This Family Made $100M+ From COVID!! (#423)

Shaan Puri 0:00 Somehow s- five years later, COVID hits. And you know what they decide to do? They're like, "You know what? Let's go all in [laughs] on creating, like, safety, safety stuff for COVID, like masks, respirators, um, gloves, things like that." And they become one of the, like, core providers. Right at the start of COVID, they shifted all their production manufacturing stuff. They're like, "Forget the vodka bottles. Forget the LED screens. We need N95 masks, and we need respirators, and we need, you know, these testing kits, and we need..." And they started producing this stuff, and they started just winning all these contracts. [upbeat music]

Sam Parr 0:45 All right. We're live. Shaan, uh, we have a bunch of stuff. You, you have a, you have a, a, a full menu over here, and so do I.

Shaan Puri 0:52 Yeah. All right. I want you to look at my menu here, and I want you to just pick something off the menu. Go ahead, and I'll, I'll riff off it. I... We only... W- p- for people who they don't, they don't know, we only write, like, one or two words. So you get, like, a teaser. You're like, "Man, what the hell is this about?" But you don't know what it actually is.

Sam Parr 1:07 But I have... I put all my stuff in here on accident. I have this new researcher who's crushing it. He just gives me all the content, like, five minutes ahead of time. But, uh, rich neighbor.

Shaan Puri 1:16 [laughs] How did I know you'd pick rich neighbor? So there's somebody in my neighborhood who I bumped into, and I v- I was just... I, you know, I, I sort of get out there, and I collect signals. Is this... You know, where, where do I place this person on the, uh, the, the Billy scale? Like, are they... You know, are they on their way up? Are they, are they... Have they made it in life? Are they really balling out of control? Where, where is this person? And these people have been balling out of control. Like, when Christmastime came up, there was this, like... The wife went outside and was just pointing at windows. And all of a sudden, the house was lit up like a Christmas tree. They had, like, so... They had the most, like, decked out things. And they go, "Hey, hey, um, invite your kids over, uh, this Thursday. We have a snow machine. They're... We're building a snow hill in our driveway. Like, uh, you, you wanna do sledding without going to Tahoe?"

Sam Parr 2:02 What's that? Like, a big snow cone? Is that what that is?

Shaan Puri 2:04 No. It's, like, a giant truck that comes that creates snow, and it piles it up so that you're... Like, their house looked like it was in, you know, Michigan or something like that. It was covered in snow.

Sam Parr 2:15 Yeah, but it's this, like, i- like, like, it's, like, an ice machine or something, and they just, like-

Shaan Puri 2:18 Yeah. It's, like, a... Yeah, something like that.

Sam Parr 2:20 Yeah, like a big snow cone, like a big shaved ice thing.

Shaan Puri 2:22 Yeah, yeah. You were right from the, from the beginning. They... You, you're right. So they did this, and they had a fake Santa there, and I was like, "Man, this is a lot for a Thursday afternoon, but okay. Uh, uh, this is cool. Like these people's style. They seem really nice." And I didn't know what they did, so I kind of... I hit it with the Google the other day, and I was like, "Let's see who these people are." And they have a crazy story. So they created a company that back in 2014 did this thing. It basically... It lets you take a vodka bottle. They had a vodka bottle that had an LED sign going around it. So you could give somebody a vodka bottle that would say, "Happy birthday, Sam," or, like, you could program any message. I could be like, you know, uh, whatever. I could be like, "You're getting old, bitch." Whatever. I could write any message on it.

Sam Parr 3:06 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 3:06 It would go on your, your vodka bottle. All right. It seems kinda gimmicky. I don't really... You know, not a bad idea, but, but balling out of control from that didn't, didn't 100% make sense. But that was the business.

Sam Parr 3:17 Yeah. Sounds like a, sounds like a drop-shipping, like, joke.

Shaan Puri 3:20 Sounds like my first idea out of college.

Sam Parr 3:21 Right.

Shaan Puri 3:21 And, like, this is... Like, me in college would've been like, "Bro, next, next Google. I got it." [laughs]

Sam Parr 3:27 Yeah.

Shaan Puri 3:27 You know? Like, what if we took, you know, this Jägerbomb, and we put an LED screen on it? [laughs]

Sam Parr 3:32 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 3:32 Wouldn't that be incredible? And so, so they had this thing, and they were, like, licensing this out or something like that. Somehow, like, Shaq became an advisor to their company. It was really crazy.

Sam Parr 3:40 Makes sense.

Shaan Puri 3:41 Yeah, as you would.

Sam Parr 3:41 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 3:43 Somehow s- five years later, COVID hits. And you know what they decide to do? They're like, "You know what? Fuck this vodka thing. Let's go all in [laughs] on creating, like, safety, safety stuff for COVID, like masks, respirators, um, gloves, things like that." And they become one of the, like, core providers. Right at the start of COVID, they shifted all their production manufacturing stuff. They're like, "Forget the vodka bottles. Forget the LED screens. We need N95 masks, and we need respirators, and we need, you know, these testing kits, and we need..." And they started producing this stuff, and they started just winning all these contracts. And so now, like, if you go look at their website, it's one of those I know you're rich websites 'cause there's, like, not a lot of information on it. But if you go to, like, the p- they have, like, a press release section, and it's like, "PR Newswire: Company gets $113 million contract with the government for safety equipment."

Sam Parr 4:39 Oh my God.

Shaan Puri 4:39 Um, local East Bay success story where they, uh, they are now the, the sole testing provider for, you know, with the Lakers stadium, Levi Stadium, like, all these different places. And so these guys are getting $100 million-plus contracts for their stuff. Now, I think probably it's, like, you know, probably only, like, 10% margin when you buy, when you sell-

Sam Parr 4:59 You think it's that small?

Shaan Puri 5:00 ... selling masks. I think for things like that, probably it's, like, 10, 15% is my guess. Maybe they... Maybe during COVID and everyone was completely price insensitive, and they could just charge whatever they wanted. I'm not sure.

Sam Parr 5:10 I would've thought that.

Shaan Puri 5:11 But, um, but wow, dude. What a, what a pivot. And, um, you know, that... Isn't that just kinda crazy? And that was an opportunity kind of available to a lot of people right when COVID happened.

Sam Parr 5:22 Dude, I know, I know a bunch of people who did that. And, like, I had a friend that did it, and he's like, "Dude, check this out," and he sends me a picture of his Shopify store, and it's doing, like, 2 million a month.

Shaan Puri 5:30 Right.

Sam Parr 5:30 I know a lot of people who did that, and I've only followed up with one or two of them. And, uh, I have a feeling that, like, of the eight people I know who did it, like, three of them it worked out, and then the rest it was, like, a really quick cash grab, but then they overbought inventory-

Shaan Puri 5:45 Yeah

Sam Parr 5:45 ... and it, and it's, like, nothing. Do you know people who did that?

Shaan Puri 5:47 Yes. We, we... There was a guy in, um... I had started this mastermind group. That's actually where I found Ben. Uh, but, like, one of the other guys in the mastermind group, he... Like, every time he came to the mastermind-

Sam Parr 5:57 Does, does, does he live in Texas?

Shaan Puri 5:59 No, he's in C- Canada. Every time he came to the mastermind group, I feel like he had a different business, [laughs] which is, like, not what you want in a mastermind group. But he was a good dude, and he would always be like, "Oh, I have this other business that's, like, oh, you know, for auto repair," blah, blah, blah. We do their SEO. And I was like, "Okay, but then what about that thing you told me last time?" And then one time he came and he's like, "Dude, we're doing mobile COVID testing, trucks that will drive up to places and we can just do rapid testing for COVID." And we were like, "All right, that's, I mean, that sounds cool, but, like, are you, like, do you know anything about COVID testing? Like, does anybody in the world know about this? Like, what..." He's like, "Oh, I got the scientists. It's gonna be great." And then he came back and he was like, "Hey, um, really g- excited to be here, I need, need you guys' help," um, like three months later he was like, "I really need you guys' help about going public." [laughs] And I was like, "What the hell?"

Sam Parr 6:44 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 6:45 And he's like, "Yeah, we're gonna do, like, 85 million this year in revenue," and I was like, "What?" And he's like, "Yeah, we're getting all these contracts with the state of, uh, with like the, you know, the, the coun- in, in Canada, like these country- countrywide contracts. And, um, you know, we, yeah, we think maybe we should take this public next year." [laughs] And I was like, "What the fuck is going on?"

Sam Parr 7:02 Oh my God. So how did it end?

Shaan Puri 7:03 I, I don't even know because I, that, that guy, my head was just spinning every time, uh, you know, he would talk, 'cause I'm like, this is either too good to be true or I'm too dumb and this is amazing, and I can't tell which one it is. It's probably some mix of both. But you're right, I know several people that went all in on COVID right when it happened, and like low-key got, like, an absurd amount of traction very, very fast.

Sam Parr 7:25 Yeah, like a ton.

Shaan Puri 7:27 My dad had actually called me one day, and he goes, "My friend works at this hospital. They need extra equipment. They need extra masks. I talked to somebody in India, um, and they could produce these masks. And, like, I think we could do, like, a $2 or $3 million contract." And I was like, "Fantastic. Um, should do it." And he's like, "Yeah, I wanna..." And, but my dad has this problem where my dad is addicted to meetings. Like, he thinks winning is, like, this important person met with me, and then he'll tell me the duration of the meeting to show me the value. He's like, "Only scheduled for one hour, but we sat there for 90 minutes."

Sam Parr 8:01 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 8:02 And I'll be like, "Okay, so what?" Like, and he'll be like, "So, you know, he was really interested. Two hours."

Sam Parr 8:07 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 8:07 Right? And he would just, like, he just, like, always is obsessed with that. So he was, he just had a bunch of meetings, and I was like, "Dad, you're gonna... It's all about that action, boss. You're gonna take some action here? What, what's gonna happen? Like, go, go for it. Do it."

