Nick Huber

The Midas touch fades: Nick Huber started 11 companies, shut down 4

Nick Huber describes his peak-confidence era when he started 10+ companies in 3 years thinking he had the Midas touch. Four of them ended up shut down, a humbling reality check on serial entrepreneurship.

“I thought I could do no wrong because I had this personal brand, started all these companies, started 10+ companies over a 3-year period. The Midas touch. 4 of them have been shut down. So yeah, it's not all roses.”

Nick Huber's bottom 6 companies peaked at $500K/month before he shut 4 down

Of Nick Huber's portfolio, the six weaker companies hit a combined $500,000 a month in revenue at peak. He later shut down 4 of them, with 2 treading water, while a 'three-headed monster' of top companies drove cash flow via a power-law dynamic.

“But totally of the 6 bottom ones, I mean, we were up to $500,000 a month maybe of total revenue. Yeah, shut down 4 and 2 of them are, are, you know, treading water right now.”

Use a seller note to buy more of a company than your raise allows

When Nick Huber realized raising $20M only bought him a 20% carry and modest equity, he went back to the founder and carved out an 18% seller note directly from the seller. The seller effectively lends the buyer the money, paid back over time, letting the buyer get more skin in the game without more outside capital.

“Very quickly I realized, like, I can't do this deal. Like, it would be foolish for me to do this. So I went back to Marshall and said, hey, I need to buy more of the company. And this is where we kind of got creative and I, and I carved out an 18% seller note directly from Marshall to me.”

Steal thisWhen an outside raise leaves you with too little equity, negotiate a seller note so the founder finances part of your purchase directly.

A $400K rename to Somewhere.com vaporized a third of the leads

After acquiring Support Shepherd, Nick Huber bought somewhere.com for $400,000 to fix a name people kept misspelling. The rebrand torched the company's SEO and brand recognition overnight, costing about 300 of its 1,000 monthly leads.

“So we bought somewhere.com for $400,000 shortly after closing, changed the name from supportshepherd.com to somewhere.com. Our SEO, our search engine optimization, and our brand recognition vanished overnight. In that one fell swoop, we lost 300 leads a month of about 1,000 leads that we had.”

The people who can run your company can do it better and cheaper internationally

Nick Huber says he used to outsource only repeatable tasks abroad while keeping executives American. He now staffs C-suite roles internationally (COO in Johannesburg, head of finance, IT, performance marketing), keeping only a handful of US-based sales and account-management hires.

“So I used to think like, okay, I need, I need repeatable tasks and I need to outsource those to the Philippines, South Africa, Colombia, whatever. Now I'm realizing that the people who can run my company can do it better and cheaper internationally.”

The people who can run your company can do it better and cheaper internationally

Nick Huber says he used to outsource only repeatable tasks abroad while keeping executives American. He now staffs C-suite roles internationally (COO in Johannesburg, head of finance, IT, performance marketing), keeping only a handful of US-based sales and account-management hires.

“So I used to think like, okay, I need, I need repeatable tasks and I need to outsource those to the Philippines, South Africa, Colombia, whatever. Now I'm realizing that the people who can run my company can do it better and cheaper internationally.”

The $2,000 LinkedIn playbook to source 1,000 global applicants

Nick Huber's DIY international hiring move: post a job on LinkedIn targeting Colombia, Brazil, South Africa, and the Philippines, promote it at $100/day for 5 days. For about $2,000 you'll get roughly 1,000 applicants.

“Post the job in those countries on LinkedIn, promote it with $100 a day, run it for 5 days. So you're in what, for maybe $2,000? You're going to get 1,000 applicants.”

Steal thisPromote a LinkedIn job post at $100/day for 5 days in Colombia, Brazil, South Africa, and the Philippines to pull 1,000 applicants for ~$2,000.

Typing-speed filter: 85% of applicants can't type 35 words per minute

Nick Huber's first remote-hiring filter is a typing-speed and English test: 85% of his 60,000 monthly applicants can't type 35 words per minute. This single test cuts the pool from 60,000 to 5,000 across every role from engineering to sales.

“Yeah. So we have figured out, and I'm going to pass this on to you, is that of our 60,000 applicants every single month, 85% of them can't type 35 words per minute. And if we're talking about remote work in any role, from engineering to marketing to graphic design to admin to sales to executive leadership, your, your easiest immediate filter is typing speed, English test, basically.”

