How FTX Scaled A $30 Billion Company With Only 30 Engineers!
I read something very interesting that FTX as a, you know, $30 billion company only has, um, like 200 employees or something like that. And I believe you, the, you know, for the first year the product was built by just 2 engineers and even now you only have sub 20, sub 30 engineers. A, is that true? And B, what the hell is going on? Like, do you, is FTX, he, he's like, Either he's like, I can only think of one of two things. Either FTX is simply like, you have a unique set of problems so you can do, you can operate your business differently, or the rest of us are doing this completely wrong. Which is it? And, um, and he goes, the latter. What up, birthday boy?
Thank you.
What's going on? How's it going?
Uh, it's going okay.
I, um, I was gonna sing to you.
You FaceTimed me?
I FaceTimed you earlier.
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't even get the notification. I was, uh, I had personalized—
but, uh, you did miss out on what would have been a good serenade. Actually, can I tell you a funny story about that?
Wait, was your kids there?
No, it was just me and Ben.
Um, oh man, what a bummer. I'd rather see your kids though. I've got baby fever.
Oh, nice. Yeah. Well, actually my son was there, but you know, before the age of like 2, they're kind of just like an inanimate object that you just carry around.
I was, uh, I was working out and when I work out, I put my phone on like focus mode or whatever. So I'm sorry, but thank you.
Swole mode. So, uh, how old are you now?
33.
33. Okay. You're getting up there too. All right. I like it. Uh, so you're, I think a year younger than me. We, um, I was at a birthday party, uh, like 2 weekends ago. Uh, had to leave the house. It was crazy. And, um, we get there and this guy did this thing that I saw and I was like, oh, what an amazing little life hack. He basically had, so it's like some kid's birthday party. They sing happy birthday. It's time to blow out the candles and cut the cake. And the guy grabs the mic and he's like, hold on, hold on. We got a special birthday song for you. And this guy, apparently, because my wife knows him, she's like, oh my God, he's doing it. He always does this. And it's like, he has his own version of happy birthday that he sings, but it's not like a singing thing. It's more like, um, like he's Indian. So it's kind of got like an Indian vibe to it, but let's just pretend it's sort of like when I say happy, you say birthday happy. And everyone else is like, birthday, happy birthday.
He's like, he's like, I always love all those.
Of course, it's like, you know, there's something in my body that just, I can't help but become like, you know, the, the, the follow the leader during that moment. And he'll be like, you know, who's the birthday boy? Sam, Sam, Sam. Right. And it's like, it'll make you feel good. And then, um, and I was like, what a life hack to just be the life of the party is to simply have a cool version of happy birthday that you can do. Uh, that's amazing. That's like having a joke that just always kills.
So listen to this. I've got this friend named, and, and just Jonathan, we'll get, we'll get to the Samir thing in a second, but I have this friend named Nick Gray. Uh, Sean, do you know who Nick Gray is?
I know of him. I don't know. I don't think I've ever met him, but I've seen his like, uh, his like website and like you've told me about him and, uh, he looks like he's like an entrepreneur, but he kind of looks a little bit slick. I don't know who he is.
So I, I call him grown-up Dennis the Menace because he looks like a 40-year-old Dennis the Menace. Like if you think of like what Dennis the Menace would look like when he's 40, that's like Dick, he had a company called, uh, he had one business that was like, it worked as the aviation industry, sold it. Then he started this thing called Museum Hack, which was like, you pay like $25 or something like that. Um, and you get a group museum tour, like a private museum tour or whatever. He sold it. And then he loves hosting parties so much that I believe he used Scribed like you did. And he wrote a book on how to host the perfect 2-hour evening party. And this guy, yes, I'll, I'll, I'll try to find the, the title.
Have you read it?
I haven't yet. It just came out like 2 days ago and he just sent me a copy. It's called the, here, I'll find it. But it, uh, it's like, uh, it's like how to host the perfect cocktail party. And this guy, whenever he hosts parties, he brings name tags to all of, every time you're with him, he has a name tag. A kite, a Frisbee, and a blanket. I'm telling you, this guy's like a 12-year-old. That's why I call him grown-up Dennis the Menace. Because he just like, he's like, these are the best things to bring to like a park party. And, uh, they just, it just works. And so he brings this to like all of his parties and it's hilarious.
I bring the rule book to the game Red Rover and it's a great icebreaker to play the game Red Rover. It's been working since preschool.
And he brings like a harmonica and when he goes, He'll like play the harmonica and he goes, all right, everyone come to the circle. And he like does these icebreakers. It's hilarious. So the book is called, uh, The Two Hour Cocktail Party. And it's just a book on hosting a two-hour cocktail party. He's been working on it for like two years. So I give him a shout out, but I actually wasn't— I'm only bringing this up because we were talking about hosting the perfect party and everything. It's hilarious. And he's— and it's like, might actually become like a brand around host— it's like, you know, like Maria Kondo made like putting your clothes away into like a Martha Stewart-styled business. That's what this guy might be doing for like a cocktail party.
Oh wow. Okay. So I have 3 instant reactions to this. Number 1, what a great idea. What a great idea. You think so? Because when you first said it, I laughed, which to me already means this is kind of remarkable as a product, meaning you had to remark on it. It was worth telling. So that's already like a good thing. The second thing is it's actually a real problem. Like nobody teaches you how to do things in life that are life stuff. And so if you can hone in on a piece of life stuff, like, you know, the classic example is like, you know, the book The Game, which is like, you know, about how to like pick up women. Like how do you approach a stranger that you're interested in? And like, you know, can you get a date? And like we all laugh and say, oh man, that's so, uh, you know, people will sort of point at it, be like, you know, the sort of a loser thing. Right. In reality, bestselling book. It was one of the best books I've ever read. Um, and like really helped a lot of people who just like don't know how to navigate this social situation that they get put in.
Yeah, I, dude, I think it's awesome. Yeah. So by the way, look at the link I sent you. I sent the link in Riverside and I didn't realize this, but look at the reviews. The reviews are all of our friends. So it's Nick Huber. It's Kat from Best Self. It's Ben, the guy who, uh, I think he started, uh, What's that group?
Sarah. And then David, your wife, is she on there?
It says she might be her.
Yeah, it could be her. And then David Perel's on there. They're all like the— isn't that hilarious? They're all like their reviewers or whatever. Uh, I don't know. Yeah, I agree, it's a pretty, pretty funny niche to own.
So my first thought is, it's actually— what a great idea helping people know how to host a party, just like fun in a box. It's like, look, you don't have to be creative and you don't have to have experience doing this. Like, I will help you know the like 3 or 4 things that will make you look awesome when you do this. I think that's kind of great. Second reaction: what a terrible idea. Why is this a book? Why isn't this a Twitter thread? Like, if there's ever a thing which is like, this book could have been an email, like, this book could have been an email, I guarantee it. So that's my second reaction to this. It's just like, I love the idea of creating a brand and content on this topic. A book? Wow. Overkill. Like, it's a book takes more than 2 hours to read. Uh, like, you know, like the book shouldn't be longer than the full party would be in this case.
