Podcasts about beehiiv

Get Sam's guide to turn ChatGPT into your life coach: https://clickhubspot.com/edlv Episode 863: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) and Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) get coached by Joe Hudson ( https://x.com/FU_joehudson ) on the mental game of being a founder.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (2:35) Limiting beliefs (6:48) Mind, heart, gut (8:20) The self-reliance pattern (14:45) Unkink your hose (16:35) Phrases that change your thinking (18:20) Visualize the negative outcomes (21:35) Most common fear of founders: homelessness (23:45) Tricking your nervous system with repetition (27:35) Avoiding conflict (32:40) How to address conflict (38:35) Abusive self-talk patterns (42:45) Is this stuff worth doing? (50:40) Experiments to try this week (54:45) Why bliss destroys you (59:35) Finding your billion-dollar purpose (1:01:00) What's the Illuminati like in person? (1:04:00) How Joe got here (1:22:00) Where you click matters — Links: • The Art of Accomplishment - https://www.artofaccomplishment.com/  • Descartes' Error - https://a.co/d/0j1JxxLC  • Tibetan Book of Living and Dying - https://a.co/d/0apYnAGF  • The Inner Game of Tennis - https://a.co/d/0hy9hBRa  • Listen - https://a.co/d/0gzKTFBy  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Shaan's guide on how to build an audience: https://clickhubspot.com/tjsv Episode 862: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) teaches what it takes to build an audience in 18 minutes.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (1:00) Lesson 1: Who, not how many (2:28) Lesson 2: What should I talk about? (5:03) Lesson 3: Learn the 5 Ds (7:12) Lesson 4: OK this is getting long. But you're still here. Weird, right (7:55) Lesson 5: Don't worry about writing style or production quality (9:08) Lesson 6: Create a binge bank (10:03) Lesson 7: Feeling, not information (12:05) Lesson 8: “Be so good they can't ignore you” — Links: • My blog post - https://www.shaanpuri.com/essays/i-got-internet-famouse-if-i-started-again-from-scratch-heres-what-id-do-this-time  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Sam's database on how long it takes to become a millionaire: https://clickhubspot.com/pnlv Episode 861: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) sits down with David Rubenstein ( https://x.com/DM_Rubenstein ) to talk about turning Carlyle into $500B, his $14B miss, and the greatest business lessons in history.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Turning $5M into $500B (5:13) Scrappy private equity (11:58) Don't fool yourself (14:14) Turning down 20% of Amazon (16:23) Recruiting big shots (20:40) Finding the right partner (22:02) Trade-offs (27:39) Witnessing ascents to power (31:40) The Greatest Sentence Ever Written (33:37) History that repeats itself (35:49) Recommended Reading — Links: • Carlyl - https://www.carlyle.com/  • David's books - https://www.davidrubenstein.com/books/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

30+ unsexy business ideas: https://clickhubspot.com/pdnb Episode 860: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) chop it up with skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (1:20) Meeting Tony in Ethiopia (3:42) Economics of skate parks (12:38) The price of greatness  (17:54) Scraping by (26:33) The 900 (35:16) Tony Hawk's Pro Skater  (52:20) Investing (58:53) Influencing on internet culture (1:03:47) Aging skaters (1:08:07) Tickets  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

$1M+ problems worth solving (90+ business ideas): https://clickhubspot.com/phfl Episode 859: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talks to Danny Yeung ( https://x.com/DannyYeung_ ) about how he built a $200M business in 18 months.  — Links: • IM8 - https://im8health.com/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Welcome back to the latest season of The Publisher Podcast, bringing you the best of the main stage sessions from The Publisher Summit. This week's guest is Sarah Donaldson, co-founder of news start-up The Nerve. In a bit of a twist, this isn't actually audio from the Summit. We scheduled a 20 minute interview slot on stage with Sarah and barely scratched the surface of what we wanted to discuss as it's such a fascinating case study, so we caught up with her again over the summer as The Nerve nears its first birthday for an extended interview. The Nerve was launched last September by a group of five former Observer journalists. In less than a week after launching, it had hit 8,000 sign-ups and more than 1,000 paying members, all without a paywall. As they turn one, they've continued to go from strength to strength, and significantly are now on the brink of sustainability. Sarah talks about the opportunity they spotted to launch a news and culture brand, which audience touchpoints they decided to focus on, and why they've seen such early success. Thanks to the Summit's premium sponsors; Pugpig and Beehiiv, and to the digital sponsors; qwoted, Adestra, Woodwing and Warners for their support.

