Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. Dear all loyal listeners: 1) Please, please, please give us a review on Apple Podcasts!, 2) Screenshot your review and tweet it to Shaan and Sam, 3) They'll give you a present!. Also, if you're looking to promote your own podcast, visit castro.fm/promote - they push your podcast out to thousands of people. And last promo for the day... the way to make a million is by surrounding yourself around other people who want it. Join our Facebook group where we share ideas and help each other out: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Alright the topics for today: The first Hustle office was also Craiglist's office (01:43), Taking craiglist sections and turning them into unicorn startups + Sam's first startup (05:34), New email clients like Superhuman, Hey.com and Front (12:06), Pay to get a reply from influential people like Earn.com (21:23), Getting paid by the minute instead of bi-weekly (23:26), Donation business models (25:52), Taking on Wikipedia (29:39), Menstruation apps (32:01), Life schools (36:29), Prenups (38:49) and Negotiation tactics / How to keep your star players (43:12).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam and Shaan are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. The way to make a million is by surrounding yourself around other people who want it. Join our Facebook group where we share ideas and help each other out: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Sam and his team happy about Twitter earnings (01:20), Long term stock exchange (03:11), NYSE bid to buy Ebay & direct listings (05:39), Commercial laundry businesses (07:39), Jessica Simpson's billion dollar clothing line & other influencer IP businesses (14:06), Secretive founders making the big money (17:12), Company universities (20:10), What would you do once you have all the money in the world (23:51), Remote Year (28:32), Shaan gives Sam a gift...(33:45), How to get your team to take bigger risks (36:35) and their book recommendations (45:20).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam and Shaan are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. The way to make a million is by surrounding yourself around other people who want it. Join our Facebook group where we share ideas and help each other out: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Harry's (D2C razor brand) sale blocked & D2C selling to PE strategy (0:55), /r/WallStreetBets & Tesla shorts (6:05), Drew Houston sitting on Facebook board & Professional board sitters (11:39), Labor law posters, MailChimp for governments & other weird compliance rules (14:48), Turnkey compliance, contracting remote workers & Letsdeel.com (18:11), Huge unsexy business: exec headhunting (21:23), Influential people curating job boards (27:52), Crowd-sources salary comparison sites like levels.fyi (33:08) & The Ringer selling to Spotify & why it makes podcast acquisitions make sense (35:41).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

** In our Facebook group yet? We hang out there so come join and let's talk ideas: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion ** Amanda Bradford (@amandabradford) was 28 years old, in business school and using dating apps. She got tired of stalking every match on Linkedin, Facebook etc.. to see if they were legit. Why doesn’t the dating app do this for me?So against all her advisors advice, she started a dating app called the League that checks your Facebook & Linkedin to verify that you are who you say you are.Strange idea, but It’s kinda working! They have over 100k paying members, profitable & been around for 5 years. We talk about: how she got her first 400 users at launch, how they figured out if people would pay $$ for subscription and what the future of dating looks like.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

*** JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP for share ideas and insight with each other: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion *** Today we first chat to Tom Wang, who has sold a 7 figure Amazon FBA biz + runs a 7 figure FBA Masterclass. Some stuff the guys talk about today is Utah as a new startup hub, Sam ignoring Andrew Yang before he became a democratic candidate, a social network built on Airpods, dry toothpaste, emergency bags, educational content and the recent Barstool acquisition.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We interviewed the founder of Rev.com (they transcribe audio into text), to hear how he built this into a $206M (to be precise) business. We used them to transcribe the My First Million podcast episodes, and realized how badass of a service this was. Super simple concept - create a workforce (currently 50,000) that works remotely, transcribing audio from podcasts, conferences, meetings etc.. into text, for less than $1 per minute. Jason talks about freelancers making money in their pajamas, why they opened an office away from Silicon Valley, the impact of AI on remote work, working for free to show your worth, buying his domain for $400,000 and a clever way come up with and test a killer startup name.