This Guy Makes $20,000,000/Year With 0 Employees (#365)

1. 0:00 – 0:40

   Intro

   1. SPShaan Puri0:00

      So he lives in India, and he is a one-man company that makes something between 15 and $30 million selling simple plugins for Google Docs

   2. SPSam Parr0:11

      If you, if you have $20 million-

   3. SPShaan Puri0:13

      [laughs]

   4. SPSam Parr0:13

      ... a year of income, that is a huge, unheard of sum. [upbeat music] All right, we live. What's going on?

   5. SPShaan Puri0:24

      What's up? All right, I got s- a couple interesting things for you. Um, I'm gonna start with this one-man company. So I got a... I saw a tweet. I got tagged in a tweet a bunch of times.

   6. SPSam Parr0:35

      Same. The exact same one.

   7. SPShaan Puri0:38

      And I think we should talk about this, because this

2. 0:40 – 7:27

   Millionaire from Google plugins

   1. SPShaan Puri0:40

      was very cool.

   2. SPSam Parr0:40

      Is it the Google plugin guy?

   3. SPShaan Puri0:42

      Yes.

   4. SPSam Parr0:43

      Yes.

   5. SPShaan Puri0:43

      So, all right. So this guy, John Davids, uh, tweeted out a great thread, and his handle is Real- Real John Davids, so shout out to him for doing this. And he's basically like, "Dude, I discovered this guy, and let me just tell you some things about this guy." So-

   6. SPSam Parr0:57

      How funny is it that something like this happens, and I, I know exactly what you're talking about because we... I got DM'd-

   7. SPShaan Puri1:03

      Well, the-

   8. SPSam Parr1:03

      ... the amount, the same people probably DM'd me.

   9. SPShaan Puri1:06

      Well, that's when you know you're doing a good job. When people see something and they think of you. Um, I tweeted this out. I go, "People think you create content like a podcast or a YouTube channel to become well-known," right? Oh, you want fame. You want to become well-known. And some people want that, and there is some benefits to that, but that's not my goal with this stuff. My goal is to be known well, which means people know you really well. That means when they see something, they'll know to send it to you. They'll show it to you. They'll share it with you. They'll invest it, or they'll tell you to come invest in this deal with them. When you're known well, it's because you've put your brain out there on blast. People know how you think. And so when they see something that they know you'll love, they immediately think of you, and they come share it with you. And so I would say the... Even if you create content and you're never famous, it never takes off and you become well-known, you will become known well, and that alone is a big enough benefit to justify, um, creating content. All right. Anyway, so we're known well because these, uh, uh, a bunch of people tagged us in this, this guy. So this guy, uh, what is his name? So his name's Amit Agarwal. So he lives in India, and he is a one-man company that makes something between 15 and $30 million selling simple plugins for Google Docs and Google Drive and the Google, the G Suite of apps. This is crazy. One-man company.

   10. SPSam Parr2:27

       I, I didn't know it was that high. That, that, that is, that is, that is sha- Dude, making... If you, if you have $20 million-

   11. SPShaan Puri2:34

       [laughs]

   12. SPSam Parr2:34

       ... a year of income, that's like the equivalent of... I would have to think about this, and maybe someone who's thought about this is gonna say I'm an idiot and I'm getting it wrong. But making $20 million a year in income is probably the same as being worth like $500 million.

   13. SPShaan Puri2:49

       Uh, lifestyle-wise it, it definitely is. [laughs]

   14. SPSam Parr2:52

       Like s- like it's a huge... That is a huge, unheard of sum.

   15. SPShaan Puri2:56

       So this guy, basically he's a, he goes to IIT, which is like the Harvard of, of India. He's a computer science guy. He moves back to his hometown. So he goes to the big city, comes back to his hometown, and in 2004 he starts off as like a tech blogger. He's just writing tips and tricks on how to use G Suite. And he creates a Gmail plugin that lets you do what's called a mail merge. A mail merge is basically like you wanna email 100 people the same thing, but not in one group email, and not even as a BCC, 'cause you wanna customize some component like their names, things like that.

   16. SPSam Parr3:27

       Yeah, I'm a paying customer of this product.