140+ real business ideas database: https://clickhubspot.com/lrgo Episode 858: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk about the weird ways people go all in on strange hobbies and make millions doing it.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (0:24) scent social club (1:54) Museum hacks (16:34) Mafia tours (21:39) Dolly Parton--Honorary Billy of The Week (45:04) LeBron James's brilliant business move — Links: • Scent Social Club - https://www.scentsocialclub.com/  • We Don't Sell Saddles Here - https://medium.com/@stewart/we-dont-sell-saddles-here-4c59524d650d  • Equine Network - https://equinenetwork.com/  • Museum Hack - https://museumhack.com/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Parry Headrick, Founder of Crackle PR, is helping B2B technology companies offer LLM-digestible messages through earned media, human-centered writing, and strategic communication. Driven by the belief that where people start does not determine where they finish, Parry has built an empathetic, senior-led agency that works exclusively with good companies and empowers its people to share their expertise openly.  In this conversation, Parry introduces The LinkedIn Cheat-code Framework: Post every day, Tap into news stories, Weave in audience impact, and No-CTA. He explains how consistently sharing valuable ideas and expecting nothing in return helped him build an audience, generate most of his leads through LinkedIn, and shorten the sales cycle from three months to one week. Parry also discusses how LinkedIn thought leadership creates a virtuous cycle of earned media and LLM citations, why websites and PR content must be readable by both humans and machines, and how a senior-led agency can scale without sacrificing quality. He also shares why human writers will become more valuable as AI-generated content creates a growing sea of sameness. — Offer LLM-Digestible Messages with Parry Headrick  Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and my guest today is Parry Headrick, the Founder of Crackle PR, a B2B tech public relations agency that works with good companies only. Crackle PR is a senior-led B2B tech PR agency built for the LLM era, where earned media is no longer just a brand builder, it is the vital infrastructure that feeds foundation models. Parry, welcome to the show.  It’s a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.  Well, it’s great to have you, and you are all about LLMs and how to get through the AI filters, which is relevant for all of us. But before we jump in, I’d like to ask you my $64,000 question. What is your personal Why, and how are you manifesting it in Crackle PR?  Yeah, that’s a good question. And I haven’t really been asked that question in that way before, but if I had to nail the answer, it would be this. So I started out with humble beginnings. My family didn’t have any money really to speak of. We wore secondhand clothes. It was the typical scratching and clawing our way up story. And I had a difficult childhood with divorces and everything, and I ended up getting kicked out of high school. Seventh grade was the last grade I actually completed. I was kicked out of two different schools three different times.  And the last time I was dismissed, I was told by the principal that I would have a long life working at McDonald’s. It was a real dagger that he put in my heart as he showed me the door. And I just thought at that point that didn’t seem like something that someone in power should say to someone who had none. And that kind of informed everything that I’ve done since, including being a reporter where I covered stories trying to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, all the way into how I’ve tried to create an agency that is predicated on doing it with empathy.  And we have an ironclad no-assh*les policy. I hope you don’t mind the swear there. That means internally and externally. We won’t work for jerks, and we won’t tolerate brilliant jerks that work with us because that tends to be very cancerous for an organization. So that’s the Why, is where you start doesn't really dictate where you finish, and I'm determined to prove that that's the case.Share on X  Yeah. I love it. And that’s one of the benefits of being in business for yourself. You can select your own clients. You don’t have to accept the ones that you don’t like. But few people actually put a stake in the ground and actually declare it, right? It’s harder to do it than to just make some compromises.  Yeah.  So tell me about Crackle PR. I really like the name of Crackle PR. I kind of sense what it might mean, but why don’t you explain how you came up with this?  Well, good question. I like these layups you’re giving me here. So I started Crackle during the pandemic, actually, when most of us were staring at the walls of our home thinking, “What the heck is going on?” There were riots in the streets. People couldn’t go anywhere, and it was really this sort of just dark malaise that covered the world. And it was that time that I thought, “What if I were to start a PR agency that is the antithesis of the large ones that I had built?”  So prior to Crackle, I had built a couple of the largest privately held tech PR agencies in North America. The models at these large agencies, as you probably know, are very hierarchical, where you trot out the Parrys of the world and the VPs, and then the model demands that you have most of the work done by juniors because that’s how you make the money. And I thought, what if we just, instead of trying to get big at all costs, what if we instead had a very prescriptive model where, instead of paying for offices in Manhattan and San Francisco, what if we just put that money into our talent and had a senior team that did the work, and we didn’t have a whole bunch of overhead? Wouldn’t that be cool?  And what if we also, as I just mentioned, don’t work with any jerks, and we work just with companies that are good people doing good stuff? And that was the true north for the company to start. And so we’ve been very fortunate in the intervening years. We now have 15 full-time employees, another five consultants. We’re hiring prescriptively and slowly. We don’t want to grow for the sake of growth. And we have clients all the way from seed rounds of funding to publicly traded companies. We really run the gamut. It's a B2B tech PR shop primarily.Share on X  But I always thought that the bad people need more PR than the good people.  Well, they may, but we’re not here to put lipstick on pigs. I had somebody that told me in my life one time that you don’t get into the mud with the pigs because the pig will love it, but you’ll both get dirty. And that’s not a game I’m looking to play. So I didn’t actually answer the question about Crackle itself. So the idea was that during that dark, dark time—COVID, riots, craziness everywhere. We wanted to represent a bit of goodness in the world. So I just pictured the world being this heap of ashesShare on X and under those ashes was a little spark, a little crackle of life, a little ember of goodness that was going to come out of all this. And that was really the impetus for the name, and it’s really guided the true north of the company.  Love it. That’s really fun. And your hat looks good, too.  You see the little spark, the little crackle right there?  I see it. Yeah. It’s like a Christmas cracker. So, okay, this podcast is called Management Blueprint because we are looking for, or I’m looking for, frameworks that people came up with, that they stumbled upon, which other listeners might apply to their business. So what’s a framework that you could share with us which can be explained in three to five steps that helps you get an insight or communicate better or organize better, something that helps you be more effective?  Yeah. So this may not be a big surprise. Some of your listeners may follow me on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is my cheat code. When I first started this business, I went to LinkedIn with my full self.Share on X Determined to tell everyone the good, the bad, the ugly about the industry that I’m in, which is public relations. And a surprising thing happened. At the time, there weren’t a lot of people kind of being truth tellers in their respective industries. But I stuck to that same framework, speaking truth to power, which goes back to my Why.  An interesting thing happened, which is I tended to get a bunch of followers really quickly, and they would DM me saying, “Finally, someone’s just saying it like it really is in the industry. Finally, someone is lifting back the curtain. Finally, finally, finally.” And so I just doubled down on that approach. And so fast-forward to today, I have 82,000 followers on LinkedIn. The majority of my business comes in through DMs on LinkedIn from them having read my posts, my thoughts.  And by the time they actually come to me, they already have a good sense for my ethos, how I think, how I operate, that I work with good companies only. They know me. So the vetting process is 75% of the way done by the time they ever reach out. So that’s the cheat code. I’ve shortened the sales cycle from my old world being three months down to a week. If we have a phone call, we put together a quick proposal, and then it’s done because they are already looking to hire me when they reach out. So that’s the framework, that’s the cheat code, that’s the hack, and it’s applicable to just about any industry.  Okay. So I love it. So let’s break it down. So how do you create this effect where people pick up the phone or DM you and within a week sign you up? What is the process?  Yeah. So the process is just I post literally every day of my life. Maybe weekends I’ll take a break, it depends. But every work weekday I am posting. It is not a nice-to-have, it is a mission-critical function of Crackle PR. I would say up until recently, about 90% of my leads came in through my commentary and writing and posting on LinkedIn.  And it's really me just sharing everything that I know, including commenting on the news of the day tapping into the zeitgeist about issues that are happening from a public relations standpoint, and sharing real-time thought leadership across my…Share on X And so it’s not a simple process of, like, I do A and then B. It’s really more like, what’s happening today? What’s a story that I should tell and comment on today? And then how is that going to positively impact my key audiences?  I’m always doing it with the intent to simply share value and expect nothing in return. I almost never ask for anything. Occasionally I’ll say, “Hey, does anybody know a good account manager?” But I’m not out there selling my wares on LinkedIn. I’m very simply ungating my brain and letting everyone have access to it, and the right people find me at the right time.  Love it. Love it. So the four steps I heard were: post every day, tap into the zeitgeist or the story of the day, how to impact your key audience, so essentially the story and how can you turn it into something that helps people, and no CTA at the end.  That’s right.  Yeah. Love it. That’s a great framework.  Yeah. It’s great. And you know what’s interesting is that it’s multifaceted in the sense I’ve told you already that the majority of my business comes from LinkedIn, okay? Because I share what I know. It’s thought leadership in real time, and it’s a captive audience. The byproduct of that is interesting, which is that I am constantly written about in the news by, like, The Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, you name the publication. Because they’re finding me on that platform and reading what I have to say and reaching out for comment to expand on those ideas.  So it's got this virtuous cycle where, as a PR guy myself, it's interesting that I'm putting thoughts out into the world and I'm attracting earned mediaShare on X which is the coveted thing that all of the LLMs I talk about rest on, because 82% or something of citations across LLMs come from earned media. So it’s a really virtuous cycle that I’ve stumbled upon and that I’m trying to refine and hone over time.  So basically, you’re drinking your own Kool-Aid. Yeah. Sometimes I wonder, a lot of marketing agencies, they sell marketing, but they are not able to market themselves well.  “The cobbler’s children have no shoes” is the common expression.  Exactly. But you are the cobbler’s child who found a pair of shoes, and this is actually doing what you’re preaching others should do. So that’s kind of very, very counterintuitively intuitive.  Well, just to add on that quickly. So public relations, we’re about promoting and publicity and all of that. The bizarre irony is that the vast majority of people who are great at writing, great at promoting, like me, don’t post on LinkedIn. They’re not sharing their thoughts out there. They’re not doing what they were born to do, which is a really fascinating thing.  And I think part of it is where they work and they’re afraid they’ll say the wrong thing or maybe lose a client or whatever it may be. But my idea is, and I tell my team this, my staff this, is like, “I want you out there sharing how smart you are every single day. I’m under no illusions that you’ll be with me until the end of your life, okay? But while you’re with me, I want you sharing what you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly about our industry, because that’ll help you gain a brand, and it’ll help me attract an audience.”  It’s a win-win. So I wish more people had that mindset where they weren’t stingy about who has a voice but rather empowered everyone across the organization to use that voice for the better of the organization and for themselves.  Yeah, but it takes discipline to write every day. It’s not easy. It’s not easy at all. It’s easier for others than some. I mean, I was a journalist. I came up writing, so for me, it’s just a natural thing, and most PR people are writers. So you’d think it would be pretty easy for us because we write every day for our clients, but I would say probably 85-plus percent of the people in my profession are either afraid or don’t have time or just don’t want to do it, and I just think it’s a shame. They’re leaving a lot of at-bats on the field.  No, absolutely. Absolutely. So you kind of half answered my question that I’m going to ask, but I’m going to ask it anyway because I’m curious about other aspects to it. So what drives growth in your business?  Yeah. So if you asked me this six months ago, I would’ve said primarily it’s LinkedIn and referrals. Today, I’m happy to report that it’s referrals and LinkedIn, and also my optimized website, my website that’s optimized for the LLM era. Again, another example of eating my own dog food here, where I’m making my website readable both to humans and the machines that cite, and I’m preemptively going after the earned media pieces that will then fuel citations for my company and for my website.  So again, I’m trying to create this flywheel here, and I think I’ve been pretty successful so far. I would argue probably among the most successful in PR agencies, where I’m feeding the beast constantly and prescriptively doing so, so that my website, my LinkedIn work, my earned media hits all effectively get scraped and cited by these LLMs, which is the future of search, obviously.  Yeah.  I still use Google occasionally, but even Google is just the AI explanation up top. You’re not even going down, scrolling anymore. You’re just getting the quick explanations. And so everything is headed that way, and I think that being a first mover on that front is particularly important. And I think any marketer that is not looking at the LLM landscape as the next great frontier is missing the boat.  Oh, yeah. I love it. So how do these LLMs work? Do you have an insight, a deeper insight as to how to create these quotes or how to show up? Is it just writing every day, making original posts, or is there more to it?  