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. Long episode today! First half is with 8-figure ad agency founder Brendan Gahan to talk biz models, overhead and profitability. Then the second half is with Daniel Gross who sold his startup to Apple in his twenties and rolled that win into multiple unicorn investments. Enjoy!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ever think your side-hustle could become a million-dollar company? Paul Anderson (@paul_d_andersen) did. Today on My First Million, we sit down with Paul who quit his 9-to-5 to focus on his Amazon FBA and how his passion became a full-blown multi-million dollar company. Side hustles, getting ‘em out there, increasing your profits, credit lines and more this week! Also, go sub to his new personal finance newsletter: https://wealthfam.com/newsletter/  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. Today Shaan kicks it off with food industry ideas: keto peanut butter, vintage fast food chains transitioning into the modern era, modifying US chains and taking them global. Then the guys chat about Aliexpress, pop-up esport tournaments, Tough Mudder bankruptcy, data privacy tools, targeting wealthy alumni for fundraising, networking hacks and a discussion about Silicon Valley mistruths.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Shaan sits down with Peter Dering (@peterdering), Founder & CEO of Peak Design, maker of beautiful, highly functional redesigns of photography equipment. He quit his construction job and traveled the world with $25K in savings. After awhile, he found it to be a pain in the ass carrying his camera around with him. So he thought of a camera holder clip that’d go onto your bag strap. Next thing you know, he filmed a kickstarter video to accompany his simple yet revolutionary product and within 90 seconds of launching he had his first sale. Bags, tripods, straps. Almost every year Peak Design releases some sort of iteration of an outdated piece of equipment and it SELLS. Last year they employed 38 people and did $70m in revenue. He owns 100% of it. Like I said, you want to be this guy. He talks about the process of how you actually create a physical product from scratch, how to work with international distributors, why and how he structured a public benefit entity, how to offset business carbon footprint and how much it ACTUALLY costs (it's tiny!). Have a listen to learn how to kickstart your own carbon-neutral Kickstarter empire.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. We're going to try and keep these consistent -- about every Thursday and even maybe even 2 a week. Today Sam kicks it off by telling some of the most promising technologies he found at CES 2020, meeting some D2C guys and being astounded by their insane growth rates, the 3 bro's shamelessly knocking off US startups and getting rich, how lucrative trade shows/membership programs/courses can be, why compliance education packages could sell for $$$ to large companies & Shaan reflects on his decade goals and talks about what he wants accomplished by 2030.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're back with Season 3, brought you by Microsoft: The latest episode of My First Million, Shaan sits down with Vlad Magdalin (@callmevlad), Co-Founder & CEO of Webflow: a visual tool to build web apps. Vlad shares the several attempts in 6 years to get his no-code brainchild going. Persistence paid off as it quickly got to $20MM in revenue and raised a monster $72M Series A round led by Accel. He talks about the emotional rollercoaster of getting into Y-Combinator, the video that made him quit his high paying job immediately, kickstarter kicking him off their platform and the trick to get investors interested without changing anything.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We've got a different flavor today for you. We sat down with Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) join us today and instead of hearing his backstory, we bounced around a bunch of topics. Scott has done it all. He's been a founder (Behance), angel investor (Uber, Pinterest), VC (Benchmark), Tech Executive (CPO of Adobe currently), and Author (The Messy Middle). So sit back, grab a salad (cause we're healthy in 2020) and enjoy this conversation.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mike Brown is my new hero. He's an ex military man, who came back & built a super lean business (5 employees and 10's of millions in revenue annually) - hired best friends and brothers to share the experience. Mike Brown (@mb_abides) and his gang went on a mission to buy small pieces of real estate from hundreds of families because they were potentially (and quite literally) sitting on a gold mine. They'd then package them up and sell it to the big oil & gas funds - which meant tens of millions of dollars for them. The business part is good - but I love the philosophical and practical advice around optimizing for quality of life. Let me know what you think! [email protected]  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

LifeAid’s Aaron Hinde (@aaronhinde) stopped by to talk “vitamins that you’ll enjoy drinking.” He built a new beverage brand from zero to $100m+ in value, taking on the big boys like Red Bull, Monster etc.. He talks about coming up with the formula, and their distribution strategy thru CrossFit gyms. We also chat about his unique decision to live off the grid: chicken, solar & batteries and more. Got feedback? email us at [email protected]  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This time, it’s live with you guys who came to the Trends meetup last Thursday and answered some of burning questions.They also explore this week powder diets, turnkey instagrammable moments, building products around the distribution & why Facebook groups is the place to be.