Apr 6, 2023 · 44m · how-i-built-this
HIBT Lab! Nas Company: Nuseir Yassin
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of How I Built This Lab, Guy Raz interviews creator and entrepreneur Nuseir Yassin about transforming his viral 1,000-day Nas Daily video challenge into a multi-million-dollar media and technology enterprise. Yassin discusses overcoming systemic barriers, channeling frustration into constructive storytelling, and building sustainable software and educational platforms to combat human division.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 40% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 3.1 Guest teaching 3.4 Guest disagreement 2.0 Guy pushing back 1.0
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 33:34 Nuseir calls out American-centric moral policing
Nuseir directly rejects Guy's ethical framework, asserting that taboo lines are subjective and that Americans wrongly assume global politics revolves around their interests.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 34:54 Guy challenges state-sponsored creator partnershipsGuy presses Nuseir on why he takes government-backed money in authoritarian contexts rather than restricting commercial deals strictly to independent private companies.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 35:00 Nuseir dismantles the public-private distinction in international businessNuseir educates Guy on how businesses operate in Singapore and the UAE, pointing out that strict private-public separation does not exist outside the United States.
Guy holds their own ▶ 39:11 Guy confronts subscription fatigue in the creator economyGuy uses his own extensive real-world subscription stack to question the feasibility of consumers paying ongoing fees to countless niche community creators.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Growing Up Palestinian in Israel and Immigrating | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Nuseir details his complex background as a Palestinian citizen of Israel navigating self-segregation and identity barriers. Guy Raz listens attentively and asks empathetic clarifying questions. | |
| Harvard Education and First Video Experiments | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | The conversation covers Harvard, tech as an equalizer to hide identity, and early viral video experiments like the hamburger in the stratosphere. The tone is lighthearted and nostalgic. | |
| Working at Venmo and Channeling Anger Constructively | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Nuseir explains that anger at systemic absurdities drives his work, which Guy notes contrasts with his upbeat online persona. Nuseir explains that positive media is his constructive outlet for that frustration. | |
| Committing to 1,000 Days of Daily Videos | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Nuseir describes impulsively quitting his engineering job and setting a strict commitment to create 1,000 daily videos. Guy expresses astonishment at the abrupt transition. | |
| Mid-Show Break: The 1,000-Day Journey Ahead | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Following the mid-show sponsor recap, Nuseir outlines his core thesis that attention and audience reach are far more powerful currencies than immediate monetary compensation. | |
| Daily Production Grind and First Viral Success | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Nuseir breaks down the grueling 14-hour daily workflow required to script, shoot, and edit a video every 24 hours, leading up to his first major viral hit in Thailand. | |
| Navigating Backlash, Politics, and Polarized Audiences | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | Guy raises the blowback Nuseir faced for presenting balanced, non-partisan stories about Israel. Nuseir argues that inciting hate is lazy and insists meaningful change inevitably creates backlash. | |
| Scaling the Operation and Moving Beyond Face-Based Media | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | Nuseir explains why building a long-term enterprise requires detaching the company from his personal face and avoiding single-platform algorithmic dependence. | |
| Defining the Mission to Tackle Human Division | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Nuseir reflects on spending three years determining that his company's overarching mission should be bridging human division rather than solving a small, temporary problem. | |
| Mid-Show Break: Exploring Nas Company's Future | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Guy drills into the business model and revenue streams across Nas Company, including the brand studio, Nas Academy, and Nas.io, with Nuseir laying out exact financial figures. | |
| Editorial Dilemmas and Cultural Relativity in Global Partnerships | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | Guy presses hard on the ethics of partnering with authoritarian states, asking why Nuseir doesn't separate public and private entities. Nuseir counters that separating state and private sectors is an American illusion and rejects Western ethnocentrism. | |
| The Evolution of Creator Jobs and Community Monetization | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Guy questions whether an economy full of creators and subscription-funded channels is economically viable or culturally healthy. Nuseir forcefully rejects ad-based models and argues decentralized community micro-economies are the future. | |
| Building a Conglomerate Ecosystem and Long-Term Vision | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | Nuseir outlines his 30-year ambition to build an Asian-style corporate ecosystem akin to the Virgin Group before eventually transitioning into public service. |
Statements from this episode (22)
Yassin attempted to build 10 companies every semester at Harvard
“So I tried roughly 10 times every semester I was building a company, and almost all of them failed.”