There’s a bunch of things, and this could be a topic for a podcast in and of itself, but I’ll just talk in basic terms to not have your audience’s eyes glaze over. It used to be that, for example, we would write in PR a press release that was very narrative in structure. X company today announced, and the CEO is proud, and all of that kind of stuff. And then that was used to then go pitch the media.  Well, the LLMs are scraping these press releases now, and what you want to try and do is make it as easy as possible for them to lift the essence of that informationShare on X in an attributable way to the author or the company that is in question here. So it’s about making it digestible and ingestible for the LLMs, and there’s a variety of techniques and tricks that you can do this with, and your audience can do a quick search and find those tricks. But there’s a whole playbook now about how to do that, and it’s not even just things like press releases, but it’s how you structure your bylined articles that you place, and it’s how you frame your conversations with reporters so that you’re saying things in such a way that the LLMs will ingest these and then in turn cite these for respective audiences.  And by the way, whether it’s Gemini, ChatGPT, all these different models, they all look for different things. So some of them rely heavily on places like Reddit. Some of them rely heavily on places like YouTube. Some of them ingest things more frequently than others. So there’s a whole cornucopia of things that has to be done if you’re really going to dial it in because no two LLMs are alike, and they value different things, and they weight them more heavily. So it really is a science, more so than an art form, which is what I think PR is largely known to be, more of an art form.Share on X  Yeah. Yeah. So at the beginning of this conversation, you shared that you have been part of big PR companies, and you wanted to do it differently. You wanted to have a senior people-heavy agency where, I guess, people get straight from the horse’s mouth what they want to have. So is this model scalable? And if so, how?  Yeah, it is scalable. And I think there’s a distinction. So when I say senior talent, I’m not talking about only VPs. So we have account directors, we have account managers, we have senior account executives. So they’re a little further down on the scale.  But what we don’t have is interns and account coordinators and the very earliest players. So everybody has at least four to five years of experience on the team. And so in that sense, it is scalable, provided that the minimum retainers are sufficient. So we have a $12,000 minimum monthly retainer, and that’s very intentional because we know what we need to do to be able to be profitable and to continue to hire and scale, to your point.  So yeah, it is scalable, but it takes work, and it took a lot of hand-wringing and mistakes along the way to get to a point where we’re able to do it now. But it’s kind of beautiful in the sense that I don’t want to be a huge 250-person agency. I think I’m comfortable in the 20- to 50-employee range, and then I’ll probably, in a few years, ride off into the sunset, having made a very good earning or good living, rather and I’m not trying to become a billionaire here.  So who are your ideal customers that you’ll hire?  Yeah. Typically, it’s, first of all, good companies doing good things. We don’t want to work with tobacco companies or people that are negatively contributing to the world. And it’s typically B2B technology companies in A round, B round, C round, D round of funding, or even publicly traded companies. It’s a pretty wide swath, but the common thread is B2B tech is the sweet spot. And again, we’re looking for largely challenger brands. There are some that are the leaders that we have, but I think it's much more interesting to help build a brand than it is to maintain one. So those are the kinds of clients we tend to look for.Share on X  So do you do the same thing for them that you do for yourself, for your agency, or is it a different approach?  Yeah. No, I mean, we focus a heck of a lot more on earned media for our clients because that still is the lifeblood of a traditional PR program. But the earned media, as we just talked about, inform the LLMs that are now citing them in their answers. So we got thrown kind of a bouquet in PR. Everybody’s talking about AI being difficult and losing jobs, and a lot of that is true. The PR industry got kind of fortunate in the sense that earned media is more important than it’s ever been because LLMs rely on them to cite their sources.  And it’s an unfortunate problem because at the same time PR is more important than ever, reporters in the media landscape are dwindling faster than ever.Share on X There are reporters getting laid off everywhere. There’s all kinds of restructuring. There’s reporters bouncing around, going to Substack, trying to eke out a living. And I just wish there was a way to create more parity where 10 years ago, 15 years ago, the media landscape was really strong, and now it’s really struggling.  Now, this isn’t to say there aren’t opportunities out there to pitch the media because there’s more people, and it’s just more diffuse. So you have all these different audiences that you didn’t have before, like Beehiiv and Substack and podcasts and all of these disparate groups, whereas it used to just be, “Here’s my 25 newspapers and magazines we’re going after,” and that was the entirety of it. So now it requires a lot more work, a lot more research to find out where your audiences are and who they’re reading or what they’re watching or which podcast that they’re looking at.  So it requires PR people to be more resourceful, to spend a lot more time researching who they're going after and making sure they're very precise in their outreachShare on X versus the old days when it was this spray-and-pray approach, knowing that some amount of people will cover it and so therefore it’s worth it. Today, it’s about you have to make sure you’re not wasting anyone’s time and making sure that you’ve done your homework.  Yeah, it’s becoming a very fragmented business. So what is your expectation of the future as these big media outlets are disintegrating, consolidating, or even disappearing? Is it just going to be more atomized, or is this a cyclical thing where you have the fragmentation, and then it’s going to consolidate again?  Yeah. The answer is I’m not sure. What I would like to happen is what some—I know some countries actually fund the free and fair media to make sure that it’s a healthy ecosystem where there are checks and balances. I am not under the illusion that that’s going to happen in this country anytime soon, although I wish it would, because it’s really for the betterment of everyone.  But I think what will happen in the short term is more of what’s happening now, which is the atomization of all these folks going to different platforms to try to eke out a living on their own. They’re taking agency of their lives. But I would like to think against that backdrop there’ll be a movement, because businesses are going to require it at some point, that there’s third-party validation from trusted sources.  I would like there to be a consortium of some sort built where companies of a certain size are all contributing to the same pool to try to get this healthy landscape that we need. I don’t know the answers. I haven’t solved it. If I did, I’d be a very, very wealthy man. But I know that the government in some countries are actively funding a free and fair press, and I really wish we would do that here.  So let me switch gears here and ask you a very different question.  Okay.  If you had a magic wand and you could fix one thing in your company in the next 12 months, what would that be?  I think it would be that I could adequately teach everyone in the organization how best to utilize tools like Claude Code and others to automate much of the grunt work that takes time away from strategy. So we are really strategic. We do a lot of brainstorming. We are great at our thinking and our writing and pitching and all of that.Share on X  But there’s a whole heck of a lot of stuff that’s related to reporting and research and stuff that just takes a whole lot of time. So I wish everybody could just instantly understand how best to use these tools to eliminate the drudgery from our jobs, to focus instead on the strategy.  Why do you think it’s not happening?  There’s a learning curve, and frankly, there is an expense. These tokens are not inexpensive, so you have to pay a bunch of money for these things. You have to put the time in. You have to have an appetite to learn it, and then you have to have the aptitude to learn it. Now, I’ve gotten pretty, pretty good at this stuff. I’m self-taught. I built my own website using these tools. I mean, I’m pretty deep myself. But at the end of the day, most of my employees are working their butts off on their client stuff, and this stuff I’m talking about is kind of extracurricular and difficult to do.  And so what I’m trying to do. We just talked about this last week is putting aside office hours for everyone to figure out these big, hairy projects they want to get better at and learn and devote time to it on my dime.Share on X I’m happy to pay for it, for them to put the work in, get the skills that they need to be able to make shorter work of the stuff that just takes too long and isn’t, frankly, satisfying professionally.  Yeah. I mean, it is uncomfortable when people have to learn something that is completely different from the skills that they have been making their money with, right?  Yeah. Well, and I’ll take it a step further. So I’ve been quoted in a couple of, like The Guardian recently, about some of these commencement speeches where you have one of the heads of Google and all these bigwigs at college commencement speeches talking about AI and ushering in this new revolution, and they’re getting booed. They’re getting booed while they’re speaking because the students in these halls recognize that there’s an existential threat right now in the form of AI.  They already have enough challenges relative to affordability and buying a home and all these different things, and now you’re telling them that AI is going to take a huge chunk of their jobs before they even get out of the gate. And against that backdrop, they’re not being equipped in college to be able to come out into the real world with the coding skill, the Claude Code skills I’m talking about now.  So they’re coming out handcuffed and kneecapped out of the gate into this world that they’ve been foisted upon. And I think that’s a big challenge. And so bringing it back to my office, or anybody who’s in the situation we are, everybody’s kind of grudgingly learning how to do this stuff or else. Or else you’ll fall behind, or else you won’t have a job, or else someone will take your job. And I think that’s a very real angsty feeling that a lot of people have.  And so part of me feels guilty for wanting to tell my people, “Look, we’ve got to get skilled up on these things,” because I know a lot of people would rather it just didn’t exist. But pretending something doesn’t exist isn’t the way forward. You've got to look it square in the face, realize what it is, and then do your level best to try to maximize what you can with it. And that's where we're at.Share on X  Do you see a lot of disruption happening in PR, or are agencies just waking up to this issue?  Yeah, I see a lot of disruption, and I think it’s for the worse. I think right now what we’re seeing is there are a whole lot of agencies that are taking the AI slop, spray-and-pray approach. Like, they are literally using these AI machines to pitch all these reporters who, by the way, can tell when they’re getting pitched with AI, and then they’re immediately getting blacklisted because they don’t want to deal with the machine. So yes, there’s disruption, but I think it’s noise instead of a positive disruption. I think there’s not much to be gained from the AI tools that way.  I will say it’s disrupted the way some of the largest agencies have operated because for years they worked on a time-and-materials model. That’s a little difficult to justify now when you have machines doing in seconds what used to take weeks or sometimes months from a research standpoint. So that’s disrupted the whole agency model. And I would argue that’s for the better because the time-and-materials model, I think, was an excuse for busy work.  Yeah. That is true. What do you suggest if someone is looking for a PR agency? What is the criteria that they should apply to evaluate an agency? What kind of agency should they be choosing?  Yeah. So I mean, I think there’s a couple things I would say. One is, make sure that you understand who’s actually doing the work on your team. There’s a classic bait-and-switch problem in PR. I already talked about this, where it’s like you talk to me during the call, and then you have an intern doing your work, and that obviously isn’t very equitable. So there’s that. I think having proficiency in the new world relative to large language models and share of citation.  I think that stuff is really important now because directionally that’s where we’re headed. And then for me, the one thing that is so true it was true the day I started my agency, and it’ll always be true is hire strong writers, real human writers. Because the AI slop is nauseating out there. Something like 60% of posts on LinkedIn are now written by AI, as reported by LinkedIn. And people are just getting really sick of this sea of sameness because AI really is just the average of everything that’s come before it, everything that’s been written before it.  It’s an average of that. And that’s a path to mediocrity really, really quickly. So strong writers, senior leaders who are doing the work, I think, are key, and then obviously prowess around the idea of how to get your products and services cited across the LLMs that are becoming increasingly important every day.  Love it. Love it. That’s very encouraging because what I see is that these platforms, like Claude, they offer to codify your writing voice and write in your voice. What do you think of these approaches?  Yeah. I think probably for some lines of work it might make sense. For our world, it just does not. If you’re a writer and you’ve valued the English language, you can very quickly determine what’s AI and what is not. And that’s the case with all of the reporters that are covering our clients every day. So they know what’s AI. People in our industry know what AI is, and you can just tell when someone is responding with AI.  You’re getting a note in the mail that’s written by AI. You’re getting an email back from AI. It’s just nauseating, and it’s just disheartening. And I think that there is going to increasingly be a premium placed on human writers and human artists and people who are doing human work that has real value and real thought versus the distillation of everything that’s come before it, which is what AI is.  So if people would like to learn more about you or read your posts or connect with your team, where should they go?  So cracklepr.com is the website. I am Parry Headrick on LinkedIn. You can find me there. And I’ve gotten off of most of the other social platforms because I’ve had some issues with the Facebooks of the world, and so I canceled those a long time ago. So Bluesky would be another one. Parry Headrick on Bluesky.  Okay. Well, if you liked what you heard and you want real writers who will be discovered by LLMs, and you want to get your company featured on ChatGPT and Claude and the other platforms, then check out Parry Headrick, Founder of Crackle PR. Start reading his posts, which I will be. I think I already am. And if you enjoyed this conversation, then stay tuned because a couple of times a week I’ll bring an exciting entrepreneur who has changed the world and will share their unique frameworks with you. So thanks for coming, Parry, and thanks for listening. It’s been my pleasure. Thanks. Important Links: Parry's LinkedIn Parry's website