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Carey Smith sold Big Ass Fans for Big Ass Money. As you can probably tell, he found a way to make ceilings fans sound sexy, but more importantly a sexy business. Find out how this unconventional self-appointed CBA (Chief Big Ass) turned a failed bootstrapped Mom & Pop into a 1,200 person $500M giant. Hear him talk about re-branding his company name to include ‘Ass’ & how that changed his entire business’ trajectory, a random meeting that turned into selling for half a billion dollars, writing $50M worth of checks to his employees after the sale and how the secret to making money isn’t to make money. Like our podcast? Join our Facebook group to share feedback, ideas and advice so we can all make that first million: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Faraz Jaka (@FarazJaka) is a Poker pro who’s made $10M on the felt... What started out as a fun game during his spare time in college turned into big money FAST. Turning a few hundred dollars into $180k in 6 months as a 19 year-old. He was on top of the world appearing in articles, throwing massive parties, flying to Vegas every other weekend and ambitious plans to make millions a year… until it all came crashing down, went into debt and battled depression. Obviously, he rose from the dead and became hugely successful, so join this roller coaster story on My First Million, and also listen to how he uses the “+EV” method for all decision making, why you shouldn’t be results orientated, meditation exercises to overcome stress and tackling depression by confronting your issues like ‘folding a rug’.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. We're hosting a meetup on the 21st November in San Francisco, check out details here: https://bit.ly/354TQ7H. This week these two discuss: the top businesses using Shopify (Check the ranking tool here: https://myip.ms/browse/sites/1/own/376714), millennial apartment plants, science fiction workout bikes, D2C hallucinogenics and businesses that you can start with $1000 this weekend that could turn into a $100M+ revenue biz.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

He's not on a mission to make money, quite the opposite. Xavier Helgesen is a mission driven founder, who uses money to do more good in the world. His first company, Better World Books sells 10 million used books a year that's collected by leftover books at libraries - in and shares revenues with literacy partners (Over $25M given to non-profits). This business lead him to Africa, where he noticed 20,000 people in a village had no electricity - so he decided to change that. He created Zola Electric, the largest solar power company in Africa, providing 1 million people with electricity per day. He talks to us about how he turned his college side hustle into a $70M biz, moving next to his customers in Tanzania, selling electricity to people who never used electricity and how ‘Mutual Improvement Societies’ could help you 10x your life.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This week they talk about creating a Y-Combinator for content production, signals that predicts future unicorns, transferring your work desk into your home, AirBnB for concerts, alternative milk boom and re-positioning existing products. We are holding a Q&A episode next week, send us your questions to: [email protected] you enjoy this and would like a weekly briefing on super in-depth research in these trends, Sam has offered a discount on The Hustle's Trends newsletter, go to https://trends.co/million.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Henrik Werdelin (@werdelin) is your dog's best friend. No really, he sends your dog gifts every month. Millions of dogs around the world love this guy, and that's why his dog treats & toys monthly subscription box business is booming. BarkBox is reported to have made $250 million last year. Damn, I wanna be his best friend too. Listen up as he talks about creating Disney experiences for dogs, meeting his co-founder on a cruise (and shared a heart-shaped bed), hijacking MTV at 2am, having 150+ doggy influencers on payroll, reverse engineering online dating to meet his wife and most importantly, how to set up systems in place to make better life choices. Read more about his 8 + 1 system here: https://bit.ly/2X17GVW.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm is back. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This week they talk about food joints that no one visits and only serves people through delivery, bars that get you semi high, making products from the largest free IP: religion, businesses that eliminate choice, non-alcoholic beverages, profiting off book summaries and fixing dog owner issues.If you enjoy this and would like a weekly briefing on super in-depth research in these trends, Sam has offered a discount on The Hustle's Trends newsletter, go to https://trends.co/million.