Steal thisFilter remote applicants with a 35-words-per-minute typing/English test first; it eliminates ~85% instantly.

Self-recorded video request screens out the unserious 80%

After the typing filter, Nick Huber asks candidates to film a 1-minute self-introduction. About 80% won't bother, signaling they aren't serious, leaving a tighter pool you assess on professional maturity and communication before a task-based test.

“We're going to send them a request for a 1-minute video where they film themselves introducing themselves for 1 minute. 80% of people are just not willing to do the work. They're not that serious about looking for a job. Right. So the other 20%, you're left with maybe 1,000.”

Steal thisRequire a 1-minute self-intro video; the ~80% who skip it are filtering themselves out.

South Africa quietly trains controllers for Big Four firms

Nick Huber's global talent map: Egypt (Cairo) is cheap for Excel/Power BI finance work, Colombia and Brazil shine for operations on US time zones, and 30,000 South Africans fly to America yearly for Big Four audit/tax work, then return where you can hire them as a controller for $3,000 a month.

“South Africa is a sales and finance hub. There's 30,000 South Africans that get on a plane and go to America every single year to do audit and tax work for Big Four consulting firms. They go back to South Africa and you can hire them for $3,000 a month to be a controller at your small business.”

$150K/month on ads made $15K; referrals made $250K on $30K spend

Nick Huber found one of his companies was spending $150,000/month on paid ads for just $15,000-$20,000 in monthly profit, while referrals generated $250,000 of profit on only ~$30,000 of referral fees and discounts. The lesson: a CEO's job is often to kill the broken channel and refocus the team on what already works.

“We calculated it down to the profit and realized that that piece of the company was making us maybe $15,000 to $20,000 a month in profit. And we're spending tons of executive time and energy to try to get that to work. And we looked at our other part of our, you know, revenue stream and it said referrals, referrals coming in the doors generating $250,000 of profit per month on, you know, maybe $30,000 of referral fees and discounts.”

Holdcos are overrated; the rich focus on one big business

Nick Huber, often labeled a holdco guy, argues the trend will die down. You need to run one company well for a long time, learning executive teams, comp plans, and funnel conversion, before buying more, especially with leverage. Operating companies swing far more violently than real estate, and every company's worst problems bubble up to you.

“I think you really got to know your shit to run more than one company. And the majority of people that I know who run more than one company, they ran just one company for a long time, made it really good, made it really profitable, learned how to build executive teams or how to build compensation plans, learned how to work the funnel and convert at the highest rate all the way down the funnel.”

Nick Huber: 'AI is bullshit and unsustainable' for the 99%

Nick Huber's contrarian stance: he believes in AI's 20-year power but sees today's hype as overpromised and economically unsustainable. He's not seeing business ROI inside his companies, and points to his Athens, Georgia energy bill rising 60% in 3 years as data-center demand makes electricity costlier for everyone.

“I'm spending a lot of time inside of my companies trying to implement AI. We're adding tools and I'm just not seeing it, Sean. Like, AI is unbelievable for, you know, me having a doctor in my pocket or me doing recipes or my wife, you know, you know, doing little things. But man, like, where is the long-term value? And then when I think about where it's going and I'm seeing my energy bill in Athens, Georgia”

Nick Huber added 15 AI tools and canceled 11 of them

Testing AI across his portfolio, Nick Huber added 15 AI tools and canceled most of them, finding the cost hard to justify. He warns the pricing is subsidized down the chain from Nvidia to cloud providers to VC-backed startups, meaning it will only get more expensive.

“I've added 15, I've added 15 AI tools across my portfolio. We've canceled 13, 11. Like there's some that I really like. The others, I'm just like really, really hard to justify the cost already. And they're, and they're subsidized all the way down the chain.”

The roofing arbitrage: sell the job, sub the labor, keep $20K

Nick Huber discovered a roofing bid of $70K on a 10,000 sq ft warehouse broke down to $30K labor (subbed out) and $15K materials. Roofing companies pocket the ~$20K spread for quoting, billing, carrying insurance, and supervising a 2-day job, with roofers making $5K-$10K a day in every town.