Get Sam and Shaan's CEO lessons in one guide: https://clickhubspot.com/epmw Episode 857: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk about the extreme behaviors of the most legendary CEOs.  — Show Notes: (0:00) CEO Moves (2:49) Move 1: Option Drop (10:39) Move 2: Friction Removal Service (12:55) Move 3: 1-bit communication (19:35) Move 4: Single-tasking (23:18) Move 5: Continuous culling  (26:05) Move 6: Reward failure (27:06) Move 7: Clone yourself (30:18) Alternative: Give up on greatness (also fine) (35:59) Just be great — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

In this episode, we sit down with Nirav Tolia, co-founder and CEO of Nextdoor and a longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur who previously co-founded Epinions, which became Shopping.com.We discuss the lonely reality of being a CEO, building and rebuilding companies through failure, why Nirav returned to Nextdoor after years away, navigating fear and self-doubt as a leader, and how established technology companies can adapt in the age of AI. We also get into his time on Shark Tank, working alongside Mark Cuban and Kevin O'Leary, and what stepping away from Silicon Valley taught him about business and life.If you're interested in entrepreneurship, startups, leadership, Silicon Valley, AI, Shark Tank, building companies, or understanding what it's really like to lead a business through its hardest moments, this episode is for you.This episode is supported by Sydecar, HEX, Wispr Flow, Granola, Beehiiv, KalshiSydecar: https://sydecar.io/partners/trailblazersbeehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/splash?utm_campaign=trailblazers-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=trailblazers&utm_term=podcast-14&stripe_campaign_code=TRAILBLAZERS30 (or use code “trailblazers30” for 30% OFF)Granola: http://granola.ai/trailblazers *Granola is the official notetaker of Trailblazers! Check out the episode show notes here: https://notes.granola.ai/t/55838edb-522f-4468-a139-fad215bab7ca-00b881l8Kalshi: http://Kalshi.com/r/trailblazersWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/trailblazersHEX: http://hex.ai/trailblazers

In this episode, we sit down with Jack Raines, investor at Slow Ventures and author of Young Money, a book about navigating the career, money, and life decisions that define your 20s.We discuss how to avoid wasting your 20s, why you should spend more money while you're young, how to balance ambition with adventure, how to know when you're on the wrong career path, and why building a personal brand without real substance can become a career liability.If you're interested in careers, money, investing, entrepreneurship, venture capital, personal branding, AI, or making better decisions in your 20s, this episode is for you.This episode is supported by Sydecar, HEX, Wispr Flow, Granola, Beehiiv, KalshiSydecar: https://sydecar.io/partners/trailblazersbeehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/splash?utm_campaign=trailblazers-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=trailblazers&utm_term=podcast-13&stripe_campaign_code=TRAILBLAZERS30 (or use code “trailblazers30” for 30% OFF)Granola: http://granola.ai/trailblazers*Granola is the official notetaker of Trailblazers! Check out the episode's show notes here: https://notes.granola.ai/t/5d11c7d5-3a1a-4c00-bbfa-aa06845fd977-008umkv4Kalshi: http://Kalshi.com/r/trailblazersWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/trailblazersHEX: http://hex.ai/trailblazers

What does it actually take to build and run a successful newsletter business? In this episode of Send & Grow 2.0, Hunter Kallay sits down with Jakub Chodounský, who runs four curated newsletters, to talk about the realities of building a newsletter business—from keeping content fresh and managing a relentless publishing schedule to finding ways to step away without everything falling apart. #Newsletter #NewsletterBusiness #EmailMarketing #NewsletterGrowth #creatoreconomy They talk about the challenges of running time-sensitive newsletters, how Jakub approaches growth, what he's learned from building multiple publications, and what it really takes to keep a newsletter business going week after week. Follow Jakub's newsletters: C# Digest (https://csharpdigest.net/), React Digest (https://reactdigest.net/), Programming Digest (https://programmingdigest.net/) and Leadership in Tech (https://leadershipintech.com/) Hunter's newsletter: FryAI (https://www.fry-ai.com/) 

