How Gruns Scaled to $1.2B in 33 Months
Gruns went from $0 to $1.2 billion in 33 months. We had the founder on MFM. He explained how he reversed engineered to $300 million in sales in 3 years. And the ideas he nearly started instead of Gruns (which is brilliant). get it while its hot: https://t.co/5262lvmeKc
Navigating The
"I think about the Gap from where people are in a place that they don't want to be until they get to a place that they do. And I think of it like a lonely chapter. Everybody that has got from a...
Aim for 10x‑100x Breakthroughs, Not Incremental Gains
We just had the ex-President of Tesla on MFM. This guy joined when Tesla was 4 employees, and left when it was 4,000. One of the things he told Shaan was that at Tesla, the goal was never "make it 20%...
From War‑torn Budapest to $80B Automated Trading Empire
Thomas Peterffy is worth $80B and his life reads like the plot of a Christopher Nolan movie: - Born during a Soviet bombing raid, Budapest, 1944 - Sold pieces of gum to kids at age 12 - Organized children to hunt scrap metal...
Bootstrapped Success: Wealth Doesn't Alter Perspective
Last week I asked a founder who just sold his 8-figure company what it felt like when the wire hit. He started it in 2014 and bootstrapped it to $30M ARR before selling in 2025. This is what he told me about...
Rob Dyrdek's 30/30/30/10 Time Formula Prioritizes Family
We had Rob Dyrdek on MFM a while back. He’s built 18 companies and sold 6 of them. $550M in total exits. He splits every 24 hours of his life into percentages. 30% work. 7 hours. 30% sleep. 7 hours. 30% family. 7 hours. 10%...
Assassination Books Reveal Chilling Manhunts and Conspiracies
Here are the most interesting assassination books... When I read, I go down rabbit holes. I'm sick...but interesting: Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer John Wilkes Booth killed Abe Lincoln and was loose for 12 days. Booth was a famous actor. Think...
Swap Habits, Not Cravings: Quit Drinking with Candy
How I quit drinking 20 beers a day: I ate a pack of M&Ms every time I wanted a beer. Not a joke, Charles Duhigg's book "the power of habit" taught me you can't kill a habit, only...
Serial SaaS Founder Shares Secrets in Upcoming Book
My buddy Jason Cohen has built not one but two companies worth over a billion dollars (we met in Hampton). - First he founded SmartBear. Grew it, sold it. - Then he starts WP Engine, a managed WordPress hosting platform. - Bootstrapped the...
Turn $8M Into $500M by Rolling Up Boring Industries
How to turn $8M into $500M in revenue in 6 years, according to Graham Weaver (he came on MFM recently): - Pick the most boring industry you can find (he picked plumbing + HVAC. $170B TAM) - Buy a small one with...
Build Systems First, Then Launch Agencies Every 90 Days
I know a guy who started 4 agencies in 1 year. Here’s how it went: - Starts an Amazon Agency in 2008. - Does 8-figures in revenue with 100 people before selling in 2020. - Learned the importance of systems after scaling from...
Four Traits That Separate $100M Founders From Others
I asked an employee at Hampton who has interviewed over 500 Hampton applicants to tell me if she noticed any differences between the super successful founders (+$100m) and the mildly successful founders who applied. She had 4 distinct points. Here...
Media Value Equals Audience Size, Buying Power, Influence
Media value = audience size * buying power * how influential you are over them.
Investor Mindset: Psychology Over Deals Drives Success
I'm not an investor. I don't buy stocks (just sp500). I'm not into PE stuff. I don't buy companies. My favorite category of MFM guests are investors and PE guys. Not even hearing about mechanics of deals or investing, but the...
When Tech Levels Production, Brand Wins
Just now getting around to Paul Graham’s essay on the Swiss watch industry. In the 1970s, quartz watches made mechanical watches outdated because they were cheaper and more accurate. Three companies survived--Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Rolex. - Rolex saw it coming first....
Imposter Syndrome Evolves, Fuels Growth for Successful Founders
I asked 1,000+ founders in Hampton (all doing at least $3M ARR): do you still get imposter syndrome? Here's what they said: Matt (multi-exit founder, 10+ years in): "Imposter syndrome never goes away. It just changes shape. Early on it's 'do I...
Immigrant Rabbi Turned Marshmallow Maker Creates Iconic Peeps
The guy who invented Peeps has one of the most interesting stores I’ve ever heard: Sam Born was a Russian Jewish immigrant who studied to become a rabbi in Ukraine. - Came to America. Made candy instead. - Named his company "Just Born",...
Media vs Tech: Creators, Audiences, Communities Explained
This seems nitpicky but the words do matter: 1. TBPN is a media company. Creators made stuff, audience consumed it. 2. Beehive, Substack are tech companies. They make software that media company's, media people use. 3. An audience is when someone makes something...
Share Your Story Anonymously on Moneywise Podcast
Moneywise needs guests. That's the hardest part of the podcast. 1) we can anonymize your voice if needed 2) its so a wild experience. talking about things you've never talked about. very therapeutic. also, our audience...its not small. 20k downloads an episode. and...
Niantic Turns Pokémon GO Data Into AI Gold
The guys behind Pokémon GO just pulled off the greatest pivot in tech. Shaan and I chatted about this on the pod recently. For years, millions of players walked around cities capturing street-level video data. Now the game's hype is gone. But Niantic is...
Teenage Founders Now Outpace Seasoned Entrepreneurs, Timeline Accelerates
I went to Austin Rief's house for dinner with eight founders recently. - One guy raised $140 million - The oldest guy in the room was 25 - A bunch of them were building 7-figure media companies - They told me they already feel...
