The Billion Dollar Business Behind Drake's Gambling Live Streams (Stake.com)

1. 0:00 – 0:17

   Intro

   1. SPSam Parr0:00

      [upbeat music] Okay. I just sent you something hilarious. I've been following this Twitter called Mugshawtys, and it's like a play on mugshots, and it's beautiful.

   2. SPShaan Puri0:16

      Yeah, we ta- we talked about this.

2. 0:17 – 0:56

   Mugshawtys

   1. SPShaan Puri0:17

      [laughs] You've talked about this.

   2. SPSam Parr0:17

      Oh, did we talk about Mugshawtys?

   3. SPShaan Puri0:19

      Yeah. [laughs]

   4. SPSam Parr0:20

      It's so funny.

   5. SPShaan Puri0:22

      [laughs]

   6. SPSam Parr0:22

      And the tagline is, uh... The tagline is, uh, "Hope bae gets bail."

   7. SPShaan Puri0:26

      [laughs]

   8. SPSam Parr0:27

      Uh, and it's Mugshawtys, and it's all, like, good-looking girls-

   9. SPShaan Puri0:30

      Mm

   10. SPSam Parr0:31

       ... who have a mugshot. It's hilarious. It's so funny.

   11. SPShaan Puri0:33

       [laughs] Yeah, we've talked about that 'cause there was the guy who, his mugshot went viral 'cause he's got, like... He's just, like, really stunningly good-looking, and he became, like, a model after, afterwards or whatever.

   12. SPSam Parr0:44

       Yeah, I remember that guy. People still talk about him. Um-

   13. SPShaan Puri0:47

       Can I tell you a crazy story?

   14. SPSam Parr0:48

       Yeah.

   15. SPShaan Puri0:49

       Uh, so have you ever seen... I, I think this is probably outside of your, your, like, kind of orbit of what you pay attention

3. 0:56 – 15:10

   Drake online gambling

   1. SPShaan Puri0:56

      to, but have you seen these gambling livestreams where Drake will go on Twitch and he'll gamble, like, $20 million live on stream?

   2. SPSam Parr1:04

      No. Really?

   3. SPShaan Puri1:05

      Yeah. [laughs]

   4. SPSam Parr1:06

      Like, a r- like, real $20 million?

   5. SPShaan Puri1:08

      A real $20 million. Like, he lost, like, I think $17 million on roulette one night last, like, two weeks ago or something like that. Um-

   6. SPSam Parr1:14

      Is he really that rich that... I mean, like, if you're $200 million rich, that's 10% of your net worth.

   7. SPShaan Puri1:21

      In a night. No, okay, so, so-

   8. SPSam Parr1:23

      That's a substantial amount

   9. SPShaan Puri1:24

      ... good question. I had the same question, which led me to some pretty interesting findings. Okay. So, um, so I saw Drake doing this, and I've seen other popular streamers, like xQc and these guys, they do these gambling streams from time to time. People love to see it 'cause they're playing kinda, like, high-stakes online, uh, you know, gambling, and they're reacting to the highs and lows or whatever. Uh, Ben, have you seen this? I, I think it's probably also outside of your, you know, Mormon orbit. You d- you don't watch these kinds of sins. Yeah, so-

   10. SPSam Parr1:52

       [laughs]

   11. SPShaan Puri1:52

       ... [laughs] exactly. So, so I saw this and I-

   12. SPSam Parr1:54

       This is all, uh, this is all on Twitch?

   13. SPShaan Puri1:56

       It's happening on T- it was happening on Twitch. Maybe some people do it on YouTube as well. But it got me curious. I was like, "There's no way this guy's gambling $25 million, $20 million of his own money on these things." And I was like, "The, these streams get so popular," I'm like, "this is actually great marketing for the website that it's on." So he's, he's gambling on something called stake.com, S-T-A-K-E. And, um, so I was like, "I bet this is house money that they're giving him in order to just promote the site," and sure enough, that's what it is. So get this.

   14. SPSam Parr2:26

       But is he, is he losing it ag- when you play blackjack, you lose against the dealer, right?

   15. SPShaan Puri2:30

       The house, yeah. So they're just-

   16. SPSam Parr2:32

       Okay

   17. SPShaan Puri2:32

       ... like, if I gave you $20 million to come play my rigged game, I gave you 20 million, you lose it right back to me. I get n- I, I n- I, you know, I, I'm back whole. Um, they don't even lose the vig 'cause they're the house, so they would take that, you know, 4% edge or whatever that they would have. They keep that as well. Um, and if you win, maybe they have some deal where, like, hey, if you win, you keep the winnings. Uh, I would assume they have some deal like that with him.

   18. SPSam Parr2:54

       But it, it, it's electronic, right? Like, if-

   19. SPShaan Puri2:56

       Yeah

   20. SPSam Parr2:57

       ... like, the cards are digital. It's not like a camera on... So then they could just be like, "Oh, shoot, Drake has 20."

   21. SPShaan Puri3:03

       [laughs]

   22. SPSam Parr3:03

       "We have to make ourselves have 21."

