Jan 18, 2022 · 1h 19m · my-first-million
Brainstorming The Best Business Ideas To Start In 2022 with Noah Kagan
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
AppSumo founder Noah Kagan joins Sam Parr on 'My First Million' to brainstorm high-potential business opportunities, dissect content and audience growth tactics, and share actionable frameworks for software acquisition, investing, and founder self-optimization.
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 41.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 5.5 Guest teaching 3.6 Guest disagreement 1.9 The hosts pushing back 2.7
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 1:11:20 Noah grills Sam on video relevance and leadership
Noah bluntly calls out Sam's YouTube uploads for lacking audience fit and sarcastically asks who is running the channel.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 50:26 Sam rejects Noah's Canva-Buffer comparisonSam immediately refutes Noah's premise that Canva is the exact same thing as Buffer, demanding to know if Noah is on drugs.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:10:12 Noah audits My First Million's YouTube metricsNoah educates Sam on algorithmic YouTube growth, breaking down 5% CTR benchmarks, average view duration, and missing funnel links.
The host holds their own ▶ 51:00 Sam reels off Canva's growth and financial metricsSam demonstrates superior market knowledge by citing Canva's revenue doubling from $500M to $1B alongside its bootstrapped founders' equity value.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debating Cold Plunge Benefits, Hot Baths, and Male Pampering | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | Sam questions the actual peer-reviewed scientific efficacy of cold plunges despite owning one. Producer Ben intervenes to correct Sam on heat versus cold therapy for recovery, while Noah redirects the talk toward hot baths and pampering. | |
| Noah Kagan's Journey and Scaling AppSumo's YouTube Channel | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Noah breaks down the unit economics of his YouTube channel and how power law distribution meant three videos drove almost all their AdSense. Sam contributes data about other multi-million dollar YouTube operations. | |
| Everyday Storytelling and Lessons from Casey Neistat's Course | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Sam shares key takeaways from Casey Neistat's course and explains his own experiment creating a low-effort iPhone video about buying an adjacent plot of land. | |
| TikTok Bounties, Viral Growth, and Platform Audience Quality | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Sam details how their $5,000 community bounty generated 30 million TikTok views and overwhelmed the fatFIRE subreddit with traffic. Noah questions audience quality between TikTok and YouTube, leading to an agreed comparison. | |
| Software Arbitrage: Buying Chrome Extensions and WordPress Plugins | 7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | Sam and Noah trade detailed case studies on software arbitrage. Noah shares his playbook of acquiring unmaintained WordPress plugins like Google Analyticator, while Sam cites Syed's WPBeginner empire and Andrew Wilkinson's WeCommerce roll-up. | |
| Finding Underpriced Attention and Sponsoring Micro-Influencers | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Noah highlights historical underpriced ad arbitrage on Facebook newsfeed ads and pitches sponsoring micro-influencers. Sam matches Noah's numbers with The Hustle's historical customer acquisition cost trends. | |
| Mint.com Origins, Founder Equity Math, and Ambition Scale | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | Noah explains his equity math and rationale for leaving Mint.com early, while questioning massive valuations for corporate card startups like Brex and Ramp. Sam pushes back, clearly explaining the interchange revenue model and unit economics. | |
| The Cost of Achievement and Showing Up Consistently | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | Sam plays devil's advocate regarding whether building a massive business requires perpetual grinding versus upfront sprint phases. Noah argues showing up when unmotivated is what creates long-term separation. | |
| MudWtr's Expansion and the Doomsday Prepper Business Idea | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Noah discusses MudWtr's scale and proposes a prepper-in-a-box concept. Sam builds on the idea by recalling Ryan Deiss's eight-figure survival website sale and suggesting a Wirecutter model for emergency preparedness. | |
| AppSumo Top Sellers, AI Tools, and Platform-Based Investing | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Noah discloses AppSumo's top categories, including video editing and GPT-3 copy tools, and explains his strategy of buying public stock in vendors they use. Sam notes his angel investment in Copy.ai and his profitable IPO investment in Zoom based on Hustle newsletter ad data. | |
| Trend Curation, Crypto Newsletters, and The Milk Road | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Noah talks about discovering NFT and software trends, while Sam brings up Shaan Puri launching The Milk Road crypto newsletter and explains how curating niche signals creates value. | |
| Executive Coaching, Accountability Partners, and Calendar Automation | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Noah outlines his roster of coaches and automated calendar system. Sam enthusiastically agrees and details his boxing, nutrition, and fitness coaching setup. | |
| Net Worth Spreadsheets, Buffer's Ceiling, and Canva's Growth | 8 | 2 | 3 | 7 | When Noah claims Canva is essentially the same business as Buffer, Sam forcefully challenges him, citing Canva's $40 billion valuation, doubling $1 billion annual revenue, and distinct graphic design product suite. | |
| Monthly Life Review Rituals and Psychedelic Therapy Insights | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Noah explains his seven-year monthly life review ritual and LSD therapy lessons. Sam recounts his humorous experience getting expelled from a psychedelic therapy group by a former Wall Street banker. | |
| Everyday Luxuries, Travel Gadgets, and Home Office Upgrades | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | The two exchange everyday gadget and home office recommendations, covering Apple AirTags, Autonomous chairs, bulk Costco socks, and high-end underwear. | |
| Growth Audit and YouTube Optimization for My First Million | 5 | 8 | 6 | 5 | Noah conducts a direct growth audit of My First Million's YouTube channel, criticizing their missing description links, weak thumbnails, long durations, and content choices. Sam pushes back defending their podcast-first focus and long-term licensing vision. |
Statements from this episode (24)
Noah Kagan budgeted $500,000 for his YouTube channel production team in 2022
“We'll spend about half a million dollars on just the team this year.”