Yassin's college video sending a hamburger to 'space' got 1M views
“Me and my friends were one of the first to send a hamburger to see the curvature of Earth. Not really space, curvature of Earth. We called it space because it's more fun. And it, Did really well. It got a million views.”
Yassin earned $120,000 annually while overpaid and underworked at Venmo
“I was overpaid, underworked. A 120,000 bucks a year.”
Yassin: Taking a weekend off when unemployed is ultimately irresponsible
“Taking a weekend off when you have no career, I mean, that's ultimate irresponsible.”
Yassin: Getting 1M views is a more powerful currency than $1M
“My second belief was if I can get the attention of a million people, It is very easy to make a million dollars. I just need the attention of a million people. Views as a currency is more powerful than dollars.”
Yassin averaged 10,000 views across his first 270 daily videos
“My first 270 videos didn't really work. I was averaging like 10,000 views.”
Yassin: 24-hour video iteration cycles drive rapid storytelling improvement
“For me, I was on a learning journey, so I needed to iterate as fast as possible, so I gave myself 24 hours to make a mistake. If I made a mistake on day 68, I could fix it on day 69, you know, and so I was creating, improving every single day until I became re…”
Nas Daily hit $50K to $70K in monthly revenue by video 1,000
“I was going from 10 K a month in revenue and like, I don't know, day 600 or so by day 900 or 1000, I was making, you know, 50 K a month and 70 K a month in revenue.”
Yassin: Creator shelf-life is 5 years; companies cannot rely on faces
“You cannot build a company reliant on your face, because creators come and go every five years. Every five years, somebody's hot, somebody's not. So my face is temporary. I must migrate from my face to a company.”
Yassin: It is impossible to build a 30-year business on social media
“You cannot build a business on top of social media. Impossible. And so, so this idea that Facebook will be my livelihood, and I can build an empire for the next 30 years, thanks to Facebook's algorithm, is, is a dream that will never materialize.”
Nas.io takes a 10% cut on all platform community monetization
“So we've built monetization features to help you monetize your community, and we take a 10% cut from anything you do in the community.”
Nas Company raised $23M in venture funding to build its ecosystem
“So one year in, we went and raised twenty three million dollars total to achieve this vision.”
Nas Company generated $11M in 2022 revenue across content and education
“So last year's revenue for all of Nas company is eleven million dollars. Seven million dollars was for the production, the Nas Daily. Then the four million the majority of it comes from Nas Academy.”
Yassin: Nas Company rejected a CCTV request to film in Xinjiang
“To be clear, we've had people from China, CCTV, tell us to go to Xinjiang and talk about the culture and the food... For me, that was a step too far, so I said no.”
Yassin: Nas Company has never worked with the Israeli government
“We've never worked with Israeli government, to be clear”
Yassin: Separating private and public sectors outside the US is impossible
“Yes, you can do that separation in America, but you really can't do that separation in many countries around the world.”
Yassin: The world only has 1% of the content creators it needs
“We are at one percent of the way there with how many content creators we need, similar to how many software engineers we need. We are at one percent of the way there because monetizing videos has been very, very new.”
Yassin: 195 localized media hubs will eventually replace Hollywood's dominance
“In the future, there is a room for a 195 more Hollywoods to be created. The days in which the whole world is watching Will Smith on TV and Tom Cruise for the 55th movie are done.”
Yassin: Advertising-based content creation is a flawed, fraudulent model
“Advertising-based content creation is a flawed model, and I would dare say it's a fraudulent model. This is the model that has been working, but it will not work in the future.”
Yassin is gradually stepping away from hosting Nas Daily videos
“So I'm getting hosts. So now I have different hosts that get in the videos. I'm taking myself out of the video slowly, but surely”
Yassin: The Asian conglomerate startup model beats the US single-product focus
“The American way of building companies tells you, build one product, make that product really big, go on IPO, and just like continue working on that product for the next 1020 years. Like Slack. Slack is a one product company until it got acquired. Perfect. Rig…”
Yassin is building Nas Company as a Virgin-style conglomerate over 30 years
“My ambition is to build similar to Virgin, but I'm gonna build products that bring people together in technology, media, Travel. So the way I envision the next 10 years is NAS Daily, NAS Hotel, NAS I.O., NAS Summits, you know, NAS Foods, NAS Venture, NAS whate…”