How Wade uses AI (steal his prompts): https://clickhubspot.com/efcd Episode 856: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Wade Foster ( https://x.com/wadefoster ) about how he uses AI to save himself hours of work every day.   — Show Notes: (0:00) intro (2:27) The sales pitch  (7:04) My Robot Executive Staff, Waking Up Like The President (14:13) Evening brief (17:39) AI that argues with you (19:32) War Council skill (31:53) How to use AI to hire better (48:15) being a billionaire before 40 (51:17) a case for not having a chip on your shoulder (54:36) 1-dimensional winners (1:00:55) recommended reading — Links: • Zapier - https://zapier.com/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Media Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

If you work in tech long enough, there's a good chance you'll go through a layoff. Either your own, or one that leaves you wondering whether you're next. Shanon Olsen, COO of Henley Leadership, works with executives and organizations navigating growth, disruption, and change. In this episode, we talk about why layoffs should be understood as a cultural breakdown rather than a one-day event, what happens when founders build companies they aren't prepared to lead, and why CEOs can delegate just about everything — except culture. I've been on both sides of this equation, so I asked Shanon about how to stay committed to your work without making your employer your identity, why it's important to maintain relationships outside your company, how to assess whether a workplace is recovering after layoffs, and why staying in a job and exploring other possibilities don't have to be mutually exclusive. RUNTIME 48:52   EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:05) When does a startup stop being a startup?  (9:37) If you're not ready to let someone go, you shouldn't be the CEO (14:57) Why layoffs are a "cultural breakdown"  (19:56) How should the CEO behave after layoffs?  (23:50) Building a culture that's resilient enough to weather layoffs (26:58) How to tell an employee WHY you're laying them off (32:38) " Identify what's your purpose outside of your position."  (39:13) How to tell if your company is recovering after layoffs  (44:23) Should you stay or leave after layoffs?  

In today's episode, we're diving into a topic that affects nearly everyone: digital stress and the way modern life keeps our brains and nervous systems stuck in constant overdrive. From nonstop notifications and endless scrolling to informationoverload and fractured attention, our brains were never designed to process this much input all day, every day.We'll explore how digital overload fuels anxiety, disrupts sleep, weakens focus, and contributes to burnout, while also discussing what neuroscience teaches us about calming the nervous system. Most importantly, we'll share practicalstrategies — including mindfulness, breathwork, and simple daily habits — that can help restore resilience, clarity, and a greater sense of balance in an always-connected world.Joining us is Dr. Brian RamosDr. Ramos is a Yale-trained neuroscientist and stress expert. He is the founder of Zen Brain Academy, which is a brain health and nervous system training platform built to help people thrive in the AI-powered Digital Age. His signature M.B.M.N.S. framework, which stands for mindfulness, Breathwork, Movement, Nature, and Sleep, gives overwhelmed achievers a practical, science-backed system for managing chronic stress and digital overload.He is the author of The Art of Stress-Free Living and Inside OutCalm, and is currently writing The Digital Age Dilemma, adeeper exploration of how modern technology is reshaping the human nervous system. Through his weekly newsletter, the Zen Brain Blueprint on Beehiiv, his Zen Brain YouTube channel, and his upcoming AI brain coaching app,HeyZenith.ai, Dr. Ramos is on a mission to help today's professionals protect their attention, restore their calm, and reclaim their cognitive edge. We are also proud to have him as a Fellow of The American Institute of Stress.

In this episode, we sit down with Nadya Okamoto, serial entrepreneur and creator who founded PERIOD at 16, went on to build period care brand August, and is now Co-Founder and CMO of social app Pie.We discuss why every founder should become a creator, how building an audience can become a competitive advantage, why posting more can outperform perfect content, the unglamorous reality of building a startup, and why the next generation of companies will need to compete for attention.If you're interested in entrepreneurship, startups, content creation, social media, marketing, personal branding, or understanding how attention can become a business advantage, this episode is for you.This episode is supported by Sydecar, HEX, Wispr Flow, Granola, Beehiiv, KalshiSydecar: https://sydecar.io/partners/trailblazersbeehiiv: www.beehiiv.com/splash?utm_campaign=trailblazers-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=trailblazers&utm_term=podcast-12&stripe_campaign_code=TRAILBLAZERS30 (or use code “trailblazers30” for 30% OFF)Granola: http://granola.ai/trailblazers*Granola is the official notetaker of Trailblazers! Check out the episode show notes here: https://notes.granola.ai/t/744dba26-26b1-4095-aee4-3d54531745fb-008umkv4Kalshi: http://Kalshi.com/r/trailblazersWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/trailblazersHEX: http://hex.ai/trailblazers

Sam's database on how long it takes to become a millionaire: https://clickhubspot.com/elkv Episode 855: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Allison Ellsworth, the founder of Poppi.   — Links: • Poppi - https://drinkpoppi.com/  • Josie Rushing - https://josiesrushing.com/  • Orion - https://orionsleep.com/  • Nello - https://drinknello.com/  • Preston Lane - https://www.onprestonlane.com/  • Blue Land - https://www.blueland.com/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

30+ unsexy business ideas: https://clickhubspot.com/dwtb Episode 854: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) ask 3 founders to tell them the juiciest number behind their businesses and get advice live.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Rishi Talati, Hot Plate (20:10) Ajay Mehta, Tolan (39:53) Jonathan Baer, Overlap — Links: • Hot Plate - https://www.hotplate.com/  • Tolan - https://www.tolans.com/  • Overlap - https://overlap.ai/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

America is getting older. Tens of millions of people are caring for parents, grandparents and other family members. The problems are everywhere, and many of them are painful, expensive and still poorly served by technology. That does not mean every care-related startup is a good business, however. Tatyana Zlotsky, CEO of A Place for Mom, joins me to talk about what founders need to understand before building for older adults and the people who care for them. We discuss why "seniors" aren't a single customer segment, how to conduct customer research in a market you don't know, and why founders need to distinguish between the person using a product, the person making the decision and the person actually paying for it.  Tatyana also explains why private-pay and insurance-backed businesses require fundamentally different approaches, and shares the story of a founder who spent more than a year changing course after discovering he'd chosen the wrong customer. We also dig into AI. Tatyana explains why starting with what the technology can do is backwards, why proprietary customer data can create a meaningful advantage, and why founders should ask whether they're really building something that general-purpose AI can't already provide. This is a conversation about finding real problems, understanding who you're solving them for, and building businesses around customer needs instead of technology trends. RUNTIME 38:51   EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:21) Tatyana Zlotsky's path to A Place for Mom (4:46) Why senior care remains an underbuilt market (9:20) The real problems caregivers need solved (12:36) Why “seniors” aren't a single customer segment (16:31) How to do customer research in the care market (20:35) Why “AI for X” isn't a business strategy (24:02) Private pay vs. insurance: deciding who pays (26:50) What happens when founders choose the wrong business model (28:59) The senior-care product Tatyana wishes someone would build (33:24) What makes a care startup worth taking seriously (36:19) Why families shouldn't wait for a care crisis LINKS Tatyana Zlotsky A Place For Mom Oura Fitbit Are you building something that's hard to explain? That's often a sign you're working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you're missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they're the right team to make it happen. If you're preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com

If you have a startup idea, how do you know whether you're onto something—or just really good at convincing yourself? Pete Martin has spent his career finding out. He's worked at six cybersecurity startups, most of them in the pre-product, pre-revenue days, with two IPOs along the way. Today, he's CEO and co-founder of Realm Security. In this episode, we get tactical about finding the right early adopters, running customer discovery that produces actual signal, recognizing patterns in the feedback, and knowing when someone's interest is strong enough to ask a question that makes a lot of founders uncomfortable:  Would you pay for this? And if you've got an idea but aren't ready to quit your day job, Pete lays out a seven-day experiment you can run to start finding out whether there's really something there. RUNTIME 36:19   EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:51) What does Realm do today, and who's buying it? (3:28) Finding the right early adopters (8:01) Where to locate your first potential customers (12:54) Why customer discovery requires volume (18:55) How to write outreach that gets a (positive) response (21:05) When to say no to a potential customer (23:48) Sell the outcome, not the features (28:33) A seven-day experiment to test your startup idea (33:01) When is it time to hire a sales team?  LINKS Pete Martin Realm Security Are you building something that's hard to explain? That's often a sign you're working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you're missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they're the right team to make it happen. If you're preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com