   17. SPShaan Puri3:30

       And so he created a plugin that just lets you do that in Gmail. 'Cause there's a lot of services that will let you do that outside of Gmail, but like a lot of people just wanna run it inside their inbox, and not like use some third-party app to send, send emails. So he creates this thing, and that's I think his biggest hit. But he just starts writing g- like, you know, how-to guides on his website. His website's called Digital Inspiration. And so it'll be like, you know, how to calculate the percentage score in a Google form. How teachers can email your parents the, uh, uh, email parents using Google forms, or something like that. And it's free, but then he has like a paid tier, $39 a year, $79 a year to get rid of like the branding and stuff like that. Email, you know, go past a limit of emails, something, something like that. And so his main mail merge thing has been downloaded seven and a half million times. And so if you assume like a, you know, 5% conversion rate to paid, he's doing, uh, 1.5 million in ARR just off of that one plugin. And he's got 13 more plugins. [laughs] So he's got like this whole set of things. He's got this document management app called Document Studio, and it lets you create documents, certificates, invoices using Google Sheets, and it's $79 million a year, 6 million downloads.

   18. SPSam Parr4:38

       Oh, my God.

   19. SPShaan Puri4:38

       He's got a notification app, $49 a year. He's got 10 million downloads. He's got a YouTube app, 8 million downloads. And then he creates one-off apps for big companies like Airbus, LinkedIn, Disney. Even the US Embassy has paid this guy to create custom G Suite things just for them. Like, if you kind of blend this all together, you start doing some estimates. Like, and I, I DM'd the guy. I was like, "Hey, can you confirm what the number is? I don't wanna say the wrong number, but I'm gonna tell this story on the pod." He didn't, he didn't reply yet. But he, um, it's pretty s- safe to say this guy's doing more than 10 million a year, and it could be as high as 25, 30 million if you're like really aggressive with how much he's getting from the enterprise customers. And, um, but somewhere between 10 and I'd say 25 million is a, is a fairly safe bet.

   20. SPSam Parr5:18

       How does he have-

   21. SPShaan Puri5:19

       And-

   22. SPSam Parr5:19

       And I, and I saw that he had-

   23. SPShaan Puri5:20

       He's just building simple, useful things

   24. SPSam Parr5:21

       ... he had 100,000 followers on Instagram. Is he famous for some reason? Like, what, what's... 'Cause a, a guy like this seems under the radar. But why-

   25. SPShaan Puri5:29

       I think his blog has a good amount of, uh, traffic. So I'm gonna go open up his blog. Yeah, so his blog gets about 150,000 hits a month, uh, visitors a month. And so I think he probably just says, "Hey, this is made by me," and then people go follow him or something.

   26. SPSam Parr5:42

       What's the, uh, tax rate in India? Do you know? Is it comparable to America-

   27. SPShaan Puri5:45

       [laughs]

   28. SPSam Parr5:45

       ... or is it way worse or way better? What?

   29. SPShaan Puri5:47

       I don't know, but I th- I remember hearing at one point that only 2% of the Indian population paid taxes. [laughs]

   30. SPSam Parr5:53

       Really?
3. 7:27 – 13:50

   Billy of the Week

   1. SPShaan Puri7:27

      All right. This is my Billy of the Week. [upbeat music]

   2. SPSpeaker7:34

      A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A billion dollars.

   3. SPShaan Puri7:38

      [upbeat music] This story is kind of incredible. Also came to me from a, um, a Twitter DM. Um, the guy's name is kind of, like, hard to... It's not, like, his real name. I wanna give him credit, but like, you know, I don't know w- what to, what to call him. His, his, his, uh, Twitter handle is EuroRepe, R-E-P-E. So EuroRepe. He goes, "I got a Billy of the Week for you, Carl Allen." He goes, "Sold a garbage bag company for $400 million."

   4. SPSam Parr8:05

      I got this one, too. This is so funny. I got the exact same one.