“And I found out that I can hire a sub for $30,000 worth of labor and I can buy, you know, $15,000 worth of material and I can— that's the hard cost to do this job. And these roofing companies are making the spread. They're making the spread. So they literally don't do any work. They sell the job, they quote the job, they carry insurance, and then they show up and stand there and watch and make sure the crew does a really good job and make $20,000 in a 2-day job.”

Steal thisSell and bill a trade job, sub out the labor, and capture the spread for sales plus oversight.

Why rate hikes cause carnage: debt is real estate's biggest line item

Nick Huber explains that debt is the single biggest expense for any real estate investor, who borrows 50-70% of a building's value. Going from 3.5% to 7% interest doubles the cost to service $1M of debt from $35K to $70K, which is like quadrupling labor cost in a service business and drives building values down.

“And if you go from paying 3.5% on that debt, you know, $35,000 to service $1 million in debt to pay 7%, $70 grand. Like, it's— imagine if your labor cost quadrupled in a service business. That's essentially what happens in real estate. So it drives the value, what people can afford to pay, down.”

Swapping Philippines sales reps for South Africans lifted conversion 30% to 42%

Nick Huber replaced his real estate inbound sales team in the Philippines with sales-trained South Africans, and conversion jumped from 30% to 42%, pushing revenue up 15% year over year. He also refinanced all his loans through the rate spike without a single capital call to investors.

“And we've done things now like we replaced our inbound sales team with South Africans who are actually sales trained, and our conversion rate went from when we were in the Philippines from 30% to 42% in South Africa. So revenue's up 15% year over year.”

99% of people don't care about AI — the physical world is crumbling

Nick Huber's contrarian stance: while tech Twitter obsesses over GPT-4, almost everyone is worried about rent, food, and a physical world that needs mowing, cleaning, and repairing. Real money is in the unsexy physical economy, not chatbots.

“Now let me tell you that 99% of humans and Americans and everybody else gives two shits about AI. They're worried about enough money coming in their bank account on Friday to pay rent on Monday and that their house is maintained and that they have food to put in their kids' bellies. Um, it's absurd. Like, literally we have a whole physical world. There's grass that needs mowed.”

Distribution + product: pair an influencer with operators to build a company

Nick frames the Mint Mobile playbook as a repeatable model: find someone with distribution (eyes, ears, a personal brand) who people like, get them equity in a product, and let operators run it. Distribution is the scarce asset you can capitalize into a large company.

“if you have ears and you have eyes and people care what you have to say, you can get involved in products and you can grow massive companies. Sam's doing it. I'm excited about doing it. It's just the beginning.”

Steal thisIf you have an audience, take equity in a product and let operators run it instead of selling ad reads.

187-unit abandoned storage facility: drugs, a squirrel with a bat, a motorcycle

Nick bought a 187-unit storage property at auction in Erie, PA where every unit was abandoned. Sawing off the locks, they found a unit with 60 bags of white powder (police called, never confirmed as drugs), a squirrel holding a baseball bat, and an old Indian motorcycle — all sold off via online auction.

“We bought a property at auction. It had 187 units. It was in Erie, Pennsylvania. We went and every unit had been abandoned. We had to go through and saw off like the locks and open them up. And there was dust and there was craziness. Oh, that's some really cool things. We found a ton of really cool things. One, one unit had like 60 bags of white powder. We immediately called the police. We never found out if it was drugs or not. Another one had a squirrel holding a baseball bat. Another one had an old Indian motorcycle.”

Every responsible man should be able to survive 2 weeks off-grid

Nick's rule: not doomsday prepping, but every household should have provisions — generator, fuel, ready-to-eat food, clean water — to keep the family alive for two weeks with no power and no internet. A small investment for big downside protection.

“I think every responsible— this is going to sound very radical— I think every responsible man should have provisions to keep their family alive for 2 weeks. With no power and no internet.”

Steal thisKeep two weeks of power, fuel, food, and water on hand — enough to ride out an outage, not a zombie apocalypse.

Store gas for 5-10 years with stabilizer and military-style cans

Nick's concrete prep tactic: buy military-style fuel cans on Amazon for about $90, add fuel stabilizer, fill with 5 gallons, and the gas stays usable for 5 to 10 years to run a generator in an outage.

