Billy
Michael Loeb: punched-in-the-face, mugshot-having Hamptons incubator king
Sam Parr marvels at Michael Loeb, who sold Synapse to Time/Meredith for ~$800M, co-founded Priceline (one of the fastest billion-dollar fortunes ever), owns the Hamptons mansion used as Bobby Axelrod's house in Billions, was arrested for punching his son's drunk friend, and now runs a Tiny-style incubator (Loeb Enterprises) that built Script Relief to ~$100M/year profit.
“he throws this party or a charity, actually a charity event, and they raised like $350,000 for this event. But one of his sons has a friend over who gets drunk and says something smart to him. So Michael punches him in the face and gets arrested. So he's got this— if you Google Michael Loeb arrested, you'll see his mugshot.”
Framework
The best businesses sit as a profitable layer on top of broken systems
Sam praises GoodRx and Script Relief as great companies because they insert a thin, highly profitable layer on top of the existing healthcare middleman mess and deliver obvious value, cutting bills from $2,000 to ~$100.
“these are amazing companies because it truly provides value to the person using it. You know, like, my bill went from $2,000 at the pharmacy to like $100, right? And it's so profitable. So it's an awesome company.”
Steal thisLook for bloated, middleman-heavy systems and build a thin software layer that delivers obvious savings to the end user.
Idea
Script Relief: get paid by pharmacies for sending them coupon traffic
Sam describes Michael Loeb's Script Relief: a site where users grab discount codes for pharmaceutical drugs and redeem them at pharmacies like CVS, with the business paid for driving that pharmacy business.
“But basically what you do is you go to the website and you can get discounts off of your pharmaceutical drugs. And so like if you want to buy, if you have Xanax or some type of acne medicine or something like that, somehow they get access to these Deals, and you use that coupon code at CVS and you get a discount, and it's paid for sending CVS business.”
Steal thisAggregate consumer demand for a discount, then charge the merchant for the traffic you route to them.
Billy
Michael Loeb: Priceline co-founder who punched a kid and owns Axelrod's house
Sam's Billy of the Week is Michael Loeb, who built Synapse Group, co-founded Priceline, and runs a web of incubated companies (one, Script Relief, made ~$100M/year in profit). He owns the mansion used as Bobby Axelrod's house in Billions and broke a teenager's nose at a party.
“And a business like Script Relief was making something like $100 million a year in profit. Um, and so some of his companies are really big. Now here's another reason why he's interesting. Do you ever watch that TV show Billions? Yep, love it. You know the house that Bobby Axelrod bought? Okay, yes, that's his house. That's Michael Loeb's house.”