   23. SPShaan Puri3:05

       Yeah, well, that, that's, yeah, that's a little bit... That's illegal for sure. But, uh, th- they wouldn't need to do that. Like, I guess that's kinda my point, is that they'll, they'll already have a house edge and, uh, over time, like, they will win. And so, and even if they don't, like, this is, as a marketing campaign, like, uh, this is, like, kinda genius. And so what they're doing is, Stake.com is this website, and it is the largest cryptocurrency-based online gambling site in the world. And nobody knew who was behind it until recently, some guy in Australia bought, like, a $36 million home. And they were like, "Who, who is this? Well, you're in your 20s. How did you buy a $36 million home all cash?" Like, what's, what's-

   24. SPSam Parr3:45

       Was he, he was, he was in his 20s?

   25. SPShaan Puri3:47

       So these guys, they're in their mid-20s. I think one guy's 25 or 26. The other guy's 28.

   26. SPSam Parr3:52

       Wow.

   27. SPShaan Puri3:52

       And, um, and so there's this guy, Ed. You can just l- search Ed Craven, uh, Ed Craven Stake, and you'll see, uh, the secret origins, uh, secret Australian origins of the world's biggest crypto casino. And so get this. So basically they have a-

   28. SPSam Parr4:06

       Beautiful headline

   29. SPShaan Puri4:08

       ... there's these guys in, um, in Australia, and they've got this office, and it's just like... And they, the office is under this name called Easygo Gaming. It's like, "We build online, uh, games." And the office is super nice, and people would see it on social media. They would see, like, wow, these guys got, like, a chef, and they got all these perks, and they got, like... They're always going on these trips, and, like, what's going on with... Man, Easygo Gaming, you guys must be an awesome gaming company. And so, uh, uh, uh-

   30. SPSam Parr4:33

       It, it must just be, like, a couple people, and they're just hanging out at someone's house.
4. 15:10 – 18:25

   Youngest billionaire

   1. SPShaan Puri15:10

      I think the world's youngest self billionaire now is this guy, Alexander Wang. Do you know this guy? I, I, I don't really know him, but I think I was in a group chat with him. Um-

   2. SPSam Parr15:20

      Is that from that company, uh-

   3. SPShaan Puri15:21

      Scale

   4. SPSam Parr15:22

      ... the startup? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   5. SPShaan Puri15:24

      So what, what they do is pretty cool. Um, they basically saw the kinda, like, machine learning, um, trend, you know. Like, y- this is gonna keep growing, and they were like, "Well, you know, one, one thing that's really hard is, like, when you're doing machine learning, you need, like, the data to be labeled," right? So if you're trying to teach a computer how to recognize a, a, a, a, you know, a kitten or something like that, it's like you first have to train it in some ways or be able to, like, um, teach it when it's wrong and correct it. And, um, so that labeling process is, is quite, like, time-consuming. And so what they did was they created, like, a, a, I think a giant workfor- force of overseas people that will label your images for you. And so, like, if you're a self-driving car company, if you're, uh, Waymo or, or Tesla or whatever, you get, like, tons and tons of footage, and then now those need to be labeled as, like, yep, that was a dog crossing the street. Yep, that's a stop sign, even though it's partially obstructed. And so how does that happen? That's, like, a human intervention. Humans go and do that. And so Scale started off as, like, a... It was labeling as a service. I, I, I'm sure they do a lot more stuff now, but it's pretty crazy. That's, like, a $10 billion company now, and this guy, I, I think he started it when he was 19 or something. I'm not-

   6. SPSam Parr16:34

      What?

   7. SPShaan Puri16:35

      Um, so yeah.

   8. SPSam Parr16:35

      Is he cool?

   9. SPShaan Puri16:37

      Yeah, he was cool. Uh, like, I didn't know him for long 'cause as soon as there... [laughs] It's pretty funny. It's like he... I'm in this group chat that's, like, four founders. Um, yeah, four, for- a bunch of founders. It's like, "Oh, this is kind of, like, the underground founders hangout. Like, we, we chill here." And everybody's trying to do big things, but then when one guy actually started doing big things, he's like, "I'm busy. I need to leave this now." [laughs] And so it's like the, the ultimate signal. It's like, oh, when it really takes off, you don't-

   10. SPSam Parr17:01

       That's badass. Good for him

   11. SPShaan Puri17:03

       ... stay in these chats. You just sort of, like, go do your billionaire thing now, meaning, you know, you go do your, like, "I'm actually on a rocket ship. I don't have time to socialize anymore." Um, which, you know, respect to him.

   12. SPSam Parr17:14

       Dude, I was gonna show you something that I thought was, like, a major good find, and now it seems, like, achievable, given that you just set the baseline at-

   13. SPShaan Puri17:24

       [laughs]

   14. SPSam Parr17:24

       ... to 26-year-olds who are now worth $10 billion. This one's a little... This one's w- much smaller but still oddly interesting. Uh, go to the, the MFM or the, uh, Million Dollar Brainstorm document-

   15. SPShaan Puri17:36

       Okay

   16. SPSam Parr17:36

       ... that we have, and scroll down. And so you can kinda see that, like, this is truthful. The guy sent me a picture of his QuickBooks. So you see that?