Sam Parr 8:20 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 8:20 And he's like, "Well, no, I want..." He's like, "I want everybody to, like, sign off on it and de-risk it completely, pay me up front." And I was just like, "Dude, this is t- this is, like, the cheap way to do business. Like, you gotta take a little risk here." And he wasn't willing to take the risk.

Sam Parr 8:35 Dude, are you throwing... You're sh- you're throwing shade on your dad right now. I hope he doesn't listen to this.

Shaan Puri 8:38 [laughs]

Sam Parr 8:38 And you called him boss. If my son called me boss-

Shaan Puri 8:41 [laughs]

Sam Parr 8:41 ... he, he's getting in a headlock. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 8:43 [laughs] Yeah, my dad, my, uh, yeah, we, we make fun of each other. Like, we call it like it is. I do a bunch of dumb things, and I say when I do dumb things, this is his dumb thing. He is high planning, low action on these things. And he says it all the time. Like, um, we went, I went, I took him to Tony Robbins, and Tony Robbins is all about, like, taking massive action on, like, the things you want. And he's like, I was like, "What's your big takeaway?" He's like, "Ah, man, I need to take massive action." And I was like, "The- yeah, that's, you did it. You learned the, the right lesson from this thing." He goes, "That's my problem. I don't take massive action." I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." He starts slipping back into, like... Basically, he's like, "I've identified my problem," [laughs] but not, like, going to change it.

Sam Parr 9:24 Right.

Shaan Puri 9:24 Just like, "So right. So true." [laughs]

Sam Parr 9:28 [laughs] Whatever, it worked out for him.

Shaan Puri 9:30 Yeah, he did, he-

Sam Parr 9:31 But-

Shaan Puri 9:31 ... he did great, like, right? From, like, village in India to, like, living, like, owning multiple homes in San Francisco, right?

Sam Parr 9:35 Dude, the story-

Shaan Puri 9:36 He did great

Sam Parr 9:36 ... the to- the story of you tell of your mom of, like, I think you said she, like, had never eaten with a fork or something-

Shaan Puri 9:41 [laughs]

Sam Parr 9:41 ... and she just comes to America when she's 17. Is that what you said? I'm not exaggerating.

Shaan Puri 9:44 Not that, but like that. [laughs]

Sam Parr 9:44 I don't wanna be disrespectful. I thought you said, I thought you said, like, she had, they didn't use, like, utensils, or she went to a restaurant and, like, or she didn't know how-

Shaan Puri 9:51 Oh, actually, you're right, you're right. That, that did happen.

Sam Parr 9:54 No, I'm not being disrespectful, uh, Mrs. Puri. That's, this is the story. It's on record. And then also when she used a f- a payphone to call her brother to say that she was in town, she didn't know, like, that you hang it up, so she, like, let it hang.

Shaan Puri 10:06 Yeah.

Sam Parr 10:06 And then she, and then she went-

Shaan Puri 10:06 She was just crying at the airport, and some guy was like, "Hey, uh, do you need help? Are you okay?" She's like, "I, I, I need, like, my brother's supposed to pick me up. I don't know where he is." Like, she just landed in America. And he's like, "Do you have a phone number?" She's like, "Yeah." So he, that guy picks up the payphone, puts in the quarters, calls the brother, tells him, "Hey, she's at terminal two. She's waiting here. I'm gonna tell her not to move." Brother didn't even know, "Oh, your flight was today?" Like, you, they had no correspondence. Like, uh, "Okay, I'll, b- hold, hang tight, I'll be there." And she talks to him and she's like, he's like, "Don't move." And then that guy had left, the helper had left, and so she didn't... She's like, "Not only did I not know how to use the payphone, I didn't even understand, how do you put this back?" And she's like, "I kind of was, like, fiddling with it, like, kinda, like, like, trying to get it to stick, and it, I didn't know what to do. I looked around, nobody was there, and I just left it hanging, and I walked away." She's like, "I'll never forget, like, just feeling so clueless about the world." Um, and there's, like, five stories like that on her just transition-

Sam Parr 10:59 Yeah, just now they got-

Shaan Puri 10:59 ... trip to America

Sam Parr 11:00 ... now they have a house in San Francisco, so it worked out. That's the, uh, that's the American dream. Um...

Shaan Puri 11:05 [laughs] Um, all right. Another topic.

Sam Parr 11:06 What do you got?

Shaan Puri 11:07 Uh, I got a

Shaan Puri 11:08 quick one here. So I saw this TikTok of this pr- uh, professor. Uh, it was some professor at a college. Uh, I apologize to her, I don't know her name. But, um, let me see if I can find it real quick. She basically... Oh, Professor Cooley. Uh, I don't know what, uh, she's a Professor Cooley at Emory University, so shout out to her. Basically, her- she has a, she teaches marketing at, um, at this college, and for her marketing class, she goes, "All right, class, um, if you wanna do well in this class, you wanna get an A, you have one job: go viral on TikTok."

Sam Parr 11:39 Awesome.

Shaan Puri 11:39 "All right, I'll see you, I'll see you in a few weeks. Like, if you need help, you know, we have some maybe, maybe some, uh, we can talk about what it takes to get there, but, like, that's how you get a good grade. Go viral on TikTok."

Sam Parr 11:49 Awesome. How old is she? Young-looking or older?

Shaan Puri 11:52 Younger-looking. Um, l- yeah, she looks like, you know, she looks like if you were 12, she would be your friend's mom. Um-

Sam Parr 12:00 Got it. All right. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 12:00 So, so something like that. Whatever age that is. [laughs]

Sam Parr 12:02 Perfect description. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 12:04 So-

Sam Parr 12:05 Whatever age that is. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 12:06 [laughs] So basically, uh, I thought this was amazing, and it got me thinking, like, really, how many more classes at a university should be taught this way? Um, so for example, like- Why isn't there a class at, you know, why isn't there a class at, at, at school where it's basically like, "Okay, we're gonna have four lemonade stands on campus. Break up into teams. You're each gonna run a lame- a lemonade stand." Like, and, you know, the top lemonade stand's gonna get an A+, the next one gets a A-, B+, B-. Um, and if you, if you're not able to break this threshold of sales, you fail. [laughs] And like just let them go and do their thing, and let them learn what it takes.

Sam Parr 12:43 That's 100% how it should be.

Shaan Puri 12:45 Or it's like, you know, may- maybe it's the net profit, so they learn about the cost management as well. But like give 'em, you know, 500 bucks and be like, "Go. Who, who can run the best lemonade stand or T-shirt company or whatever it is?" Or writing on Twitter. Um, like, you know, okay, it's an English class. Should you basically go read Shakespeare and all this stuff, or should I basically teach you how to do writing in like the modern day and basically get you to start-

Sam Parr 13:08 Or cold emailing

Shaan Puri 13:08 ... a newsletter, cold email, or Twitter. And it's like, yeah, you need to grow an audience around whatever topic you're interested in. It could be The Bachelor. It could be p- world politics. It doesn't matter. You pick your topic, but you gotta write to an audience on that, and you gotta publish. First thing is qu- quantity. You gotta publish every day for the next 60 days. Um, and then the next thing is gonna be quality. Can you actually grow an audience? Can you get, you know, 50% open rate on a newsletter with, you know, 1,000 people on it? Go figure out how to do that. And so things like this I feel like would be so much better than the way that people learn about how to do real-world business today in school. Another one would be flipping. Like, uh, "Everybody, you're gonna look under your desk. Yep, you're starting with this drill. Okay, everybody's got a drill. Like, your job is to flip this drill into the most valuable i- item you can get by the end of the semester. Go." And it's like you gotta sell this, take the profit, buy something else, sell that. And like just keep doing that until you can get to the biggest thing.

Sam Parr 14:07 Dude, uh, Ramon, our friend Ramon, his son goes to a school here in Texas, and he, his kid had a class where he had to go haggle, and it was like you had to get this much of a discount from a retail store-

Shaan Puri 14:19 Right

Sam Parr 14:19 ... or something like that. And I was like, "Oh, that's awesome."

Shaan Puri 14:22 Right.

Sam Parr 14:22 That is awesome. It's like great for a 12-year-old.

Shaan Puri 14:24 [laughs]

Sam Parr 14:24 So I love that stuff. I, dude, I didn't have cla- when I was... All right, my sophomore year of college, I was a division one athlete, a runner nonetheless, a runner, peak physical condition. They made me take a aerobic walking class-

Shaan Puri 14:37 [laughs]

Sam Parr 14:37 ... which was like if you add up the tuition, it was like nine grand or something like that. So I'm all... It was aerobic walking. You show up, and you go for a walk. So I'm all in favor of this stuff.

Shaan Puri 14:47 [laughs]

Sam Parr 14:47 I think it's awesome.

Shaan Puri 14:48 Like, are you walking at least at like a fast pace? Why is it called aerobic walking versus just walking? Is that just branding? Is that-

Sam Parr 14:54 It's 'cause the gym teacher had to justify their, their, their pension-

Shaan Puri 14:57 [laughs]

Sam Parr 14:57 ... or their, uh, salary. I don't know. It was the stupidest thing ever. Like, it was, it was crazy. It was crazy to me. I had to take aerobic... I remember this. It was ridiculous. Uh, you just like showed up, and you had to-

Shaan Puri 15:07 And what do you mean you had to? Seems like they don't force you to take that.

Sam Parr 15:09 You have to get like these certain amount of credits, and it was like this aerobic walking class is available.

Shaan Puri 15:14 Was your major like PE? What, why, [laughs] why was this in your department? [laughs]

Sam Parr 15:19 Dude, because they make... I don't know. I don't remember exactly why I had to do this. No, I don't even remember what I majored in. I think just like accounting or business or something.

Shaan Puri 15:27 Accounting? [laughs]

Sam Parr 15:28 It was a... So I'd left school early. So it was accounting, and then I, and then I left school, and then I finished online later, and I was like, "Okay, you know, give me, just give me any diploma that I can get, please."

Shaan Puri 15:39 Why'd you leave school?