   5. SPShaan Puri8:08

      Now a full-time treasure hunter in the Bahamas. Okay, so who is this guy? You know, like, the... Uh, I don't know if you watch Game of Thrones, but in Game of Thrones, it's like, um, a song of ice and fire. This is a song of garbage and treasure. This is, this guy basically... Uh, it's kind of a insane story. I... It- it's very hard to even find information about this guy. I don't know if you looked him up, but there's-

   6. SPSam Parr8:29

      I did

   7. SPShaan Puri8:29

      ... not a lot-

   8. SPSam Parr8:30

      The only thing-

   9. SPShaan Puri8:31

      ... about this guy

   10. SPSam Parr8:31

       ... like, they didn't cover his business. They covered the fact that he was buying, like, a huge yacht-

   11. SPShaan Puri8:36

       Yeah, yeah, exactly

   12. SPSam Parr8:36

       ... which is a great sign.

   13. SPShaan Puri8:37

       All of it's about his yacht. Yeah. [laughs] So, so all right. So, so here's what I do know. All right, so Carl Allen, he, basically, he starts off working at this company called Heritage Bag, and Heritage Bag makes plastic trash bags. So, like, they do it, not just like normal trash bags, but, like, for medical waste or, like, hospital waste. But they'll make, like, anything that's, like, uh, you know, ice bucket liners. Um, you know, the, like, they'll make takeout boxes. Anything that's, like, mass production manufacturing for, for, like, this really core utility. Very similar to, like, EggCartons.com, the, the story that we told on the pod before. And so medical waste bags is, is their thing. He actually started off just, like, working there, and he worked kinda like w- it's like one of those stories where he worked his way up from the mail room. He had, like, one job, then he climbed up, then he got into business development, then became the director of business development, then eventually becomes the CEO, and eventually he buys the company. And I don't know how he pulled this off. I tried to find this. I could not find how this employee ended up owning the company, but he did. He ends up owning the company, and it's a b- a boring business based in Dallas, sells, you know, selling trash bags, and then he sells it for something like $300 or $400 million to, I think, a private equity firm. So they've, they've got 800 employees. They've been around for 30, 40 years, something like that, and they sell. And, um, and so they, you know, they do this, and then he's like, "All right. What do I do with my life now?" And at the age of 12, he had visited the Bahamas, and he was like, "Wow, I love the Bahamas. This is just a magical place." So he always had this idea. And so he, he looks at this place that, um, this island, and he calls up the owner, and he's like, "Hey, um, you know, are you, would you ever be interested in selling?" They're like, "No, we've been asked before. We won't sell this thing." It's a 92-year-old woman. She's like, "No, we won't sell it to some big corporation that's just gonna ruin it." He goes, "No, no, no, ma'am. I'm not a big corporation. I'm a family guy. I'm a family-owned business."

   14. SPSam Parr10:27

       I'm, I'm just a rich guy.

   15. SPShaan Puri10:29

       I'm just a guy with a handful of yachts, and I need a place to park them.

   16. SPSam Parr10:33

       [laughs]

   17. SPShaan Puri10:33

       And basically, he, he convinces this woman to sell. They sell 50 years after they had originally bought it. He buys this island, and he turns it into, like, his own little fishing, boating, and exploring place. So he's got now three parts of his business. He's got philanthropy, he's got his family office where he invests, and now he's got his island business, his yachting business, his fishing business. And he owns a handful of yachts. He's got, like, a 130-foot yacht-

   18. SPSam Parr10:57

       I think it's called, um-

   19. SPShaan Puri10:57

       ... an 80-foot yacht

   20. SPSam Parr10:59

       ... he calls it an exploration business.

   21. SPShaan Puri11:02

       Well, he's got his, uh, yeah, he's got his exploration business, but I think he also calls his investing his exploration business. I don't know. It's a little confusing. But Allen Exploration, I think, is, is one of them. But either way, go to his YouTube channel. Did you watch any of his YouTube videos?

   22. SPSam Parr11:15

       He's sick. Yeah. The guy is-

   23. SPShaan Puri11:16

       It's-

   24. SPSam Parr11:16

       ... the guy is amazing. [gentle music]

   25. SPSpeaker11:23

       Let me tell you a story about a young man with a dream, a dream of sailing the sea, living life with the ones he loves, discovering all the world has to offer, a dream of exploration. [upbeat music]

   26. SPSam Parr11:58

       It only has 41,000 views.