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I want to buy your business. What's your discretionary earnings? or how about you buy mine, can you get an SBA loan approved? No idea what we're talking about? Don't worry, Joe Valley (@JoeValley2) from Quiet Light Brokerage breaks down exactly the specific concepts and the tactical approach you will need to learn to value, buy and sell online businesses. He's one of the best in the biz so listen up because he knows his sh*t.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The infatuation of Celebrity is something we can all relate to and Steven Galanis (@Mr312) is making sure to take opportunity of that. When was the last time you got a celeb to sign something of yours? Nowadays you'd grab your phone in a heartbeat to snap a pic and share it on the gram or "it didn't happen". Steven built Cameo so you can just pay your favorite celebrity to say (almost) whatever you want. And it's becoming huge. It's a great story that I think you'd love to hear.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This week they shoot the sh*t about the no code movement, reinventing fireworks through drone light shows, creating a brand around miniature things, putting tiny houses in your backyard, the huge business of website plugins and social agencies. If you enjoy this and would like a weekly briefing on super in-depth research in these trends, Sam has offered a discount on The Hustle's Trends newsletter, go to https://trends.co/million.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ever wonder who owns all the internet domains like .com, .co, all the way to goofy domain names like .george and .plumbing? Well it turns out, many of these are owned by billionaires & big companies. Our hero today - Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) created an online auction site (like Ebay, but instead of selling beanie babies, he auctions off internet real estate). He has hosted $100M+ worth of auctions, keeping a 4% cut for himself along the way. Hear how he found this wacky niche, got the auction platform off the ground - and how he went from living on $1/day in India to becoming a self-made millionaire.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents: Million Dollar Brainstorm. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This week they shoot the sh*t about hyper-focused job boards, digital AA meetings, D2C hunting & fishing brands, GaaS (Ghostbusters-as-a-Service), keto ceral, miniature cooking sets, payroll software and a live unboxing of Sam's sperm... If you enjoy this and would like a weekly briefing on super in-depth research in these trends, Sam has offered a discount on The Hustle's Trends newsletter, go to https://trends.co/million.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hustle's My First Million presents a new weekly show: Million Dollar Brainstorm. Host Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and The Hustle CEO Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sit down and discuss what side hustles, trends and big business ideas that's keeping them up at night. This week they shoot the sh*t about some real estate hunting, pets on socks, TRT subscription service, digital museums, voluntary suffering retreats, cord blood banking, sperm freezing and remote enterprise software ideas. If you enjoy this and would like a weekly briefing on super in-depth research in these trends, Sam has offered 50% discount on The Hustle's Trends newsletter, use code "MILLION" while signing up to https://trends.co.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Iman Abuzeid (@ImanAbuzeid) just finished raising $15M for her nurse hiring platform Incredible Health which was led by Silicon Valley's premier venture fund Andreessen Horowitz. Growing up in a family where everyone (literally) were doctors, she naturally followed the same path. Except when she finished medical school and received her MD, she decided not to work as a doctor for even 1 day and went corporate. After being equipped with an MBA and consulting experience, she left to Silicon Valley to make her mark on the world. Listen to hear her story, her "framework" for how to think about your career, why she thinks being in silicon valley is a competitive advantage and how she pivoted her company from a failing startup to one of the most exciting startups of 2019.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Arianna Simpson (@AriannaSimpson) quit her comfortable job at Facebook to take a big bet on Bitcoin. She put over 50% of her net worth into Bitcoin back in 2014, and boy did it pay off. Now she's running a multi-million dollar hedge fund, is a renown speaker, and one of the most respected investors in cryptocurrency.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