“you put it in, uh, there's these things the military uses and you put stable in there and you can keep the gas safe for 5 to 10 years. You can order them right on Amazon for $90. You fill it up with 5 gallons of gas. That's all you need.”

Keep a tourniquet in your glove box

Nick's highest-leverage prep tip: put a tourniquet in your car. If a motorcyclist or cyclist gets hit on the road, being able to stop the bleeding saves their life about 95% of the time — but most people can't because they don't carry one.

“the best way to save a life is put a tourniquet in your glove box. Everybody should have a tourniquet because a motorcyclist— I have one. Yep. A, a motorcyclist or a cyclist gets hit on the road, 95% of the time you could save their life by being able to stop the bleeding. But a lot of people can't. So put a tourniquet in your car.”

Steal thisPut a tourniquet in your glove box and learn how to use it.

The 10xer test: can you make OTHER people good at their jobs?

Nick Huber's definition of a true 10x employee or operator is not someone great at their own job, but someone who can lead others, set them up for success, and make other people good at their jobs.

“If you can make other people good at their jobs, not just you good at your job, but if you can lead other people and set them up for success and make other people good at their job, you are the 10xer. You're the 10xer.”

Steal thisWhen hiring leaders, screen for ability to make others good at their jobs, not just personal output.

Support Shepherd VA placement fee: 30-35% of first-year salary

Nick Huber's VA staffing company Support Shepherd charges 30-35% of the placement's first-year salary, averaging $3,000-$4,000 per placement.

“It just costs about 3 grand. It's 30% of the first year salary, 35% of the first year salary to make the placement. So average tickets between 3 and 4 grand.”

Nick's first company: a $3,000 Craigslist cargo van and student storage

Nick started his first business, a pickup-and-delivery student storage company, by buying a $3,000 cargo van off Craigslist. While friends mocked the unglamorous idea of sweating to move boxes, the energy and urgency to actually do it is what set him apart.

“When I started my very first company, It was a moving company that pick up and delivery storage for students. We bought a cargo van on Craigslist for $3,000 and we drove it back to the track house.”

The 10-80-10 talent rule: recruit from the middle 80%

Nick's hiring theory: 10% of people are in career nirvana and won't leave, 10% are actively job-hunting (often for a reason), and the middle 80% are happily employed but open to a better pitch. The best hires almost always come from that passive middle.

“So 10% of people are in career nirvana, meaning they love their job, they're perfectly motivated, and they are— under no circumstance are they going to go and do something else. Another 10% of people are literally actively looking for something else. Either they're unemployed or they really hate their job and they are very open and they're actively looking for jobs. These are the people that are looking on job boards”

Steal thisStop fishing job boards; go headhunt the happily-employed middle 80% and sell them on leaving.

The 'motivational interview': fast-forward the candidate 5 years

Nick's key-hire interview tactic: have the candidate imagine it's five years later and they're gushing about how great things are, then ask them to describe the money, team size, and projects. It reveals what makes them tick and whether his company can actually deliver it.

“I'll sit there in the interview and I'll be like, Sam, we're talking about this company right now, but let's pretend that we're 5 years in the future. You and I are sitting right here. We're in this office in 5 years and you walk into this office and you are gushing. You're excited. You're like, Nick, things are going freaking awesome. Tell me what is going on.”

Steal thisIn a key-hire interview, have them describe their gushing five-years-out self, then shut up and listen.

Copywriting ability predicts who can delegate and lead

Nick argues being a clear, concise copywriter is directly correlated with the ability to delegate and lead, because remote businesses are run through the written word (Slack, email, text). You can scout this skill by reading how people write in DMs and tweets.

“Number one is copywriting. They're a really good copywriter. I think that's directly correlated to be able, being able to delegate and lead other people. Cuz if you can write clearly and concisely, if you can write clearly and concisely, the way people can understand it, you can lead others. You can give directions, you can be on Slack, text, email. The way that we run our businesses is through the written word.”

Steal thisJudge a remote hire's leadership potential by how clearly they write in DMs, tweets, and emails.

Flip the script: lead with the downsides to make THEM sell you

Nick's contrarian sales method: briefly prove you're a pro without bragging, then immediately dive into all the downsides and reasons the deal might fail, and ask why they still want to do it. The prospect ends up selling themselves on the deal.

