Sep 21, 2023 · 1h 4m · my-first-million
+$1 Billion Businesses You've Never Heard Of (#497)
0:00 / 0:00
▶ Watch on YouTube →
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of My First Million, hosts Shaan Puri and Sam Parr analyze lucrative, hidden-in-plain-sight business models across physical security, crafting hardware, and niche matchmaking while sharing practical startup strategies and inspiring stories of founder grit.
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 99.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 6.1 Guest teaching 3.3 Guest disagreement 1.5 The hosts pushing back 1.9
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 54:09 Direct dismissal of dating market structure
Sam flatly dismisses Shaan's entire thesis by calling dating apps the worst business and claiming winner-take-all dynamics.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 14:30 Pushback on Clear's retail and stadium visionShaan explicitly pushes back on Clear's broader ambition, arguing retina scanning at stadium concessions is high friction with poor payoff.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 58:25 Admitting Dil Mil founder proved him wrongShaan recounts admitting to founder KJ that he had doubted the niche Indian dating concept, only for KJ to successfully execute an exit to Match Group.
The host holds their own ▶ 11:10 Detailed breakdown of Clear's airport revenue shareSam demonstrates deep subject knowledge by detailing Clear's revenue numbers, board composition, and the exact percentage rev-shares paid to major airports.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merch Launch and the Collectibles Strategy | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Shaan explains the collectibles vs. consumables merch philosophy he learned from Colin and Samir. Sam agrees enthusiastically and adds his own perspective on community signaling. | |
| Launching the Curated MFM Clips Channel | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Shaan pitches the new clips YouTube channel and explains the strategy of hand-curating highlights, leading into casual banter about night eating. | |
| Clear: Building an Airport Security Monopoly | 8 | 4 | 2 | 4 | Sam breaks down Clear's founding history, revenue numbers, and airport revenue-share model in detail. Shaan challenges the feasibility of Clear expanding into stadiums and retina-scanning age verification. | |
| Evolv Technology and Hidden-in-Plain-Sight Startups | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Shaan shares the story behind Evolv Technology and its walk-through metal detector tech, followed by a personal endorsement of virtual assistants. | |
| Cricut and the Massive Crafting Economy | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Shaan introduces the massive financials behind Cricut and the broader home crafting economy, sharing insights from Patrick Campbell and Al Doan about quilting. | |
| Native Deodorant and Reverse-Engineered Origins | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Sam and Shaan deconstruct Native Deodorant's true origins on Etsy, debunking romanticized founder origin stories and explaining Moiz Ali's pragmatic validation checklist. | |
| Aunt Flow: Restroom Infrastructure and Defensible Moats | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Shaan details his investment in Aunt Flow, explaining the regulatory tailwinds and real-estate dispenser moat. Sam questions unit economics before Shaan clarifies institutional contract pricing. | |
| Sponsor: HubSpot CRM Platform | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | After the sponsor break, Shaan recounts the growth story of iCracked, campus scaling, and the pressures that accompanied their large venture raise. | |
| Cloud Poker Night, Positioning, and Group Virality | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Sam and Shaan analyze Cloud Poker Night's positioning, product mechanics, and Stewart Butterfield's classic marketing philosophy of selling horseback riding instead of saddles. | |
| Startup Pitch: A Dedicated Dating App for Gamers | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | Shaan pitches a dedicated dating app for gamers. Sam pushes back immediately, calling it a bad idea and highlighting structural demographic imbalances on dating platforms. | |
| Dil Mil and the Acquisition Playbook for Niche Dating | 7 | 6 | 3 | 3 | Shaan recounts how KJ proved him wrong by building and selling Dil Mil for millions, laying out the acquisition playbook used by Match Group for vertical dating apps. | |
| Immigrant Courage: Shaan's Mother's First Flight | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Sam and Shaan discuss immigrant grit, highlighting Shaan's mother's brave experience flying to the US for the first time without knowing what an airplane was. |
Statements from this episode (19)
Shaan: Creators must choose between selling consumables or collectibles
“If you're Logan Paul or you're Mr. Beast, you make consumables. Think prime energy drink. It's a consumable. I'm selling this to you. You're going to drink it, use it, whatever. And he goes Mr. Beast chocolate. He's going to, or even Mr. Beast merch his t-shir…”
Parr: Caryn Seidman-Becker bought Clear out of bankruptcy for $6M
“And so she buys the business out of bankruptcy for six million dollars. Then she goes on and raises fifty million dollars and she renames the company and she calls it clear.”