John Fiorentino (@johnhfio) wants you to relax. And so far, its' working. He sold over $15 million worth of his product Gravity Blanket and Moon Pod. He talks to us about being broke, crashing on friends couches - to inventing and marketing the most popular blanket since the Snuggie, raising over $5 million on Kickstarter * why he thinks Silicon Valley is wasting too much time talking about tactics rather than focusing on making great products.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brian Scudamore (@BrianScudamore) is North America’s Junk Man. He turned a $700 pickup truck into one of the world's most successful franchises. Hear how he got started, got on Oprah, stumbled and almost killed his business, and the philosophies he uses to run his multimillion dollar junk empire!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Aleks Svetski (@AleksSvetski) wanted to be a millionaire by 20... and he was on that path. He turned his $5K textbook money into more than $50,000 in the stock market! Until the 2008 global financial crisis hit... he didn't just lose all his money, he was negative quarter of a million. This setback ignited his entrepreneurial spirit where he started a door knocking hustle to get out his debt and make that cool million. Again, until the government betrayed his business and he went back to square one becoming a hippie on a sabbatical... and now he's back again with the lessons he's learned with his newfound passion: Bitcoin.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Season 2 of The Hustle's podcast is here - and we're talking to Moiz Ali (@moizali). Have you ever looked at the back of your deodorant stick and read the ingredients? Aluminum zirconium trichlorohydrex? PPG-14 Butyl Ether? Well, Moiz saw that and created Native, a natural deodorant without all the chemical junk. He built the company from his brother's dining table - doing sales, marketing, operations & customer service as a one-man-show. His hard work paid off, as he sold the company for $100M to Proctor & Gamble just 2.5 years after it launched. Listen in to hear the backstory of how he started using just $1k, how the company almost died (twice), and how he negotiated a $100M sale of the business!   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There's a lot of you out there and we (showrunners Shaan Puri - @ShaanVP & Ishan Haque - @IshanHaq) wanna spend some time chatting to you and answer some of your questions about the pod, your hustle and any other random Q's your dying to ask. Should we make this a weekly thing? Let us know your feedback and questions to be answered in next weeks potential episode through messaging us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or even Facebook.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We have on Gelena (@gelenasays) & Keith Wasserman (@Keith_Wasserman), a husband and wife Real Estate duo who borrowed $5k during the end of the 2008 recession and have turned it into a $1.3 billion dollar portfolio. Learn how they create monthly income streams and sometimes double, triple or quadruple their equity from multi-family real estate.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michael Birch sold his social networking site to AOL for $850M....and then bought it back for $1M years later. (buy low, sell high. boys and girls). His business portfolio is impressive. He's an early investor in companies like Calm and Pinterest, owns two giant hotels, and bought a private island off of Richard Branson. Despite all that success, he's a down to earth guy, and in this podcast he talks through his early struggles and failed ideas before he had his billion dollar breakthrough and reminisces his days being head to head with Zuckerberg.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jack Smith (@_jacksmith) is the most clever entrepreneur I know. He’s cofounded multiple startups: Vungle, Coin, Shyp. With Vungle recently selling for $750M. We talk about his early businesses as a kid, selling prank itching powder on the playground - all the way to his infamous “LinkedIn Hack” that got him his first $120k investment check. Got feedback or questions? Email me at [email protected]  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

James Hong (@jhong) is the creator of Hot or Not? He sits down to tell us how the silly website went from 42 friends, to 2 million page views per day within a week. I love his philosophy of running it like an "internet laundromat" - collecting nickels & quarters from the machine (up to $20,000 per night!) Great guy, great energy, checkout the episode. - shaan (@shaanvp on twitter)  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Who knew a product about other products could be worth tens of millions... Ryan Hoover (@rrhoover) tells us the struggle of trying to find a place in the startup world and how to tackle job rejection the right way - becoming his own boss! Truly starting from scratch, he runs us through the scrappy early days of e-mailing people one by one just to gain an extra dozen users... now that's some hustle! Tune into this episode and he'll teach you ways to push that little bit further to making your first million.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) is the founder of The Hustle - a simple email newsletter that has surpassed 1M daily subscribers and will be north of 8 figures this year. Sam walks us through how he built The Hustle from scratch as well as his adventures starting a hot dog stand (7min), selling booze on the internet (13min), meeting celebrities on the street and convincing them to hire him (11min) and how he would get rich if he was 21 again! (33min)  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.