between Brett Taylor and Ozempic. And so Shaan, do you remember how you first heard about Ozempic? I think it was June of 2022. I texted you, and I was like, "There's this drug called semaglutide. It's... I'm in New York-
23. SPShaan Puri
  Yeah
24. SPSam Parr
  ... and it's, like, kinda popular amongst, like, only a small group of, like, weird biohackers. I'm gonna try it." And I tried it, and I remember messaging you, or maybe I even said in the pod, I'm like, "For s- some," you know... I've got... I had drinking issues and I... a long time ago, but I was like, "For some reason, I even feel like, I think this might, like, cure that too."
25. SPShaan Puri
  You called it.
26. SPSam Parr
  I was like-
27. SPShaan Puri
  You called, you called it 100%. Not, not only do you show... You, you showed me a picture and I'm like, "Wow, that's incredible." You go, "I'm ta- " You go, "I started this semaglutide thing." I was like, "Dude, you... Like, I've never heard of this." Like, you're like, "Yeah, I just inject this thing in me." And I'm like, "Bro, you just inject random shit into you? Like, that's not smart."
28. SPSam Parr
  [laughs]
29. SPShaan Puri
  But you were totally on it. And then you said the, "I think this is cure, gonna cure alcoholism," and I remember literally, like, I didn't wanna laugh in your face, but I remember laughing inside being like, "Dude, that's just like, sounds like a crazy leap." Uh, you know, you can't just say that shit. That- there's, there's no evidence of that.
30. SPSam Parr
  I just felt it. I could feel it when I... So I don't use it anymore, but I tested it for a small amount of time, and this is semaglutide. That's the name of the drug or the c- uh, I don't know how you even ex- explain it, the, the, the root drug, and then there's Ozempic is the brand name. But I remember, like, putting that in my body, and I'm like, "I think this is gonna cure alcoholism 'cause you don't crave anything." And I think what's gonna happen is in 10 years we're gonna see downsides to this drug 'cause right now there's, like, very few, or at least it's impacting only a small amount of people. So I think that, like, there's still gonna be downsides, but I think that... What did Scott Galloway said? He goes, "It's not ChatGPT. It's GLP-1." That's the big thing.