30+ blue-collar business ideas: https://clickhubspot.com/refn Episode 853: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) ask 3 founders to tell them the juiciest number behind their businesses and get advice live.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Nick Haschka, OnPoint Generators (17:39) Kevin Moyer, Smash My Trash (36:54) Noam Eisenberg, TMJaw — Links: • OnPoint Generators - https://onpointgen.com/  • Smash My Trash - https://howitworks.smashmytrash.com/  • Your TMJ Pen - https://yourtmj.com/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

In this episode, we sit down with Marshall Sandman, founder and Managing Partner of Animal Capital, a seed-stage venture firm whose first fund backed four unicorns and ranked in the top 1% of its vintage.We discuss how Marshall built a venture firm backed by some of the world's most recognizable celebrities and entrepreneurs, the reality of raising a fund in a down market, why most founders should bootstrap instead of raising venture capital, what separates venture capitalists from asset managers, and why he believes today's AI market is overhyped.If you're interested in venture capital, startups, fundraising, investing, AI, or understanding how top-performing venture firms are built, this episode is for you.This episode is supported by Sydecar, HEX, Wispr Flow, Granola, Beehiiv, KalshiSydecar: https://sydecar.io/partners/trailblazersbeehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/splash?utm_campaign=trailblazers-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=trailblazers&utm_term=podcast-11&stripe_campaign_code=TRAILBLAZERS30 (or use code “trailblazers30” for 30% OFF)Granola: http://granola.ai/trailblazers *Granola is the official notetaker of Trailblazers. Check out the episode shownotes here: https://notes.granola.ai/t/dff2aba0-4c29-498b-a4e0-2afd6b66c6e1-00b881l8Kalshi: http://Kalshi.com/r/trailblazersWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/trailblazersHEX: http://hex.ai/trailblazers

Peter Wang is co-founder and Chief AI and Innovation Officer at Anaconda, a company he helped start in 2012 after years of working as a software developer and consultant. In this episode, Peter draws on Anaconda's early days and the entrepreneurship lessons he shares with scientists and engineers at Cornell to explain what technical people need to learn when they launch a company. We talk about learning to ask better questions instead of rushing to provide answers, recognizing the limits of what you know, and treating yourself as an investor when deciding whether an idea is worth pursuing. Peter also explains his approach to customer discovery, why employees are investors too, and how aspiring founders can practice entrepreneurship by building something — however small — that someone will actually pay for.   RUNTIME 43:00 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:53) Finding the Product by Doing the Work (10:19) "I'm just sharing my own field notes on what I had to learn." (14:05) Know the Limits of What You Know (18:18) Climbing the Ladder of Disbelief  (23:59) Customer Discovery: Listen, Validate, Explore (29:02) "Your employees are also investors." (31:02) " It's really incredibly important that the vision is compelling for people." (38:39) An Exercise for Entrepreneurship  

140+ real business ideas database: https://clickhubspot.com/pkst Episode 852: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) ask 3 founders to tell them the juiciest number behind their businesses and get advice live.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (1:31) Raav Gupta, Posha (20:03) Nick Saltarelli, Mid-Day Squares (39:48) Shreyas Parab, DayDream Dental — Links: • Posha - https://www.posha.com/  • Mid-Day Squares - https://www.middaysquares.com/  • DayDream Dental - https://www.daydream.dental/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Tyler Denk ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-denk ) was the second employee at ( https://www.morningbrew.com/ )Morning Brew ( https://www.morningbrew.com/ ), and his innovations there allowed one business newsletter to become a media juggernaut. That...

Sam's database on how long it takes to become a millionaire: https://clickhubspot.com/elft Episode 851: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Brett Adcock ( https://x.com/adcock_brett ), the founder of Figure.ai. — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (3:29) Hark, a human in a box (8:00) zero constraints (17:32) rapid prototyping (21:38) What are the robots doing? (23:45) what about the hype is real? (27:54) finding the best people (30:14) $20M dollar salaries for engineers (32:03) How Zuck is buying his way into AI (35:44) Auditing Brett's 2026 predictions (42:33) reducing your buckets (44:00) show us your home screen (46:17) hitting rock bottom 3x (57:22) who inspires Brett — Links: • Hark - https://hark.com/  • Cover - https://www.cover.ai/  • Figure - https://www.figure.ai/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Head of Marketing for Observe at Snowflake Shruti Bhat has spent her career helping highly technical companies explain why their products matter, find the customers who need them most, and build go-to-market systems that can actually scale. In this episode, she talks about how founders identify their real market, recognize genuine product-market fit, hire their first product marketing and GTM leaders, and earn trust across engineering, product, sales, and marketing. Drawing on three startup exits, including Observe's acquisition by Snowflake, Shruti explains why demand generation often starts too early, what repeatability looks like in enterprise sales, and why the best GTM leaders know how to unlearn their old playbooks. This is a practical conversation about turning technical innovation into customer conviction. RUNTIME 41:29   EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:28)  From Engineering to Product Truth (7:10)  Finding Observe's Enterprise Sweet Spot (16:48)  When Technical Founders Need To Hire A Product Marketer  (24:57)  Hiring Your First GTM Leader Depends on More Than Stage (34:27)  How GTM Leaders Build (and Lose) Trust With Technical Teams  LINKS Shruti Bhat on LinkedIn Snowflake Observe by Snowflake ______ Are you building something that's hard to explain? That's often a sign you're working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you're missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they're the right team to make it happen. If you're preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email fundbuildscale@gmaii.com

Canvas Prime Co-founder and Managing Director Rebecca Lynn has spent 25 years in venture capital, backing companies including LendingClub, Doximity and Casetext and helping founders navigate more than a dozen exits. In this conversation, we get into why taking venture capital puts founders on a path toward liquidity, and why an IPO isn't the only outcome worth building toward. Rebecca explains how founders can develop relationships with potential acquirers years before they're ready to sell, when it makes sense to bring in a banker or strategic advisor, and how Casetext built the relationships that eventually led to its acquisition by Thomson Reuters. We also talk about why founders should get an offer on paper before trying to improve it, how to negotiate without overplaying your hand, what to watch for with earnouts and other deal terms, and how to make sure employees aren't forgotten when a company gets sold.  

In this episode of Send & Grow 2.0, Hunter Kallay sits down with Dave Gerhardt, founder of Exit Five and former CMO at Drift, to talk about building a modern media and community business around B2B marketing. About Send & Grow: Send & Grow is a podcast about the people, strategies, and businesses behind today's most interesting newsletters. We talk to newsletter operators and creators about how they build audiences, create great content, and turn attention into sustainable businesses. Subscribe to Send & Grow for more conversations with the people shaping the newsletter industry.

140+ real business ideas database: https://clickhubspot.com/pkce Episode 850: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk about massive businesses hidden in plain sight.  — Show Notes: (0:00) The wild economics of lab testing on monkeys (11:01) Salad oil crisis (15:35) the art of noticing  (24:38) enthusiasm (27:39) know thy 8-year old self (32:32) be shameless (37:08) Sam goes to SF for 7 days — Links: • Qoves - https://www.qoves.com/  • Charles River - https://www.criver.com/  • How To Do Great Work - https://www.paulgraham.com/greatwork.html — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

In this episode, we sit down with Polina Pompliano, founder of The Profile and author of Hidden Genius, where she studies the lives, habits, and minds of exceptional people.We discuss what drives some of the world's most successful people, how putting yourself out there creates unexpected opportunities, why flaws and insecurities can become an advantage, the role of vulnerability in storytelling, and how to use AI without letting it think for you.If you're interested in entrepreneurship, media, AI, storytelling, personal growth, or understanding what makes exceptional people different, this episode is for you.This episode is supported by Sydecar, HEX, Wispr Flow, Granola, Beehiiv, KalshiSydecar: https://sydecar.io/partners/trailblazersbeehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/splash?utm_campaign=trailblazers-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=trailblazers&utm_term=podcast-1&stripe_campaign_code=TRAILBLAZERS30 (or use code “trailblazers30” for 30% OFF)*beehiiv has a major announcement coming July 16 - can't say more, but you won't want to miss it. RSVP here: https://www.beehiiv.com/summer-release-2026Granola: http://granola.ai/trailblazers *Granola is the official notetaker of Trailblazers! Check out the episode show notes here: https://notes.granola.ai/t/ed6c5333-9e78-42fe-850f-8910c833df7b-00b881l8Kalshi: http://Kalshi.com/r/trailblazersWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/trailblazersHEX: http://hex.ai/trailblazers

