Take
The most expensive thing is a mediocre success
Quoting Golden Hippo's Craig Clemons, Shaan notes the hardest thing to cut is a mediocre success—it makes enough money to keep alive but ties up resources you should redeploy into the real winner.
“Craig, this guy runs this multi-hundred million dollar company, Golden Hippo. He said that the most expensive thing is a mediocre, a mediocre success.”
Steal thisAudit your portfolio for 'mediocre successes'—the hardest to kill—and cut them to free capital for the breakout.
Number
$1 billion of their own money spent on media
Craig Clemens describes the viral tweetstorm that prompted the episode: lessons from Golden Hippo after spending a billion dollars of their own (self-funded) cash on paid media.
$1000M
Total media spend (self-funded) · USD
“It was the 10 things we learned at Golden Hippo after spending a billion dollars of our own money on media.”
Number
Golden Hippo is a 9-figure DTC business you've never heard of
Golden Hippo is self-funded, has ~900 team members, and Clemens confirms it does 9 figures in revenue while remaining largely unknown.
$100M
Annual revenue (lower bound, 9 figures) · USD/year
“I can say the 9 figures is accurate.”
Story
Conversions tripled when they swapped a heart ad for a foot
In their heart-health brand, Golden Hippo's conversions tripled after switching the ad image from a beating heart to a foot, because people with heart issues often have circulation problems that show up in their feet.
“Well, the one that's popping into my mind is when we were doing heart health, which we still do, but we had a particular campaign that we were starting off for it and the ads had the picture of a beating heart, you know, and some copy around that. Conversions tripled when we switched the ad from a heart to a foot.”
Tactic
Survey customers so new products never fail
Golden Hippo's hit rate on new products is 8-9 out of 10 because they survey existing customers ('which of these 10 products would you like next?'). Failures only happen when an internal champion's pet idea overrides what customers asked for.
“So once in a while we don't, so I would say, let's say 8 or 9 out of 10 on new products. And maybe it's 7 out of 10 because also too, there's human emotion involved on our side. And sometimes you end up getting that product in the line that someone in formulation really loved, that they just championed all the way through. And then it was their dream and not the customer's.”
Steal thisSurvey your existing customers on which product to build next before you build it.
Idea
Golden Hippo is buying $1-20M consumer and personal-finance brands
Clemens openly pitches that Golden Hippo is acquiring consumer product brands plus personal-finance startups (debt repair, credit repair) to scale with their in-house formulation and marketing muscle.
“we're looking to make acquisitions right now. We're looking to acquire great consumer product brands. We're looking to acquire startups in finance, personal finance, like debt repair, credit repair, things like that. We're expanding into some new categories this year.”
Idea
A modern HarperCollins for thought leaders who can't market
Clemens pitches an umbrella company that does for personal brands what Golden Hippo does for products: take 3-10 thought leaders who have great content but can't run paid media or funnels, and build their digital businesses on shared resources for a cut of revenue.
“I think there's an opportunity for a company that just helps people in the thought leader space that don't want to learn marketing really go big on their own personal brand. So my wife is a perfect example of someone who needs this.”
Steal thisPartner with high-caliber experts who can't market, run their paid media and funnels for them, and take a revenue share instead of a fee.
Number
Golden Hippo: ~$1B/yr selling supplements via long-form copy ads
Sam profiles Golden Hippo, a low-profile company that builds doctor-fronted DTC brands (Dr. Marty pet food, Dr. Gundry gut supplements) and drives sales with Outbrain/Taboola native ads and long-form copywriting. He estimates it does about $1 billion a year in sales with ~800 employees.
$1000M
Annual sales · USD/year
“they buy all these outbrains. Ads and they use long-form copywriting to get people to buy pet food and things like that. And they do about $1 billion a year in sales.”