Beyond Revenue: Purpose, Health, and Relationships Drive Founder Happiness
I asked 1000+ Hampton founders (all doing at least 3M ARR): has hitting your career goals actually made you happier? Here's what they said: - Founder A (sold multiple companies): "Revenue milestones felt good briefly, then faded. But being able to buy...
Serial Entrepreneurs Build $400M+ Empires with Grit
This is a Hampton Core group (based in LA). - One co-founded a K-beauty brand, ran it for 12 years, and exited at around $200M while the brand was valued closer to $600M. - Another quit her job as the on-set lawyer...
From Chaos to Empire: Napoleon’s Rise and Hubris
Rockefeller said if Napoleon went into commerce, he’d be the "greatest businessman the world has ever known. Here’s how Napoleon built (and lost) the greatest empire in Europe: - In his late 20s, France is in total chaos from the Revolution. -...
Migration Stories Reveal Entrepreneurship as Survival Path
Books that aren’t about entrepreneurship that’ve helped me: The Warmth of Other Suns In the early 1900s around six million Southern black Americans migrated up north and out west to California. Even though slavery ended in the 1800s, in the...
Self‑taught Coder & Wife Launch $5M AI Tax Startup
A guy in Hampton built a $5M/year tax software company with his wife as co-founder. @ChKashifAli studied accounting and worked as a journalist for 6 years (including at the WSJ). Then he taught himself to code and worked at Adobe for 3...
Transparency Spectrum: From Secretive CEOs to Open‑Book Cultures
Someone in Hampton (1000+ founders) asked people if they share revenue and P&L with employees. Here's what they said: Founder A (bootstrapped, ~20 employees): "I share nothing. Not even with my COO. I've never been happier running a company." Founder B (also anti-transparency):...
Hidden $100M Family Firms Crave AI Guidance
My buddy runs a company helping manufactures implement ai. He showed me the leads he’s getting. It’s nuts. Family businesses I’ve never heard of making $100m a year. They know the need ai but no idea what to do. Crazy...
From Street Hustle to Music Empire: Eazy’s ‘Why Not Me’
A book tech twitter hasn’t read but is a great biz book Ruthless, the story of Eazy E and Ruthless Records: - eazy e was a 21 year old drug dealer - saved up 200k from selling drugs - used it to...
Ruthless Steel Magnate Stitches Himself, Keeps Working
Most people know Andrew Carnegie but not as many know his business partner, Henry Clay Frick. Frick was younger than Carnegie but ruthless. He had a monopoly on coke (a key ingredient for steel), and together they built a steel empire. They made...
10‑Minute Daily Clean‑Up Boosts Office Productivity
Tidy 10. At our office, once a day at 3 pm. Employees need to spend 10 minutes cleaning their workspace. If their space is clean, pick something else. We get so much done. I LOVE IT. Stole it from Rakuten company manual. Some...
Twin Brothers Bootstrapped Apparel to $110M in Six Years
There’s a guy in Hampton who bootstrapped a lifestyle apparel company to 9-figures with his twin brother. Alec Todd and his bro started with just $3k. Started Cove Apparel in Jan 2020. 2025: $38M in revenue, 22% EBITDA 2026: on track to...
Founders Meet Monthly to Share AI Wins and Learn
Pretty much all my monthly meetings with my founder peers is discussing: - how we're keeping up with ai - showing off stuff we've built - learning from one another
Choose Family First: Time Wins Over Business Gains
Someone asked this question in Hampton’s slack (1000+ founders): “How do you build a business while raising kids?” Replies (anonymized): Member A (had his son at 22, now 44): "There was never anything in this world I wanted more than being a father....
How One Small Team Generates $30M Revenue
There’s a in Hampton who runs a company doing $30m in revenue with very few employees He did a screenshare showing the tools he uses to make it happen. https://t.co/DAT3MWSdKe
Simplify Claude Adoption: Practical Steps Beyond Twitter Noise
How is everyone getting team adoption for Claude? I spent a lot of time on Twitter, as do you. We see all this AI stuff popping up. We're on top of it, or at least sorta. I know what's going...
From $13 to $3M ARR in Eight Months
Crazy story. A kid in Hampton just turned 20 and went from $13 in his checking account to $3M ARR in 8 months. Here's his story (shared w/permission): - Started a podcast at 15 in his closet during the pandemic and interviewed Mark...
Investors Favor AI; Non‑AI Startups Face Funding Drought
I’ve seen a few media companies and dtc brands raising funding right now. I’m not an active angel…but I can’t imagine doing a non-ai company seed investment at the moment. God bless those companies. What’s the market like for non-ai...
Selling Too Early Costs More Than Lost Deal
Someone asked this question in Hampton’s Slack: “what’s the most expensive lesson you’ve learned?” - My cofounder Joe lost a $100M deal when Facebook changed the algo mid-acquisition. - Another took a company from $9M EBITDA to -$5M in one year. - A third...
Louverture's Leadership: The Only Successful Slave Revolt
Toussaint Louverture led a slave revolt in Haiti in the 1700s and won. He led a revolution and established a new government. I’m almost certain that, over the tens of thousands of years that slavery has existed, this is...
70% Would Restart Careers, Haunted by Missed Risks
@bgurley (Partner @benchmark + early investor in Uber) surveyed 1,000 people and 7 out of 10 said they'd restart their career if they could. Not bc they made bad choices but cause they never made the scary ones. @DanielPink calls...
Naming Principles Work for All Creative Projects
Great slide from a deck on how to name your company. But I think it applies to almost anything creative. https://t.co/naLk1q4cUe
Low‑budget Ads Often Beat Polished Productions
Like it or not... In my experience, low production jenky ads almost always outperform more well thought out, highly produced ads. I want to be wrong. Because highly produced stuff is fun to make. Anyway have a diff experience/result?