Aug 23, 2024 · 1h 0m · my-first-million
Jack Smith On Biohacking, 2 Easy Business Ideas, PLUS Why Procrastination Is Good
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Serial entrepreneur and investor Jack Smith joins Sam Parr and Shaan Puri to critically evaluate modern biohacking protocols, pitch international business opportunities in mobile diagnostics and medical tourism, and analyze why market selection outweighs execution in building massive companies.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The hosts hold 59.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 5.6 Guest teaching 3.9 Guest disagreement 1.7 The hosts pushing back 2.5
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 4:29 Jack rejects influencer credibility and dietary assumptions
Jack dismisses the standard fitness advice and argues that aging scores give false authority to gurus who could claim drinking Coke Zero is an anti-aging secret.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 8:17 Sam calls out Energy Enhancement System lawsuitsSam flatly refuses to validate the Energy Enhancement System, pointing out that right beneath their website is official documentation of a Nevada state lawsuit.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 14:00 Jack details the mobile DEXA scan arbitrage opportunityJack breaks down the exact operational playbook, machine costs, and CrossFit gym partnership strategy to clone BodySpec across European markets.
The host holds their own ▶ 20:30 Shaan technical audit of full-body MRI claimsShaan leverages a surgeon friend's direct technical evaluation of Prenuvo scan files to dismantle their marketing claims around slice count, resolution, and diagnostic utility.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evaluating the Legitimacy of Anti-Aging Science and Biohacking | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Jack questions the credibility of middle-aged anti-aging gurus like Bryan Johnson and Dave Asprey. Sam shares his high score on the Rejuvenation Olympics and argues genetics drive most results, while Shaan challenges Jack on why he spends so much money on unproven biohacks. | |
| The Controversy and Anecdotes of the Energy Enhancement System | 5 | 3 | 3 | 7 | Jack admits the science behind the Energy Enhancement System makes no sense but insists it cured his chronic headaches. Sam pushes back aggressively, ridiculing the cheap waiting room setup and noting active state lawsuits against the company. | |
| Sponsor Break: HubSpot Trends Playbook | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Following an ad read for HubSpot Trends, Shaan praises Jack's open-minded and contrarian thinking, while Jack jokes about testing extreme treatments like shockwave therapy before influencers popularized them. | |
| Business Idea: Replicating Mobile DEXA Scans in Europe | 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | Jack pitches replicating the BodySpec mobile DEXA scan model in Europe following the Samwer brothers playbook. Sam provides historical context on the Samwer brothers' aggressive cloning tactics, and Shaan mentions mutual friends buying DEXA units. | |
| The Promise and Skepticism Surrounding Full-Body MRI Scans | 8 | 4 | 2 | 4 | Shaan offers an informed critique of Prenuvo full-body MRI scans, recounting how his surgeon friend reviewed the raw scan files and found insufficient slices and resolution for real diagnoses. Jack adds that identical MRI scans in India cost a fraction of US prices. | |
| Business Idea: Biohacking and Medical Tourism Concierge | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Jack outlines an idea for international biohacking and medical tourism retreats leveraging foreign healthcare price arbitrage. Sam and Shaan reminisce about mutual acquaintances who tried medical tourism startups and discuss the massive Turkish hair transplant industry. | |
| Personal Biohacking Outcomes and Procedure Risks | 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | Jack discusses the risks of cosmetic fat freezing procedures and argues against non-stop hustle culture, advocating for intentional procrastination. Shaan builds on this with his personal framework of operating across distinct life seasons and behavioral gears. | |
| The Primacy of Project and Market Selection Over Raw Execution | 9 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Shaan gives an in-depth lecture on why project and market selection outweighs raw execution, citing Paul Graham's essay on bad startup ideas, Alex Hormozi's mastermind lessons, and the hot dog stand starving crowd metaphor. | |
| Recognizing Real Demand: Lessons from Vungle and AppLovin | 8 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Jack and Sam reflect on Vungle succeeding due to overwhelming mobile ad market demand. Shaan shares insider stories about AppLovin's co-founders playing FIFA until finding the right wave and explains how a decentralized GPU project revealed what level-10 market pull actually looks like. | |
| Aligning Unique Talents with Purpose: The Seven Spiritual Rules | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Jack recommends Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, illustrating how aligning unique physical traits or capital with societal service leads to fulfillment, citing Tony Robbins and his own digital detox center. |
Statements from this episode (19)
Parr Ranked Number Three on the Rejuvenation Olympics Biological Age Leaderboard
“I did this test, Sean, and I scored great. So great that I messaged Brian Johnson, and I was like, this is wrong, right? And he's like, well, no, like, you're, you, you're like the number three on the Rejuvenation Olympics.”