Sam Parr 15:39 I need to make... 'Cause, um, I moved out. So I, the summer, I w- I had to take like some summer classes and one extra s- semester, and, uh, I heard about Airbnb, and I was like, "That's where it's at." So I-

Shaan Puri 15:52 What?

Sam Parr 15:52 ... moved out there. Yeah, yeah. So y- you know, I, I think I told you this. I had heard about, um-

Shaan Puri 15:56 I remember you applied. I didn't know you were in college and dropped out for it.

Sam Parr 16:01 I didn't drop out. I, well, I, I don't know if it's technically drop out. I just like quit going, and I finished online.

Shaan Puri 16:07 [laughs] What's the difference? Okay.

Sam Parr 16:08 [laughs] Like, I finished-

Shaan Puri 16:09 You, you converted to an online student. [laughs]

Sam Parr 16:11 Yeah, like I took like some time off, and then I eventually like finished, and I would have to go like to a Kaplan, you know, like those Kaplan like testing centers.

Shaan Puri 16:19 Test centers, yeah.

Sam Parr 16:19 And I would have to take these nonsense, nonsense tests. But basically, there was this famous runner. I was a runner at the time, and there was a famous runner named Chris Lukecic, and he quit running, which wasn't exactly lucrative, but he was like the seventh most fast, fastest miler ever. And he was like, "I quit. I'm quitting running at my peak to join this thing called Air Bed and Breakfast." And I was like, "What the hell is that? That sounds awesome." And so I, uh, emailed Joe Gebbia, the founder of Airbnb, and I was like, "Hey, uh, I, I like Airbnb. I came up with this interesting hack that I think can help you grow. Uh, here it is." And he forwarded it to like-

Shaan Puri 16:49 What was it?

Sam Parr 16:50 It, it was at the time there was this thing called Reportive that had just come out, and I built an Excel sheet where you could type in someone's first name, last name, and like their Gmail or their company name, and then it like permutates, and you put it into this thing, and it tells you which email's there. So not like that sophisticate of a hack at all, but it was like new technology, and I emailed him. And i- in his head, he's probably like, "This is dumb, but like the fact that you came up with this, like whatever. We'll interview you."

Shaan Puri 17:13 Right.

Sam Parr 17:14 So they interview... And, and so he puts me to a minion, and the minion was like, "Hey, do you wanna come to the Bay Area on Mon- or..."

Shaan Puri 17:19 [laughs]

Sam Parr 17:20 Well, I don't know who the guy was. But the, the guy's probably worth $20 million.

Shaan Puri 17:23 Really underused word. I'm gonna start using that. [laughs]

Sam Parr 17:25 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 17:25 That's a, that's an amazing slander. I love it.

Sam Parr 17:27 Well, that minion's probably worth $20 million.

Shaan Puri 17:29 [laughs]

Sam Parr 17:30 I mean, he, you know, 'cause it was at the time there were only like 200 people, and the guy who he referred me to was like the 17th employee. And so his name was Justin. I'm still friends with him. Sorry, Justin, call you a minion, but maybe you were.

Shaan Puri 17:39 [laughs] I didn't realize that's your friend, dude.

Sam Parr 17:42 I'm friendly with him.

Shaan Puri 17:43 A random minion. [laughs]

Sam Parr 17:44 I'm fr- I'm friendly with him. But he, uh, they, uh, they go, "All right, great. Do you live in the Bay Area?" And I was in Tennessee at the time. I didn't know what the hell the Bay Area was.

Shaan Puri 17:52 [laughs]

Sam Parr 17:53 When he said Bay, I had never been west of Missouri. I'd only basically been to like Missouri and then like whatever the states are when you drive to like Destin, Florida, for like spring break. Those are like the only places that I'd been. And he goes, "Are you in the Bay Area?" And I was like, "Of course, yeah." And he goes, "Great. Come into my office on Monday." So I was like, "Shit, I gotta get out there. I gotta figure out what the hell the Bay Area is." I thought it was LA.

Shaan Puri 18:15 [laughs]

Sam Parr 18:16 So I pack up like a- Uh, yeah, like Silicon Valley. I'd heard someone make a joke about Silicone Valley, but that was like where like porn is-

Shaan Puri 18:22 [laughs]

Sam Parr 18:22 ... I think in LA. I, I, I... They're all the same to me. I didn't know. And so I Googled what the hell the Bay Area is, and I bought a ticket and I flew out there, and I interviewed with him on a Monday and a Tuesday, and then I interviewed with Joe, the founder. He probably didn't even remember me, 'cause it was like a 10-minute interview. And then I go home on a Wednesday, they offer me the job on a Thursday, and then a week later, I, I call my mom, I go, "Dude, I got this job. This is awesome." And they go, "What the hell is this? You stay at someone's home?" I go, "Yeah, I think it's gonna be legit." She goes, "It sounds like a multi-level marketing scheme." And I'm like, "Well, they, they have, like, health insurance."

Shaan Puri 18:52 [laughs]

Sam Parr 18:52 And she goes, "Whatever." And so my mom drove down and packed up my apartment with me, and then shipped me off. And like, she like gave me $1,000, and that was my seed money. And so I moved out there, and this was all in like a three-week span. The Sunday night before I'm supposed to start, they call me and they go, "We busted you, man. You lied about your resume because you have a criminal record." I, at the time I'd gotten arrested, uh, for DUI. And I was like, "Well, technically, like, I'm still... Like, the trial's still happening, so like I didn't get convicted yet."

Shaan Puri 19:22 [laughs]

Sam Parr 19:22 And they're like, "Yeah, but that was sneaky, dude."

Shaan Puri 19:23 Innocent till proven guilty. [laughs]

Sam Parr 19:25 Yeah. They're like, "But that was sneaky. Like, we asked you if you'd been charged or whatever." And I was like, "You're right. I'm sorry." So I didn't actually get the job. I was hired for like a second, but I never had my first day. And then fast-forward two years later, my wife ends up going to work there, and I remember walking around, I'm like, "Ah, my alma mater."

Shaan Puri 19:41 [laughs]

Sam Parr 19:41 "My old stomping grounds." [laughs] It's, uh... I never ended up working there.

Shaan Puri 19:46 [laughs] I love this

Sam Parr 19:46 ... but I had a job there for like, you know, a few minutes. And, uh, you know, it could have been something great. I would think I would have been like employee 200. I don't know.

Shaan Puri 19:54 Right.

Sam Parr 19:55 Maybe I would have made some money or not, but that's the story of Airbnb.

Shaan Puri 19:57 [laughs] That's an amazing story. I love that story.

Sam Parr 20:00 And while out there, I also had to like take these classes, and I, I remember I didn't have any money. I had the $1,000, that was my, my money, and I used to have to take this bike, and I lived in the Dogpatch in a warehouse that was $900 a month.

Shaan Puri 20:13 [laughs]

Sam Parr 20:13 And I asked to, I used to have to ride-

Shaan Puri 20:14 For people that don't live in San Francisco, they're like, "He lived in a Dogpatch warehouse?" [laughs]

Sam Parr 20:17 It's, it's called Dogpatch. It's like, uh, the industrial-

Shaan Puri 20:20 It's like a neighborhood. Yeah

Sam Parr 20:21 ... part of San Francisco by the water. And I used to have to ride my bike, 'cause I didn't have any money. I, and I had to ride a bike that I took from my roommate all the way up to Twin Peaks to go to the Kaplan, like, place, which is like six miles away, literally up the steepest hills in San Francisco. And so I used to have to do those classes and take tests for like months. It was horrible-

Shaan Puri 20:39 [laughs]

Sam Parr 20:39 ... but it worked out.

Shaan Puri 20:40 [laughs] And now you're here. Incredible.

Sam Parr 20:43 And now, dude, I used to, uh, like, I, like, I, I learned how to, like, get r- get rid of, like you could jump on the bus, and like when they, they would catch you all the time.

Shaan Puri 20:51 Yeah.

Sam Parr 20:51 And they'd be like, "Where do you live?" And I'd be like, "I don't know."

Shaan Puri 20:53 [laughs]

Sam Parr 20:54 Uh, "What's your name?" And I'd just like give a name. And they're like, "Do you have any ID on you?" I'm like, "No, I don't have ID." And so I remember, like, there was zero consequences.

Shaan Puri 21:00 Free bus. Free bus pass. [laughs]

Sam Parr 21:01 There was zero consequences. There was zero consequences. I mean, that's how little I had. Like, I didn't have cash for a bus fare, which was $2.50. But, uh, uh, yeah, it turned out okay.

Shaan Puri 21:10 [laughs] What did you do to, uh, to grow that thousand? How did you not just wipe out... Like, 'cause $1,000 doesn't get you very far in San Francisco, so how did you not wipe out in three months?

Sam Parr 21:21 On my... So when I went to the interview for Airbnb, I stayed at the cheapest Airbnb there was, which was a bedroom in this guy's house, and he had told me he was starting a business. And so when I moved back out there, I go, "Hey, dude, uh, I don't have a job anymore. Can I join you? I only have like two or three weeks of, like, payment." And then even- and, uh, my mother and father had given me a pickup truck for college, and I asked them to sell that and they sold it, so they gave me 4,000. So I was like, all right, I got like three weeks of rent, or three weeks of like living expenses, now I just got this influx of four or five grand, um, I've got like six months of cash. Let's do this.

Shaan Puri 21:55 [laughs]

Sam Parr 21:56 And, and so I started, I co-founded a, a, a, a company with this guy, a roommate matching company, where we would, uh, post ads on Craigslist saying we were hosting these roommate parties where we would match people up into three and four-bedroom apartments. Because normally it's like, uh, you're a single person who just moved there and don't know anyone, so you gotta move into a existing bedroom, and there was lots of competition. So we would post fake existing bedrooms and get 300 people to apply on Craigslist and be like, "Hey, this doesn't exist, but we'll team you up with 200 other people who want, uh, the same shit as you." And we would host these parties, and we would charge people money to attend those parties, and after they got an apartment. And so we basically spun that up on Weebly and made money right away, and that's how I lived.