My First Million: Read the notes at at podcastnotes.org. Don't forget to subscribe for free to our newsletter, the top 10 ideas of the week, every Monday --------- $1M Attention Guide: 15+ ways to get eyeballs on what you're building https://clickhubspot.com/tkwc Episode 845: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to marketing legend Rory Sutherland ( https://x.com/rorysutherland ). — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (1:44) Horsepower (12:15) Reverse benchmarking (17:38) Pay attention to what irritates you (21:47) Ogilvy secrets (27:28) Marketing hacks used by Apple, UBER, McDonald's (36:35) direct response marketing 101 (1:08:50) Recommended reading — Links: • Alchemy - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01F1HOAWA • Illusion of Choice - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0857199749 • Nassim Taleb books - https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nassim-Nicholas-Taleb/author/B000APVZ7W • Ogilvy on Advertising - https://www.amazon.com/dp/039472903X • Writing That Works - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060956437 • When More Is Not Better - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1647820065 • Scientific Advertising - https://a.co/d/0ixEJA1B • The Choice Factory - https://a.co/d/0ixa769O — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/ Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Business Ideas Database: https://clickhubspot.com/erhy Episode 849: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ), Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) and their producer Arie brainstorm 9 business ideas that are genius.   — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (2:07) IDEA 1: Reverse vacations (6:03) IDEA 2: Rap battle + UFC fight (13:18) IDEA 3: Giant claw machine (20:39) IDEA 4: Butter dispenser (27:32) IDEA 5: beepers for kids (35:35) IDEA 6: Mexican Benihana (40:01) IDEA 7: bulk custom gifts (44:10) IDEA 8: Slop Stop (49:06) IDEA 9: Take your roommate to work day — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Get our CEO lessons in one guide: https://clickhubspot.com/sagh Episode 848: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk about the 7 rules of sales, Bernard Arnault's revenge letter, plus the economics of Magic: The Gathering. — Show Notes: (0:00) highest value comment from HackerNews (2:50) always bring 2 diet cokes to a negotiation (7:36) Saving lives as a service (17:24) Bernard Arnaults revenge letter (25:29) The business of Magic: The Gathering (41:58) Bryan Johnson, The Dana White of Longevity — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

In this episode, we sit down with Rebecca Kaden, General Partner at Union Square Ventures, where she invests in the next generation of AI, software, and technology companies shaping the future.We discuss why AI is still dramatically underhyped, how venture capitalists identify world-changing technologies before everyone else, the future of open versus closed AI ecosystems, why the best investors think in decades instead of years, and the frameworks Rebecca uses to evaluate the next wave of billion-dollar companies.If you're interested in AI, venture capital, startups, investing, or understanding how the world's best investors think, this episode is for you.This episode is supported by Sydecar, HEX, Wispr Flow, Granola, Beehiiv, KalshiSydecar: https://sydecar.io/partners/trailblazersbeehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/splash?utm_campaign=trailblazers-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=trailblazers&utm_term=podcast-1&stripe_campaign_code=TRAILBLAZERS30 (or use code “trailblazers30” for 30% OFF)*beehiiv has a major announcement coming July 16 - can't say more, but you won't want to miss it. RSVP here: https://www.beehiiv.com/summer-release-2026Granola: http://granola.ai/trailblazers*Granola is the official notetaker of Trailblazers. Check out the episode show notes here: https://notes.granola.ai/t/8dccb81c-ac02-48e1-afb3-b6a7d8ff9160-00b881l8Kalshi: http://Kalshi.com/r/trailblazersWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/trailblazersHEX: http://hex.ai/trailblazers

Unsexy Business Ideas Database: https://clickhubspot.com/yjsa Episode 847: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk about dynastic wealth creation.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Shaan gets invited to graduation (2:19) The richest man in Italy (16:09) The golden window (26:51) meeting an xtreme multi-billionaire (36:04) An update about Ben WIlson (42:52) achieving greatness vs being great — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Tamara Steffens is managing director of Thomson Reuters Ventures, where she invests in early-stage companies building around legal, tax, accounting, and enterprise workflow. Corporate venture capital can look like a shortcut to customers, distribution, and credibility, but Steffens says founders need to understand what has to be true before strategic money can actually help. In this conversation, we get into what happens after Thomson Reuters Ventures joins your cap table, how founders can turn a corporate investor into real product or go-to-market leverage, and why inflated TAM slides can work against you. We also talk about what founders should do before and after the check clears, why some good businesses should avoid venture capital entirely, and why she says every founder should be thinking earlier about exit paths.   RUNTIME: 36:14 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:53)    An Overview of Thomson Reuters Ventures (3:57) CVC Expectations: When Strategic Capital Can Actually Help (7:09) Why Your TAM Needs to Match the Product You Actually Have (10:04) When Strategic Capital Becomes Product Leverage (13:13)  What Founders Should Do Before and After the Check Clears (22:18) How CVC Evaluates Founders When the Market Gets Frothy (29:05) Building the Relationship Before Series A (31:30) Why Exit Paths Matter Earlier Than You Think LINKS Tamara Steffens Thomson Reuters Ventures Thomson Reuters Fund/Build/Scale Founder Narrative Advisory SUBSCRIBE

Shaan's guide to go from $0 to $1M: https://clickhubspot.com/pfkv Episode 846: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Chris Camillo ( https://x.com/ChrisCamillo ) about the 5 trades he's betting on in 2026. — Show Notes: (0:00) Social Arbitrage (6:29) Needohs (20:16) Nerd culture (27:06) Information asymmetry (46:30) Amazon (1:02:21) Podcasting — Links: • Dumb Money Live - https://www.youtube.com/DumbMoneyLive  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

In this episode, we sit down with John Hu, the co-founder and CEO of Stan, the platform helping creators turn their audience into thriving businesses.We discuss how AI is changing entrepreneurship, why the best companies stay relentlessly founder-first, what it takes to build a $40M business with just 30 employees, the future of creator entrepreneurs, the importance of distribution and personal branding, and the principles behind building products people genuinely love.If you're interested in entrepreneurship, AI, startups, the creator economy, or building high-growth businesses, this episode is for you.This episode is supported by Sydecar, HEX, Wispr Flow, Granola, Beehiiv, KalshiSydecar: https://sydecar.io/partners/trailblazersbeehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/splash?utm_campaign=trailblazers-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=trailblazers&utm_term=podcast-8&stripe_campaign_code=TRAILBLAZERS30 (or use code “trailblazers30” for 30% OFF)Granola: http://granola.ai/trailblazers*Granola is the official notetaker of Trailblazers.Kalshi: http://Kalshi.com/r/trailblazersWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/trailblazersHEX: http://hex.ai/trailblazers

AdTechGod sits down with Tyler Denk, Co-Founder & CEO of beehiiv, to discuss how beehiiv evolved from a newsletter platform into a complete creator operating system. Tyler shares lessons from Morning Brew, why creators should own their audience, AI's role in publishing, and how beehiiv is reshaping newsletter and podcast monetization. Takeaways: Tyler shares how Morning Brew inspired the creation of beehiiv. Learn why owning your audience matters more than relying on social platforms. Discover how AI and automation are simplifying creator workflows. Hear how beehiiv is expanding into podcasts, communities, and advertising. Learn how the beehiiv Ad Network helps creators monetize newsletters of every size. Chapters:00:00 Introduction to Tyler Denk & beehiiv00:41 Tyler's journey from Morning Brew to founding beehiiv05:13 Reinventing newsletter publishing and growth07:46 Website builder, SEO, and content automation09:42 AI tools, MCP, and creator workflows11:05 The future of AI for content creators13:03 Building an all-in-one creator operating system15:35 Why creators should own their audience18:14 Social media strategy and platform integrations19:49 Inside the beehiiv Ad Network and newsletter monetization22:59 Helping small publishers earn advertising revenue24:57 Final thoughts and Tyler's personal newsletter Guests: AdTech God Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