Parr: Biological Aging Test Scores Are Largely Driven by Genetics
“The thing is, is like, I'm a, eighty-twenty type of guy. I do like, 80% great, and then I like, fuck off for 20%. Like, I eat poorly sometimes, and, but I just think that a lot of this, the takeaway from when I did that thing was, it's mostly genetics, I think…”
Smith: 99% of Biohacking Fails, But 1% Yields Major Impact
“So 99% of it, I don't notice anything. However, one percent, I do notice big things. And for me, it's kind of like, okay, We don't know what works, what doesn't work, but I've only got one life, and I've only got one body, and just experimenting, I can find th…”
Smith: An Energy Enhancement System Cured His Chronic Daily Headaches
“The, I actually think that this EES thing is the only thing that worked. I just went in there and I sat in a lawn chair for an hour, maybe two hours, and then just came out and in my stomach, like I can feel my stomach, like reorganizing, et cetera, churning. …”
Smith Owns an At-Home Penile Shockwave Therapy Machine
“I'm starting doing this treatment where it's like shockwave therapy that you shockwave your penis, et cetera. And he's like, I'm going once a month, et cetera. I'm like, dude, I have that machine in my house.”
Samwer Brothers Cloned eBay in Germany, Selling For $100M in 90 Days
“Samware brothers are these three German brothers who are famous because starting in like, in 1999, they copied eBay, but for Germany, and within 90 days, they started and sold it for close to a hundred million dollars, and then they did that with Airbnb, Amazo…”
BodySpec bootstrapped to over $2M in revenue with 14 vans
“Body spec was bootstrapped and they built it to like more than two million in revenue, even with just like 14 vans, I think.”
DEXA scanners cost $50K new versus $1M for whole-body MRI
“New, I think like 50,000, and that was more affordable than I thought because a whole body MRI scanner, which looks kind of similar, but it's doing an MRI scan, that's a million dollars. And so this like 50 K reasonable, and then I saw some used for like 15,00…”
Smith: Fast whole-body MRI startups are just Silicon Valley branding
“So I've done that in America, and they similarly say, like, okay, well, I was the chief medical officer at Google, and we have all these Google engineers, so we do AI, And that's why we can do it in 45 minutes instead of four hours, et cetera, like you're sayi…”
Smith: AIWO's $6,000 Indian Wellness Retreat Includes Full MRI and Hotel
“But 6000 dollars included that MRI that in America you're paying more than 3000 dollars for. And that was just like a few hours part of it. This was a whole week and including your hotels, et cetera.”
Smith: Medical Concierges Can Arbitrage Lower-Cost Foreign Diagnostic Clinics Without Buying Hardware
“I feel you could just brand a biohacking center in any other country if you have strong links to the country, because what they were doing here is they don't have their own MRI scanner. He just took us to MRI. He just took us to all these different labs in Ind…”
Smith: Sweat Gland Freezing Reduced His Sweating by 90 Percent
“One bit I did that was actually really effective for me is I, before I sweated a lot, so kind of embarrassing, you know, if your t-shirt or whatever you're sweating, and I did this thing where they actually freeze the sweat glands under your arm, and it, now I…”
Smith is Building a Digital Detox Retreat For Burned-Out Tech Workers
“I'm building a place for them to detox from technology and recover from burnout.”
Smith: Maintaining maximum sprint intensity across a startup marathon inevitably causes burnout
“If you're just trying to do that endlessly, it's like telling Usain Bolt, like, okay, great. You just ran the hundred meters. Just keep up that pace. We're now doing a marathon, but just keep up that same pace you ran the hundred meters in. It doesn't work. Li…”
Puri Slept in His Office 215 Days During a Single Year
“When I first met Sam and I met you, Jack, I was probably 2425 years old. I remember that that year I slept in the office, I think, 215 days out of the year.”
Jack Smith: MrBeast could be US president if he wanted to
“I think Mr. Beast, if he wanted, he can be president of the US at some point, because he just, since the age of 15, has just had one goal, And it's not changed for 10 whatever years.”
Puri: Project selection is the biggest success variable among talented founders
“Project selection is the most important thing that amongst talented people, the biggest sort of variable that actually happens.”
Smith: Vungle Tested Six Landing Pages in Three Weeks Before Succeeding
“Like, we created landing pages for each. In the space of something like two, three weeks, we iterated on six different ideas and the right idea the market pulled it out with us.”
Smith: Tony Robbins' 6'7" Height Resulted From a Brain Tumor
“Tony then found he had like a tumor on his brain that has made his body release like loads of human growth hormone. And so basically that's why he's six foot seven. He has, he's just a massive giant growth spurt, but he also feels like he has abundant energy.”