I, I kind of agree with you, but I think you have to forget that most people don't have charisma. And although I think I definitely have like a little social anxiety, I think you do too. Like, I don't like leaving my house that often and I don't want to like talk to like strangers that often, but like I could, like I can turn it on and be like, all right, fine. I'm in that mode. Uh, I think most people, like all of our like nerdy ass friends, I just don't think they just like stand around like, what do I do with my hands? Like they don't know like where to hold their hands. They don't know anything.
That's amazing. Actually, dude, I still remember. So I've been to a bunch of like startup events. I was in this accelerator called the Mass Challenge back in the day. It's like a Boston-based like startup accelerator. I don't even know how I ended up there. And I've heard, I would say at this point in my life, I've heard at least 500 in-person, like talks to entrepreneurs. Okay. 500. If you wanna know what's the most memorable one, it was this guy, this old school guy who came, he was probably in his late 60s. And he's like, he did two things. The first one was, he goes, all right. Um, You guys are all entrepreneurs. Somebody stand up and pitch me your business. Tell me what your business does. And somebody would stand up, they'd be like, hey, we, uh, I'll go, I'll go, right? It's like a bravery contest. I'll go. A thousand hands go up. Cause it's entrepreneurs. You gotta, you gotta be the one who's like courageous. So everybody raise their hand. Pick the first guy. I'm Sam. I hope, uh, you know, I'm CEO of The Hustle. We're a media company for millennials who love to learn about business. He, he just, no, you're not. Actually, I forgot the very first thing. The, the best part of the whole thing is he started the talk from the back of the room. And he was like, he's like, alright everybody. And everybody's looking at the stage, all the chairs face one way, right? And he's like, I'm back here. Entrepreneurship, you gotta adjust. That was the first. It's like, you know, dodgeball.
Yeah. Yeah.
Dodge.
You wanna dodgeball?
You gotta find a wrench. So this guy was like that guy and he's like, I'm in the back of the room. What are you gonna do? And he's like, he's like, all of a sudden you gotta adjust, turn your seat around. Are you stuck to the ways that, that society works or are you just gonna do what makes sense? And so that's how he started. Then he goes and he's like, pitch your business. And if, if you just said like, I'm Sean, um, you know, we're the Milk Road. We, uh, you know, we, we are a, uh, a Web3-focused, um, newsletter that does— no, he would just cut you off. But he wouldn't tell you what you're doing wrong. And his process of elimination, everyone just trying one thing. And then finally some guy said it right. He goes, we're Smart Shade. Um, you know when you're in a room and it's too bright through the window? We help you, uh, make sure that you have a shade on there that doesn't make your room look ugly. And the guy was like, yes, that's exactly right. You explained the situation and you used the keyword help. Your business exists to help someone do something, help someone get some outcome, some benefit. He's like, all of you guys think you're entrepreneurs and you couldn't tell me who you're helping do what. And then we were all like, oh, we're like reeling. And then he transitioned into, he goes, Put up a diagram of a, of a, of a meeting room of a bunch of 6-chair table or like an 8-chair table. He goes, biggest meeting of your life. Where do you sit? Hey, Smart Chain guy, where do you sit? Like, ah, I don't know. The chairs had numbers on them and you're like, 3? And he's like, no. He's like, you sit in chair 2. It's the corner of the table. So you're not the head of the table, but you're the corner of the table. You have like, you know, sort of like 80% of the visibility as the head of the table., but you now have both angles. You're kind of at the wide angle where people can see you and talk to you. And then he showed another diagram of like another, a round table. When you sit at a round table, if this is the door, where do you go sit? Uh, then he's like, you have 5 minutes before the meet, uh, your meeting is about to start in 10 minutes. Not everybody's there. You have 10 minutes to talk to the number 2 person. What do you say? And he was like giving these like real world social and business situations.
Where do you sit in a round?
I don't remember that one. It was like, you know, you go to the other— you basically go like, I don't know, it's like you don't have your back to the door. You kind of have a side-facing thing to the door. You don't want to be directly facing the door because then you're like a little child sitting in your seat waiting for the teacher to come around. Like, you know, you do that. And like in your small talk thing, he's like, do you talk about the weather and sports? No. He's like, you've done already 8 hours of research on this person. You already know A, B, C, D, E, and you are going to bring up this topic. And so this guy was like so opinionated, so crazy. But I remember it because he was answering things that I felt like nobody had instructed me how to do. And it was the, where do I, what do I do with my hands while I talk problem, which is like, I definitely run into these situations and I've received zero guidance in my life on what I'm supposed to do. And if you have like the solution in a box, I'll take it.
That's interesting. Well, Nick's gonna freaking love that because, uh, you know, like cocktails parties is such a niche thing, but I, I, I'll probably do well. He's pretty successful. Um, so we want to talk about Colin Samir, Jonathan. So Colin Samir, that episode went live.
So we have, it's Sean and me and Ben typically, and Jonathan most of the time is actually on air I actually don't know, Jonathan, why you're on air, like why you're here. But I know what you do as a job. You grow the podcast, but I don't know, like, why do you actually need to be sitting here? Why do you sit here?
One, because this is fun. And two, this is the only time I can get like face time with y'all to talk about these types of things. So it's like my only time I can actually carve out time on y'all's calendar.
Our calendar. We are the issue.
Yeah, I mean, come on. He slacks us. He asks us to do stuff and we just never respond. Like, yeah, it makes perfect sense. It's like, you know, oh, why did you open the sushi restaurant? Because like, because I knew you love sushi and I just needed to get your approval on these 3 things. It's like, damn, we're that much of an asshole. Sorry.
I apologize that we are not very responsive in general.
And so you came on and you said, you said, hey, talk about the Colin Samir thing because A, it was interesting. And what was the B?
Um, I think there's just like some good takeaways that we should probably implement into our YouTube strategy, YouTube and the podcast as well. Um, but first of all, I've hosted a Nick Gray party and it was awesome. And like, like you just described, Sean, like there's so much nuance to, you know, like hosting a good meeting and like where you sit and how the experience is for everyone else. And so you kind of do need a book to like piece all that together. Chapter 1, here's the pre. You know, party stuff and all that, but yeah, email templates and all that stuff are kind of necessary and all that.
Wait, wait, hold on. You said you hosted a Nick Gray party. What does that mean? You, you did his method or you attended a party?
Dude, he's like famous in Austin.
He, he did like a beta launch for his book. And so a few people, myself included, hosted one of like the beta parties.
Wow. Wow.
Whoa.
That is, you're blowing my mind right now. Hold on. Wow. Holy shit, dude. He's like famous in Austin.
That's hilarious. Which by the way, we got to give him a proper shout out. So it's Nick Gray, G-R-A-Y. I believe his website is nickgray.net. So if you want to go learn, but whatever, go ahead.