   27. SPShaan Puri12:01

       41,000 views, and it's basically his channel where he is... He believes that there are billions of dollars of lost treasures [laughs] in the sea. He's like, "There have been three million shipwrecks." He's like, "And when something is lost at sea, it's not lost." It's just at the bottom. Like [laughs] he's like, "It's still there. It didn't go anywhere. It's still there, and we just have to go find it." And he did this because he met some guy who was a treasure hunter who had made millions of dollars finding treasures in the ocean, and he was fascinated by this guy. And he's like, "Let's do this. I wanna do this." And so he started doing this, and he's looking for, like, these treasures where it's, like, King Philip from Spain had this, like, you know, armada coming over, and it got lost at sea back in the whatever, you know, the year 1200 or whatever. And he's like, "We gotta go find that," because there were these, like, crazy gold things and whatever. And he wants to create a museum of the things that he finds. And he's found a bunch of treasures. He's found this long gold chain. He's found, like, all kinds of stuff down there, and he puts it in his little museum on his island in the Bahamas. And it's just like a... And it's a public... It- it's a private island. I mean, he owns it, but he keeps it open to the public. It's not like nobody can come. And so people can come. They can visit. They can park their boats there, all that stuff. So isn't this kind of amazing? Like, what a dope life this guy is living.

   28. SPSam Parr13:16

       It... This is amazing for a couple different reasons. One, it's so fun to give in to these obsessions. So you say, like, "Well, what's the point of spending your life looking for treasure?" It's like, because it's sick, 'cause it's awesome.

   29. SPShaan Puri13:29

       [laughs]

   30. SPSam Parr13:29

       Right? Like, it's exciting. That's an exciting chase. You should do that. And it is actually. I'm sure there's some, like, historical value. Uh, I actually had a guy send me a pitch deck on investing in his, like, hunt, and I was like, "No, I'm not even gonna-"
4. 13:50 – 19:24

   Make your 12-year old self proud

   1. SPSam Parr13:50

      But number two, I've been thinking about this phrase, um, make the ch- make 12-year-old me, make 12-year-old Sam proud. And-

   2. SPShaan Puri13:58

      Right

   3. SPSam Parr13:59

      ... uh, 'cause I remember, like, making some money, and I remember someone being like... And I, like, was fretting over, like, doing one thing or the other thing, and it was an awesome thing, but I was like, "Uh, it costs too much." And someone's like, "Yeah, but it's sick. Like, it's awesome." Like, what, what, like, you know, if when you were 12, this is what you always wanted to do. And I'm like, "You're right. Why am I being such a boner? I should just do this thing." And-

   4. SPShaan Puri14:20

      [laughs]

   5. SPSam Parr14:20

      [laughs] And now, like, I do think that's a good life motto, which is, like, whatever 12-year-old you wanted, not all things but some things, you gotta give in to those indulgences. And this guy is awesome. I'm a big fan of the-

   6. SPShaan Puri14:32

      Well, the, the... We get this question a lot. Oh, what would you go back and tell your 20-year-old self, right? What would... If you were 21 again, what advice would you give your 21-year-old self? And you hate that question. I know you actually, like-

   7. SPSam Parr14:43

      I hate that question because I say, "No, they say if you had to start over again, what would you do?" And I'd be like, "I would've done the same thing 'cause that's what I'm skilled at, and that's what I'm good at."

   8. SPShaan Puri14:50

      [laughs]

   9. SPSam Parr14:50

      You, you want, you want me to give you an easy answer. Like, I, I don't know what you're good at.

   10. SPShaan Puri14:54

       Right. And so you're like, that's the question people always ask, but I, uh, I'm with you. I want the opposite, which is what advice would your 21-year-old self give you? 'Cause it's very easy to lose the plot. The older you get, the more responsible you get, the more, um, practical you get, the more, like, you get lower energy, less risk, all that stuff. And the... there's, like, a version of you that's like, I don't know if it's 12-year-old or the 21-year-old, but i- in either case, that, like, the goal was to have the most fun and do awesome things. And it wasn't thinking about, like, how to save for retirement. That's not... That wasn't on your mind back then. And so I think that for most people, the risk is not that they're playing life too risky. It's that they're playing life way too safe and that the 12-year-old you or the 21-year-old view- you would look at yourself and be like, "Oh man, I grew up, and I got kinda lame. Ah, damn, like, I'm just kinda, like, this out of shape guy who complains a bunch," and, like, you know, it's like saving money for when they're even older. Like, dude, you're already old. And so, like, you know, I, I think that m- for most people, they actually need to go the other way. They need to have more fun. They need to live more childlike. They need to have just more silliness, fun, adventure in their life, and they need to take a little more risk and play less safe. Um, that... I would say that that is the majority of people. And actually, people treat it like it's the opposite. They think, I need to... They think that the... They think the advice is you need to be responsible. You need to play it safe, right? You... Life needs to be more serious. And it's like, no, actually, life needs to be way less serious, in my opinion.