   17. SPShaan Puri17:47

       Yeah, I'm looking at it.

   18. SPSam Parr17:48

       All right. So this guy named Matt Paulson. So you remember when my Twitter got hacked?

   19. SPShaan Puri17:52

       Yes. [laughs]

   20. SPSam Parr17:53

       So, uh, there was the... Basically, people hacked my Twitter, and they tweeted out, like, "I'm giving away a PS5," or whatever the number is, and just, like, "Send me $400 and I'm donating the money to St. Jude's." And this guy, Matt, I, when I got back in my Twitter, I saw that he sent- ... two times the asked amount. He was like, he's like, "I just wanna send, uh, went ahead and sent you $1,000 just, you know, so St. Jude's has a little extra money." And I, I was like, "Oh my God, dude. That, that, that sucks. I'm so sorry about this." And he was like, "Oh, no big deal." And I was like, "All right. Well,

5. 18:25 – 32:15

   Marketbeat

   1. SPSam Parr18:25

      who, who are you that you're this nice?" And I clicked out, and he runs this website called MarketBeat. Have you ever heard of MarketBeat?

   2. SPShaan Puri18:30

      Only when you, uh, you, you shared this in the Treads group. So I did a little bit of stalking at that time 'cause I was like, "What is that?" Uh, you know, your tweet was intriguing. You... 'Cause you had said something like, "I met a guy who runs a company that does 25 million a year in revenue, only 13 employees," and it was like 17 million of the 25 was profit. And I was like-

   3. SPSam Parr18:50

      Yes

   4. SPShaan Puri18:50

      ... "All right. Uh, uh, I'm fully a- aroused. Tell me more."

   5. SPSam Parr18:54

      [laughs]

   6. SPShaan Puri18:54

      "What is this company?" You know. [laughs]

   7. SPSam Parr18:57

      Got him. Uh, yeah. Uh, and so he sent me a picture of his QuickBooks, and he was like, "Here's the profit. I mean, keep in mind this doesn't include my huge sal- or my huge salary is a part of the expenses. But we actually do 17 million of profit." The P&L that he sent me, it's like, I think, 13 million of profit. So it's called MarketBeat, marketbeat.com. And, um, for the first two years it was just him. And you go to MarketBeat-

   8. SPShaan Puri19:19

      Well, explain what it is. Yeah. Like what, what is the service?

   9. SPSam Parr19:20

      Yeah. You, you, you go to marketbeat.com. Like, I always Google, like, HubSpot price targets because I'm curious what HubSpot's, what analysts think the pr- the, the stock might be in one year. And he shows up early in Google, one, two, three. Or if you Google Amazon price targets, Target price targets, whatever, like any company. And it's... He calls it a web portal, but if you didn't know better you would look at it and just call it a media company. So you, you see different headlines and different news. It's kind of like Wall Street Journal but really even more niche and just for stocks, just for dividend stocks. And it's just a way to really quickly see headlines of what's coming up. So it's kind of like a d- um, a, a portal or a dag- data aggregator where you could just, like, see, like, all right, um, this stock has an earnings call on this date. So it's basically just a place to get information. But it's also part, um, media company because they have... They publish 250 articles a year, or sorry, a month. And they have contractors who they pay $150 per article to write these. But he told me, he goes, "Regardless if the articles don't actually add to any of our revenue, people come to the website mostly just to see, like, the stock prices and things like that." And so right now the guy, uh, has 11 employees. And I actually have a list of... Sorry, 13 employees. I have a list of what they all do.

   10. SPShaan Puri20:33

       [laughs]

   11. SPSam Parr20:33

       He's got f- he's got four developers, four support people, one ad guy, one accountant, one content manager, one marketing assistant, and him. And, uh, they make money through subscription and through advertising, most of which comes through advertising. They've got 15,000 subscribers who pay between 20 and 40,000, uh, 20 and $40 a month. And, uh, one ad guy is selling all these ads. And it's mostly direct marketing. And he's got, uh, a b- a bunch of different brands. Like, he's got, um, uh, different-

   12. SPShaan Puri21:03

       Sorry. So we're going faster. So the, the... Just to break down that revenue, it sounded like subscriptions is something like $4 or $5 million a year out of the 25. Is that right?

   13. SPSam Parr21:14

       Uh, he told me 15,000 premium subscribers, and they pay either 20 or $40 a month-

   14. SPShaan Puri21:19

       Oh, okay

   15. SPSam Parr21:19

       ... depending on whichever one they get.

   16. SPShaan Puri21:20

       So let's call it 30. So that's five and a, five and a half million, uh, from the subscription, from the premium subscription.

   17. SPSam Parr21:25

       And then the rest being ad revenue. Yeah.

   18. SPShaan Puri21:27

       So 20 million of ads. Okay. Wow.