Shaan Puri 22:36 Amazing. Uh, wow. Great stories. I love this. Uh, I feel like-

Sam Parr 22:39 Yeah

Shaan Puri 22:39 ... I feel like there's a bunch... I've heard bits of these, but not all of them. Uh, this is great. Uh-

Sam Parr 22:44 And I would ride my bike to, like, collect these money. I would knock on their door after they got the apartment. I'm like, "Hey, you got my money?" It was ridiculous.

Shaan Puri 22:50 [laughs] Uh, that's so good.

Sam Parr 22:55 Uh, after this, I have to, I have to go get a hearing aid. And, uh-

Shaan Puri 22:59 Vax

Sam Parr 22:59 ... I have to go get fit, fitted for one, and I have to tell you why. I forgot to tell you this. We were at the, uh, Vancouver thing, and there was these two women speaking to me afterwards.

Shaan Puri 23:08 [laughs]

Sam Parr 23:09 And it was loud. So, like, the problem with my hearing is I can't hear the difference between background noise and the person speaking for me. It's hard to tell the difference. And these women were talking to me, and you probably notice this, I lean in hard. So I'm only deaf in one ear, but I lean in. I lean. I turn and I, and I g- and I, I get really close to you.

Shaan Puri 23:26 [laughs]

Sam Parr 23:26 And also, I'll s-

Shaan Puri 23:27 It was a super loud after party, by the way. It was like, uh, it was like a club

Sam Parr 23:30 ... it was like a club. It was loud. And I also stare at people's lips. So I, I'll either stare at your mouth-

Shaan Puri 23:36 [laughs]

Sam Parr 23:37 ... or I'll lean in.

Shaan Puri 23:38 Mr. Wrong Signals-

Sam Parr 23:39 Really-

Shaan Puri 23:39 ... over here. [laughs]

Sam Parr 23:41 The horrible, worst signals. And this woman comes up to me, and I lean again, and like I'm starting to get really close.

Shaan Puri 23:46 [laughs]

Sam Parr 23:46 And I can tell she's really uncomfortable. And I, I go, "Oh, I, I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you, I, I'm deaf. I can't freaking hear you."

Shaan Puri 23:53 [laughs]

Sam Parr 23:54 "That's why I'm leaning in so hard." And, uh, it was at that point I was, I told Sarah, I was like, "I gotta go. I gotta get a hearing aid. I can't... I, I'm making people uncomfortable."

Shaan Puri 24:02 This is why you bring your wife with you to all events, just to like, you know, totally-

Sam Parr 24:05 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 24:06 ... totally make it clear what's happening [laughs] here.

Sam Parr 24:08 Dude, and I have a rule. I, I don't, I don't travel alone. I love having her around when I travel, but that is, that is definitely, uh, the icing on the cake, is having her around for that reason

Shaan Puri 24:17 Yeah. Yeah, you, you did the opposite of the billionaire hug. You, like [laughs] you went in with the-

Sam Parr 24:21 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 24:22 ... with the broke boy lean [laughs] and-

Sam Parr 24:23 Yeah, the broke boy lean. I just stared at her lips as she says d- literally tried to watch as the words come out of her mouth and just staring, going down at her lips, and looking, and then leaning in. And, oh man, I can tell she was uncomfortable. I was like, "Oh, I forgot to tell you, I can't hear, so I'm gonna go get one of those things."

Shaan Puri 24:39 Did you ever, did you ever learn that, like, trick from... I don't know. This might been, might have been in, like, those pick-up artist things. I'm not 100% sure. But do you ever look-

Sam Parr 24:45 What, like looking at their-

Shaan Puri 24:46 ... the triangle?

Sam Parr 24:47 Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like, the third eye or something like that?

Shaan Puri 24:49 No, no. It's if you ever wanted... If you want somebody to want to kiss you, you're clo- if you, let's say you're close. You're in range, and you want to, like, kind of almost, like, hack their little, like, biology and get them to wanna kiss you, you, you do this, like, triangle. So you basically look at one eye, the second eye, down to the lips, back to the first eye. So it makes, it, it traces, like, a little triangle. And if you do that, you'll just see immediately the person... Just pucker up, baby. It's happening.

Sam Parr 25:20 [laughs] Yeah, right.

Shaan Puri 25:22 It just happens. Um-

Sam Parr 25:23 Uh, yeah, right. It wor- it wor-

Shaan Puri 25:23 I don't know if it's because you're signaling that you wanna kiss them or that it just makes them wanna kiss you, but this shit works. This was, like, in college. I was like... You, you know, you would've thought I'm in the Illuminati how many triangles I was throwing up everywhere because I was like, "This is like a magic trick. This thing is amazing."

Sam Parr 25:38 Did you get any girls in college? Uh, probably. You're really charismatic. Did you do well?

Shaan Puri 25:42 First base king, baby.

Sam Parr 25:44 Oh, you're the first [laughs]

Shaan Puri 25:45 [laughs]

Sam Parr 25:46 Yeah. You had a good batting average, but not-

Shaan Puri 25:48 Yeah

Sam Parr 25:48 ... a lot of home runs. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 25:49 Got that lead off, but never got to second. [laughs]

Sam Parr 25:51 [laughs] Yeah. Oh, well, that's good. It worked out.

Shaan Puri 25:54 The hard part too is my roommate was, like, um, just-

Sam Parr 25:58 He-

Shaan Puri 25:58 ... unbelievably good with girls. And so-

Sam Parr 25:59 Well, he's really good looking, right? The-

Shaan Puri 26:00 He's a good looking guy, and he was her-

Sam Parr 26:02 Trevor, right?

Shaan Puri 26:02 Yeah, Trevor. He's a athlete, and he was just, like, a professional flirt. And so somehow this guy was just pulling crazy people from, like... You know how you have, like, a RA who's, like, the, the, the person who's like four years older that lives in the freshman dorm? He just started dating the RA's girlfriend, and then, like, you know, i-i- he started dating, like-

Sam Parr 26:20 Power move

Shaan Puri 26:20 ... this girl on the basketball team, and started dating, like, all these seniors. Started dating this, like, one really rich girl who was giving him gifts all the time. I was like, "I don't know what's happening here, but like, um, you know, this guy's definitely sucking up all the, the alpha male energy in this room. And, uh, you know, I'm just sort of here along for the ride." But it was okay. It, it, it, it turned out all right.

Sam Parr 26:38 Uh, well, y- you know, you worked out all right. It, it, like, i-

Shaan Puri 26:41 By the way, my dating life was a lot like my startup life. It was basically, like, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, home run. [laughs] It's like, you know, like most people in their career, they sort of get this, like, 10% raise a year or whatever where it's like this linear s- like, steady climb up the ladder. But if you're in the startup world, you're often, like, making nothing or in debt or broke-

Sam Parr 27:01 And then all of a sudden

Shaan Puri 27:02 ... for like seven, eight years, and then all of a sudden you're rich. And, uh, that's what my dating life was like. I was broke for, like, 10 years, and then all of a sudden I was rich.

Sam Parr 27:10 100% same.

Shaan Puri 27:11 [laughs]

Sam Parr 27:11 It, like, it didn't, it didn't start picking up until my 20s. It was ac- it 100% the same.

Shaan Puri 27:15 I thought your 20s w- you're trying to g- well, you're trying to do it in your teens, bro.

Sam Parr 27:19 I tried.

Shaan Puri 27:20 [laughs]

Sam Parr 27:20 I tried a lot. Trust me, I tried. I just, I looked like Napoleon Dynamite. I, I, with braces. Uh, it just didn't work out.

Shaan Puri 27:27 Dude-

Sam Parr 27:27 But I tried

Shaan Puri 27:27 ... I didn't talk to a girl. I was sitting there reciting lines from The Rock in WWE-

Sam Parr 27:32 Oh, bro

Shaan Puri 27:32 ... when I was in my teens, bro. I was, I was jumping off the top rope in my bedroom trying to, you know, just... I loved wrestling and basketball and stuff. I didn't have time for girls when, when I was, like, 15.

Sam Parr 27:42 It was a numbers game for me. I, I knew, like, you know, 3% conversion, therefore, you know, you gotta try 100 times.

Shaan Puri 27:47 Right. [laughs]

Sam Parr 27:48 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 27:49 Yeah. You never want-

Sam Parr 27:49 Um

Shaan Puri 27:50 ... war of attrition to describe it. [laughs]

Sam Parr 27:54 [laughs] Whatever. I, it worked out. We, we both, it worked out for both of us. Before we get into this, we gotta remind people there is a gentleman's agreement.

Shaan Puri 28:01 That's right.

Sam Parr 28:02 Except this time it's, it's different. So we have this thing at this podcast. Unlike everything on YouTube and on Spotify and all that stuff, our content actually isn't free. You're only getting this episode for free if it's your first one, and if it's your second or third one you have to go do something for us. What is it?

Shaan Puri 28:15 They, they gotta fire up YouTube, youtube.com, YouTube the app, whatever it is, and type in My First Million. They're gonna see our pretty little faces right there. You don't even have to watch a video. Just click My First Million, clip- click Subscribe, turn the notifications on, and we need, we need this. This is what we need, right? Everybody's got needs: food, shelter, YouTube subscribers. These are your core, core primal needs, and we have ours.

Sam Parr 28:40 And, uh, that's why it's called the gentleman's agreement. We're not on the other side, so you just have to do it. And everyone's doing it lately, so you should do it, and that's what we expect out of you. And also, do me a huge favor and actually click follow on the podcast app and Spotify, 'cause those help us actually go up the rankings. And when we go up the rankings, we get more dopamine and we do dumber shit, and that's why we're here. So do that.

Sam Parr 29:04 Um, I have a story for you. So go to jupe.com. So it's J-U-P-E, Jupe. So it's jupe.com.

Shaan Puri 29:14 Okay.