   11. SPSam Parr16:25

       Have you ever seen, uh, that one of the very... It, it's about 10 years old, so it, it was one of the early viral YouTube videos. And this r- this guy, he's in his 30, at this point, in his 40s. He, when he was 8, he recorded himself saying, "Hey, Jonah, what's going on?" And he, he's like, as an eight-year-old, anticipated that he wanted to make a video in his 30s where he was gonna have a conversation with himself. And it's, you know, older and is now, uh, at the time, 30s Jonah having a conversation with 8 Jonah. He's like, "Hey, what's going on, Jonah?" And he's like, "Are you still playing with this?" And he, like, held up a toy, and he was like... And the older Jonah was like, "No, I'm not." And he's clearly sad. And the younger Jonah's like, "Because you really love doing this, and we love drawing it."

   12. SPShaan Puri17:07

       [laughs]

   13. SPSam Parr17:07

       "And we love reading cartoons about this. And right now, I think I wanna grow up and be a cartoonist where I talk about this." And the older Jonah's like, "Oh man, I, I kinda, like, quit doing that when I didn't have time, but I actually still love it." And it, this video went viral, and I believe it kinda kicked off his career where he was able to start making movies and cartoons like he used to be into.

   14. SPShaan Puri17:27

       Right.

   15. SPSam Parr17:28

       And, uh, I, whenever I watch that video, I get inspired. I'm like, what would... When I was 8, like, what would he say? Like, "Whoa, you said you were gonna do this. Why aren't you?"

   16. SPShaan Puri17:36

       Right, and I, and I actually, I don't think the answer is you do what the 12-year-old do, you wanted to do 'cause maybe the 12-year-old, 12-year-old you just wanted certain dumb things or only knew about certain things. But it's more like if I was just explaining this to the 12-year-old me, would they nod and be like, "Okay, that's dope. I didn't know that. Hope... You know, that's crazy, but, like, that makes a lot of s- like, that sounds awesome. That sounds fun," versus, like, just do what the 12-year-old you wants.

   17. SPSam Parr17:59

       Right.

   18. SPShaan Puri18:00

       And I think you're, you're absolutely right that, like, people p- in general, the happiest people are the ones who are most childlike.

   19. SPSam Parr18:07

       You and me do.

   20. SPShaan Puri18:07

       Why... What are the traits of a, of a child? A chi- a child is generally very curious about the world. They don't just, like, think that they know it all, right? Um, a child is generally, like, looking to have fun. They're looking to play. Not just work and grind, right? Like, you know, like, [laughs] I've never heard a, a 12-year-old on that grind set, you know? Like, [laughs] 12-year-olds are looking to play. They're looking to have a blast, and like, guess what? That's what you should be trying to do, too. And, um, and so, you know, everything. I think about, like, if I went back to the, to the 13-year-old me and I was like, "Dude, this is our wife." And they'd be like, "What?" It's like, "Yeah. Like, yeah, we get to be with her. Like, she-

   21. SPSam Parr18:41

       [laughs]

   22. SPShaan Puri18:42

       ... she likes me." And his... And he would be like, "Oh, dude, awesome."

   23. SPSam Parr18:46

       [laughs]

   24. SPShaan Puri18:46

       Like, this is so, like, wow, this turned out amazing. [laughs] That would be like-

   25. SPSam Parr18:49

       It's like, uh-

   26. SPShaan Puri18:49

       ... something I would brag to my 13-year-old self. Like, "Dude, we pulled this." [laughs]

   27. SPSam Parr18:54

       It's like-

   28. SPShaan Puri18:54

       Like, that would be so sick. [laughs]

   29. SPSam Parr18:55

       Do you get to have sex?