   19. SPSam Parr21:29

       Crazy, right? And there's only one ad salesperson. He doesn't have a team of ad sales guys. And he'll, they'll sell directly to large, uh, like, uh, maybe like The Motley Fool or some other, like, uh, stock picking newsletter or some other financial brand or some company looking to promote their stock or different financial brokers, uh, financial products like wealth advisors, things like that. But if an advertiser is too small, they just work with an agency and, and they just say, "Hey, agency, you know, we've got some leftover inventory. You wanna put your ads in here?" And it's just one guy doing the whole thing. Doing all the, uh-

   20. SPShaan Puri22:02

       Unbelievable. So it seems like the, the trick for them, and by trick I mean hard work and strategy, was-

   21. SPSam Parr22:08

       Oh, by the way-

   22. SPShaan Puri22:08

       ... getting the guy the SEO

   23. SPSam Parr22:09

       ... they've been around, I think they've been around for 15 years.

   24. SPShaan Puri22:12

       Right. And it was SEO. Is it, it's SEO that drives the bulk of the traffic? Is that the idea?

   25. SPSam Parr22:17

       I think early on. Now it has a little bit of a brand. Before I even knew the guy I would actually go to it all the time just to look, 'cause it, their, their interface is-

   26. SPShaan Puri22:22

       It's really nicely organized. Like, I'm on, like, the Amazon one right now, and it's bas- like, it has just, like, a bunch of stuff put together. It's like, oh, here's the execs. Here's the CEO. Here's their age. Here's their pay. It's like here's the, um, you know, here's the percent shareholding, you know, amongst these different groups.

   27. SPSam Parr22:37

       Yeah. It's like-

   28. SPShaan Puri22:38

       Here's the analyst targets, et cetera.

   29. SPSam Parr22:39

       It's kind of ugly by traditional web, you know, 2.0 standards. Like, it doesn't meet any of the design requirements that, like, Airbnb would approve of. But it, in my mind it's perfect.

   30. SPShaan Puri22:48

       [laughs]
6. 32:15 – 45:05

   What is a systems integrator?

   1. SPSam Parr32:15

      integrator, and that's one of those words like procurement.

   2. SPShaan Puri32:17

      Yeah.

   3. SPSam Parr32:17

      I heard that, and I'm like, "What does that mean?"

   4. SPShaan Puri32:20

      [laughs]

   5. SPSam Parr32:20

      And so I went on this deep dive. I'm like, "I gotta figure out exactly what they do. I, I ca- I don't understand this." And then, like, it, it says they're a Cisco systems integrator. And I went to Cisco's website, and I'm like-

   6. SPShaan Puri32:31

      What does Cisco do? [laughs]

   7. SPSam Parr32:33

      ... they're, yeah, I'm like, I, they're like networking, h- hardware networking or, like, networking hardware. And I, like, read those words, and I'm like-

   8. SPShaan Puri32:39

      Well, no, like the website will just be like, "Networking redefined." And you're like, I didn't-

   9. SPSam Parr32:43

      Yeah

   10. SPShaan Puri32:43

       ... I didn't know the first definition. [laughs] Now it's redefined? Great.

   11. SPSam Parr32:46

       Yeah, I didn't, uh, yeah, we, I didn't know we had to change that definition.

   12. SPShaan Puri32:48

       [laughs]

   13. SPSam Parr32:48

       And then, like, they talk about, like, switches and stuff. And I'm like, I don't know what, like, a switch is. I guess it has to do with electronics. Like-

   14. SPShaan Puri32:53

       [laughs]

   15. SPSam Parr32:54

       ... I just, I didn't have, have any idea what this stuff did. Uh, and but I Google it, and like I, I know that Cisco's like one of the largest companies in the world, but I'm just, I, like, I don't know what it is. And so I had to research it. It took me forever to figure out what a systems integrator is. Do you know what it is?

   16. SPShaan Puri33:08

       Dude, no, I don't know what any... I don't know what S- I don't know what SAP does. I've been on a mission also to understand-

   17. SPSam Parr33:14

       I don't know what that does either

   18. SPShaan Puri33:14

       ... what SAP does for a long-ass time, and, uh-

   19. SPSam Parr33:17

       They're, they're European, though. They got a different word for everything. We'd never be able to figure that out.

   20. SPShaan Puri33:20

       And I feel like sometimes I'm watching TV, and it'll just pop up SAP, and I think it means, like, closed captioning or Spanish or something like that. I'm like, oh, wait, this is different.

   21. SPSam Parr33:26

       [laughs]

   22. SPShaan Puri33:26

       Now I'm-

   23. SPSam Parr33:27

       Yeah

   24. SPShaan Puri33:27

       ... now I'm super confused about SAP.

   25. SPSam Parr33:29

       Yeah. Well, I don't even know why they named their company after their stock ticker, either.

