Founder-brand distribution

Moses Kagan raised $40M from Twitter, $20M from a single follower

Sam reports that Moses Kagan, who buys LA multifamily, raised $40 million for his fund directly from Twitter followers after tweeting his deals, including a single investor who put in $20 million.

“So this guy started tweeting about his deals. He got 40 million of his Twitter followers they came up with $40 million to invest in his fund. He said one guy gave him $20 million and he found it through Twitter. Is that nuts?”

Be the public face of car-wash investing (the next storage/strip-mall guy)

Sam pitches picking a boring asset class nobody is loud about yet and becoming its Twitter personality. His specific suggestion: car washes, pointing to carwashadvisory.com listings showing surprisingly high EBITDA and prices, ripe for someone to tweet about constantly and attract investors.

“I think because this is so interesting, I think that there's a world where someone could get into this business and start tweeting about it constantly and just tweet publicly.”

Steal thisPick a boring, data-poor asset class, document deals publicly on Twitter, and let investors come to you.

The fewer people loud in your industry, the bigger the content opportunity

Shaan's heuristic: opportunity to win attention is inversely proportional to how many people in your field already blog, tweet, or podcast. Backwards, private, closed-door industries offer a far bigger opening than crowded ones like tech.

“Yeah, basically the fewer the people, the less common it is for people in your industry to be blogging or tweeting or podcasting, the more of an opportunity there is for you to go do it. There is an insatiable appetite for this stuff. And if your industry is sort of backwards, slow, it's private behind closed doors, bigger opportunity for you than it is for guys like us.”

Steal thisBecome the loudest content creator in a quiet, unsexy industry before anyone else claims the spot.

College athletes will turn into content houses once NIL opens up

Reed predicts that as the NCAA follows the NAIA in lifting amateurism rules, Division 1 athletes will form TikTok and gaming content houses, with some choosing content creation over their sport. He calls it a 2-to-3-year shift to watch.

“I think it's just a matter of time before the floodgates open. And like, call it like Division 1 college football players at like Florida State are going to make this content house. They're playing on national TV every Saturday. Now they have this content house that they're like playing video games in, they're posting on TikTok.”

Jacob Greenfeld's Bootstrap MBA: build in public, learn by shipping

Shaan celebrates indie builder Jacob Greenfeld, who ships small tools like GumSpy (a leaderboard of top-selling Gumroad products) and runs a self-styled 'Bootstrap MBA', publicly building a bunch of businesses over a year to learn by doing.

“He's doing what he's calling a Bootstrap MBA, which is like, how do I learn business through trying to bootstrap a bunch of projects over this year? And it's gonna cost me money. Maybe I'll make some money, maybe I'll lose some money, but I'm definitely gonna learn about business by building a bunch of businesses this year. And I'm gonna publish as I go.”

Pay with vulnerability to buy freedom

James Altucher describes how, after years writing about finance, he started publishing raw personal stories about failure and depression. People thought he was suicidal or had cancer, but his audience grew 100x and unlocked far more opportunities.

“My audience became 100 times bigger, and then I started getting more investment opportunities. I started getting a podcast, which became successful. I just started getting many more opportunities because of, because essentially I paid with my vulnerability for freedom, and that created a whole kind of career for me.”

Steal thisWrite the thing you're scared to publish; vulnerability is the moat competitors won't copy.

The Branson playbook: build a personal brand that ladders the company

Hetrick's next vision is to take a page from Richard Branson — grow a personal brand (randyhetrick.com) that helps the company brand do things it can't on its own, and vice versa, laddering the two up together like Branson did with Virgin.

“I'm working on a randyhettrick.com website right now where some of my stuff that— my next big vision is to take a page out of Richard Branson's handbook and basically figure out ways to grow my brand that can help the brand that I gave birth to do things that maybe it can't do and vice versa. You ladder yourselves up just like he's done with Virgin.”