Noah Kagan's YouTube channel generated $121,800 in first-year AdSense revenue
“Last year on AdSense. We made a 121,000 dollars to 800 and year one. In our year, first hardcore year of having a team around.”
My First Million's TikTok bounty campaign generated 30M views in three weeks
“So far, the hashtag that we asked people to use has gotten thirty million views in three weeks.”
Sam Parr: Grammarly generates $800M in annual revenue at $20B valuation
“Grammarly, I think is like a twenty billion dollar company at this point. Grammarly does like, eight hundred million in revenue.”
Noah Kagan bought 5M WordPress plugin installs to launch Sumo.com
“So when we launched sumo.com, I actually bought probably about five million installs. I think give or take five million installs of WordPress plugins. So I bought like some of the most popular WordPress plugins around.”
Noah Kagan paid $100K for a WordPress plugin with 1M installs
“For the Google analytics one, they had a million sales. I paid a hundred K.”
Noah Kagan lost $25K acquiring a Chrome extension he failed to monetize
“I think I bought it for 25,000 for 40,000 installs active installs on Chrome. But with that one, we could not monetize it at all. We tried like paid features. We tried ads to it. We tried to grow it. And we were not as successful. So I pretty much lost almost …”
WeCommerce generates $30M annually from Shopify apps at a $600M valuation
“And it currently, it's in, it's public on the Canadian Stock Exchange right now, probably for a six hundred million dollar market cap. It's called WeCommerce. And they do like, I think, thirty million dollars a year in revenue just off Shopify apps.”
Noah Kagan: AppSumo pays roughly $60 to acquire a paying customer
“I think we're paying like 60 dollars for a paying customer now.”
The Hustle reached 200,000 organic subscribers before utilizing paid marketing
“So we got to like 200,000 subscribers just through blogging and then we started doing paid marketing. And I think we paid a dollar 50 when we sold. It might have been like four dollars.”
Sponsoring creators under 10K subscribers is prime underpriced growth arbitrage
“Like if I was trying to grow a newsletter I probably would go try to sponsor like super micro people on Tik Tok and YouTube. Like these guys that are guys and girls that are like sub 10,000 subs. Like if your channel has like 966 subscribers, like you'd be a p…”
Noah Kagan: Brex and Ramp are overvalued $10B branded credit card companies
“I think some of the stupidest companies that are big that I don't get is like Brex or Ramp. They're like credit card branded companies that are like ten billion dollars.”
Noah Kagan left Mint early because his equity upside capped at $2M
“I thought mint was going to sell for that price. That's why I left early.”
Noah Kagan admits knowing AppSumo would take ten years would deter him
“Like for me, if you would have told me when I started AppSumo, like, hey, no, you'll be a millionaire, but it's going to take 10 years. I probably wouldn't have started.”
Noah Kagan claims DTC beverage brand MudWtr generates $60M in annual revenue
“I think he's, I mean, last we heard it was a sixty million dollar revenue, which revenue is always different than profit, as I'm sure you know.”
Ryan Deiss sold a doomsday prepper affiliate website for eight figures
“We have this friend named Ryan Dice and Ryan Dice started digital marketer, which is like a pretty sizable business that does all types of stuff. And he owned a conference that he sold for a lot of money, but pre pandemic, like two years before the pandemic, h…”
AppSumo generated $2M on Black Friday, paying over half to creators
“Black Friday was our highest day. Almost two million dollars in that one day on Black Friday, which we paid out half of that at least half of that to creators, which is fucking wild.”
Noah Kagan actively invests in public software companies that AppSumo utilizes internally
“So when we were building Shopify apps five years ago, I was like, I don't know if our Shopify apps are going to work, but I'll put 10,000 dollars in Shopify stock when it just started. So if our apps suck, I think the Shopify thing will probably work. And that…”
Sam Parr bought Zoom stock pre-IPO after seeing its ad conversion rates
“So when we like years ago, or a couple years ago, we had Zoom was one of our advertisers, and this was before they went public. And the ad crushed it. It was so good. And we were like, damn dude, people love this product. They love zoom. And I ended up buying …”
Sam Parr: Canva raised at $40B after doubling revenue to $1B
“They raised money at a forty billion dollar valuation because they grew the revenue from five hundred million to a billion in a year.”
Noah Kagan emailed monthly life reviews to close friends for seven years
“So every month, and this, I've done this now for about seven years and it's basically an email I sent to Tynan, Nick Gray, and my buddy Jimmy and Leo, and you basically just review your past month”
Jordan Harbinger spent $900,000 on podcast ads to grow in year one
“Jordan Harbinger has fifteen million downloads a month. Of course, he's in like a big category. It's just like culture, I think is the category he's in. And he basically spent 900,000 dollars in his first year buying ads on other people's podcasts. And that's …”
Sam Parr predicts My First Million will reach 3M downloads in 2022
“We're going to get to like the three million range by the end of the year. And once there I think we're going to be end up being like one of the big, I think we'll be like in the Dave Ramsey, Tim Ferriss category inside the next year and a half.”
Ramp acquired Buyer.co, a 'negotiating-as-a-service' startup taking a percentage of savings
“There's this company called buyer.co and my friend started it and it was called negotiating as a service and they would negotiate anything on your behalf and take a percentage of the savings and the company sold to ramp.”