   26. SPShaan Puri33:32

       [laughs]

   27. SPSam Parr33:32

       It's kind of weird. But, um, they, uh... So, so a systems integrator basically... So what my father-in-law does for a living is if you're, like, Chase, and you have 100 employees working on floor 18, and you're like, "Hey, we gotta move these 100 employees up to floor 43 in the same building," he studies it for a few weeks. And then you go to home from work on Friday, and you come back on the floor 47, and you sit down at your desk that's already set up, and everything just works, and there's no downtime. And I think system integrators kinda do that. But, like, if you're a $20 billion company, and you're selling, like, a $3 billion division to this other thing, like, they have to go to work one day, and, like, all their computers are new, and, like, this new setup exists. Or if you're, like, a h- a hospital, and you're like, "We need an app," and it's like, well, it's not as simple as just, like, check it into your lobby and saying you're there. Like, you gotta, like, integrate all this crap into it, and I think that's what they do. But I don't know why they don't just call it, like, an agency. You know what I mean?

   28. SPShaan Puri34:27

       Yeah.

   29. SPSam Parr34:27

       Uh, so-

   30. SPShaan Puri34:28

       Yeah, I, I don't know either. But I, I do know, like, you know, uh, I guess, like, jokes aside, you know, there's basically things that are like, uh, like, you know NetSuite? NetSuite's another one of these, where you're like-
7. 45:05 – 48:05

   Why you should be investing more now

   1. SPShaan Puri45:05

      um, then I heard somebody say something. I, I think it was, um, somebody on All-In on the podcast that one of their guests, he had said something. He was like, he's like, actually they're like, "Are you slowing down?" And he was like, "No, this is the time to speed up." He goes, "You know, the last few years, I was like getting pretty worried and I thought like, maybe it's time to slow down because valuations were getting really high. There's just e- everybody was... There's too much c- capital flowing around. Everybody's throwing money at everything. It's really h-..." And, you know, when you would do a deal, it'd be like you wouldn't be able to get, uh, all the information you need. It's like, "Hey, dude, we're closing." Like you're either in or you're out. You don't have time to do like certain level of diligence. He's like, "I actually think that those like, uh, vintages of companies," right? Like, you know, like a, like a vintage of wine, like the 1985 Bordeaux was so good. It's like basically that happens in startup investing too, where like certain vintages turn out really good and certain are kind of dry. They don't have any big winners. If you look, basically after every kind of like market crash or recession is like s- those next three years are some of the best vintages for startups. And so like this happened after the kind of 2000, 2001 crash and like the next vintage that came out was like, had LinkedIn, had Facebook, had like, you know, a bunch of large companies.

   2. SPSam Parr46:12

      I agree with that, but like the valuations, maybe it could've cha- it's like, feels like it's changing week by week. But like two weeks ago when I was looking at a few deals, the valuations were still quite high.

   3. SPShaan Puri46:22

      Yeah. I, I, I think they are coming down and they're coming down week by week. You're, you're absolutely right and I... You know, you, you can be disciplined on that where you're just like, "Oh, you haven't gotten the memo that like, you know, what used to be 50 million is now 22 million and what used to be 20 million is now eight? Like you, you need to get that memo," and some people just haven't got that memo yet. But like a lot of them have.

   4. SPSam Parr46:41

      Right. That... I'm, I'm, I'm waiting like that amount, like just a few more weeks maybe until...

   5. SPShaan Puri46:47

      Yeah.

   6. SPSam Parr46:47

      So that, that's... When, when I say wait, that's what I mean. Because we were talking to people and they weren't budging and I was like, "Well, all right. We'll wait."

   7. SPShaan Puri46:53

      Right.

   8. SPSam Parr46:53

      And now I'm getting emails from some like portfolio companies and they're like, you can see their cash balance and how much money they have left and it's like, damn, man, I think there actually might be like a lot of things going out of business in six months.

   9. SPShaan Puri47:04

      I, I, I think there absolutely will be. I mean, I've been getting a ton of, "Hey, we just raised this extra money." Like, a lot of smart founders basically are, are like taking the bag while it's available, uh, just to give themselves a buffer, 'cause like who knows how much worse it's gonna get. And, um, but the values are coming down. So I actually think that like this, this year, next year, the next basically two, two and a half years are gonna be like kind of an awesome vintage of startups to be investing in because you're getting all the... You know, like none of the big trends have changed. Like the world's just getting more tech-enabled. The tech is just going into more and more industries. Size of the prize is getting bigger. There's more and more people coming online. Machine learning and all that stuff's making stuff better. Like all of that's still true, it's just that the prices got cut in half. And so it's like, "Oh, good." [laughs]

   10. SPSam Parr47:43

       I'm, I'm, I'm on board. I'm just like, wait. I just think that like there's, there's so far been like this two, three-week period where it's like there's a discrepancy that'll get fixed I think in like two, three, four, five, six weeks.

   11. SPShaan Puri47:55

       Yeah.

   12. SPSam Parr47:56

       You know? I, I think-

   13. SPShaan Puri47:56

       Right

   14. SPSam Parr47:56

       ... that's gonna happen pretty, pretty soon. But-

   15. SPShaan Puri47:58

       Should we talk about your, uh, your thing?

