Apr 5, 2021 · 52m · my-first-million
MFM #167: Answering Your Questions On Investments, Businesses and Life
Shaan Puri · 30m spoken Sam Parr · 14m spoken Intro/Outro Singer · 18s spoken Outro Singer · 13s spoken
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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 Q&A episode of My First Million, Sam Parr and Shaan Puri answer audience questions spanning personal investment portfolios, balancing executive careers with side projects, aggressive productivity and delegation strategies, and the personal operating philosophies and insecurities that shape their entrepreneurial journeys.
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 98.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 5.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.0 The hosts pushing back 0.4
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 39:31 Caller raises concern over hiring friends
The caller expresses vulnerability and skepticism about the conventional idea of hiring friends, asking how to avoid ruining personal relationships over business.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 39:53 Sam firmly rejects hiring friends or fraternizing with staffSam forcefully rejects the notion of working with close friends, arguing managers should maintain strict professional distance and leave gatherings when alcohol appears.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 41:10 Shaan reframes the hiring friends dilemma around competenceShaan counters Sam's strict prohibition by presenting a concrete operational playbook: hiring competent friends with explicit communication contracts up front.
The host holds their own ▶ 28:50 Shaan explains how he manages multi-project operational leverageShaan articulates his management playbook, demonstrating how he funds teams via carry and reorganizes time blocks to operate multiple high-output initiatives simultaneously.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trung Phan's Viral Content and Work Ethic | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sam and Shaan discuss Trung Phan's viral internet content and work habits. The conversation is collaborative host banter about content curation without external guests or conflict. | |
| Personal Investment Portfolios and Money Mindsets | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | The hosts break down their personal asset allocation, risk tolerances, and philosophy on discussing wealth transparently. Both hosts draw extensively on their own startup liquidity and investment history. | |
| Shaan's Rolling Fund Update and the Suli Story | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Shaan gives an update on his AngelList rolling fund mechanics and reflects on aggressive venture investing lessons learned from Chris Sacca and Suli. | |
| Passions Beyond Business: Sports and Life Operating Philosophy | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sam and Shaan discuss what criteria would make them leave corporate roles to pursue a new venture full-time, contrasting fast iterative projects with long-term compounders. | |
| Managing Side Projects and Corporate Executive Balance | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Shaan details his operational framework for managing corporate duties at Twitch alongside side projects by leveraging delegation, carry compensation, and clear output-based expectations. | |
| Analyzing Dictators, Persuasion, and Flawed Figures | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | The hosts dissect the persuasion techniques, propaganda, and drive of historical dictators and controversial high performers while explicitly acknowledging moral nuance. | |
| The Pros and Cons of Hiring Friends in Business | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | A caller asks whether to hire close friends. Sam strongly advises against mixing business and friendship, while Shaan offers a counter-framework of hiring only competent friends with upfront ground rules. | |
| Personal Flaws, Intellectual Intimidation, and Insecurities | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Both hosts answer a question regarding personal insecurities, with Sam focusing on intellectual intimidation and speed over depth, and Shaan reflecting on self-filtering and impact. | |
| Future Live Tours and Creative Event Hosting Concepts | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | The episode wraps up with ideas for post-pandemic live tour events, as Sam shares past experiential event formats like Pizza & 40s, Anti-MBA, and 2X. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Puri: Trung Phan created OnlyPhans strictly for people named Phan
“So he has only fans, but he spells fans P H A N like his last name. And it's just a network for only people with the last name fan.”
Sam Parr plans to angel invest $250K to $500K over 18 months
“I'm going to invest around 250 to 500,000 dollars in the next probably 18 months in startups.”
Sam Parr reveals 90% of his net worth is in S&P 500
“Well, no, I own way more just S&P 500 than I do HubSpot and Airbnb. But I would say that 90% of my net worth is in the S&P 500.”
Shaan Puri: Tech investors should place small initial bets then double down
“So what I've seen is in technology, The winners get really, really big. And so you kind of want to like play small bets initially and then follow on really hard. And like when you see something that actually works, be really bold in the way you approach it.”
Shaan Puri must deploy $1M per quarter from his venture rolling fund
“Now that I have to deploy a million dollars a quarter, I actually have to carve out more time. I have to like consciously go and invest in more companies.”
Puri: Zach referred 22 companies into Y Combinator batch
“For this week, this year's YC batch, you know, Zach himself referred in 22 of the companies. He was the number one, I think, refer into YC.”
Sulaiman Ali aggressively bought pre-IPO Facebook stock after his app sale
“He basically took a bunch of that money and just plot. He was like Chris Saka. He aggressively started buying up Facebook stock back then before it was public.”
Parr: You can only dedicate your life to a venture 3-4 times
“I don't like starting lots of little stuff. I prefer to dedicate my life to something. And I'm very cautious about what I'm willing to do that with, because you probably can only do that three to four times in your life.”
Shaan Puri plans to build a company to compound for 40 years
“My thirties are about building a family and then it's building a project I don't want to sell, which is basically like, I totally agree. How do I build my next thing? Same thing you said that this is something I want to do. I'm not doing it because it's the be…”
Shaan Puri spends $200K to $300K annually on side project personnel
“So I do have a, you know, significant burn, I would say it's like. 200 to 300,000 dollars a year of like People cost to do these things.”
Puri: The best startup founders are obsessively wired maniacs
“That's the kind of like maniac you want being a founder of these companies. It's like somebody who is Wired a little bit differently.”
Sam Parr: Managers and CEOs should avoid being friends with employees
“If you're a manager, you shouldn't be friends with your employees. If you're a business owner or CEO, I actually don't think I think you should be friendly. But I think you should be really careful about being friends with your employees.”
Sam Parr: Managers should leave work gatherings immediately once alcohol appears
“Even if they're if you're worth your coworkers, and anytime in the evening, And alcohol shows up. I think you should leave. I don't even think you should be in the same room.”
Shaan Puri: Hiring friends works if they are competent and expectations are clear
“The saving grace for me has always been, I only have hired my competent friends and competent friends do two things. One is they perform. So you don't have this, you're not just hiring a buddy because you're your buddy. You're hiring this person because they'r…”
Sam Parr admits feeling insecure around Stanford graduates and a16z partners
“I'm insecure. That I like I didn't go to Stanford or like a fancy school. And when I meet people in the in crowd, like when we meet guys like Andrew Chen, who works in Andreessen Horowitz, I'm like, dude, like, I kind of want to be in the in crowd, but like, I…”
Shaan Puri: Silicon Valley networking events are boring and surface-level
“Cause I've been to a lot of Silicon Valley networking events are boring as shit. You don't want to go. And when people go, they're all like surface level level. Like they, you know, it's not a fun place to be. They don't let their guard down.”