Sam Parr 29:14 They have a s- like, look of website. So tell me what you see.

Shaan Puri 29:17 I see some sort of, like, mega tent contraption. I don't know what this is. This is, like, uh, some sort of structure. It's like... Is this, like, a, like, basically like a outdoor unit that's, uh, not a... Like, something more than a tent but less than a house?

Sam Parr 29:31 So I met these... Kinda. I met these guys recently, and they're really fascinating. And so basically the, one of the founders, he's, like, this artist type. He's, his name's Jeff Wilson. And before this he, like, wrote a book because he lived in a dumpster for a year. Like, he, like [laughs] slept in a dumpster. It was, like, some, like, art project, as well as, like, to show, like-

Shaan Puri 29:52 For what? [laughs]

Sam Parr 29:52 I don't, I don't know. Th- I mean, he's, he's a wacky, interesting guy. But he lived in a dumpster, and then he, uh, then he started this, like, prefab house. I guess it was, like, marketing for, like, a pre- prefabricated homes or something like that. And, um, they eventually launched this startup. It's called Jupe. And I originally saw it because Gary Tan, famous investor, billionaire investor Gary Tan, made this YouTube video where he stayed in one of their things. And so basically what it is is it's... I don't know. They would be mad if I called it a tent, but it kinda looks like a tent. But basically- They ship it to you on, in like a, a huge container, and you pop it up, and on the inside it's like a fancy or like a nice mattress. And then there's, uh, like a heating and cooling unit. And it's got lighting that's all solar powered, and so it's like a standalone, like, house. And the way that their business model works is you can do one of two things. You could just buy it for 30 grand outright, or you can do a thing where you, they give it to you for free, and they take something like 40%, 30 to 50% of the revenue, and you rent it out. And these things are renting out. And I was like, "I don't know, man, who wants to stay in this thing?"

Shaan Puri 31:00 [laughs]

Sam Parr 31:01 And he was like, "Dude, we rent them out for $250 to $500 a night, and they're always booked." And they're trying to pitch it to me to put it on my land. And I'm not sure if I'm gonna do it or not, but they're, it's a pretty interesting thing. This year, they're supposed to do, like, 12 million in revenue, and it's break even, and they've deployed 400 of these things. And their future, what they're doing is they've got these guys that are just buying plots of land and then putting 15 or 20 of these on there. And then Jupe, the company, if you do the profit sharing with them, they, they kind of run it for you. So they have, like, their own little platform, and they, like, will help manage the thing for you. But it's pretty fascinating, and I've been thinking about putting one of these, uh, on my, on my property. I'm not sure if I'm gonna do it or not 'cause I don't know if I want more work, but really fascinating, interesting idea that I came across. I've been loving these ideas where you just make more money off the shit that you already have. So, like, I have land.

Shaan Puri 31:53 [laughs]

Sam Parr 31:53 And I was like, "Should I just, like, l- put these all over my place?" But they look kind of fascinating, and I thought you'd get a kick out of it.

Shaan Puri 31:59 Yeah. I mean, these look super cool, and I gotta give them credit 'cause I see a lot of these, like, um, like, this kind of, like, I forget what they're called, ADUs or whatever. It's, like, this additional dwelling unit or something. Um, and they're often just, like, vaporware. It's just a render of something that looks sick. And what I really like is if you click their Vision tab, it opens up a notion and explains what they're doing. And four times in this thing it just says, "Here's our thing," parenthesis, "not a render." [laughs] "Here's what it looks like, y- you know, after it gets delivered. Here's what it looks like the next day." Again, not a render. [laughs] Like, hey, we actually build the thing. It exists. This is real. This is not, like, some futuristic dream. Um, and so I think that's pretty, pretty, pretty amazing. This looks super cool. I don't know why you wouldn't do this just for even, like, the story.

Sam Parr 32:46 So, uh, I can, I have an update. So my... I have this property, uh, marathonranch.com, and you can see it. It's doing, like, uh, anywhere from 13 to 17,000 a month in gross revenue. And, um, so it's doing well. I'm, like, making money on my Airbnb finally. I got, like, 40 or something, like, five-star reviews on Airbnb, and I finally started going up the rankings, and it's been really fun to do. And so I'm not sure... But I have 20 acres, 20 acres of land. I'm not sure if I wanna, like, screw anything up because-

Shaan Puri 33:18 [laughs]

Sam Parr 33:18 ... dude, at my Airbnb, I, we have, like, 20 cows. So-

Shaan Puri 33:22 [laughs]

Sam Parr 33:22 ... my neighbor is a cow.

Shaan Puri 33:24 [laughs]

Sam Parr 33:25 [laughs] Well, that's true. But, like, people, my neighbor owns these cows, and they use our property, and in exchange we pay less property tax. And people, like, wake up to, like, a mooing cow because they sleep and wake, they sleep at all my property. For some reason they decided that's the bet.

Shaan Puri 33:40 [laughs]

Sam Parr 33:40 And I don't know if I wanna, like, screw that up. It's, like, so peaceful going out there, so I don't know if I wanna screw that up by having more units on the property. But, uh-

Shaan Puri 33:48 Dude, marathonranch.com, your photo here, you chose the wrong photo. You chose, like, a not awesome looking photo for your hero photo. Then if you click Gallery, you all of a sudden see all these awesome photos.

Sam Parr 34:00 It's a work in progress, my friend. It's a work in progress.

Shaan Puri 34:02 [laughs]

Sam Parr 34:04 It's a work in progress.

Shaan Puri 34:04 It's still in beta. [laughs]

Sam Parr 34:06 Yeah. I j- it's because one of the pictures, it, you couldn't see the writing. Anyway, it's a whole thing I gotta fix.

Shaan Puri 34:12 Yeah.

Sam Parr 34:12 But, uh, anyway, it's going well. I, I always, I, basically to the listeners, I send Shaan updates on my Airbnb, and he's like, "Oh, that's neat. You're making-

Shaan Puri 34:20 That's cute

Sam Parr 34:20 ... 5%. You're making 5% return. That's, that's really, that's lovely."

Shaan Puri 34:24 What, what did I tell you? You were like, "Dude, this is a, this is 5% or 7% or 7% a year. This is great." I go, and I told you, I go, "I've lost more money in crypto than you'll ever make on your Airbnb." [laughs]

Sam Parr 34:35 [laughs] Yeah. Dude-

Shaan Puri 34:36 Somehow that felt like a good statement to me. [laughs]

Sam Parr 34:39 It's been awesome, man. The Airbnb game, it's been fun. It sucked for a minute, and then once I started rolling, it is pretty dope. So maybe one day you'll, you'll be convinced. But right now it's killing it. I don't know if it'll kill it in, like, June when it's, like, 100 degrees, but we'll see.

Shaan Puri 34:52 To me, the only reason I would do this is the tax benefits if I bought property. Um, the actual, like, rental income and or, and/or slow real estate appreciation to me is not worth it, especially given the headache of, of doing stuff. So you said, let's say-

Sam Parr 35:07 From a financial investment it's only been okay. But from a, like, reward, like, it's been quite exciting. It, it's pretty exciting.

Shaan Puri 35:13 But what, what is the margin? So you say 13K a month, um, gross. Okay, so now we take out what? Airbnb. We take out property management. We take out utilities.

Sam Parr 35:23 Yeah.

Shaan Puri 35:23 We take out... What? What, what, how, how much, what's the gross on that? Or sort of like-

Sam Parr 35:28 So, like a, like a record month recently was, like, 17,000. But let's round down to 15,000-

Shaan Puri 35:33 Yeah

Sam Parr 35:33 ... 'cause that's what it's been lately. So that's gross. So I give away... So I own the property outright, but I assume that I have a mortgage.

Shaan Puri 35:40 Yeah.

Sam Parr 35:40 So if you assume that I had a mortgage plus utilities and taxes-

Shaan Puri 35:45 Property tax, yeah

Sam Parr 35:45 ... that's in the 7,000 range.

Shaan Puri 35:48 Okay.

Sam Parr 35:49 Um, I don't have that, but let's just assume that I do because I will get one eventually. Um, and then property management is 20% of, uh, of, uh, like the 14,000. And so if I do fif- if I do 16,000 revenue, $300 per stay goes to my cleaner. So whatever that, that, let's just say that's 2,000. So that brings us down to whatever that is. What did I say? 15 minus 2,000, that's 13,000. And then management gets 20% of that. And then the rest, I assume it goes to a, uh, uh, property, um, property taxes and a fake mortgage. So all said and done, on 15,000 in revenue I'll walk away with only 3,000 maybe.

Shaan Puri 36:26 Yeah, that's nuts. So that means... Let's see. Uh, we do, we have 15,000, so 20% margins?

Sam Parr 36:33 Yeah, it's, it's not, like, it's not catnip, right?

Shaan Puri 36:35 And then you have to pay tax on the 15.

Sam Parr 36:38 Well, but I have depreciation, so I'm able to, like, save a, a fair bit there. But, um, yeah, like it's a cash on cash return. It's gonna end up being, like, 5% or somewhere between 5% and 8%. But if you assume appreciation, which is a big assumption, but I looked at the trailing 30 years, it'll probably be a 15% to 20%, uh, annual return if I own it for, like, 10 years.

Shaan Puri 37:01 Right.

Sam Parr 37:02 So, but that's a big if. So that, the cash on cash, it's only okay. It's only okay. But I'm completely hands-off, and I also like it. And I f- I, I learned how to do something. So I didn't-

Shaan Puri 37:13 [laughs]

Sam Parr 37:13 ... I didn't do everyth- I didn't do everything right here at all. I, I, I think I paid a premium. I definitely paid a premium for the property.