   16. SPSam Parr48:01

       I can talk-

   17. SPShaan Puri48:01

       Now or you wanna do a devoted, uh-

   18. SPSam Parr48:02

       All right. Well, we could ta- we could... Yeah, I don't wanna do a

8. 48:05 – 56:10

   Sam's new business venture

   1. SPSam Parr48:05

      devoted thing because I'm not gonna announce what it is entirely yet. So-

   2. SPShaan Puri48:08

      Okay

   3. SPSam Parr48:08

      ... but we can kinda talk about it. But basically, uh, like I'm kinda going back to my roots. I'm launching this new thing. I'm not even saying I'm launching it. I'm more so like, uh, launching, uh, enough of it to prove or disapprove if it's a good idea.

   4. SPShaan Puri48:22

      Okay.

   5. SPSam Parr48:23

      And I've gotten, uh, like, uh, I forget exact- like tens of thousands in revenue in the first-

   6. SPShaan Puri48:31

      Okay

   7. SPSam Parr48:31

      ... two weeks.

   8. SPShaan Puri48:32

      Amazing. And, um-

   9. SPSam Parr48:34

      And I didn't tweet about it once. So-

   10. SPShaan Puri48:36

       So, so tell me this. Tell me, uh, what- Are you doing differently this time around than you did... So last time you started this rodeo was maybe six years ago, something like that?

   11. SPSam Parr48:45

       Yeah, yeah.

   12. SPShaan Puri48:46

       And so now with, you did the whole Hustle chapter, you get acquired, you go to HubSpot, you see a bunch of things, you meet a bunch of people, you get smarter, wiser, all that stuff. You got some hair on your chest now, and so it's like what's, what did you decide, like, "All right. This time I'm doing these things differently"? Or was there any-

   13. SPSam Parr49:01

       Early on, early on I was, like, against outsourcing or hiring anyone overseas or hiring, like, cheap labor or hourly labor, and I was like, "No, I wanna create jobs and I wanna, like, do salary position with benefits." And now I'm not doing that. Eventually, maybe we'll add some people like that, but now it's like, just how do I automate this-

   14. SPShaan Puri49:19

       [laughs]

   15. SPSam Parr49:20

       ... and how do I, like, get someone overseas just to do this like a machine? And I just don't really care if I don't have any employees, and I wanna-

   16. SPShaan Puri49:25

       Right [laughs]

   17. SPSam Parr49:26

       ... and I'd, I'd prefer being alone. So that's the big difference. The second difference is, well, the s- the same similarity is I'm doing it all by hand, and this is totally the right move, and I stand by that. So before I wrote everything, I sold the first ads, I did it all. This time I'm doing the same thing. So I'm literally doing the cold emailing, I'm getting them on the phone, I'm doing the sales, I'm listening to them. I'm doing that constantly. And getting those reps in is actually really impactful, and you could actually, like, see, uh, what's happening. But I, by the way, I got that revenue. Uh, 0% of the revenue has come through our website. It's all been from cold ema- emailing people on LinkedIn and getting them on the phone, and then just send- sending them a Stripe account.

   18. SPShaan Puri50:03

       Amazing. What, um, what else? What else is different about your mindset? I bet there's more.

   19. SPSam Parr50:09

       Way more confident, for sure. Um, there is still a sense of urgency, uh, so, like wanting to move fast and, like, "I have to get this done. I have to do this," but more so, like, um, "I have to get this done, but also remember, like, I may do this for like 20 years."

   20. SPShaan Puri50:25

       Right [laughs]

   21. SPSam Parr50:25

       So, like, h- having this longer term, this longer horizon. What I learned with my business, we sold around year five, and the truth is, most- the value created between year five and year six was more probably than the value of zero to five-

   22. SPShaan Puri50:39

       Mm

   23. SPSam Parr50:40

       ... combined.

   24. SPShaan Puri50:40

       Right.

   25. SPSam Parr50:41

       And I was... I wasn't impatient, because I'm happy I did what I did 'cause it unlocked a lot for my life. But had I not, I said this a bunch of times, if I was already wealthy, I would never have sold because real value seems like it comes, like, now I've only experienced a, a business from, like, around year five. But it seems like maybe there's something that happens year five, year six where value's created. And then who knows? Maybe someone who's owned a company for years is like, "Man, 20 and 30 is when, like, shit-

   26. SPShaan Puri51:07

       Right

   27. SPSam Parr51:07

       ... magic really hap-

   28. SPShaan Puri51:08

       [laughs]

   29. SPSam Parr51:08

       ... so I don't know. But I, I do think, like, year five if you bootstrap is around the time where you're like, "All right. I recruited some actually good people. I've got people do- helping and everything," but like, I don't know. Do you agree with, like, year five, year six, year seven is where some crazy stuff happens?