So you were like a pilot for this thing. First of all, how much of a frigging early adopter are you that you like knew about a book that's not even written yet? And you were like, I'll be one of your test cases to test your, your party thing. Okay. Wait, well, give us the rundown. Give me like one or two of the golden nuggets. That like you wouldn't otherwise have done at a party that Nick kind of like helped you try out?
Yeah. Well, so Nick, everyone just kind of knows Nick in Austin if you're kind of running in the same circles. And so I went to another guy who hosted a Nick Gray party and I was like, this is awesome. And so, and I knew the guy, so I was like, let's co-host the next one. And we had it at my house. I got like a backyard and everything. Um, and so the takeaways were—
I bought a house. Uh, I got ready for this.
Yeah, we got pizza and it was just— it reminded me of kind of like a prom party just to begin with. But the pieces that were kind of crucial are the one, like the icebreakers. So like you start the night with like, you know, everyone's getting their drinks and getting comfortable and stuff like that. And then you blow the harmonica or whatever you're like, you play, you strap the banjo or whatever it is, you strum the banjo and you get everyone's attention and be like, hey, we're doing icebreakers, say your name. And then like the fun fact would be like, What was the first thing you did for money? And so it's kind of gets people like, you know, to get a little bit deeper and then that can lead into the next conversation and so on and so forth. So there's like 2 or 3 of those throughout the night. And then, you know, it's just like the email before, the email after, and like how you nurture those people, I guess, and like actually, you know, connect them and all the little things like that. But I feel like there's like a bunch of little hacks, like—
Like emailing is part of this template. I didn't even think about an email as part of the experience.
Dude, he's got a whole shtick about it. And the funny thing about Nick is he's like, he's very flamboyant. Like, he's like gregarious, but he's like loud. And a lot of people think that he's gay. And he gets more girls than anyone I've ever met. And it's mostly because of this party, this party stuff. He like, he like dates so many, like, well, I won't say that. I'll say girls love him. Women love this guy.
And, uh, it's partially because It's called Straight Up Gay: How to Be a Straight Man and Use Gay— Being Gay to Your Advantage or whatever his next social hack that he's got.
He kills it. Like when he kills it, this guy's very interesting.
That's another huge thing about this is like when you become the connector, when you're hosting these parties like once a month or once a quarter, like that's really valuable when you're able to like kind of be that person. They're like, oh, I'm gonna reach out to Jonathan because he knows X, Y, and Z. Or whatever. So that's like kind of what you did in San Francisco. I feel like with the hustle meetups, right?
Yeah. And it is a hack. It totally works. And Sean did the same thing because we hosted like all of our events at his house, like at his office. So he was like, by proxy was like the man, dude.
So I know we probably have other things to talk about, but I'm so mind blown by this and I just have so much more that I need to know. Okay. So, uh, give me, okay. So give me something that is You wouldn't, um, expect it, right? Like, let's say, uh, maybe like, I don't know. Okay. Like email kind of counts. The harmonica is a great example of this. Like have a little instrument that will help get people's attention and like, you know, just kind of like lightens the mood a little bit by just hearing this, like, you know, great sound. Give me another one.
Let me give one, Jonathan. He hosted a party one time called a petting zoo party and he hired like a mobile petting zoo for like $400 or I don't even know what it was, but it wasn't like a big deal. And it like was the most fun at a party. I just sat around and petted like rabbits and like guinea pigs and it was awesome. So he like does themes, like then he'll have a dinosaur theme where you wear like dinosaur-themed clothing, which I don't know what that means, but what else, Jonathan? What else does he do?
Again, I've only been to like one or two, but it's, if it's not that, like you really don't need to put a theme around it if you're just doing something super simple like I did, but like you want to make it a little more memorable, like, yeah, I feel like he's done like, he just did a paddleboard thing where like everyone went out to Lake Austin and were on their paddleboards and like did a whole thing there.
And he had a thing where he gave numbers, like he gave whiteboards to 3 different people and he says, we're having a diving contest. So the best, the person who does the best cannonball off of their paddleboard. And he goes, the contestants are, and he had already planned, he goes, they're this person, this person and this person. You guys get up front and do your cannonball and we're all going to, and these 3 judges are going to give you a review. The second or third thing that he does is he has a very specific end time to the party. So he goes, come on over, the party's going to end at 8 o'clock. And at 8 o'clock he goes, all right everyone, thank you for coming. The party's over. You don't got to get— you don't got to go home, but you got to get out of here. And he's like, parties need an end. Otherwise they drag on for too long and people don't want to go anymore. And so he always has an ending to his parties, which is actually pretty great because I go because I'm like, I don't got to sneak out. Like it's going to end at a very particular time.
Well, so 2-hour cocktail party. Dude, we— okay, I don't know if we're Oprah, but I feel like we just sold the shit out of this book. Like, you know, this guy is going to get a lot of sales from this, from this, this plug because this was incredible. But honestly, I'm genuinely interested in this topic. You know, I had heard something once, like Charity: Water is kind of known for their events and they raise a ton of money for charity. And like most charity events are kind of the same old stale, like dinner gala. You sort of go, it's sort of a drag. And Charity: Water's events, you feel like you're, you know, You feel like you're at some like Hollywood party basically. And it's not because they spend more money. It's like they're just more creative with like the way that they, they like create memorable things. And so, and every year they top themselves, which is like this impossible standard. It's like last year the Super Bowl halftime show was this, this year it's gotta be even bigger. That's how they treat their annual events. And they raise like, I don't know, $75 million in a night doing that. And that funds clean water for a lot of people. And I remember asking Scott, I go, Well, so what's like, how do you think about these events? Like, how do you, everybody always raves about these. I've never been to one. What is the secret sauce? Like, well, how do you guys think about this? And he goes, oh, that's my wife, uh, Victoria. That's, that's her, her thing. He goes, she has this phrase, which is, um, it's about the moments in between the moments. Like it's the moments between the moments that matter. And so it's like everybody thinks of when they plan their event, okay, for dinner, we're going to do this. And then for the dancing, we're going to do this. But they don't think about the like 20-minute period right before dinner when it's like getting set up or served and like the 5-minute walk between this place to this place or whatever. And if you do something there, people feel like, wow, I'm having a like a 10 out of 10 experience because they thought of everything. Like they thought of, like, I know for Charity: Water, it was like they really thought about like the walk between, um, like where the cocktail hour was and the dinner.. And they were like, okay, yeah, you could just traverse through this hallway, but what can we do in the hallway that will send the message? And they basically created, I don't know, a visual light show of, I don't know, a woman in Africa, a real woman. She starts when you start and she's carrying these 60-pound gallons of water. And there's one on the— you see her carrying it and then 15 steps in, there's one sitting on the ground that you could pick up and you could try carrying. And then by the end of it, you've had like, it's It's like, dang, that was heavy and that was hard. And I only walked 54 steps. She does that for 3 hours a day just to get clean water for her family. And you're like, are you likely to donate by the end of that?
Yeah.
Right. That's like, but they just use the hallway as this, by the way, I made up this exact example because I didn't go to the event, but like, that was a really good example.
That was great.
Yeah. I had to put the disclaimer because I was like, damn, I just made up a really vivid ass lie. About what they did at their event. And like, Scott's big on integrity. So let me be clear, that's not exactly what happened. That's what I kind of remember from him telling me while we were drunk 6 years ago, and he was telling me like what he did. Um, so, so yeah, but the moments between the moments is just a good, uh, like phrase to remember when you're gonna host an event. I might write my own book. Fuck you, Nick Gray.
All right, let's talk about Colin and Samir. So these These guys came on, they're like these YouTube— I don't exactly know how you describe them, but they're popular on YouTube and, uh, people seem to like it in the comments. You know, my takeaway was, Sean, do you think being a YouTuber is a good life or not? I can't decide actually.
I think it's a good life the way they did it. So the, the daily vlogger style, I think is a, is a tough one. And I think the, uh, like gaming streamer who's going to sit in their chair and play video games for 7 hours a day, every day. Is not a good, not a good path. Nor is the MrBeast, like, I have to up my pranks or my stunts. Like, I got to come up with a new miracle every month or I lose relevance. That to me is like stressful. And to be fair, that's like 75% of YouTube success is like daily vlogging, stunts and pranks, or like gaming. So, you know, if you're not that, good for you. Colin and Samir, for example, not in that. They're an interview show. That's like paced out well. They do, you know, like whatever, 1 or 2 a week or something like that. It's not as treadmill-y as other content things.
What I'm learning about through them, what we need to do and what more people should do. That woman, Rebecca, uh, I keep calling her like that woman. Rebecca texted us and she was like, our friend Rebecca, our friend Rebecca. Sorry, Rebecca. Uh, she, uh, told us that this guy she worked with, I won't say the name, went from 0 to 8 Was it 8 million subscribers in 8 months or was it like 3 million in 8? I forget the number, but I think it was 8 million. What was the number? In how many months? 12 months?
Like a year. A year. Yeah.
Yeah, I, I, I do. I actually watch YouTube Shorts, but the thing is the, once I've worked inside a tech company, I was like, oh, I get it. Like I'm YouTube. The biggest threat to my company is TikTok. Every day, like, you know, somebody, there's like every, every quarterly offsite we're hearing about the latest TikTok numbers. Wow. Their growth is crazy. Wow. They're blowing us away. Wow. The stars are going there. You know, like TikTok is your like kind of like main priority if you're one of these big social media companies right now. Um, beyond like, you know, your core business. Like if you're gonna think about growth, you're gonna think about TikTok. And so you release a competitive product, Shorts, and you announce it to the world and you put your best people on it and like you can't let that feature fail right away. And so you like, you gotta pump the engagement. How do you do that? You're like, all right, you know, engagement was a 10 out of, you know, a 10 out of 100. Okay. Uh, if we put it at the top of every time you open the app, it jumps to a 40. Okay, now we're also gonna add it every 3 scrolls. We're gonna add another little Shorts banner. Oh, also we're gonna like, you know, make it one of our, we're gonna change our recommendation engine to just recommend a Short after a long video. And so you, you're gonna try to game the system to give yourself the best shot at that feature becoming successful. And so at least in the short term, if you're a creator, you say, oh, their priority is pushing, like, you know, oh, Instagram's priority was pushing Stories and then Reels. I'm gonna make great reels and stories because that's what they're pushing right now. That's what the algorithm wants to— they're gonna, they're gonna favor that in the UI and the algorithm. And so, um, I'm gonna get faster growth because I'm sort of like piggybacking off of their priorities.
And I think that's actually a really good strategy for like, if you and I or, uh, My First Million wanted to get popular on YouTube, is just like exploit the ego of the social media platform. Like it totally works. Just, just give them exactly what they want. And not always, but sometimes they'll give you exactly what you want, which is, you know, more followers.
But are we going to do it? Maybe. It's clearly a good idea that we may or may not execute on. Just by the way, hilarious, hilarious thing that I saw. So, uh, there was like some page that's like, uh, you know, like these meme pages on Instagram that get like a bunch of followers. So it's like, I had like Friday Beers, I think is the one it was.
It's like Friday Beer. I follow so many of them.
Yeah, they're great. They're very humorous. They post great memes, whatever. So they did a collab with something called like, it was the word entrepreneur, but it was spelled like super whack. Cause like, you know, the word entrepreneur is like kind of a whack word in general. So it was like antra, antrini pur, and like that was like the name of the account or something like that. And I went, I clicked on it and the bio cracked me up so hard. It was like, cultivating that trillionaire mindset, that multi-trillionaire mindset. And then the next line was, uh, mindset is grindset. Hashtag grindset. I just thought it was so funny. And so I have decided that on this podcast, our new intro is gonna be about cultivating that multi-trillionaire mindset. Hashtag grindset. And I'm gonna start every single podcast by saying that. And somebody who doesn't know what I'm talking about, they're gonna be so turned off. But the people who listen to this podcast are gonna know. That that is the funniest thing ever, because it is.
Um, I love that.
That's—
they always also say, they always also say, uh, read that again. Like they'll do the post and then all the copy and then it's like, read that again.
Yeah. All right guys, that's the show. Listen to that again. Go back. You know what you got to do now. Rewind for the two-time, double-time, get double, get triple, trillion mindset, hashtag grindset. Go back and listen again.
What was that phrase?
Read their latest post says—
read that again.
Their latest post says, you keep your money in the bank, I keep my fish in the tank. Think about it. Yeah, I think Keanu Reeves—
like, you know, we named this My First Million, and the reason we get flack for that, and reason we give ourselves grief for that is cuz My First Million is in the middle. It's like neither, um, it's not like trying to be humble and like, um, you know, thoughtful about life. It's like, no, you wanna make a million dollars, but it's only a million. When you say we're, you know, we're all about that trillionaire lifestyle, you, you all of a sudden you, it's like, hey, we are not trying to be that guy who's trying to sell you a dream of making a billion dollars. And so I think I realized the mistake in the name. The name should not have been Million. Uh, the whole brand should have been about—
should have been My First Trillion mindset. It should have been My First Trillion.
We're a community, we're a community of future multi-trillionaires, uh, who gather around, you know, to trade stories.
Our software is the worst.
See, most CRMs are a cobbled-together mess, but HubSpot is easy to adopt and actually Actually looks gorgeous.
I think I love our new CRM.
Our software is the best. HubSpot. Grow better. Where do you want to go from here? Did you have anything on, did you have, do you have topics? I've got one or two. Do you have any?
I have a couple.
Uh, what do you have?
I have a couple. I have a couple good ones. Okay. So, uh, what do you want to do? You want to do, okay, I'll, I'll give you 3 options. A really interesting, uh, thing I heard that I, I want to get your opinion on, like a, like a thing about how a company we, uh, big famous company runs their company that I thought was kind of mind-blowing. Number 2 is an idea that I don't really even understand as I don't know what the hell they're doing, but maybe it's cool. And then, um, the third is, uh, you know, random business idea, which, which one would you like to go, go through?