“Then what I do is I dive right into talking about the downsides, why I'm worried about it, why the deal might not work, all the things that we need to stress about. And then I ask them, given those downsides, why they still wanna do the deal or why they still wanna work with me or why they still wanna work for my company. And then I shut up and I let them, it kind of flips the script to where they become the salesperson. They become the salesperson.”

Steal thisOpen by listing the downsides, then ask why they still want in, and let the prospect sell themselves.

Don't hire the radical political activist, either side

Nick's controversial hiring take: avoid hiring 'social justice warriors' on either end of the political spectrum because radically political people are more likely to sue, upset customers, and publicly bash the company. He argues politics isn't a protected class, so screening social media is fair game.

“The worst thing you can do as an entrepreneur is hire a social justice warrior. People who are very radical politically are way more likely to sue you or your business, upset your customers, and upset your team members. Either side of the aisle.”

Nick predicts RecruitJet hits $5M revenue, $3M EBITDA by end of 2024

Asked to forecast his new ventures, Nick predicts his US-talent headhunting firm RecruitJet will be a big company doing $5 million of revenue and $3 million of EBITDA by the end of 2024.

“RecruitJet, I think, will be a big company. I think RecruitJet will be $5 million of revenue and $3 million of EBITDA.”

Screw enterprise value, chase cash flow every month

Nick rejects the obsession with building enterprise value: his thesis for his web dev agency is 'screw EV, EV will come.' He'd rather make money every month and cash flow every year, betting good outcomes follow over time.

“And he kept saying, there's no enterprise value. He kept saying there's no EV in web development. And my entire thesis is screw EV. EV will come. I want to be making money every single month and cash flow every single year. That's the goal.”

The $7,500 bourbon and the moment 'none of this matters'

Nick splurged on high-end bourbon (one bottle ~$7,500), then realized nobody was around to share it with. The vulnerable lesson: the stuff is a distraction, and what actually matters is the people and how you help them.

“So I splurge on some of the little things that sound huge and obnoxious to some people but aren't really that obnoxious. So I got some really nice bourbon, some bottles that are really special. And then I got them. I'm looking at them in my bar and I sent a text to like 4 of my boys. I'm like, hey, come over, let's try some bourbon. And nobody can come over”

Sweaty Startup newsletter: 42,000 subscribers, +600/month

Nick's weekly newsletter under the Sweaty Startup brand has grown to 42,000 subscribers, adding roughly 600 per month, where he writes about hiring, management, and what makes a 10xer.

“I'm up to 42,000. I'm working it really hard. I'm adding like 600 a month.”

Bolt Storage: 61 properties acquired for $103M, $41M raised

Nick Huber's self-storage fund grew from 15 properties / $20M to 61 properties and 1.8M square feet in about two years, acquired for $103M with $41M raised from outside investors.

“And we now have 61 properties, 1.8 million square feet of storage. We've acquired it for $103 million. We've raised $41 million from people like you who invested in Bolt Storage.”

96% of Nick Huber's raised capital came from Twitter

Asked how much of his fund's outside capital originated on Twitter, Nick Huber says 96% of it came from the platform.

“90, 96% of it has come from Twitter.”

Nick Huber raised $40M for self-storage almost entirely off Twitter

Nick Huber bootstrapped his first storage facility with $500K (his dad mortgaged the family house), then ran out of money. He found his real backer when he started tweeting deals: people DMed to join his investor list, and he eventually raised $40M from 320 investors.

“My entire real estate private equity company was built on the back of Twitter. Yes, I had. We'd bought and built our first self-storage facility. We raised $500,000. My dad took a mortgage out on our house to do it. He didn't tell me that he did at the time because we were middle class. And I went around to his friends basically, and he helped me raise the money for that first deal.”

Steal thisTweet your actual deals and operations; let interested investors DM you to join a distribution list, then raise from that list.

How $5/hr overseas hires replaced $60K-$70K US reps

Nick Huber hired Filipino staff through Support Shepherd at $5/hour ($800/month). Within four months he had 15 of them answering sales calls and handling logistics as well as American reps, cutting per-role cost from $60K-$70K/year to about $10K/year.