   30. SPShaan Puri51:22

       I think it's just, I think it's just generally true, right? Like, you, you plant seeds, and they, you water them, and you water them, and you, you're looking at them, and you're trying not to just go dig up the dirt and be like, "Why the fuck aren't you growing?" But, like, at some point, those things do start to grow. Like, we're seeing this with our e-commerce business too, which was, um, uh, my buddy had told me this. He goes, he goes, "There's this magic moment in e-commerce where you've, you've brute forced enough of the, like, building your brand and getting c- getting new people to try you, where every month your returning customers just come back because they love your product, and you don't have to re-market, you don't have to spend money re-marketing to them."
9. 56:10 – 1:05:45

   Shaan's sister's business

   1. SPSam Parr56:10

      else.

   2. SPShaan Puri56:11

      So my sister has a business. I don't... Have I told you about her like Cloud Kidz thing?

   3. SPSam Parr56:17

      Well, I know she's a, a babysitter's a little... That's not, uh, actually accurate, but like daycare, right?

   4. SPShaan Puri56:22

      It wa- well, so it was, uh, I guess it was kinda like an in-home daycare that became like a preschool. It became like a outdoor preschool, whatever. It kind of evolved during COVID.

   5. SPSam Parr56:29

      Yeah, by the way, sorry, I didn't mean to call that babysitting.

   6. SPShaan Puri56:32

      [laughs]

   7. SPSam Parr56:33

      She would've punched me in the face.

   8. SPShaan Puri56:34

      [laughs]

   9. SPSam Parr56:34

      Uh, and I knew that wasn't the right... I knew it wasn't babysitting. I was like I called it, I meant to say daycare.

   10. SPShaan Puri56:39

       So, uh, yeah, it's okay. That, that, it's, it's all right. So, but, uh, during COVID she pivoted to like an online thing. Like a lot of businesses went from like, "Oh, shit, brick and mortar is really hard right now," 'cause they're like, you know, every month the government is changing the rules on what we can and c- we can and can't operate our business. So she created this thing called Cloud Kidz. So if you go to Cloud Kidz, with a Z. Uh, I think it's preschool.com. Let me see if that's it. Um, yeah, Cloud Kidz, with a Z, preschool.com. So go to that website real quick and just look at this. Um, I actually think she's done a pretty good job-

   11. SPSam Parr57:14

       Oh, yeah-

   12. SPShaan Puri57:14

       ... with the website

   13. SPSam Parr57:15

       ... Cloud Kidz. It's Cloud Kidz what?

   14. SPShaan Puri57:16

       Cloud Kid... Hang on. I'll just put the link here. Cloud Kidz, with a Z, preschool.com. So check this out. So, um, this is like helping her with this has been pretty fun because she, like, she built this in like Wix. I'm like, "Oh, Wix."

   15. SPSam Parr57:28

       Oh, it looks great.

   16. SPShaan Puri57:29

       Like who, who's using Wix? And then, and I, I was like, "All right. You need to add like change the headline. You need to add like a video. The video needs to be not like a full-on video, like just make it look like a teacher teaching something." Like-

   17. SPSam Parr57:39

       Oh, dude, this looks amazing.

   18. SPShaan Puri57:41

       Exactly. So now it's really good. It used to be like, um, you know, get info. Now it's like free trial, right? Like just optimizing the landing page with her, like headline, sub-headline, button, hero image, um, you know, reasons to, reasons to buy, all that stuff. Like, and then she's like working with people in like Fiverr and Upwork to like do these designs. It's like it's actually turned out pretty good. And so she created this thing, which is basically like, um, these small group classes. So like let's say you have your kid at home, uh, either because they're just like my, my, like my daughter. She's too young to go to school right now. Uh, we don't wanna send her to full-time preschool. But like we want her to like learn something every day, and it's like kinda takes a shit ton of energy to sit there and be like the engaging, patient parent and like keep your kid's attention and be like, "I'll teach you like how to write the letter W today." Like, but like with this I'm like I sit her down in front of the computer. I get the materials in front of her with pa- paper and crayon, and like the teacher is like so good. They'll be like, "All right, you know, like hi. High five. Let's sing our welcome song." And then they like do all the things. And so for one hour she get, it's like screen time without the guilt. It's like th- the, she gets engaged, like it's cartoons, but it's not cartoons 'cause she's actually like learning stuff and getting better. And so she created this service, and it's like, I was like, "Dude, this is actually a pretty cool, good product." And she, um, she's hired these teachers, and the teachers are like, uh, like in Florida and different places like that. So, so then she was, uh, she calls me and she's like, "Oh, I'm just like struggling so much with the growth." And so I like, I was like, "All right, well, like tell me what..." Like, she's like, "Uh, just it's not working." And I was like-

   19. SPSam Parr59:08

       What did, what were the numbers?

   20. SPShaan Puri59:09

       And so she gives me the numbers, and she's basically like... I was like, "Okay, so let's draw the funnel." And she's like, "What's a funnel?" I'm like, "All right. Just imagine like at the top, you know, you're getting leads, like people who come to your website, and then some of them give you their email, some of them sign up for a free trial, some of them actually show up, and then some of them become a fully paid customer." So we drew that funnel out. It's like, oh, actually this conversion rate's kind of awesome. I was like, "Why do you..." And then, and then I was like, "So what's your cost per lead? Is that really high?" It's like, "No, it's like not high at all." And this is with like, you know, this like $50 a day, $100 a day ad budget. Like, and she's just like, "Uh, I don't even know how to do Facebook ads. I just put in like, you know, 100, and I just wanted to see what would happen." And like, I was like, "Wow, this is actually, like this business is kind of amazing. So you pay back your customer in less than a month?" She's like, "I don't know. If you say so." I'm like, "Yeah, like that's what your numbers say. You, you basically pay back before your ads bill is even due." That's like the, the ultimate like thing you want with a ads-driven business is like to p- to get the revenue from a customer profitably before you even pay your credit card bill.

   21. SPSam Parr1:00:06

       And, and to give the listener context, so it, prices range from $40 a week to... So you could... Or all, all right, I understand. So you can get classes one day, two day, three day, four day a week. They, it all ranges from like $160 a month to $400 a month.

   22. SPShaan Puri1:00:22

       Yeah.

   23. SPSam Parr1:00:22

       And you get, it's basically, it's, uh, the, the tagline's actually quite good. It, uh, although the website needs a little work. Like I clicked on the FAQs, and it goes to privacy policy.

   24. SPShaan Puri1:00:30

       [laughs]

   25. SPSam Parr1:00:31

       Uh, but that's all right. Live online preschool classes. The number one live preschool program from home. We pr- this is a beautiful line. We provide the curriculum, teachers, and friends.

   26. SPShaan Puri1:00:41

       Right.

   27. SPSam Parr1:00:42

       That's a, that, that's great. And then, uh, there's a video. Who, is this like this woman who works for her?

   28. SPShaan Puri1:00:46

       Yeah.

   29. SPSam Parr1:00:46

       You have a white sister.

   30. SPShaan Puri1:00:47

       Yeah. Yeah, that's one of my teachers.
10. 1:05:45 – 1:21:50

    Ben's LDS mission

    1. SPSam Parr1:05:45

       1% out of 100, that's good. That's why I always joke with Ben. I'm like, "Mormons are probably the best salespeople because s- c- convincing someone to join a religion has like the lowest conversion rate ever."

    2. SPShaan Puri1:05:53

       [laughs]

    3. SPSam Parr1:05:53

       And then you hear that like you could sell Salesforce and that has a 2% conversion rate, and you're like-

    4. SPShaan Puri1:05:57

       Piece of cake

    5. SPSam Parr1:05:58

       ... God, this is, this is the easiest thing-

    6. SPShaan Puri1:05:59

       Right. [laughs]

    7. SPSam Parr1:05:59

       ... ever, ever. So just-

    8. SPShaan Puri1:06:00

       Mission Impossible

    9. SPSam Parr1:06:00

       ... converting one adult. Ben, how many... Uh, like I, I, I don't know, like if that's actually what you did, where you tried to get people to like quit whatever religion they were in and join your crew. But how many people do you think who were like either atheist or in another team, and they just said, "Yeah, cool. I'll, I'll join your thing"? How many people... What, what's your, what was your percentage rate?

    10. SPSpeaker1:06:22

        Uh, so let's see. I had-

    11. SPShaan Puri1:06:24

        Did you convert anyone?

    12. SPSpeaker1:06:26

        Yeah, I converted, uh, low 30s. Uh, I'd have to look.

    13. SPShaan Puri1:06:29

        Oh, wow.

    14. SPSpeaker1:06:29

        It was like 32 people on my mission, so that was two years. And, um, oh man, how many doors do I think I knocked on in, in that time? Uh-

    15. SPShaan Puri1:06:39

        Like-

    16. SPSpeaker1:06:40

        I mean, it was, it was hundreds-

    17. SPShaan Puri1:06:40

        ... couple hundred?

    18. SPSpeaker1:06:41

        ... more than-

    19. SPShaan Puri1:06:41

        Couple thousand?

    20. SPSpeaker1:06:42

        Uh, it was hundreds of doors a day across two, every-

    21. SPShaan Puri1:06:45

        Wow

    22. SPSpeaker1:06:45

        ... every single day for two years, right? So-

    23. SPSam Parr1:06:47

        You knocked on 100 doors a day?

    24. SPSpeaker1:06:49

        Easily. Easily 100 doors a day.

    25. SPSam Parr1:06:52

        What country?

    26. SPShaan Puri1:06:53

        All right, hold on. We're doing some public math. This deserves it. Let's say-

    27. SPSam Parr1:06:55

        Well, yeah, well, well, yeah, while you do it, let me ask my question. What country?

    28. SPSpeaker1:06:58

        So I was in, uh, El Paso, Texas, but I was speaking Spanish.

    29. SPShaan Puri1:07:02

        So if you did 150 doors a day, which you're saying easily, uh, a- as, as estimate, every single day, 365 days, two years, you knocked on 109,000 doors. You did, you did 109,000.

    30. SPSpeaker1:07:15

        Converted 30. 30.

Episode duration: 1:21:50