Story
HustleCon's margin secret: never pay speakers (except Casey Neistat)
Across 300-500 speakers, Sam paid a fee only once, to Casey Neistat. Everyone else spoke free; at most he covered an economy flight, like a $350 ticket for Match.com's CEO that the exec even had to chase him to reimburse.
“I paid Casey Neistat money to speak at HustleCon, which is no surprise. It's like you could just Google what a speaking fee is. But besides that, I've had probably 300, 400, 500 people speak. Not once did I ever pay for another speaker. Not one time.”
Framework
The Christian Mingle effect: take one technology and rebrand it per vertical
Greg names a repeatable play: take a generic technology and re-skin it for different audiences. Match.com built basic social-networking tech, then spun out verticals like Christian Mingle where the only real difference is the marketing.
“It's like, right, you know, Match.com basically created this technology, if you can call it technology, um, and I guess it's technology, created some technology, some, you know, basically basic social networking technology, and then focused on a bunch of different verticals, but it's the same under— the only thing that's different is marketing. So the question is, what are other opportunities where you can just take a thing and just brand it for other verticals.”
Steal thisTake a generic product, rebrand it for a specific vertical audience, and compete on marketing rather than tech.
Story
Greg's teenage affiliate arbitrage: pay $1, earn $5 per install
As an 18-year-old in 2008, Greg Isenberg ran affiliate marketing for eHarmony, Match.com and Zynga, who paid $3-$6 per install. He built landing pages where it cost $1 to acquire a user worth $5 — and admits he invented the auto-playing video pop-under ad.
“Basically, I was doing deals with the eHarmonies, the Match.coms, and Zingas, who were like, they were willing to pay you $3, $4, $5, $6 for every install you generated for them. And back then, there was this arbitrage, I mean there's still arbitrage now, but there was this arbitrage where if you could create a landing page and cost you $1 to get someone to it, to install that game or get that lead to eHarmony, they would pay you $5.”
Fact
Double opt-in dating: no rejection in a liquid marketplace
Hot or Not invented double opt-in dating (the model Tinder later used): a match only happens when both people say yes. Hong argues a highly liquid marketplace removes rejection entirely because you don't even remember everyone you said yes to, and it protected women from being flooded by paid messages on sites like Match.com.
“So we were the first ones to do like the concept of what you would call double opt-in dating. Like if you, if you say you're interested in someone, then they can say they're interested in you too. You know, like what Tinder is today.”