Shaan Puri 37:19 Dude, I know you paid a premium because if I look at this, uh, like if I go to the gallery, it's got the kitchen with, like, the white... E- everything's, like, white and, like, this one look of wood that I'm just, like, a sucker for. If it looks like this, I'm like, "It's a nice place." [laughs] And people who-

Sam Parr 37:34 Yeah, we have like-

Shaan Puri 37:35 ... know about construction, they're like, "This is, like, cheap and easy." Like, y- you know, I would walk into a house and be like, "Well, this is a good house. I'm gonna pay a premium for this house." And they're like, "Why? 'Cause the countertops are nice?" And I'm like, "Yeah. I mean, look at this. It looks fanta- it looks modern." [laughs] And they're like, "Dude, that's, that costs nothing. Like, you need to pay for location. You need to pay for square footage. You need to pay for all these other things." But I'm a sucker for, like, just, like, the, the countertops.

Sam Parr 37:58 But I have 20 acres, and so my, my plan, my plan originally before the markets tanked, I was like, "I'll put more, I'll build more crap there."

Shaan Puri 38:05 Yeah.

Sam Parr 38:05 And then when the markets tanked, I got cold feet and I was just like, "Well, let's just sit on it and just see what happens." And so now I'm just sitting on it, and it's going awesome. Like, it's, it's, it's booked constantly. And so I'm happy with it. I don't regret it. I would, I would do it again. Um, and I... But, like, I learned. It was a lot of money to, like... You know, it was seven figures to, like, get in the game, and so I was fucking nervous as hell.

Shaan Puri 38:26 Right.

Sam Parr 38:26 But it's worked out. And I've learned how to do it, so now I, I know more about it, so I'm happy.

Speaker 38:30 [upbeat music] I can't find this client info. Have you heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform, so it shares its data across every application. Every team can stay aligned. No out of sync spreadsheets or dueling databases. HubSpot, grow better.

Shaan Puri 38:48 All right. Let me go. Um, I

Shaan Puri 38:50 got two blue-collar hustles for you. So these are in the trash, in the trash biz. So, um, I've heard of two trash businesses recently that I thought were pretty interesting. I wanted to share them with you. I want you to tell me which one you like better. Okay, so the first one, our buddy Sieva told me about this. It's called Smash My Trash. Have you ever heard of this? Has he told you about this?

Sam Parr 39:10 No, but you wanna know something funny? I've been very close with Sieva for, like, 12 years now, and I don't, I still don't know how to say his last name.

Shaan Puri 39:16 [laughs] Kozinski, right?

Sam Parr 39:19 Yeah.

Shaan Puri 39:20 Is that not it? [laughs]

Sam Parr 39:21 I, I had to, like... Yeah, I, I just... He's in my phone book as, when the very first time I ever met him, I just... He said he was Russian, so he's just saved as Sieva Russia. And so I just assumed he was Sieva Russia. [laughs] That's his la... I mean, this guy was, like, in my wedding close.

Shaan Puri 39:33 Yeah. [laughs]

Sam Parr 39:34 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 39:36 Sieva Tall, Handsome, Smart. [laughs]

Sam Parr 39:38 Yeah. I just call him Adonis.

Shaan Puri 39:40 Yeah. First name and then attributes.

Sam Parr 39:42 Yeah. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 39:42 Like, visual attributes [laughs] that I remember you by.

Sam Parr 39:45 Yeah. Six-pack, 6'3". Got it.

Shaan Puri 39:47 Yeah. [laughs]

Sam Parr 39:47 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 39:48 I have a system and it, it [laughs] serves me well. Um, all right, so Sieva was telling me about this franchise called Smash My Trash. And so what they do is they basically [laughs] imagine a giant, like, crane. And so they drive to any business. And, like, if you've ever been to, like... We had a warehouse, so our warehouse just produces, like, an un, like, an, an ungodly amount of trash, just cardboard, pallets.

Sam Parr 40:11 You don't just burn it?

Shaan Puri 40:12 Yeah. [laughs] It's-

Sam Parr 40:13 Just be normal

Shaan Puri 40:14 ... so, so we have Charlie. Charlie burns the trash.

Sam Parr 40:17 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 40:17 But, like, I forgot about that. Um, you would have basically a dumpster, and you get charged per, like, I don't know, like, per filling of the dumpster, like how many times you fill the dumpster. And then you call them up and they come and they, they empty your dumpster. What Smash My Trash does is they'll j- you sign up for them, they drive around, they'll come to your dumpster, and they just take this giant crane arm and just smash the trash in, just compacting it. Um, they let you get way more volume or less, it takes less fills, so it lowers your trash bill. And, um, you know, that could save you, you know, hundreds of dollars every month if you do this. And so basically the cost of Smash My Trash should just be less than the savings that they give you from having to do less, uh, less dumpster fills. And so this is, like, a franchise that kinda crushes it. It's basically you can run this with, like, two guys, and the numbers on this are you invest, like, I don't know, 400K. Typically, they'll make, like, a million dollars a year in revenue and, like, 300K of, like, net income, like EBITDA a- at the end of the day. And so you're getting, like, a kind of amazing cash on cash, not, not that, not that trash return you were getting on your Airbnb. This is some real, real returns. And, um, and I think they have-

Sam Parr 41:25 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 41:26 ... I think they have, like, a shit ton of locations. I think they have, like, 160 locations or something like that. Um, and so that's, like, they've made probably $40, $50 million in just the franchise fees, just, uh, franchising this concept out. So I think this is kind of an, like, low-key amazing business.

Sam Parr 41:44 It's amazing, but there's a big downside. When was the last time you had a blue-collar job? Do you remember? Have you ever had one?

Shaan Puri 41:50 Restaurant, yeah, when I was-

Sam Parr 41:51 Restaurant

Shaan Puri 41:52 ... like, 21, yeah.

Sam Parr 41:53 What happens at a restaurant when it closes? Do you remember?

Shaan Puri 41:57 Just carnage. [laughs]

Sam Parr 41:58 Carnage. Everyone goes and gets super screwed up. They get drunk. You take pills. You get high. You just do all types of shit. And then hopefully they show up the next day, and there's lots of... Like, I remember I've, you know, I've, I've been a janitor before. I've worked in restaurants. I've done all this stuff. And there was, like, particularly in restaurants, there was constant, like, issues with this type of person who works there. And it sounds classist, but the, it, it is kind of the facts of my experience. I don't know. It, it... What do you think the trash... I guess if a trash person has a job, maybe they get up early, so... And I, I, when I think of a trash guy, I think more of a Family Guy-

Shaan Puri 42:35 Yeah, trash guys are-

Sam Parr 42:36 ... for some reason

Shaan Puri 42:36 ... I, I trust a trash guy. Like, you know- I feel like a trash guy's reliable, dependable, salt of the earth, you know? Like, I, I feel, feel like it's not the de- degenerates that you'll get. Like, I, I would rather hire any trash guy than a barista at Starbucks, right? Like, I feel like the barista is a flake, and we never know what's gonna happen, but-

Sam Parr 42:55 Well, the worst is, is, is, like, a bartender-

Shaan Puri 42:58 Bartender. Yeah

Sam Parr 42:59 ... at a... or a waiter at a fancy, like, nighttime restaurant. Like a, like a, like a... or like a, like a TGI Fridays.

Shaan Puri 43:07 [laughs]

Sam Parr 43:07 Like, you know what I'm saying? Like [laughs]

Shaan Puri 43:09 The worst of the worst. This was... There's-

Sam Parr 43:10 Yeah

Shaan Puri 43:10 ... someone out there right now listening to this that is a waiter at TGI Fridays that just slammed their phone in disgust [laughs]

Sam Parr 43:17 Dude, I've worked at all these places

Shaan Puri 43:17 As you slander them. [laughs]

Sam Parr 43:19 I've worked at all these places, and, like, this is probably why I had a little bit of a habit. It, it's... I don't know, man. This, this is the downside of, of, of this business.

Shaan Puri 43:27 If you have unlimited access to loaded nachos, then something just happens to you. [laughs]

Sam Parr 43:32 [laughs] Yeah. Yeah. Like, the blooming onion, it's like, uh... it's like, it's like the full moon, you know what I'm saying? Like, I turn into a werewolf.

Shaan Puri 43:39 Yeah, exactly. [laughs]

Sam Parr 43:39 And if I get, if I get that every night, you know, like, it's, it's bad.

Shaan Puri 43:42 [laughs]

Sam Parr 43:42 I turn into, like, a, like a Guns N' Roses after party. Like, I'm going wild.

Shaan Puri 43:45 [laughs]

Sam Parr 43:45 I'm throwing furniture out the window. So, uh, yeah. Is this cool? Yes. I think there's a, a lot of headache. And I would be curious. We have a good friend, uh, or I'm... I'm, I think you're friends with him. His name's Brian. Brian, uh, Scudamore or Scudamore. He owns, um-

Shaan Puri 43:59 Sounds like a good friend.

Sam Parr 44:01 Oh, another guy.

Shaan Puri 44:02 Another trash-

Sam Parr 44:02 Another last name guy

Shaan Puri 44:03 ... in your [laughs]

Sam Parr 44:03 Yeah. [laughs] Yeah. And, uh, no, not trash.

Shaan Puri 44:07 Junk.

Sam Parr 44:07 Junk.

Shaan Puri 44:08 [laughs]

Sam Parr 44:08 1-800-GOT-JUNK. And Brian has been on the pod, and, uh, he, uh... I don't know if... Maybe I could say this, but the company's 100% bootstrapped. Revenue, this is public, revenue, I think is in the 300 to 50- $350 million a year range. He owns 100% of it. He parlayed that. Now they own, like, a painting business, and they do all these, like, services. I would be curious what he would have to say if, like, his trash guys, like, or his franchisees are, like, degenerates or not, and, like, what's the headache with those type of people.

Shaan Puri 44:39 We should, we should definitely ask him. I feel like, uh, I feel like he's gonna give his, his, his sign-off on this. So, so this is one trash idea. The other one comes from Twitter. I gotta give credit to Mobile Home Park Guy. Um, I, I know the guy behind this.

Sam Parr 44:52 Guy mafia.

Shaan Puri 44:53 He, he's actually pretty awesome, but I don't know if he's trying to be public with his identity here. But he's part of our, our guy mafia, right? We got the, uh, the restaurant guy. We got the car dealership guy. Now we have Mobile Home Park Guy. And he goes, "I just found this trash business that is called Bin Scrub. And what they do is they clean off your trash cans."

Sam Parr 45:12 Oof.

Shaan Puri 45:12 "So they wash, they power wash your trash cans 'cause everybody's trash cans are, are filthy." And he's like, he's like, "Here's how I would take this business and turn it into, you know, six figures a year of profit." He goes, "Why do I love this business? So everybody's got trash bins, so, you know, your market is every home. Um, it's a very young industry, low market penetration, so you'll prob- be the only person offering this service. There's not, like, a bunch of competitors yet. Um, you just need one truck and some hustle. Uh, in a post-COVID world, there's lots of germaphobes, and you can play on that. And this has, like, word-of-mouth virality. So there are... You know, this has, like, public virality. You can see the actual service being done." And so he goes, so he goes, "You've gotta buy a truck. The trucks are about 40K, but it's a hard asset. You're gonna be able to get a loan against this. So you might only have to put down 5 or $10,000 and get a bank to finance the rest because the truck will, will do this." Um, he goes, "Now, here's how I, how would you... Here's how I'd juice this business to make it more, more valuable." He goes, "We're gonna make it, make this like the ice cream truck. We're gonna put a s- a speaker system on top. And every time we're coming around your neighborhood, we're playing the same song." He's like, "You know, I'm going with OutKast, So Fresh, So Clean, just like, just 'cause it's a pun." And he's like, "We're gonna play this every single time. This song is our branding. We're gonna drive around from 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM when people are home from school, home from work, and they can look out the window and be like, 'What is that?' And then they will, they will see us power washing someone in their neighborhood's bins." You can even-

Sam Parr 46:34 This sounds like a horrible idea.

Shaan Puri 46:35 [laughs] So hold on, hold on, hold on. He goes, um, he, he goes, "We're gonna, we're gonna, like, basically leave little flyer brochures on top of everyone's bin, so when they take out the trash, they're gonna see that, you know, this trash can is dirty. We clean 'em out. We, we leave your trash can so clean you could eat cereal from it." And he's like, "That would be my..." He's like, "My... I'd put a spoon in it and be like, 'Yeah, it's so clean you could eat cereal out of this.'" Um, so he's like, "That's what I would do for my marketing." He goes, "I think one truck can do about 100 to 200 homes a day. It's a few thousand dollars a day per truck in revenue. Um, you'll use that to finance the second truck. Your costs are gas, water, maintenance, and some chemicals, assuming you're the one doing the truck." And he's basically like, "This is a blue collar side hustle. If somebody wants to themselves get out there and get to that 10K a month, uh, of, of income, uh, that they may not be able to get out of their job," this is, this is his idea. So he goes, "What do you think, fellas?" So Sam, you said it's a horrible idea. Tell me why.

Sam Parr 47:29 Uh, well, okay. So completely uneducated here. So, uh, two doubts. Uh, I don't think that you can do... I, I don't think that that many people would want this. And number two, 100 to 200 a day? That's so many. That is so many. I would... How much... It w- it would take 20 minutes to drive somewhere. I don't... That math is wild to me.

Shaan Puri 47:53 Yeah. You, you'd basically have to get to a, like, dense area, and then r- and then do a route, but that would kind of assume that they're all your customers, which they're not gonna all be c- your customers at the, at the start.

Sam Parr 48:04 Did he call us out and say, "What do we think?"

Shaan Puri 48:06 No, but-

Sam Parr 48:07 Oh

Shaan Puri 48:07 ... you know, he listens to the pod, so.

Sam Parr 48:09 [laughs] Uh, yeah, I'm out.

Shaan Puri 48:11 And by the way, there's two pe- there's two people in the comments here. One, um, Sparkling Bins Business, they make the trucks. So there's a woman in the comments who goes, "It's a fantastic business. We've been... We manufacture the trucks. It's been going great since 2020." And then another guy goes, um, "Yeah, I do this. Mine's called Bin Busters. I'm two years in. It's going great." [laughs]

Sam Parr 48:32 Okay. Well, I mean, what the hell do I know? But-

Shaan Puri 48:34 And by the way, that guy, his bio says, "Living the American dream." [laughs]

Sam Parr 48:39 Yeah.

Shaan Puri 48:39 Not sure.

Sam Parr 48:39 That's someone's dream.

Shaan Puri 48:40 Not [laughs]

Sam Parr 48:41 A dream.

Shaan Puri 48:41 [laughs]

Sam Parr 48:42 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shaan Puri 48:42 A dream. [laughs]

Sam Parr 48:43 Yeah.

Shaan Puri 48:43 Living an American's dream.

Sam Parr 48:45 [laughs] Yeah, yeah. One person's.

Shaan Puri 48:47 [laughs]

Sam Parr 48:48 Uh, good, good for him. He's... Th- this is their dream, and they're, they're pulling it off. Uh, uh, I- I don't know, man. I'm out. I'm out on this one

Shaan Puri 48:57 [laughs]

Sam Parr 48:57 I don't wanna do this

Shaan Puri 48:58 Sam's like, "Start a newsletter." [laughs]

Sam Parr 49:00 Yeah, start a newsletter. Dude, I, uh, I, I, I've, I've... People make fun of me 'cause I bring this up so much. I had hot dog stands, whatever. I- But I used to work with my hands outside. It's so hard, man.

Shaan Puri 49:10 Well-

Sam Parr 49:10 It is so hard

Shaan Puri 49:11 ... by the way, you said you were a janitor. When were you a janitor?

Sam Parr 49:14 Uh, when I was in eighth grade, I worked at a bakery, and it was my job to, like, mop the floors, take out the trash, clean the dishes. And so that was, like, my first job, $6 an hour. And then, uh, yeah, that's what I did.

Shaan Puri 49:26 Dude, I am so mad at my parents for never giving me my, my, my grind story. Like, can I rather-

Sam Parr 49:34 You didn't get anything?

Shaan Puri 49:34 ... get a little hardship? Yeah, like-

Sam Parr 49:36 [laughs] Yeah.

Shaan Puri 49:37 Yeah.

Sam Parr 49:37 You ain't gangster at all, dude. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 49:38 Throw me in a, an uncle's store for a month and just-

Sam Parr 49:40 Yeah

Shaan Puri 49:40 ... just give me that story, "$5 an hour, and I had to enter- empty the trash." Like, nobody knows how long I did it. Like, I got nothing, dude. I grew up-

Sam Parr 49:47 Dude, a lot of Asian parents don't want you to do that. They say, "Do your homework."

Shaan Puri 49:49 This man's got no callouses.

Sam Parr 49:51 [laughs] Yeah.

Shaan Puri 49:51 And my kids, I'm gonna give them one hustle story. You know, they're gonna have some very token small hardship that will sound good later when they make it because you need that story, and I, I just don't have it.

Sam Parr 50:03 A lot of my Indian friends, which I have a ton, they, their parents were like, "You don't even clean your room. Just do your homework."

Shaan Puri 50:10 Yeah, just study. [laughs]

Sam Parr 50:11 Is that what they said to you? Like, like-

Shaan Puri 50:13 Yeah

Sam Parr 50:13 ... "Don't cook, don't clean, just study."

Shaan Puri 50:15 Well, they didn't say it like that, but, uh, I wasn't asking to cook or clean, so, you know, it just never came up. [laughs] And they were like, "Yeah, your, your job is to study and do good in school so you can get, like, a good job. Don't go be a janitor." [laughs] And I was like, "Well-"

Sam Parr 50:28 Dude, I, I did it all, man. I did the janitor stuff. I was a waiter. I was a busboy. I was a valet driver. I did it all, man. I, i- and, uh, I'm happy I did it, but, uh, I don't wanna do it anymore.

Shaan Puri 50:39 [laughs]

Sam Parr 50:41 Oh, and by the way, I need to redeem myself. I made fun of, like, the... Someone the other day said the retail class, so this is, like, the, the blue collar class. But, uh, I read this, there was this funny article on Business Insider. It had the worst but hilarious title, and it was, "I'm a Millennial Manager Who Works with Gen Z," and then it said, like, colon, "With Gen Z workers, they have a lot of feelings."

Shaan Puri 51:03 [laughs]

Sam Parr 51:04 And so, look, you're either gonna get, like-

Shaan Puri 51:06 Great headline. [laughs]

Sam Parr 51:06 ... somebody that, you're either gonna have drug issues working with one group of people, or you're just gonna have to talk forever about, like, bringing your whole self to work and all that nonsense.

Shaan Puri 51:14 [laughs]

Sam Parr 51:14 So, like, we all have our faults. We're all screwed. You know what I'm saying? I hate when people say, "Bring your whole self to work." I'm okay with you just bringing your work self to work.

Shaan Puri 51:21 [laughs]

Sam Parr 51:21 That's cool, too. You don't have to do-

Shaan Puri 51:23 I prefer that. [laughs]

Sam Parr 51:24 Yeah, I prefer that. If you wanna bring a little bit more of yourself, we can talk about that, too.

Shaan Puri 51:27 [laughs]

Sam Parr 51:27 But, like, you don't ha- It's not mandatory. You don't have to bring your whole self.

Shaan Puri 51:30 Right.

Sam Parr 51:30 I, I'm okay with just your work self.

Shaan Puri 51:31 [laughs]

Sam Parr 51:32 So we all, every, every, every class and every generation has issues, so I don't mean to sh- throw shade just at one. Um-

Shaan Puri 51:39 [laughs] We throw shade at all here. We're an equal opportunity-

Sam Parr 51:41 Yeah

Shaan Puri 51:41 ... shade thrower. [laughs]

Sam Parr 51:42 Yeah, we're all screwed up.

Shaan Puri 51:43 I hit my dad. Sam hit the trash man.

Sam Parr 51:45 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 51:46 Who else did we get? Who else cut, cut a stray today?

Sam Parr 51:48 [laughs] Dude, I'll make fun of myself. Someone made fun of me the other day because I've got these surgeries on my ear, I was telling you, on my ear, and my glasses sit funny. I don't know if you noticed, my glasses sit crooked 'cause, like, it's my ear. And someone said, uh, "Looks like Sam got brain, S- Sam got head surgery and didn't pay for them to put the rest of it back in because his glasses are sitting..." [laughs]

Shaan Puri 52:08 [laughs]

Sam Parr 52:08 And I was like, "Yeah, that's kinda true."

Shaan Puri 52:10 Kinda accurate. [laughs]

Sam Parr 52:11 Yeah. [laughs] Yeah. You're kinda there. Um, dude, I told you the other day, I wanna tell you about a media company that most people have no idea about, but they kinda killed it, and I love

Sam Parr 52:23 it. So I told you the other day-

Shaan Puri 52:24 I love it

Sam Parr 52:24 ... about, about Parcast. Did I tell you about Parcast?

Shaan Puri 52:27 Yeah, yeah. This was the, uh, podcast network that was doing true crime stuff.

Sam Parr 52:32 Yeah. So I learned about the story. I think the guy who started it just tweeted saying that he was done at Spotify, so I guess his earn-out is up. But listen to this. So it was a three-year-old, uh, startup that sold for $50 million to, uh, Spotify, and the way it started was the guy, his name was Max Cutler at the time. He's a 27-year-old graduate, and he bootstrapped this thing. His dad worked in radio. I don't think his dad was, like, a rich guy. I think his dad, uh, Ron Cutler, I, I think he was, like, a, uh, he was a radio broadcaster. So he had industry, but I don't think he was, like, in the business type of thing.

Shaan Puri 53:03 Right.

Sam Parr 53:03 And he, uh, they bootstrapped this thing, and by 2018, so only two years in, they had 16 shows with 100 million downloads. By 2019, they had 40 weekly shows. Now they have a staff of something like 150, of which 75 of them are voice actors. And I listen to these. It's so weird. I listen to these every night when I go to bed.

Shaan Puri 53:23 [laughs]

Sam Parr 53:24 So, like, I've got, like, my favorites. I listen to one called Serial Killers. There's another one called Deathbed Confessions. Then there's another one called, like, Murder Couples, which is about Bonnie and Clyde. There's another one. Like, it's, like, all these things. And there's, and w- it's not like our podcast at all. There's zero riffing, and it's, like, voice actors. And-

Shaan Puri 53:41 Dude, we should just make up fake true crime shows, like Stabbed But Not Dead Yet.

Sam Parr 53:45 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 53:47 [laughs]

Sam Parr 53:47 Yeah. The Black Eye. Yeah, just, [laughs] just, like, stories of people who just got kind of hurt.

Shaan Puri 53:54 Stubbed My Toe: Was It Really an Accident?

Sam Parr 53:55 [laughs] Yeah. Spit On By a Homeless Guy: Stories of NYC. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 54:00 [laughs] Exactly. Not Injured, But It Was Gross.

Sam Parr 54:04 Yeah. [laughs]

Shaan Puri 54:05 [laughs]

Sam Parr 54:06 Barely Assault. Uh... [laughs]

Shaan Puri 54:10 You Hurt My Feelings: True Crime Thrills. [laughs]

Sam Parr 54:13 [laughs] Dude, and but, like, this is, the reason why I like this is it's not like, uh, it's, like, they're just, like... You know how we were talking about, like, people who do things beautifully done? Like, you know, uh, This American Life-

Shaan Puri 54:27 Mm

Sam Parr 54:27 ... and it's, like, thoughtful.

Shaan Puri 54:28 Yeah.

Sam Parr 54:28 It's, like, thoughtful. Like, "Today on This American Life we're gonna talk about, like, the opioid crisis."

Shaan Puri 54:33 Right.

Sam Parr 54:33 And they, like, go out and interview people. This is not that. It's just someone who read a book-

Shaan Puri 54:37 [laughs]

Sam Parr 54:37 ... summarized it, and then is reading it.

Shaan Puri 54:39 [laughs]

Sam Parr 54:39 And they pump out, like, l- literally one a day, and they have, like, uh, you know, 40 shows a now, 40 shows now, and it's just a volume play. And this guy was like, "Dude, this true crime shit to..." Their audience is 75% women and then me. Uh, and their-

Shaan Puri 54:53 [laughs]

Sam Parr 54:55 Their, uh, like, their audience, like, it's crack. It's crack to me. I cannot stop listening to this shit, and it's the same thing every single day. You know, it's kinda like Family Guy. You know Family Guy?

Shaan Puri 55:04 Yeah.

Sam Parr 55:04 They've been doing it for, like, 25 years now. It's the same shit all the time- It works every time. I'm gonna watch it every single time. It's just like that. It's the same shtick over and over and over again. And they were acquired. It was, they were acquired for something like $53 million or $54 million in cash, then like another $50 million in earn-out. But pretty fascinating, this guy bootstrapped this. And they're not popular on social. 20,000 followers Twitter, 36 on Facebook, 50,000 on Instagram. They just dominated, like, people searching for... Their, their one podcast is called Serial Killers. That's all it's called. And they just, like, dominate when people search these. So it's like long tail. It's like what's the d-

Shaan Puri 55:40 Right

Sam Parr 55:40 ... what's, what's SEO for podcasts? PEO? I don't know.

Shaan Puri 55:42 [laughs]

Sam Parr 55:43 Uh, and they just crushed it. Really fascinating business, and I, and I brought that up, so I, I needed... I hadn't done the proper research. I, I needed to kinda close that loop.

Shaan Puri 55:52 You know, there's a, we had talked about the beautifully done-

Sam Parr 55:55 Ugh

Shaan Puri 55:55 ... like, you know, just X, but beautifully done. There's another version of that that we haven't talked about. And, uh, I don't know, w- I don't know about you, but, like, when I was growing up, like, if I had like a plate of food and it's like, let's say it's, I had a bunch of veggies, I had a broccoli, brussels sprouts, something like that, I didn't really want it. I was kinda, like, tired of eating it, but it's still there, and I know I should eat it. Um, me and my sister used to have this thing where if one of us was, like, in that, that spot where we wanted to eat, we, we know we should do this, but, oh God, just the idea of sitting here for another 20 minutes, just spoon after spoon of this, that's, I just can't bring myself to do it, one of us would look at the other and just say, "Savage it. Just savage it."

Sam Parr 56:31 [laughs] Savage it.

Shaan Puri 56:31 And savaging, you start to eat just like an absolute animal-

Sam Parr 56:34 [laughs]

Shaan Puri 56:34 ... and you, in like 30 seconds, you just basically, it's like chugging for food. And so, um, we used to say that, and then we'd be like, "All right, we gotta savage it," and we would just quickly down the whole thing. Now, there's a version of that for businesses. That's kinda what you described here, was this guy was like, "Oh, okay, people like this true crime audio thing."

Sam Parr 56:51 I'm pumping this out.

Shaan Puri 56:53 I'm gonna savage it. And so basically in two years to pump out 40 shows and get 100 million downloads, there's only one way to describe that. He savaged it, and it, he wasn't trying to be beautifully done. I bet you it's imperfect in all these different ways. You know, he might've been hiring, you know, random voice actors in, you know, Paraguay and, like, doing whatever it took [laughs] to get these out there and pump them out, but that's exactly what he did. And I think actually way more often than the beautifully done do you see people just savage it and just, just scale up like an absolute savage because they find something that works, and then they don't, they're not perfectionists, and they don't like, um, they, they don't get-

Sam Parr 57:33 D-

Shaan Puri 57:33 ... limited by what's the normal pace. They're like, "Okay-

Sam Parr 57:35 And that works more, I think

Shaan Puri 57:36 ... what's the theoretical limit of this?"

Sam Parr 57:39 And that works more. I remember when I lived in San Francisco, when I started The Hustle, I was like, originally I was like, "Let's just pump out blog posts," and people were like, "Well, what about quality over quantity?"

Shaan Puri 57:48 Yeah. [laughs]

Sam Parr 57:48 And I was like, "Dude"-

Shaan Puri 57:49 Did you bring your whole self to work again?

Sam Parr 57:51 Yeah.

Shaan Puri 57:51 Steve!

Sam Parr 57:51 I was like [laughs]

Shaan Puri 57:52 [laughs]

Sam Parr 57:53 Dude, I, well, I was, I would always turn to them. I'd go, "No, our quality is quantity."

Shaan Puri 57:57 Right.

Sam Parr 57:58 Like, we are not, we are not an article business. We are a how many, how, how, how can these operations be where we pump out lots of articles? That's the product we're building.

Shaan Puri 58:07 Right. You're not a journalist.

Sam Parr 58:08 People are just-

Shaan Puri 58:08 You're a blogger. Go, go blog.

Sam Parr 58:10 Yeah. It was like, and then another, I, the, that was always one where, like, people are always like, "Quality versus quantity." And I'm like, "Uh, you need both." Or if I wanted to play with their heads, I'd be like, "No, the quality is the quantity." Another thing where people would say is like, "Uh, well, it's a marathon, not a sprint." And that was like a, a, a reason for them to slack. And I'm like, "Yeah, but have you ever ran a marathon at world record pace? It's gonna feel like a sprint."

Shaan Puri 58:31 [laughs]

Sam Parr 58:31 So, like, w- you know, it feels pretty fast when you're running real, like-

Shaan Puri 58:35 Right

Sam Parr 58:35 ... top marathoners, we're running fast. So it's gonna feel like a sprint. Uh, but yeah, this guy's a quantity over quality guy, and I love it.

Shaan Puri 58:42 Yeah.

Sam Parr 58:42 I love it.

Shaan Puri 58:42 E- exactly. Okay, I think we should, uh, we should wrap it here. That's the pod. [upbeat music]