#172 - Indie Businesses Making Millions, Advice to Young Entrepreneurs & How to Grow a Podcast

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) are joined by Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) on the pod today. Harley is the COO of Shopify. In today’s episode you’ll hear: Sam and Harley share a hilarious but effective way to recruit senior employees (0:30), Harley gives his background and how he became the COO at Shopify (2:52), Shaan brings to light some interesting emails from the early investment rounds of Shopify (9:30), Harley shares some of the major things he’s seeing in retail during COVID (19:30), Sam asks Harley which companies he’s seen that can be successful on Shopify (30:00), Harley explains how Cardi-B can build a brand on Shopify (37:55), The guys kick around ideas related to Shopify Apps that don’t exist that should exist (45:30), Harley explains the future of retail as he sees it (53:45). This episode we are partnering with Square! Square makes it easy for your business to accept payment, and so much more! Check out this week's sponsor at square.com/go/hustle! Joined our private FB group yet? It's a page where people share each others million dollar ideas or what they're already working on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

9 Okt 20201h 1min

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) are joined by Austen Allred (@Austen) on the pod today. Austen is the founder of Lambda School (@LambdaSchool). In today’s episode you’ll hear: Austen gives background on Lambda School and explains the challenges and opportunities in the education space (1:05) Shaan asks Austen to explain his rise from sleeping in a car in San Francisco to running Lambda School (14:00), Austen talks about how his Mormon mission prepared him for a life in business (20:28), Austen breaks down how colleges make money off of application fees (28:35), The guys talk about the big business of college entrance exams (36:35) Austen pitches his idea of increasing productivity at companies by reducing the slack from employees (47:20), the guys discuss the pros and cons of employee tracking software in the age of COVID and mass remote work (50:33), Shaan asks Austen to predict ways different “Lambda School’s for X” are going to grow into the future (58:00). Thank you to our sponsor Square! Square makes it easy for your business to accept payment, and so much more! Check out this week's sponsor at square.com/go/hustle! Joined our private FB group yet? It's a page where people share each others million dollar ideas or what they're already working on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

7 Okt 20201h 1min

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) are joined by Kelly Erb (@taxgirl) on the pod today. In today’s episode you’ll hear: Shaan introduces Kelly Erb and she gives her take on President Trump’s tax return (0:20), Shaan asks Kelly “what should business owners look at to minimize their own tax liability (10:30), Kelly gives some key tax points to focus on for business owners and how to think about expenses (16:05), Sam asks Kelly to explain QSBS for the listeners, Sam and Shaan riff on businesses that look big, but are actually operated by one or two people (32:30), Sam talks about what kind of guests he likes on the podcast (40:50), the guys talk about how involved a company should be in a political stand based on a letter from the Coinbase CEO (47:10). Check out this week's sponsor: Ourcrowd. They make it easy to invest in early startups. Go to ourcrowd.com/thehustle to get started. Joined our private FB group yet? It's a page where people share each others million dollar ideas or what they're already working on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

2 Okt 202056min

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) cohost the pod today. In today’s episode you’ll hear: Sam gives an update on his whereabouts (3:00), Sam and Shaan y’all about a new nursing shoe brand started by a former Nike employee (12:40), both guys brainstorm what other industries require standard clothing (18:55), Shaan talks about a podcast listener who sold his newsletter (23:20), Shaan and Sam kick around an idea of an app for a “leak proof” company all-hands meetings (28:05), Sam explains what Jeff Bezos did to create an internal newspaper when he bought the Washington Post (32:40), Shaan talks about using AI to write emails (36:10), Sam demonstrates some incredibly powerful technology from Open.ai and GPT3. - Oil worker marketplace https://www.rigup.com/ - Nursing shoes https://wearebala.com/ - Premium scrubs https://www.wearfigs.com/ - AI email composer https://compose.ai/ - AI video creator https://www.synthesia.io/ Check out this week's sponsor: Ourcrowd. They make it easy to invest in early startups. Go to ourcrowd.com/thehustle to get started. Joined our private FB group yet? It's a page where people share each others million dollar ideas or what they're already working on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

30 Sep 202057min

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) invite Steph Smith (@stephsmithio) on the pod today. Stephen is an employee at The Hustle, world traveler and all around indie-hacker. In today’s episode you’ll hear: Shaan and Sam introduce Steph (0:40), Steph introduces a fresh idea around remote/WFH by tackling all of the needs of someone newly adjusting to WFH life (4:00), the group talked about unorthodox company perks (12:10), Sam and the group brainstorm around “What are the most interesting 1-3 person operations you’ve seen?” (16:30), Steph pitches an idea of becoming the agency for celebrities because most celebrities have terrible web presence (24:00), Steph’s third idea revolves around HIPAA compliant (or other compliance) services and creating first-mover advantages by tracking legislation (30:15), Steph introduces the guys to a reddit tool that allows you to mind map topics on Reddit (36:00), the group talks about the advantages of tracking insider trades (40:30), Sam talks about a company called FION which is building A technology platform that allows you to track and predict where wildfires will start and spread (46:00), Steph talks about hiring gen-zers to build corporate training material (50:00), Companies, people and resources mentioned: - Benefits company: https://www.compt.io/ - Benefits company: https://www.hoppier.com/ - https://twitter.com/chrisjbakke/status/1296107846472364033 - Live music discovery platform: https://www.keyvalues.com/ - Peter Levels @levelsio - Fastest growing Inc 5000 company: https://www.onetrust.com/ - Related subreddit tool: https://anvaka.github.io/sayit/?query= - Nuclear energy girl: https://twitter.com/isaboemeke - Gen Z Mafia https://genzmafia.com/ - https://www.songkick.com/ - Insider trading reporting: https://finviz.com/insidertrading.ashx - Wildfire tracker: fion.tech - Art school game: https://artsqool.cool/ Check out this week's sponsor: Ourcrowd. They make it easy to invest in early startups. Go to ourcrowd.com/thehustle to get started. Joined our private FB group yet? It's a page where people share each others million dollar ideas or what they're already working on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

25 Sep 202059min

(0:46) The guys break down Frank Slootman (Snowflake founder’s) Linkedin post, (7:45) Sam brings up Rocket Internet, a German company that clones mainstream startups in smaller geographic markets. They scale quickly and are formulaic, (8:30) Sam is fascinated by Danny Meyer, founder of Shake Shack among other places, (10:05) Shaan shares his story about the Melman’s and their empire, Lettuce Entertain You, (13:38) The guys discuss Hamdi Ulukaya the founder of Chobani, (17:50) The guy’s talk blue collar businesses, including Waste Management and its founder Wayne Huizenga, (19:30) The story of Rose Blumkin, founder of Nebraska Furniture Mart, (21:11) Shaan talks about his water problem and subscription water companies like ReadyRefresh and Culligan, (27:40) The Uber for evictions: Civvl, (31:26) The student debt market explained, (34:42) B2B vs consumer businesses Check out this week's sponsor: Ourcrowd. They make it easy to invest in early startups. Go to ourcrowd.com/thehustle to get started. Have you joined our private Facebook group yet? Go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion and join thousands of other entrepreneurs and founders scheming up ideas.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

23 Sep 202047min

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) shoot the wind on today’s pod. In today’s episode you’ll hear: Sam asks Shaan what he’s learned about working at a big company and what he can apply to a smaller company (0:30), Shaan asks Sam about a personnel shuffle at The Hustle (9:00), the guys talk about a Kanye West tweet where he wants to create Y-Combinator for music (11:30), Sam and Shaan debate if a great domain name can make you (22:15), Sam and Shaan talk about the Snowflake IPO (29:55), Shaan shares a crazy conversation with a 20-year old multi-millionaire (37:00), the guys share how they learn from beginners and why you should too (43:10), Shaan talks about Bubble Hotels (48:30). Our sponsor today is lemon.io! They are offering a 15% discount for the first 6 weeks of work for all MFM fans. Go to Lemon.io/mfm to claim the offer! Joined our private FB group yet? It's a page where people share each others million dollar ideas or what they're already working on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

18 Sep 202052min

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) is back with Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) on the pod today after a leave of absence from the show. In today’s episode you’ll hear: Shaan and Sam talk about Sam’s medical condition and catch up generally (0:18), Sam asks Shaan for a recap on some of the episodes from while Sam was out and Shaan tells him about Kat Cole and her rise to corporate prominence (21:45), Shaan tells Sam about the show with the Jonathon Barkl from Air Garage (25:10), Shaan and Sam talk about cultural and ethnic food delivery options like SayWeee! (29:30), Sam asks Shaan how his rolling venture fund is going (40:00), Shaan explains what a rolling venture fund is (48:45). Our sponsor today is lemon.io! They are offering a 15% discount for the first 6 weeks of work for all MFM fans. Go to Lemon.io/mfm to claim the offer! Joined our private FB group yet? It's a page where people share each others million dollar ideas or what they're already working on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

16 Sep 202052min