Number 1.
Number 1. Okay. So the interesting, okay. So we, uh, so the Milk Road, our main sponsor right now is FTX. And I don't know if you like, do you know what FTX is?
Dude, in my— on my topics, I have a thing about how they run their company and how it's weird. Go ahead.
Yeah.
Okay.
So it's probably the same thing then. Is it about how many employees they have and how many engineers they have? Yes.
Look at the doc. I have the exact same topic. Go ahead.
Okay. So, so it recently— so we, we were like, as part of the sponsorship, it's like, okay, we tell people, you know, hey, FTX is a great trading platform, blah, blah, blah. And in addition, we were like, hey, we want to do a deep dive on you guys. And I was like, but here's the thing, you don't get to tell us what to write about. I'm gonna like, I'm gonna talk to your head of strategy. I'm gonna talk to whoever and, um, whatever's the most interesting thing to me, that's what we're gonna do the deep dive on. And so I ended up doing it on, um, like the, the, like kind of like the 7 like growth hacking strategies that they used to grow. Cuz they went from zero to a $30 billion company in like 3 years. And so I thought that was kind of amazing. I wrote the whole thing. Yeah, obviously. And then I discovered, I discovered something even more amazing, which is that they built the whole, they, they built like for the first year or something, they had 2 engineers. And even now to this day, they have like, I think 25 to 30, uh, software engineers.
It's amazing. And I think, and I think they only have 250 people.
Yeah, exactly. And so he did this, um, he went, uh, this, the guy Sam Bankman-Fried, he did this talk at the Sohn Conference. And so Sohn, I don't know if people know, it's spelled S-O-H-N. It's like this big kind of like economic, uh, annual conference or whatever.
And what happens is the big shot, like, uh, Sam, Sam Bankman-Fried is the 29-year-old, like, $20 or $30 billion founder. Well, he was before the crash, but like, yeah, billionaire guy. Uh, and he started this Coinbase competitor, which is called FTX after he got rich in Bitcoin.
Yeah, exactly. It's a platform for people to trade crypto and now stocks and other things. But basically he, he talks there. And if you've ever watched these, I don't know, have you ever watched other SOUND conference talks? They're very interesting to go, go back and look at because You get the, it's the, it's like a TED Talk for, it's TED, but just for like, um, invest investors, uh, just for like finance and Wall Street people. So like Bill Ackman will go on there and you could look at his old videos. By the way, if you go watch these, so here's what, here's my journey. I'm like, Bill Ackman, man, this guy's really smart. And our buddy Andrew Wilkinson loves Bill Ackman, says he's the best. And, um, and I go back and I go look for old YouTube videos of Bill Ackman. I see his Sohn conference talk and it's like, I don't know, 10 years ago. And he goes on and he talks about, um, what's the name of the— it's like the Howard Hughes Company. There's like, it's like a home builder, uh, tool, like tool bit or something.
Yeah. I know you're talking about.
No, I think it's, I think it's called the Howard Hughes Company. It's basically like whatever that guy, famous guy Howard Hughes or whatever. And he's got this company, they build homes and he'll give a talk. And so what you do is you go give a talk about like a thesis that you are really bullish on and basically like a big bet you're making. Or you've already made basically, and you go pitch your case for that bet. And this kind of has like twofold effects. One, if you're in the audience, you get ideas on investments, like, you know, why this person is so bullish on this thing. It's, it's interesting to hear their case too. It's only like the who's who that talk like it's like the top, top guys, and they go and talk at this thing. And then the third thing is that like you, for the speaker, they get to kind of like build their brand, but they also get to pump their bag. So like they've already made this bet. Then they go talk here, that gets a bunch of attention, a bunch of other people are going to invest in it, and it may cause the price to go up, which is like a good thing for them. So they're helping propagate the narrative that helps their, their case. So anyways, you go hear him talking, by the end of the 40 minutes you're like, there has never been a better investment on earth than the Howard Hughes Company, right? Like, you're like so convinced because these guys are very convincing and they have a great track record. So you're like, wow, whatever. Now if you actually go look at the results, it's like, I remember Chamath went and spoke and he talked about how Box like Box.com is like, like of all the tech companies, I, we have identified one winner that is gonna benefit the most from this cloud movement and AI/ML and it's Box. And you go look at the stock chart for Box since that day, uh, it's like down into the right, you know what I mean? It's like, uh, it has not done well. Uh, but they, they put together very convincing cases and of course occasionally they're, they're, they're correct. So anyways, at this year's SOWN, there was a really interesting talk, which was Sam Bankman-Fried talks to I think Patrick or John Collison. What the— Patrick Collison, it's, uh, one of the brothers who started Stripe. Redhead or whatever. Uh, the redhead one, I think. Are they not Patrick?
No, Patrick.
He's— yeah, but they both actually did interviews. One interviewed Stanley Druckenmiller. Awesome interview.
Go watch. That was the other brother.
The other one interviewed Sam Bankman-Fried. And first of all, the one thing that stood out is kind of like, um, when you watch these guys do an interview, it's basically like, what if you had like a world-class brain become a podcaster for like, you know, like, like I'm talking world-class. Like these guys are some of the smartest, most well-read, best executors, most like most well-connected people on the planet. Or they see everything they did. They were millionaires at like, I don't know, 7. They built cool shit at 17 that like they sold for $1 million or whatever. There's now they built like a $100 billion company and they're like the best of the best. Like they're the best YC founders and YC is the best group of founders, right? So they're amazing. And you hear them give an interview, they hear their talks and how they frame questions. That alone is like worth the price of admission just to see that. But then they ask questions and they're— and so he asked a question to Sam Bankman-Fried. He goes, I read something very interesting that FTX as a, you know, $30 billion company only has like 200 employees or something like that. And I believe you, the, you know, for the first year the product was built by just 2 engineers. And even now you only have sub 20, sub 30 engineers. A, is that true? And B, what the hell is going on? Like, do you, is FTX, he, he's like, either he's like, I can only think of one of 2 things. Either FTX is simply like, you have a unique set of problems so you can do, you can operate your business differently, or the rest of us are doing this completely wrong. Which is it? And, um, and he goes, the latter.
Um, that's a really good way to frame a question.
Exactly. And so he goes, uh, he goes, I, he laughed. He's like, I think it's the latter. And he goes, you know, um, we, he's like, I, more I looked at tech companies, I looked at, you know, Facebook, Google, you know, successful tech companies. I, I think, I don't know for sure. I can't say like, you know, I don't know their exact business, but From what I can gather, uh, they, they employ an order of magnitude more people than they need to, you know? And then he's like, how many, he's like, how many people do you think Facebook would have optimally? Uh, and he's like, you know, he's like, he's like, I don't know if let's say they have 50,000 employees. Um, you know, that's somewhere between, you know, like, um, 5 to 30 times too many. And like, and so, uh, you know, it's kind of shocking to hear this and it's something I liked it cuz I've believed this for a long time, which is that you, um, like most tech companies are completely overhired. And I've told this story before, which is that when I interviewed at Twitch for our acquisition, uh, they did the, you know, the part of the interview is they get at the end of the interview, they, you know, hey, do you have any questions for us? And this was my first, my one, I said, how many employees does Twitch have? They said, uh, 1,800, 2,000. How many do you think is the right number for Twitch? Like, what do you think is, is how many people do you actually need to be like firing on all cylinders? And like, I would get basically 3 reactions. The first was sort of like, just like shock. Like, what are you even saying? And are you insinuating that like, I shouldn't be here or like we shouldn't hire you or that we hired too many people? We don't know what we're doing. Like, you know, the people were just like, what? I don't get what you're getting at, but it's not good. Whatever you're getting at, it's not, no matter what interpretation I have of this question, it's like pretty bad. Um, the second was a genuine answer, which was like, you know, uh, probably like, you know, 15 to 20% less, but we, you know, you don't know, you don't know over time who those top performers are. You figure that out and like, you know, it's good to have buffer and redundancy or whatever. And then, uh, I asked Emmett, the CEO, and he was like, I think 2,500. And he's like, you know, because his plan is like to hire and grow and he's like, You know, he, he, and like, we didn't get into a big debate about it. I was just curious what he would say. And so what was your reaction to this thing where you found out that FTX has like, you know, 20 engineers and is running this like pretty large tech platform and everybody else has thousands of engineers?
I think people overhire. And so I wrote, um, a tweet that said, uh, you know, I'm really fascinated with the idea of just hiring less people who are higher quality and paying them a lot more. Versus hiring a ton of people and most of them by definition are pretty average and you pay them a medium or market rate. I like that idea of doing the first thing, but is that actually practical? And what are some examples? And the reason why I wasn't sure if it was actually practical is like, even if you get the highest performing people in a room, does it just become natural still? Whereas like the 80/20, where 20% of the people does 80% of the work and it just always, And I think actually maybe that would actually would still exist, but at like a higher caliber. And then also I was like, I actually understand why you want redundancies. I understand why if you rely on 5 people and 3 of them quit, like you're really screwed. But let me give you the— and someone tweeted out, uh, and I found 2 good examples. One example was Sam Bankman-Fried with FTX. And here's what he said. Here's the tweet. He actually tweeted this out, I guess after that talk, kind of summarizing his thoughts. He goes, I've looked into hypergrowth companies and time and time again, growing from 200 employees to 2,000 doesn't seem to 10x your productivity per year productivity as a company. In fact, sometimes it doesn't even 1x your productivity. Sometimes the more you hire, the less you get done. So why exactly, uh, is it that hiring doesn't scale the way it should? A, coordination becomes really hard, and B, diffusion of responsibility. 5 people could theoretically do something. Maybe no one will actually feel like they have to get it done and have to do it. And then, uh, he just goes on to say that basically companies hire more, uh, or sorry, companies lower the bar as they hire more. And over time, the average coworker, people actually becomes a worse experience and incentives become harder to align as people have less and less of a sense of what each person is doing. And I completely agree. I think that the— I don't, I'm not smart like these guys where I can actually come up with a number, but I think a large percentage of jobs, at least in the tech world, and I would say most companies are bullshit jobs. I'd call them bullshit jobs. And they're only there because the person who's running this particular division has to request more budget and hire more so they get more responsibility and more credit and they seem more important. So then when they go to their next company, they get paid more and they can climb the ladder because it seems like, oh, well, like, you know, you manage 200 people, you must be legit. Yeah, that's why I think it happens.
The number of people under you is a, is a power consolidation technique inside of large companies. And even if people aren't doing it for malicious reasons, it, it is the incentive.
Like you get paid by a larger group of people that you can manage.
And so your incentive is to hire people, promote them to managers, have them hire people, have them promote them to managers and have like layers and layers of people. Cause if you were, if you were If everybody got the same budget and then you were just measured on how much you got done and you got to keep the extra, I think companies would work wildly differently than they do today. Right? And he says something, he goes in that tweet, he goes, Sam says, he goes, as far as I can tell, this is the most common reason that successful companies decay. It's a race between how quickly new employees can understand the culture and how quickly people are hired. The faster you hire, the harder it is to keep everyone on the same page. And, um, You know, if you're growing at 50% a year, maybe you could still mentor each new recruit and get them, you know, to learn how you guys work. But if you're growing 300% a year, each employee only has 4 months to learn before they have to start teaching. And, um, meanwhile we have, you know, you have to also figure out how to make sure compensation is fair, coordination keeps happening. Like I remember this inside of, uh, even a startup, even a very small company. Um, when you go from 1 people to 2 people, Generally productivity increases like almost every time. Um, one person to two people is, is almost always a win. Two people to three people, usually a win, but there's usually a cost, which is, oh, now we have to have meetings. Whereas before, like one person, the whole project's in your head. You don't have to talk to anybody. Two people, like by default, you're gonna basically share everything with the other everybody cuz there's only one, one other person. Knows everything that's shared. Once you have 3 people, no longer does everybody know everything that's going on. And basically I think there's this rule, which is that for every, um, for every double of your employee base, you square the amount of communication required. Meaning, so if you go from 4 to 8, you don't, that doesn't double the communication. It 4Xs the communication or whatever, right? Like, uh, I don't do my public math there, but it's basically like a nonlinear like it's a non, non-linear investment you have to make in communication and coordination. And like suddenly it's like, oh man, we have a 12-person team and like, it's really hard to keep everybody on the same page. And now I'm having to do extra meetings that are all-hands meetings or things like that just to keep 12 people organized. Now imagine that at 1,200 and imagine that at 12,000. Miserable.
It's like miserable. It's miserable. So the other example, by the way, that someone I don't know if anyone replied or how I found this, but have you heard of the company called StreamYard?
StreamYard? No.
They're in your world. So go to stream— I think it's streamyard.com. So they're in like the streaming world.
Are they like Canadians?
Uh, maybe. Okay.
So easy way. It's, it's the easiest way they say to procreate a professional livestream. So, okay. It gives you like a, it's like a broadcasting tool for livestreaming. Okay, cool.
So This guy, it was two guys. One guy's named Gage and I don't remember the other guy. Amazing name. Gage is the first name. Yeah. Gage and Dan. Yeah. Gage like rode a dirt bike to school when he was a kid. And, uh, yeah, this guy's amazing. So he, um, so he started this company with Dan and they were basically, I think, just making it a way for like, I think it was like Twitch folks or just like streamers. To stream, but then eventually they kind of pivoted a little bit so it could be like a professional stream. So like, I don't know who actually would do a quote professional stream, I guess like a company, but like it had all these like— it had all these like overlays. Yeah. So you just make it look cool and really easy. Well, anyway, they launched this in '19 or I think even '20, and it was just them two and they got it to $3 million in ARR, just these two guys. Then the pandemic hits. And in one year they go from $3 million to $30 million annually recurring revenue.
Wow.
Zero outside money, just these two guys. And when they, they eventually sold at the, um, so they launched, I think in '19, the pandemic hit when in '20 or '21. Uh, but basically in like one year they went from $3 million to $30 million and then they sold that same year to Hopin for $250 million in cash. And these two guys owned the whole thing. And when they sold, they basically scaled the company, uh, to $20 million in ARR with 5 people. And then by the time they sold, they had $30 million and they had just hired the 7th person. And this whole business was built with just 7 people. Really, it was built with 2 or 3 people. And then the second half, they were like, our customer service was just getting out of control. And so we had to have someone manage like an agency who was doing our customer service. Uh, and, and they were like, it was just like, uh, of course they did. They, they were kind of, were already killing it, but they hit a lick with like COVID that like was unexpected. So that accelerated it, but they were doing $3 million with 2 guys, like a year and a half into the business. That's, which is amazing for software. Um, but it's a pretty ridiculous co— it's a pretty ridiculous company. You should, uh, Google like what the founders look like. I think they're like, they look like they're like 28, like they're like kids.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I met these guys at a conference, by the way. Uh, now that, now that I'm seeing their faces, um, yeah, Gage and Dan, but we're going to call Dan Dirt. So this Gage and Dirt, we're the co-founders of StreamYard. Um, yeah, I love it. This is, I mean, that's, that's an amazing story of like, you know, right place, right time, uh, you know, and being ready to like surf a wave. Can I tell you like another random business like this? That's like deceptively big. So my buddy Corey, um, tweeted this out. He was like, he's like, next time you're, uh, the high school guy.
No, no, this is Corey Nicholson.
Uh, his thing is Corey NCEO is his Twitter account. So, uh, Corey's a good dude. He's a really young guy. He's like doing an e-commerce thing right now. I really like him. I'm not like, he's the one, if we were going to do Southern Sam Sticky Icky, this is the guy to run it and he's down to run it. We're just waiting on you if you want to run it. But like, he's a D2C guy who— he's really good. What he's really good at is he's good at building a D2C product and using TikTok to market it. And, um, like, that's like his current, like, niche. And, um, so anyways, he goes, he goes, next time you're stressing over a business idea, just remember there's a website that just simply removes the TikTok watermark from a video and receives 37 million monthly visits and has ads everywhere. And so it's called, uh, it's called SSS Tik. I don't know if you've ever seen this website.
S-S-T-I-K. So 3 S's and then tick.
Wow.
I'm looking at the traffic now.
Almost 40 million monthly visitors for the last 6 months straight. And it's just plastered with ads. I don't know how I just like, you know, when you, if you create TikTok is a great way to create videos, but it always keeps the TikTok watermark in there. And so I guess this is a way to remove the watermark.
Because I'm pretty sure if you post a watermarked video from TikTok on Twitter, I always feel like they like have a way to like downvote it. You know what I mean? So it doesn't get shown to people. Is that legitimate?
I don't know if it, I don't know if it's that. I really don't give Twitter that much credit. Like, I don't think they can build a feature that smart. But, um, but I know for Facebook, I think Facebook, if you upload a watermarked video as an ad, because those TikTok videos do great as ads. Um, they won't let you run it because it's got a TikTok thing. You're basically promoting their competitor, right? So you have to like get the raw video.
Dude, this is crazy. I'm looking at the traffic now, and so it gets like 40 million a month, it looks like around that. And they're from every country. So United States only makes up, uh, 8% of the traffic. And then there's like Colombia, Philippines, Mexico, Peru. Peru's the biggest source, which is— makes up 10%. This is crazy. What a crazy business. Do you think this makes money? Of Surely it makes some, but do you think this is big?
Yeah, I think it is. By the way, okay, so I tried to get in touch with this, so I don't have the full story on this, but, um, go to— you're gonna love this. This is like— I might be telling you about something like you already know. You're gonna be like, my cousin started this. Go to eggcartons.com.
All right, why would my— I don't have A cousin would start eggcartons.com. What is this?
Egg cartons? I don't know, this is just a Sam Parr special right here. It's just like, did you know there's a business called Egg Cartons?
So many people think that I'm like— I thought you were saying I'm from the Midwest. So many people think they're like, oh, like, hey, I want to go hunting. Can you like teach me how to hunt? Like, they think that I'm like from like a rural southern area. I'm not. I don't know anything about that. Like, I'm like, when you think of They hear I'm from St. Louis, Missouri, and they think it's the country. I'm like, think of Detroit. That's kind of like where I was raised. Like, that's— it's more like Detroit than it is.
Are you more likely—
rural area.
Are you more likely to go bow hunting or get a pedicure?
Dude, well, neither. People from Missouri don't get pedicures, at least men don't. But bow hunting, like, I only know about bow hunting from like the TV show Napoleon Dynamite where they talk about like a bo staff. Like, I don't even know, like, I don't know what bo— I've never killed an animal before. No, I've never done any of this.
And you don't have the, you don't have the urge to?
I definitely do. It would be fun to look something in the eye and then consume it. I think that would be exciting. But anyway.
Okay. So back to eggcards.com. All right. So basically it's just a website that sells like the actual packaging you need for eggs. So every form factor of eggs, you got the 12 one, you got the 24-pack, you got the plastic one, you got the foam one, you got the good for the environment one. And I thought this was really interesting because this is a multimillion-dollar business that just is like wholesale selling packaging for eggs. And they just like, if you go to the website, it's like eggcartons.com, call 1-888-852-5340, right? And it's like, you know, when that's in your logo that this business prints cash because it's like, oh yeah, we got like just this. Like, you know, every grocery store in America, every corner store in America, they just eggcartons.com and they got my number, you know, in their phone book. And, uh, it's like the biggest tell. And so what was interesting about this is I was like, who owns this thing? And then if you look up, uh, eggcartons.com owner, you're going to see, um, this woman named Sarah Moore and Sarah Moore. If you go look at her thing, it says. Her, her LinkedIn says Sarah Moore, egg carton and packaging fanatic. And she's been doing this for 4 years. And before that she went to Harvard Business School. And so I was like, who is this? And basically this is somebody who's like an M— is a MBA private equity type that identified this business that's been around for 20 years. And, um, basically, you know, like went and, you know, either bought it, took it over, um, or, or, you know, did something. I don't think it's like her dad is the owner cuz there's this other guy, Paul. B. Something who, you know, was the owner of it for 19 years. Now he says he's semi-retired, but I think she bought it. And, um, I was like, wow, this is a, this is a like fascinating like path to pick, uh, for somebody who's just like smart and is like, you know what, I'm going to go fish where nobody else is fishing instead of going to try to build the next social app or the next crypto thing or the next podcast. It's like, let me go identify one of these businesses that's like a wholesaler of packaging. Buy the company and then just like, you know, modernize it and grow it.
So is this Sarah Moore from, uh, Massachusetts? Oh wow. Are you sure this woman owns— so this woman does not look at all like you're gonna think of an egg carton salesperson. This is the owner?
Are you like— if you look, if you looked at her picture, what Look at her picture. What's your guess? What does this woman do?
Like enterprise sales at Salesforce.
Exactly. I was going to say the exact same thing. She sells high-end enterprise software or she runs an ad agency or, you know, like whatever. I don't know. She's like, uh, you know, professor and part-time model or something like that. Right. It's like crazy.
She's like a really good looking Harvard person and I would not expect her to do any of this in Sutton, Massachusetts. Like, this is crazy.
If you look at the guy who's the previous owner, you go to his LinkedIn, it's like a dude on the— like, he's got his neck sideways, he's on the phone. He's like, at his computer, he's like looking up. Someone took this photo of him and that's the best photo he has of himself. And like, that's his LinkedIn profile picture. Yeah, his desk has like, you know, 1970s World Series, like, you know, ball from the game he was at. Yeah.
And he's got like a Marlboro Red in his mouth. That's exactly how I would imagine this. This is crazy. How'd you find this?
So, cause I just saw the tweet about the, about the Eggkart thing. I went down the rabbit hole. I found a PDF and it says, uh, she purchased it in 2017 after her, after getting her MBA from Harvard. And, um, you know, now she has a private equity. She did that, she did that by the way, in her 20s. Uh, so she's got a private equity company that basically does Eggkart.com, Fall Harvest Products, and those both, those both serve the egg producing company, uh, sorry, industry. And, um, and King Supply, which provides plumbing materials to campgrounds and parks. And I was like, what the hell? Like, who is this person? What are they doing? And so, by the way, I might have some of these dudes wrong because I tried to get in touch with her. I emailed her and I just subject line, like, holy shit, you know, first line, egg cartons, you know, like, who would have thought? This is amazing. And I sent her, I was like, look, um, you know, I want to know more about you, but I don't want to schedule time and I, for you or for me. Like, here's a Google Doc, like, would you mind just answering these questions? And so I'm waiting on her to answer these questions now because I have— I must know more. I must know where— so was this her family business? Like, how did she get into this?
So this like model-looking Harvard grad owns an egg cart business. She owns a plumbing supplies business. Is that right? And I don't know what a Fall Harvest— what is Fall Harvest Products? What do you make when you saw that?
I think it's also— it's also for the egg industry.
What? This is awesome. This is a really good find. I love Sarah Moore. Sarah Moore. I love women named Sarah. My wife's name is Sarah. I love Sarah Moore.
She's great. It's not where I thought you would go with that one. I love women named Sarah.
No, this woman's awesome. I'mma be—
Yeah, my wife's name's Sarah, and there's this woman I admire who like went to Harvard and owns an A-card business who's also named Sarah. She's— I'm fond of her as founder of, uh, founder of Spanx pants.
Love when pants make you look thinner.
Sarah Blakely, another great Sarah. Yeah, I'm a big fan of this. This is a good find. Why did the person tweet about it?
Uh, I don't even know. It was like, uh, what did they say? They go I think so. The thread was like a kind of a golden thread where it was like boring businesses are the best businesses. And, um, and then somebody, uh, Patrick B. Johnson said, I got one that's even better. Eggcurds.com. This is a multimillion dollar business. And that was the only reply to the thread, by the way. This wasn't like a popular thread. Well, some one guy tweeted that first tweet.
This guy, you DM that guy. He knows something.
It's like a heat-seeking missile. Yeah, he knows something. No, I didn't reach out to this guy. Uh, he's got like a picture that makes him look a little crazy. Um, and so I was like, I don't know.
Like, okay, let me read you his bio. This is why I was like, uh, I want to have a conversation right now.
You know, he goes, Teen Vogue— this is his bio— Teen Vogue called me a visionary. Elite Daily called me a genius. Link in bio. Then he goes, @Ramit blocked me is my biggest accomplishment. I'm the founder of Progress Labs. Okay. Yeah.
I wouldn't want to talk to that guy either.
Either, either he's awesome or he's completely not awesome. And I just didn't have the energy to go find out.
This is a badass find. I'm all about— is it 8Cartons? 8Cartons.com. I'm all about this.
If anyone can get this—
if anyone can find Sarah Moore, So please find Sarah Moore and, uh, and tell her to, tell her to, uh, join the pod. There's this one woman. I don't know if I told you this. Did you see the tweet where I saw this lady at Whole Foods and I thought it was cool and I just tweeted out a picture?
No, wait, what happened?
So there was this lady giving out samples at Whole Foods and the sample was called, uh, I actually don't know what it was. Jasha. J-E-S-H-A. And, uh, she, it's like a sourdough. Do you know anything about sourdough bread?
Like, I don't know, like entirely behind it, but it doesn't be honest with you.
It like something involving, like, it doesn't have yeast or something like something where like it, you, you actually digest it a little bit easier and it doesn't make you as bloated. At least when I eat it, because it doesn't have like yeast, it like is missing. It's a, there's one ingredient that's missing that just makes it feel sometimes feel better on your stomach. So she made sourdough, like, mix that you can use for, like, pancakes and, like, muffins and shit like that. And I was just talking and I just, like, went to the Whole Foods and I saw her. I was like, oh, let me try some of this. I was like, this is great. Is this your business? She's like, yeah, I just started it like 6 months ago and I just cold emailed someone at Whole Foods asking if we could sell in the store and they said yeah. And now they're stocking it on all the shelves. I was like, oh wow, that's a pretty good story. You know, what's your background? She's like, oh, I just worked at a fintech startup for a bunch of years and I just always wanted to do this and I just saved up a little bit of money and I quit and I just launched it and I cold emailed them and I just kind of figured it out. And I just tweeted that one tweet. It was, it was a picture of her and it was like, you know, worked in fintech, quit, uh, started this in 6 months, got into Whole Foods, just cold emailed someone. And, uh, it got read by like 2 million people, that tweet. And she like met— and I have no idea who she was. I didn't even like know her handle. And she like somehow found— I, I, at the end of the tweet, I was like, if you know who she is, send this to her. And, you know, she'll like know where all the sales came from. Apparently she like knocked it out the park. With sales, um, all from just this one little tweet. And then I did the same thing with a pool company, Trek Pools, and they sold a shit ton of pools. I like, from, from this mention. It's kind of funny, just, uh, these silly little tweets actually move the needle for people.
So you're saying if you're out there and you'd like your needle moved, your boys are available for hire and bribes. Actually, not even for hire, just bribes.
Yeah, just money.
Send us free awesome stuff or cash in some kind of briefcase and we will move the needle for you. Needle movers.
Yeah.
1-800-555-MOVE-MY-NEEDLE.
All right. That's the episode, I think.
Hey, we're just a couple of needle movers cultivating that multi-trillionaire mindset. Hashtag grindset.