Apr 30, 2021 · 1h 13m · my-first-million
How a City Tour is Making Millions, & Selling Manhood | My First Million # 177
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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 My First Million, Sam Parr and Sean Puri analyze unique, high-margin business concepts ranging from experiential crime tours and 'Barstool Sports for Tech' to blue-collar chicken rentals, while sharing practical frameworks on podcast growth, direct execution, and extreme focus.
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 99.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 6.5 Guest teaching 4.9 Guest disagreement 2.0 The hosts pushing back 2.4
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 16:13 Playful confrontation over course skepticism
Shaan calls Sam out for hypocritically acting open-minded after explicitly stating in Slack an hour earlier that he hates course businesses.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 10:36 Sam challenges the Barstool for Tech talent modelSam firmly pushes back on Shaan's media thesis, explaining that high-IQ business and tech analysts face vastly higher opportunity costs than sports writers.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 26:07 Shaan explains cohort-based completion mechanicsShaan educates Sam on how cohort-based learning and selective admissions enable companies like Maven and Lambda School to achieve 80%+ completion rates versus standard 6% self-serve rates.
The host holds their own ▶ 20:51 Sam cites Thinkific IPO and Teachable economicsSam demonstrates strong domain knowledge by citing Thinkific's Canadian stock listing and Ankur Nagpal's Teachable metrics to dissect why SaaS course platforms trade at extreme valuations.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unpacking Podcast Growth Strategies and the Power of Simple Execution | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Sam shares real-time data on the podcast's iTunes ranking surge and explains the tactical power of a direct review ask, growing reviews from 600 to 1,400. Shaan initially challenges the idea as overly simplistic before agreeing on the value of low-hanging fruit. | |
| Pitching 'Barstool Sports for Tech' and the Venture Media Model | 7 | 5 | 3 | 4 | Shaan pitches creating a comedic 'Barstool Sports for Tech' media company. Sam pushes back with structural talent economics, noting that top-tier business writers have high opportunity costs to become investors or operators rather than writing comedy columns for standard salaries. | |
| Interactive Developer Courses and the Online Education Market | 8 | 6 | 4 | 5 | Shaan pitches Slip.so for interactive developer courses. Sam challenges the course business model by citing Thinkific's public listing metrics, Teachable's acquisition, and the standard 6-10% completion rate drop-off, prompting Shaan to explain cohort-based course mechanics. | |
| Enterprise Podcasting and the Opportunity in Internal Corporate Media | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Shaan presents Spokn as an internal corporate podcasting platform. Sam cross-references the concept against historical precedents like Ryan Deiss's Recess.io and examines Spokn's YC batch and traction timeline. | |
| High-Ticket Experiential Tours: Crime Walks, Agency Dives, and Fantasy Camps | 7 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Shaan breaks down the unit economics of an Airbnb Mafia Crime Walk making over $1M. Sam validates the experiential tour model by detailing VaynerMedia's $10k '4Ds' agency tour, while Shaan details Coach K's high-ticket Duke fantasy camp. | |
| 'Manhood as a Service' and Interactive Pop-Culture Challenge Tours | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Shaan explores 'Manhood as a Service' and pop-culture challenge tours like a travelling Survivor or Hall Brawl arena. Sam extends the idea by explaining Nick Gray's Museum Hack, a custom museum tour company that reached $2M in annual revenue. | |
| Blue Collar Side Hustle Spotlight: Rent The Chicken | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Shaan introduces the 'Blue Collar Side Hustle' segment with Rent The Chicken. Sam investigates the website live, confirming pricing tiers and delivery logistics for backyard chicken coops. | |
| Mastering Extreme Focus, Procrastination Types, and the Eisenhower Matrix | 7 | 6 | 2 | 2 | Sam outlines his framework on the three types of procrastination and prioritizing obituary-level tasks. Shaan complements this with distinctions between efficient versus effective productivity and leveraging the Eisenhower matrix. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Puri: Early-Stage Marketing Must Create Clear 10% to 50% Step Changes
“Like if I can't notice, Something happened on this day, or hey, we started growing around this time, then it didn't work enough, right? Like cause, cause usually when you're in a small project, you need step changes. You don't need one percent. You need 10%, 3…”
Parr: Being Slightly Above Average IQ Is Optimal for Execution
“You know, for the longest time, I actually thought that the lower your IQ, like you want your IQ to be just above average, but not really high, because the really smart people I meet other than him, they typically talk themselves out of anything. And so anyway…”
Parr: Funny Business Writers Leave Media for Lucrative Finance Careers
“If you're smart enough to do this for business and you're funny, you now here's the, where the rub, you likely can get paid a ton of money as some type of analyst or some type of investor or some type of operator. And so it's really hard to retain those types …”
Puri: Satirical Tech Media Companies Should Actually Be Venture Funds
“It's not just a media company. This would actually be an investment fund. So, you would be a VC fund whose brand is built Through journalism, whose distribution of how they help their companies is through their media arm. And so you're a media arm whose busine…”
Parr: Course Publishing Companies Are Great to Own, Horrible to Invest In
“A company that publishes courses I think is awesome to own, horrible to invest in.”
Sam Parr: Teachable Sold for ~$250M on $25M Revenue Having Raised $4M
“When Teachable sold, they sold for, I think, two hundred and fifty million. This is public information. This is Google, whatever the headline says. That's what I'm trying to say. I think it's two 50 or ish. And I think he was only doing twenty five million a y…”
Sean Puri: Invested in Gagan Biyani's Maven
“I invested in Maven Guggins, you know, Guggan Bayani's company.”
Sean Puri: Invested in Lambda School When It Had ~80% Completion
“Lambda School, I invested in Lambda School. Lambda School had like an 80% completion rate when I invested way back in the day.”
Puri: Looking to Invest in Internal Corporate Media Startups
“If you're building one of these, please reach out to me. I want to invest in all of these. I want to invest in like 20 of these companies.”
Parr: NYPD Officer's Crime Tour Generated Over $1M on Airbnb Experiences
“He charges around one 20 to one 30 depending on the date per person. And in the description, he says that he has had 8000 guests. So a 123 dollars times 8000 is a million bucks.”
Parr: VaynerMedia's '4Ds' Immersion Business Generated $10M–$20M Yearly Pre-COVID
“VaynerMedia did that where, and you could, well, I don't know about COVID anymore, but prior, I think it was like a twenty million dollar a year business. It would cost 10,000, 10,000 dollars Per person or per like couple, and you and your co-founder or you an…”
Puri: Duke's Coach K Basketball Fantasy Camp Costs $10,000 Per Attendee
“Coach K's Fantasy Camp. You pay 10,000 dollars and you get to go.”
Parr: Could Scale a Landscaping Business to $1M in Six Months
“Or I'm going to start a landscaping company, something that I'm going to have to be outside all day working really hard. And I think I can turn it into a million dollar a year company Like inside six months. I truly believe it.”
Parr: Nick Gray grew Museum Hack to $2M in annual sales
“He built this business that was making two million a year in sales.”