$1M Attention Guide: 15+ ways to get eyeballs on what you're building https://clickhubspot.com/tkwc Episode 845: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to marketing legend Rory Sutherland ( https://x.com/rorysutherland ). — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro  (1:44) Horsepower (12:15) Reverse benchmarking (17:38) Pay attention to what irritates you (21:47) Ogilvy secrets (27:28) Marketing hacks used by Apple, UBER, McDonald's (36:35) direct response marketing 101 (1:08:50) Recommended reading — Links: • Alchemy - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01F1HOAWA  • Illusion of Choice - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0857199749  • Nassim Taleb books - https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nassim-Nicholas-Taleb/author/B000APVZ7W  • Ogilvy on Advertising - https://www.amazon.com/dp/039472903X  • Writing That Works - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060956437  • When More Is Not Better - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1647820065  • Scientific Advertising - https://a.co/d/0ixEJA1B  • The Choice Factory - https://a.co/d/0ixa769O  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

In this episode, we sit down with Nicole Behnam, an entrepreneur, investor, and podcast host known for interviewing some of the world's top founders, investors, and business leaders.We discuss how to build relationships with influential people, why traditional education leaves entrepreneurs at a disadvantage, the future of AI and entrepreneurship, the power of storytelling, how to build a cult-like brand, and the mindset behind building one of the strongest networks in tech.If you're interested in entrepreneurship, AI, networking, business, or learning how successful founders think, this episode is for you.This episode is supported by Sydecar, HEX, Wispr Flow, Granola, Beehiiv, KalshiSydecar: https://sydecar.io/partners/trailblazersbeehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/splash?utm_campaign=trailblazers-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=trailblazers&utm_term=podcast-7&stripe_campaign_code=TRAILBLAZERS30 (or use code “trailblazers30” for 30% OFF)Granola: http://granola.ai/trailblazers*Granola is the official notetaker of Trailblazers. Check out the episode show notes here: https://notes.granola.ai/t/b7b67559-e75a-4321-a59e-fbc5bed34450-008umkv4Kalshi: http://Kalshi.com/r/trailblazersWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/trailblazersHEX: http://hex.ai/trailblazers

Unsexy Business Ideas Database: https://clickhubspot.com/kpfm Episode 844: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk about how one of the richest families in America makes its money.  — Show Notes: (0:00) The Cargill family (13:15) projects vs empires (15:00) family meetings create family dynasties (22:55) Jevon's paradox (29:00) the story of Luddites (39:19) Where's the opportunity (49:00) the phrases we tell ourselves (52:00) The ice king — Links: • The Medici effect - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591391865  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Blue-Collar Business Ideas Database: https://clickhubspot.com/rvko Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) spends the day with Mark O'Brien ( https://www.instagram.com/themarkobrienteam ) to see what it's like to be a blue collar millionaire.  — Links  Mark O'Brien - https://buildmeabrownstone.com/ — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

In this episode, we sit down with Geoff Woo, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Antifund, an unconventional venture capital firm investing in the next generation of companies across technology, consumer, defense, and culture. Geoff is also the Founder and Executive Chairman of Ketone-IQ and has built businesses alongside creators like Jake and Logan Paul, giving him a unique perspective at the intersection of venture capital, entrepreneurship, and internet culture.We discuss why venture capital is "high-class begging," how Antifund uses celebrity partnerships to win the most competitive startup deals, why attention is becoming more valuable than capital, how AI is changing the future of startups and human expertise, the philosophy behind Ketone-IQ, and the mindset founders need to build category-defining companies.If you're interested in startups, venture capital, AI, entrepreneurship, creator businesses, or learning how top investors think, this episode is for you.This episode is supported by Sydecar, HEX, Wispr Flow, Granola, Beehiiv, KalshiSydecar: https://sydecar.io/partners/trailblazersbeehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/splash?utm_campaign=trailblazers-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=trailblazers&utm_term=podcast-6&stripe_campaign_code=TRAILBLAZERS30 (or use code “trailblazers30” for 30% OFF)*Granola is the official notetaker of Trailblazers! Check out the episode show notes here: https://notes.granola.ai/t/7b44b7f3-ac56-487b-befa-81d024355e49-00b881l8Kalshi: http://Kalshi.com/r/trailblazersWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/trailblazersHEX: http://hex.ai/trailblazers

Ray Dalio's rules for building wealth: https://clickhubspot.com/rgsk Episode 842: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) sit down with Ray Dalio ( https://x.com/RayDalio ) to talk about the holy grail of investing strategies. — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (0:49) Hitting rock bottom (8:28) Personality traits of the 1% (14:22) Partnerships that win (18:25) Pain + Reflection = Progress (23:30) What's the money for anyway? (26:26) Principles (28:41) Ray's hiring philosophy (30:43) Being a caddy (35:16) Mistakes smart investors make (37:01) What Ray spends his money on (39:13) Aliens (41:00) The 5 Big Forces (46:35) Investing in Gold and Bubble Mechanics (52:55) How Bridgewater became the biggest hedge fund (55:40) The gap between the best and everyone else (59:26) The 1 Big Takeaway — Links: • Ray's Personality Test - https://principlesyou.com/  • Bridgewater Associates - https://www.bridgewater.com/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Investing Guide: https://clickhubspot.com/epkr Episode 841: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to legendary investor Howard Marks about AI and making decisions in the face of fear and uncertainty.  — Show Notes: (0:00) AI Hurtles Ahead (8:26) second level thinking (10:21) investing through the end of the world (14:47) raising $11B at a time of crisis (17:54) investing with fear (20:22) the key to a successful partnership (25:01) being a good father (27:37) only 1 success: to live your life your way (34:17) Having lunch with Warren Buffett (37:18) What people don't know about Buffett (39:37) cigar butt investing (41:35) recommended reading — Links: • AI Hurtles Ahead - https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/memo/ai-hurtles-ahead  • A Short History of Financial Euphoria - https://www.amazon.com/History-Financial-Euphoria-Penguin-Business/dp/0140238565  • Fooled by Randomness - https://www.amazon.com/Fooled-Randomness-Hidden-Markets-Incerto/dp/0812975219  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury for banking across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

140+ Business Ideas (Database): https://clickhubspot.com/efdj Episode 840: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Mark Pincus ( https://x.com/markpinc ) about figuring out what projects to spend your life on.  — Show Notes: (0:00) $0- $38M in 7 months (3:00) if you pick the right body of water, you don't have to have the right boat (16:51) pattern matching  (23:17) there's always a new freak (25:00) picking macros (27:48) a case for gold (39:50) How to know what to chase (49:12) create a book of life (59:59) Frameworks vs instincts (1:09:00) being hated and misunderstood (1:11:13) the story of farmville (1:15:00) avoiding the fur coat moment (1:19:49) the nickelback problem (1:22:02) introspection vs rumination — Links: • Life At The Speed of Play - https://www.amazon.com/Life-Speed-Play-Launch-Products/dp/0063352575  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury for banking across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Sam's guide to run your life like a $100M business: https://clickhubspot.com/krhd Episode 839: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk about everything Shaan learned from his NYC trip.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Lesson: Proximity (9:11) Lesson: What does it really mean? (23:04) Lesson: Trust (18:53) Lesson: City Brands (33:39) Lesson: Marketing — Links: • Ben Wilson's GoFundMe - https://t.co/kJN7pArRIO  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury for banking across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Get Sam and Shaan's hard-won CEO lessons in one guide: https://clickhubspot.com/ktng Episode 838: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Aaron Levie ( https://x.com/levie ) talk about building Box, getting rich slowly, why AI might make us work harder. — Show Notes: (0:00) Story of Box (06:30) Enterprise Over Consumer (10:00) Turning Down Huge Acquisition Offers (17:05) Angel Investing, Missed Bets, and Investing in Your P&L (23:00) Aaron's Contrarian AI Takes: More Jobs, More Work (30:00) Founder Anxiety, Therapy, and Surviving the CEO Grind (38:45) The Business Strategy Books Aaron Swears By (48:00) AI Tools, Software Stocks, and Why SaaS Isn't Dead — Links: • Box - https://www.box.com/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury for banking across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /