Jul 21, 2021 · 1h 4m · my-first-million
A Breakdown of Trendy New Businesses & Boring 9 Figure Businesses | My First Million #202
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, co-hosts Sam Parr and Shaan Puri break down diverse business models ranging from boutique wellness trends and biodegradable tattoos to entrenched legacy monopolies and niche search engine arbitrage operations. They also evaluate their internal media strategy, advocating for high-effort creative projects and a dedicated YouTube-first production model.
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 99.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 5.3 Guest teaching 4.1 Guest disagreement 1.4 The hosts pushing back 1.4
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 27:29 Studio model versus wholesale parlor distribution disagreement
Sam directly contradicts Shaan's assertion that building proprietary studios is foolish, maintaining that own-branded retail flagships are great regardless of immediate parlor economics.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 5:38 Shaan challenging the efficacy of daily step trackingShaan directly challenges Sam's premise regarding 20,000 daily steps, asking why anyone fit would prioritize low-intensity step counting over focused high-intensity exercise.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 45:26 Shaan explaining Pantone's 18-base pigment mixing mechanicsShaan explains the technical foundation of Pantone's standard, contrasting standard 4-color CMYK printers with Pantone's proprietary 18 base colors and quality control applications.
The host holds their own ▶ 48:08 Sam detailing WGSN's forecasting revenue modelSam matches Shaan's Pantone case study by citing specific financial data and market positioning for WGSN, demonstrating deep domain knowledge of B2B trend forecasting.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Mallah and Shifting Focus to YouTube | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Sam introduces real estate personality Ben Mallah and pitches pivoting the podcast into a YouTube-first channel. Shaan agrees with the discoverability benefits of YouTube Premium, maintaining a completely collaborative brainstorming dynamic. | |
| The 20,000 Daily Steps Experiment and Wellness Habits | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Sam describes his experiment walking 20,000 steps daily. Shaan initially pushes back lightly by comparing step-trackers to gimmicky fitness phases for sedentary people, but Sam explains the caloric burn and appetite management rationale. | |
| Screenwriting Challenges and High-Effort Content Strategies | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Shaan explains his challenge to write an Office spec script inspired by Aaron Sorkin and Blake Ross, while Sam gives supportive feedback and suggests higher-effort content mediums like email GIF hacks. | |
| The Rise of Stretching Gyms, Breathwork, and Cold Plunges | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Shaan and Sam trade domain knowledge on emerging wellness trends including assisted stretching franchises like StretchLab, Buddhist chanting, and cold plunges, validating each other's experiences. | |
| Ephemeral Tattoos and Expanding the Body Art Market | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | Shaan breaks down Ephemeral Tattoo's funding and business model, arguing they should distribute through existing parlors rather than open standalone studios. Sam pushes back, arguing that owning branded studios builds immense brand equity regardless of parlor count. | |
| Jostens Class Rings and the Power of Default Monopolies | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Shaan details Jostens' class ring monopoly, private equity history, and economics. Both hosts riff on how default captive institutional distribution creates virtually idiot-proof high-margin recurring revenue. | |
| Pantone, WGSN, and the Monetization of Color Standards | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Shaan details the history of the Pantone color matching system and Color of the Year marketing. Sam matches this by introducing WGSN's trend forecasting business model and subscription economics. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Parr: YouTube Discoverability Is Significantly Better Than Podcasts
“And the discovery of discoverability on YouTube is significantly better than podcasts.”
Sam Parr predicts long-form blog posts will return as a major opportunity
“I think longer form blog posts are going to be coming. Cause everyone's like, I want to start a newsletter. I want to get popular on Twitter. I'm like, all right, great. Do that. I actually think that there could be a bigger opportunity to create a more in-dep…”
Parr: Dedicated stretching and mobility studios will continue growing as a trend
“I think stretching is actually a trend that's gonna continue to grow.”
Parr: Commercial ice bath studios are going to become quite popular
“I think ice baths, particularly places that you can go just to take an ice bath, I think are going to get quite popular.”
Shaan Puri: Ephemeral Tattoo raised $20 million
“This new one, ephemeral tattoo just raised twenty million dollars.”
Shaan Puri: Ephemeral Tattoo has $1M in pre-booked studio reservations
“They have like a million dollars worth of like pre-booked Reservations at their studios that they just are backlogged on and need to need to do.”
Puri: US tattoo parlors equal the number of high schools at 21,000
“There's 21,000 tattoo parlors in the United States. That's like the same number of like high schools are in the United States. So there's one tattoo parlor for every high school essentially.”
Puri: Ephemeral Tattoo should wholesale ink instead of opening studios
“I think what they should do is they should sell this to every tattoo parlor as the, Hey, you want diet Coke, right? You want the diet tattoo? You don't, you want the not lifelong tattoo commitment. Hey, we sell this thing a Plugs right into our normal thing. A…”
Puri: One-year fading tattoos expand the tattoo market by 3x to 4x
“It just opens up the market, right? Like if there's like a circle that says, this is a circle that represents a number of people who are willing to get tattoos for life. And you say, and now there's an option that you can have a tattoo, but it's only going to …”
Parr: Massive business profits come from high switching costs over innovation
“And a lot of times when I think of like, when we think of entrepreneurship and we think of starting stuff, we think, how can I be innovative? How can I be new? In reality, in order to make a lot of money, it's how do I get locked into this to the point to wher…”
Puri: Pantone makes over $100 million annually selling color booklets
“They make over a hundred million dollars a year, just sending out this little brochure, this little pamphlet, this little booklet with all the colors in it.”
Parr: Trend forecaster WGSN generates approximately €90 million annually
“So their revenue last year was 90 ninety million euros. I think this is a Euro. ... A hundred million dollars. And it's been doing a hundred million dollars or it's been doing around that forever.”
Parr: Companies pay around $18,000 per year for WGSN subscriptions
“And so this company called WGSN, companies pay, I think it's 18 grand a year. And they also have someone you could talk to, so you can ask them a question.”
Puri: 'Couch cushion businesses' exploit small, overlooked cracks in the system
“I called these. Couch cushion businesses. It's like finding change in the couch cushion. It's like these little cracks in the system where you can just like slip right in and create a business.”
Parr: Mugshot database businesses generate up to $15 million annual profit
“Probably you could own the person who can own one of these businesses and make like, 10, fifteen million dollars a year in profit. Although you got to like, you know, live this shitty life where like, you're just kind of a piece of shit scamming someone. But i…”
Puri: Public records site Intelius sold for over $100 million
“He started another company that also had controversy called Intelius and Intelius is the one you're thinking about. And Intelius, I think it's sold like for over a hundred million dollars, but what it was is sort of like in the it was a, so it's a way for peop…”