   30. SPShaan Puri18:57

       Yeah, exactly. [laughs]
5. 19:24 – 36:16

   Update on "Sara's List"

   1. SPShaan Puri19:24

      Okay, so the last one I wanted to do was an update on Sara's List. Okay, so for those who are new to the pod, back, I don't know, h- how long ago was this? Like, a year ago, something like this?

   2. SPSam Parr19:34

      Only a year ago. I was in New York. Yeah, it was a year.

   3. SPShaan Puri19:37

      So let me go look at this video. So the... We did a v- a video, it's on YouTube, September sev- oh, almost exactly. September 17th, 2021. It's September 19th today. Wow, so, uh, two, you know-

   4. SPSam Parr19:48

      Bazinga

   5. SPShaan Puri19:48

      ... basically a year to the day, um, we did this thing. It's 12 startups where stock grants can make you a millionaire, and this was inspired by your wife, uh, Sara, who basically was a self-made millionaire, and we said, "Oh, how'd she do it? Did she invent the next big thing? Did she make this crazy investment that paid off?" And you're like, "No, she just, like, worked at good companies and, like, a good job, not..." She wasn't CEO or C-suite. Yeah, she was just like a-

   6. SPSam Parr20:13

      Normal job

   7. SPShaan Puri20:13

      ... m- normal job at a good tech company. And like, yeah, like, think about it this way. Like, you know, they give you, uh, a job offer that will pay you, you know, let's say 50K, just to use round numbers, 50K a year in stock compensation. So you, maybe you make 150, then you get 50 of stock. So over four years, you got 200K of stock. Well, if that company goes up 5X in value during those four years, which many tech companies do, it's a million dollars of stock that you got.

   8. SPSam Parr20:41

      And-

   9. SPShaan Puri20:41

      She's a self-made million- and-

   10. SPSam Parr20:42

       ... a lot of-

   11. SPShaan Puri20:42

       ... and she had done it at-

   12. SPSam Parr20:43

       A lot of, and a lot of these companies will give you, like, maybe $100,000 a year in stock. And-

   13. SPShaan Puri20:48

       Exactly

   14. SPSam Parr20:48

       ... in Airbnb's case-

   15. SPShaan Puri20:49

       And-

   16. SPSam Parr20:49

       ... that, I don't know what it went up. What, but I think it probably went up five or six times. I don't remember.

   17. SPShaan Puri20:55

       And your wife had done this at Facebook. She worked at Facebook. She worked at Airbnb. Did she work at another one, or were those the two?

   18. SPSam Parr21:01

       She worked at Everlane, but I don't think they've had an exit yet.

   19. SPShaan Puri21:04

       And so, uh, she had done this, and I was just, like, kind of... And it's also like, dude, those were obvious. It's not like she was like, oh, she was one of the first 10 employees at Airbnb. It's like, no, she joined, and Airbnb had how many employees? It was like hundreds-

   20. SPSam Parr21:16

       Thousands

   21. SPShaan Puri21:16

       ... if not thousands, right?

   22. SPSam Parr21:17

       No, it was, I, I think it was, uh, either 900 or 1000. It was six years ago, maybe. So they, they weren't new.

   23. SPShaan Puri21:24

       And do you remember the valuation at that time? Like, roughly, it was worth, like-

   24. SPSam Parr21:27

       I think it was 18. I think it was 18 billion.

   25. SPShaan Puri21:31

       Yeah, so it's-

   26. SPSam Parr21:31

       And when they IPO'd at the peak, I think it was worth 110.

   27. SPShaan Puri21:34

       Like, 100 million. Okay, yeah, 100 million. So, so let's say 5X there, um, i, at, at that peak. And so anyway, so she had done this, and I just thought that was amazing. I thought this is, like, the most underreported story in, like, you know, podcasts or tech news or Twitter.

   28. SPSam Parr21:49

       Well, you're missing the, one of the big-

   29. SPShaan Puri21:50

       Nobody talks about this

   30. SPSam Parr21:51

       ... you're missing one of the big parts was the reason it's underreported is it's not that unique, you know? There's thousands of people who work here. There's hundreds of thousands of people who collectively work at, maybe, oh, it's millions, actually, millions of people who work these types of gigs. Um-

Episode duration: 36:16