“Fast forward 4 hours, you know, 4 months later, I had 15 of these people working inside of my company and not only were they doing the simple stuff, but they were answering sales calls. They were guiding the logistics of a customer in, in one of my facilities looking for a specific unit. They were just able to do exactly what our American reps do, except instead of paying $60,000 or $70,000 a year, they pay— we pay, you know, $10,000 a year.”

Steal thisUse an overseas staffing firm to hire $5/hr reps for sales and logistics roles before defaulting to a $60K US hire.

Turn an affiliate deal into equity by threatening to compete

After driving big growth as a 15%-of-revenue affiliate for Support Shepherd, Nick Huber told founder Marshall Haas he'd start a directly competing company unless he got ownership. The threat worked: he negotiated 15% equity in the business.

“So I went to Marshall and I was like, Marshall, this business is way too good. I'm not getting enough money. Like, I wanna own part of Support Shepherd. And he's like, no way. Like, that's, that's, that's ridiculous. You're just a, you're just an influencer. And I was like, well, man, I'm gonna go start another company that does exactly this. Or I could be, uh, a partner of yours.”

Steal thisWhen your affiliate referrals make a business, ask for equity and credibly offer to compete if refused.

Nick Huber makes $50K/month from his 15% of Support Shepherd

Support Shepherd is a multi-seven-figure-profit business where 51% of revenue is repeat customers. Nick Huber's 15% ownership stake pays him $50K a month personally.

“I make $50 grand a month personally from my 15% ownership in Sheppard.”

RE Cost Seg hit $250K revenue at 9 months old

Nick Huber's cost-segregation firm RE Cost Seg, built on a $50K cash injection and a Twitter following, did $250,000 of revenue in a single month just nine months after launch.

“And yeah, we're 9 months old and we did $250,000 of revenue last month.”

ERC tax-credit service: $100K-$1M back for companies that kept staff

Nick Huber's TaxCreditHunter.com helps small businesses that didn't lay off staff during COVID claim employee retention credits. Companies with ~150 employees are seeing $100K to $1M in credits, and few entrepreneurs know the program exists (expiring 2025).

“if you didn't fire your employees when COVID hit, and you kept them on, the government is offering massive tax credits to your business. And very few entrepreneurs know it. They expire in 2025. And yeah, it's, it's, it's significant. We're talking the guys that we know who are running companies with 150 employees are looking at $100,000 to $1 million in tax credits”

Steal thisBuild a done-for-you service helping eligible small businesses claim ERC credits before the 2025 deadline.

Real estate pro status + cost seg can zero out a $3M income tax bill

Nick Huber explains that someone earning $2-3M/year from operating companies can owe zero income tax by qualifying as a real estate professional and cost-segregating newly bought properties to accelerate depreciation against that income.

“You can make $2, $3 million a year from operating companies. And if you're a real estate professional and you buy property each year and you cost seg them and depreciate them, you can have zero tax liability. Zero.”

Steal thisQualify as a real estate professional and cost-seg new property purchases to offset active income from operating businesses.

The short-term rental loophole around real-estate-professional status

To use accelerated depreciation you normally must be a real estate professional (700+ hours). For short-term rentals there's a loophole: you only need to spend more time on that property than anyone else, no professional designation required.

“We're doing a ton of cost segs on people who have short-term rentals because they don't have to be a real estate professional. They just have to spend more time on that rental property than anybody else.”

Steal thisRun a short-term rental you materially participate in to unlock cost-seg depreciation without 700-hour real-estate-pro status.

Buy an antiquated insurance brokerage and rebrand it for operators

Nick Huber is buying a Kansas City property-and-casualty insurance brokerage with good carrier contracts and rebranding it as Titan Risk. The thesis: incumbent brokerages 'operate like it's 1950' with no online payment and slow service, so an audience-backed modern brand can win.

“So yeah, we're buying an insurance company in Kansas City. We're rebranding it as Titan Risk. Um, TitanRisk.com is the shout out. Um, and we're going to spin up a property and casualty insurance company on the back of, again, the, the, the following”

Steal thisAcquire a small brokerage with strong carrier contracts, modernize the experience, and funnel your audience to it.