Parr: Clear pays airports 10% to 13% of its revenue
“So they give away 10 to 13% of their revenue to the airports. And what that comes out to be is something like of their revenue in 2019. They're doing like three hundred fifty million in revenue. They gave out thirty five million dollars to airports.”
Puri doubts Clear's expansion into stadium biometric verification
“I'm not sure I'm a believer in the rest of that vision, because like, I don't care like, the amount of effort it would take for the, you're at a ball game, and you want to buy a beer, and now each beer vendor is going to buy hardware, To scan my retinas and I …”
Parr: Clear generated $530M in TTM revenue across 53 airports
“They're in 53 airports in they're, The trailing 12 months, they've done five hundred and thirty million dollars in revenue.”
Puri: Cricut generates $1B in annual revenue and $100M free cash flow
“This company makes a billion dollars a year in revenue, hundred million dollars of free cash flow a year, Sam.”
Parr: My mother-in-law makes hundreds of thousands selling pillows on Etsy
“My mother-in-law started an Etsy store and she's making hundreds of thousands of dollars selling pillows on Etsy.”
Parr: Moiz Ali sold Native Deodorant for $100M cash after two years
“And then he, and then after two years, he sells the business for a hundred million dollars in cash.”
Puri: Touching startup origin stories are often reverse-engineered later
“I think this is not like him and many other people do this where like, you know, the business has this you know, touching origin story. This is this wonderful backstory, but like these are often, you know, reverse engineered later. You know, the, that's not ho…”
Puri: Aunt Flow is winning multimillion-dollar enterprise dispenser contracts
“And what they're doing is they're going state by state into these stadiums or schools, universities, and they're getting these multi, you know, multimillion dollar contracts for installing their thing.”
Puri: iCracked was one of the few non-technical teams accepted into YC
“They had booted up 28 campuses in 30 days, which I love. They get into YC. They're one of the only non-technical teams to even get into YC.”
Parr: iCracked bought 200 Smart cars for repair technicians in SF
“And so at one point they even buy like 200 smart cars. So they like wrap in their eye cracked logo and they give to their eye texts in there.”
Puri: iCracked quietly raised $50M and peaked at $36M run rate
“They never announced this, but they go and they raise fifty million dollars to scale the business. And that fifty million gets them to go international, and at peak, they get to thirty-six million in run rate, but it's just getting harder and harder to keep up…”
Shaan Puri: Viral product growth is passive, not intentional word-of-mouth recommendation
“Products that grow virally are not products that succeed through word of mouth. Like if you talk to a normal person, oh yeah, it's spread virally. People used to go tell their friends because they loved it so much. No, no, no. That's called word of mouth. Vira…”
Shaan Puri: Event platforms grow via group virality as attendees become hosts
“Products like cloud poker night have a different kind of virality. Which I think, I don't know what it's called, but group virality or something. Similar to how Eventbrite grows or meetup.com grows, which is an attendee becomes a host.”
Puri: FarmersOnly receives 700,000 monthly website visits
“All right, they're doing 700 K in monthly visits, so not bad.”
Puri: Dating app market is not winner-take-all
“Not a winner-take-all market. There's tons of dating apps. I mean, who's the winner that took all? Tinder? No. Bumble? No. Batch? EHarmony? No. OkCupid? No.”
Puri: Match Group is a holding company for 20 niche dating apps
“Match Group is a collection of dating apps. We have our generic catch all mass market apps, Tinder. And what's the other one? Mash.com. And then they have like all the niche apps. And so they own like 20 dating apps or something like that. And so if you just f…”