Girlboss: 500K copies, 20 weeks on the NYT list

Amoruso's book Girlboss sold roughly half a million copies, was published in numerous languages, and spent 20 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. She notes a launch pop gets you on the list, but you don't stay 20 weeks without merit.

“it would go on to sell half a million copies and be published in like a bazillion languages and spent 20 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list”

Soldier-YouTuber bootstrapped a supplement brand from $20K to 8 figures

Nick Bare started Bare Performance Nutrition in college in 2012 knowing nothing about business, joined the Army, completed Ranger School, and used social media to scale the brand. He went from $20,000 in first-year revenue to a track for 8 figures.

“Started it in 2012, I was studying nutrition. I started Bear Performance Nutrition, which is a sports nutrition dietary supplement company, knowing absolutely nothing about business and thinking that I knew it all.”

One 'Day in the Life' video added 50K subscribers in 30 days

Nick Bare's YouTube channel crept along for two years, then a single 'Day in the Life of an Infantry Platoon Leader' video hit a million views and pulled in 50,000 subscribers in a month, taking him from 30K to 80K.

“that million view video gained me like 50,000 subscribers in 30 days. So my channel went from 30,000 to 80,000 in like a month.”

Steal thisDocument a niche, hard-to-access part of your life on camera; authenticity in an untapped niche converts views to subscribers far better than generic content.

Build the product first, then manufacture demand

Most creators build an audience and then ask how to monetize it. Nick Bare did the reverse: he launched the supplement company in 2012, realized he had supply and no demand, then started building social media in 2014 specifically to create demand for what he already sold.

“Well, I created the company first, so I created my supply first and then I realized, okay, well, I have no demand for the supply. How do I create demand? So 2014 is when I started building social media platforms out.”

Start a blog, see what sells, then build that product

Sam's go-to advice for anyone unsure what to start: launch a blog. The model is Neil Patel and WPBeginner, who blogged, watched which topics/plugins/ads performed best, then launched their own products into that proven demand. He claims Patel may have made $100M in profit over a decade.

“Whenever people ask me what company they should start, if they don't like, they're like, I'm not sure what to start. I always say start a blog. And the reason why is his insight. He's probably, I bet you he's made $100 million, this Neil Patel guy in profit over the last 10 years.”

Steal thisBlog first, measure what audiences and advertisers respond to, then build the product they're already demanding.

Oatly's rebrand: from fringe Swedish carton to black-market demand

Shaan tells Oatly's turnaround story: a 20-year-old Swedish oat-milk maker with ugly packaging hired a new CEO who rebranded it with English-language DTC-style cartons and funny copy. Sales went from $20M to $100M to over $200M, with demand so high baristas pay upcharges on a black market for it.

“So first thing they did is they changed the packaging so it's in English, not in Swedish. And then they made it look like all the DTC brands type of thing. So like nice colors, nice little packaging, funny copy on the packaging, that sort of thing. Oatly starts to sell, like it hits $20 million in sales, and then it hit $100 million in sales. Now it's over $200 million in sales. Literally, they cannot produce enough Oatly for the demand.”

A podcast builds an army of 100,000 who'll go to war for you

Shaan contrasts podcasting with his prior products: instead of millions of casual users, you build a small, sticky base that becomes part of listeners' routines and develops fierce loyalty. His goal was to be in a million people's 'earballs' every morning.

“It's like an army of 100,000 people who will like go to war for you. I think there's people in this group that would, if I said, hey, I need you to beat this person up, they would go beat that person up. Like there's people who really have your back.”

700-person scout network feeds all-inbound deal flow

Permanent Equity sources deals entirely inbound, partly through a scout network of about 700 people who get paid when a transaction closes, a model common in Silicon Valley but rare in private equity.

“we have a scout network, which is common in Silicon Valley, uh, but very uncommon in, in private equity. Um, so we have about 700 people now that, uh, that scout opportunities for us, um, which is fantastic. Um, and we obviously pay them, um, when, when we are able to consummate the transaction.”