Stress is a decision that hasn't been made yet

Nick Huber's model: insecurity makes you avoid decisions, and unmade decisions become stress that compounds. Since decision-making is a skill you only improve by repping it under stakes, high performers make many fast decisions, accept some wrong ones, and get better.

“So then you have unmade decisions and that equals stress. Cause stress is a decision that hasn't yet been made and then it just cycles and snowballs.”

Steal thisWhen stressed, find the decision you're avoiding and make it fast; treat decision-making as a muscle you train under stakes.

The Sweaty Startup: look up from your screen for opportunity

Nick Huber pitches a different lane of entrepreneurship: instead of chasing San Francisco software ideas, work with your hands in overlooked physical businesses. He started moving boxes up spiral staircases at 22 and built wealth from it.

“Because I'm all about a different type of entrepreneurship, I guess. I've talked to Sam a little bit about it, but I think you can gain a lot by looking up from your computer screen. And if you get out and work a little bit with your hands and see people's eyes and interact with the world around you, there's a pretty big opportunity. And I'm living proof of that.”

Steal thisLook at the unglamorous physical businesses in your own town before chasing the trendy startup idea.

Choose your competition: go where the field is weak

Huber's life philosophy is picking the path of least resistance by choosing competition. He did decathlon (only ~300 people in the country did it) to become top-10 nationally, and applies the same logic to business.

“I'm all about choosing your competition. And if they're really good and really fast, go somewhere else.”

Steal thisPick markets and arenas where the competition is weak rather than fighting the smartest, fastest players.

Buy paper-ledger storage from 65-year-olds, then automate it

Huber's edge: buy mom-and-pop self-storage in small-town America run by 65-year-olds who keep handwritten ledgers and never took a credit card, then automate so it runs without a full-time manager. That boosts net operating income and lets him find better yield where other investors won't go.

“But what we do that's kind of unique is we buy these self-storage facilities that are in small-town America, owned by 65-year-olds who literally keep paper ledgers, handwritten ledgers, and have never accepted a credit card or check. And we come in and we automate the facility, make it so we can run it without a full-time manager. And you boost the net operating income.”

Steal thisAcquire under-automated small-town operators and wrap them in cheap software to lift NOI and resale value.

Self-storage targets 15-20% cash-on-cash yield

Huber says cap rate is misleading once debt is involved; what matters is cash in the bank. His acquisitions target a 15% to 20% cash-on-cash yield on deployed capital.

“After you pay your debt service, you got to— the cash in the bank is what really matters. We target 15% to 20% cash-on-cash yield on the money that we deploy.”

Bonus depreciation: $500k in the bank, a $200k 'loss' on paper

Huber explains real estate's tax magic: bonus depreciation lets him write off 30% of a property's purchase price against profit in year one, so he can have $500,000 in the checking account while technically showing a $200,000 loss for the year.

“Bonus depreciation, we can count 30% of our purchase price against our profit year 1 as a tax write-off. And it's pretty spectacular what that can do for you when you wake up at the end of the year and you got $500,000 in your checking account, but you technically lost $200,000 that year.”

The cash-out refi flywheel: get your money back in 18 months

Self-storage is valued on income, so Huber raises rents and cuts costs to push an $80k-NOI facility to $120k, then refis at the new higher valuation. The bank lends 75% of the new value, returning his initial cash in ~18 months to redeploy into the next property.

“So we're spending $1 million to buy a facility that makes $80 grand. But we raise rents, we decrease costs, and all of a sudden it's $120,000. And the bank thinks it's worth more money now. So you should go back to the bank and say, hey, this thing I bought for a million bucks is now worth $1.5 million. And then they'll lend 75% of that $1.5 million. You get all your initial cash back that you put into that property in the first, you know, 18 months in, and you get to just go dump it into another property.”

Steal thisForce value by raising income, then cash-out refi to recycle your equity into the next deal.

From a $1,500 cargo van to $3 million in revenue

Huber bootstrapped his student-storage business with no outside money: a 1999 Cadillac DeVille from his grandma, $7-8k profit the first year, then a $1,500 cargo van. Revenue climbed from $120k to $500k to $1.2M to $2.5M to nearly $3M, all debt-free.

“In the first year, me and Danny made $7,000 or $8,000 with no expenses at all. And we used that $7,000 or $8,000 to buy a $1,500 cargo van and to lease a space and to get a bunch of flyers and to go do some marketing. And the next year we made, uh, you know, $120,000. And the year after that we made $500,000. And the year after that we made $1.2 million. And the year after that it was $2.5 million, and then $2.5 million, and then, you know, almost $3 million.”

Win home services by answering the phone and bidding instantly

Huber argues home services (painting, cleaning, washing) are wide open: be first on Google, answer the phone, and give instant online bids, and you can charge double the local competitor while converting 30% of leads. Reinvest profits over five years into a self-storage facility.

“Yeah, people are spending a ton of money in home services— painting, cleaning, maintaining, washing, doing all the stuff in your home that, um, like, if you want to charge double what the nearest competitor in town is charging, but you have your first on Google, you're going to answer the phone, you're going to provide online bids instantly to do the work, work, you can convert 30% of your leads instead of 70% or 80%, and you can make really good money doing this stuff.”

Steal thisOut-execute sloppy local contractors with fast phone pickup, instant online bids, and premium pricing.

The pooper-scooper millionaire: $550k at 40% margin, 3 hours a week

Huber's D.C. friend runs a dog-poop-scooping business doing $550k a year in sales at 40% margin, charging monthly fees. He works about three hours a week and clears a quarter million a year because nobody wants to scoop poop.

“And there's a good friend of mine in D.C. who runs a pooper scooper business that does $550 grand a year in sales at 40% margin. And he works 3 hours a week scooping poop out of people's yards, makes a quarter million dollars a year. Like, because nobody wants to scoop poop, it's scooping up people's dog poop.”

Someone will make a fortune fully automating hotel check-in

Huber predicts that in 5 to 10 years someone will make a ton of money by fully automating hotels, eliminating the front-desk check-in process the way Airbnb already lets guests self-check-in via their phones.

“I think 5 years from now, 10 years from now, somebody's going to make a ton of money by totally automating hotels. Why the heck do you need that check-in process when we have the technology to do all of it on our phones?”

The plumber out-earns the lawyers on the 54th floor

Huber's pool quote of the episode: the plumber walking into the law offices on the 54th floor of a New York City building is making more money than the lawyers he's there to fix the pipes for.

“They forget that the, the plumber walking into the law offices on the 54th floor in New York City are making more money than the lawyers. While they're there.”

T-shirt caricatures to Hanes to a $150M Planet Fitness fortune

Huber's example of compounding momentum: a guy sold caricature t-shirts out of his truck, struck an NBA deal to put them on Jordan and Bird after title wins, sold the business to Hanes for $3-4M, bought Planet Fitness franchises with the proceeds, and was worth $150M when Planet Fitness went public.

“And then he sold that business to Hanes for $3 or $4 million, started buying Planet Fitnesses with his $3 or $4 million. And then when Planet Fitness went public, he, he was worth $150 million. Business is all about momentum, right?”

Business is really about leverage: code, media, or capital

Shaan reframes Huber's success: business is ultimately about finding a point of leverage. Silicon Valley leverages code, Sam leverages media, and Huber leverages technology so one person can run four storage facilities, doubling NOI and enabling fast refis.

“I think you're right that business is about momentum, but business is also about leverage. I think really, really ultimately it's about leverage and you're trying to get enough momentum so that you're leveraging the different things that can be leveraged, right? Like in Silicon Valley, people leverage code, right?”

Steal thisPick a lever (software, capital, or media) that makes your business worth more with less work before you scale it.

Drive-through pet crematoriums on 1,000 sq ft of real estate

Huber pitches pet cremation as a niche real estate play: owners pay $300-$500 to cremate a dog and get an urn. Build a small drive-through on a 1,000-square-foot lot, staff it with low-skilled labor or an operator, and own the underlying real estate.

“People, people will pay $300 to $500 to take their dog in to get cremated and get an urn of their dogs where they can remember their pet. That's a lot That, yeah, it makes a ton of sense. And you make a little business that is like a drive-through. It sounds crazy, but it's a 1,000-square-foot piece of real estate and you put a pretty low-skilled staff in there or you pay an operator to operate it and you own the real estate and they're cropping up all over the place.”

Steal thisPair a niche cash-flow service like pet cremation with owning the small real estate it sits on.