Build in public: share weekly video updates and get an army rooting for you

Shaan praises a UK founder who posts weekly video updates on his digital-tithing build inside the Trends Facebook group. He argues working in public is underrated: it recruits supporters, opens doors, and keeps you accountable.

“I love when people work in public. I think it's an extremely underrated thing to do. And every time you do it, you get this army of people who are rooting for you and opening up doors for you as you go.”

Steal thisPost weekly public progress updates on your build to recruit supporters and stay accountable.

Twitter drove 25% of her career success and LP money

Simpson credits at least 25% of her career success to Twitter, including landing LPs and investments directly from the platform. She favors tweetstorms over blogging because she'll actually do them rather than wait on a 'magnum opus'.

“I've had LPs from Twitter. I've had— investments come from Twitter. I've like, honestly, I probably, I could ascribe 25% of my career success at least to Twitter.”

Steal thisPublish your thesis publicly and consistently; ship tweetstorms instead of waiting for the perfect essay.

Build your business on Twitter by amplifying small wins

Shaan credits Hoover as one of the first to build a company on Twitter that had nothing to do with Twitter—taking nuggets like 'Ashton Kutcher just signed up' and amplifying them into a daily drumbeat of good news that pulled people in. He notes Lambda School's Austin Allred doing the same by spotlighting other people's wins.

“I've joked around with, with friends that I feel like you were the first guy to build your business on Twitter that had nothing to do with Twitter. And today,— in this other company we invested in, Lambda School, the founder, Austin Allred, he's doing the same thing. He shares every victory on Twitter and people love it.”

Steal thisBuild a public drumbeat of wins on Twitter—especially other people's wins—to grow a product unrelated to Twitter.

Your email list is a pirate ship; building on Facebook is renting an apartment

Sam refused to build The Hustle's audience on Facebook or other platforms, comparing it to building a business in a rented apartment where the landlord keeps raising rent. Instead he calls his email list a 'pirate ship' where every subscriber is wind in the sails.

“I knew from day one that would be a horrible idea. It's like, I've always wanted to be independent, and I felt that building an audience on the back of Facebook was like building a business in a rented apartment where the landlord raises the price every quarter. Like, that's a horrible idea. And so I called my email list my pirate ship, and every subscriber was a little bit of wind in our sails.”

Steal thisOwn your distribution: build your audience on email you control, not on a platform that can raise prices or change the rules on you.

Convert social capital into financial capital

The rich-creator path: spend years building an audience and trust like a full-time job, then convert that social capital into financial capital via early-access deal flow and investment vehicles. Sahil from Gumroad is the example, running a rolling fund that grew to ~$13M from his audience.

“So overall, you're converting social capital into financial capital. The social capital is all the trust that you're building with your audience day after day. It's kind of showing up and proving to people that you actually are who you say you are and you know what you're talking about. And then people come to you with deals and you can invest much earlier than the average person gets a look.”

Steal thisTreat audience-building as a full-time job, then monetize the trust by converting deal-flow access into early investments.

A tweet turned into a $4M/year rolling fund from strangers

Courtland tweeted that he wanted to raise a rolling fund. With zero outreach, zero meetings, and zero personal-network asks, strangers from the internet who follow his podcast and Twitter turned it into $4 million a year of investable income.

“And that turned in for me with zero outreach, zero meetings, and zero reaching out to my own personal network. So these are all strangers from the internet who just follow the podcast or follow me on Twitter. And that became $4 million a year of investable income.”

Don't build on rented land: the email list as a pirate ship

Sam refused to build The Hustle's audience on Facebook, comparing it to renting an apartment where the landlord raises rent every quarter. He called his email list his 'pirate ship' with each subscriber a bit of wind in the sails.

“I've always wanted to be independent, and I felt that building an audience on the back of Facebook was like building a business in a rented apartment where the landlord raises the price every quarter. Like, that's a horrible idea. And so I called my email list my pirate ship, and every subscriber was a little bit of wind in our sails.”

Steal thisOwn your audience channel (email) instead of renting reach from a platform that can change the rules.