From: myfirstmillionpod
The podcast hosts discuss their early business experiences and challenges and various business experiments, highlighting key lessons from failures and successes learned along the way. These include understanding market signals, the value of perseverance, and adapting strategies.
Early Collaborations and the My First Million Podcast
The podcast “My First Million” began as a business experiment between the host and Isan, who was then an intern [00:00:51]. Isan was instrumental in its creation, designing the cover art and original intro song, and handling audio production [00:01:03]. The podcast was initially launched with a “one-page plan” or “kickoff doc” detailing goals like reaching 100,000 downloads per episode [00:11:21]. Although the timeline was overestimated—it took three years instead of one to hit the download target—the host believed in the project’s long-term potential [00:12:21].
“Don’t confuse a clear view for a short distance.” [00:12:31]
A key takeaway from this experiment was the concept of creating serendipity through content creation [00:13:03]. Putting oneself online, even with small interactions like liking or replying to posts, can lead to unexpected opportunities [00:13:08]. This is likened to the “lines not dots” principle, where many small interactions stack up to form significant connections over time, especially in building trust with investors or collaborators [00:14:30].
E-commerce Ventures: The Crystal Store
As part of their early unexpected business ventures and case studies, the host and Isan launched various e-commerce businesses, including a crystal store [00:06:50]. The idea for the crystal store came from observing celebrity trends, with the hypothesis that if celebrities believed in crystals, a broader market would too [00:07:14].
Despite generating sales quickly—a rare feat for new stores [00:10:23]—the experiment was halted because they didn’t know what “winning” looked like [00:09:22]. Their return on ad spend (ROAS) was around 1.7x to 2x, but they mistakenly believed it needed to be 3x or 4x, leading them to shut it down [00:10:34].
“One of the things that makes you stick to it is not just willpower, it’s like knowing your win condition. So like, do you even know what to look at and do you know what winning looks like? Do you know what the benchmark should be so that you can actually assess a successful versus unsuccessful experiment?” [00:10:58]
This highlights the lesson of establishing clear success or failure conditions before starting an experiment [00:09:40].
Investing and “Degenerate Bets”
Isan’s entrepreneurial journey and lessons learned included significant experiences in speculative investments.
Bitcoin Flash Crash
During a work call, Isan noticed Bitcoin had crashed by 60% to 40,000 [00:18:53]. This unexpected business venture and case studies demonstrated how quickly wealth can be made in opportune moments.
“The money is made when there’s like a few key decisions that happen maybe once a year, once every few years, once every few months, whatever it is. And you just have to act on it with like it’s a bit degenerate.” [00:20:04]
This reflects the idea that luck favors the prepared mind; being able to recognize and act on an opportunity is crucial [00:21:12].
Animoca Brands Investment
Isan invested in Animoca Brands, an Australian-listed company that pivoted to crypto and blockchain gaming [00:22:45]. After initially doing well, the company was delisted from the Australian stock exchange due to its crypto involvement [00:23:00]. Despite losing access to his $25,000 investment, Isan saw a long-term opportunity due to his deep understanding of gaming and crypto [00:24:05].
He sourced shares from disgruntled top shareholders on secondary markets, buying them at an 80-90% discount [00:27:40]. He doubled down, investing around 30-40 million to 2 million [00:30:39]. Despite offers to sell, he chose to hold, seeing its potential for further growth to hundreds of billions [00:31:38]. The company’s valuation peaked at $6 billion [00:32:17].
This success story and lessons in entrepreneurship exemplifies conviction and risk-taking. Isan later used his knowledge to advise a billionaire investor who also invested in Animoca, resulting in nine-figure returns for the investor [00:40:40].
Shuffle: A Crypto Casino Venture
Isan co-founded Shuffle, a crypto casino, inspired by the success of Stake, a crypto casino that generated billions in revenue [00:43:08]. Shuffle’s team comprises individuals with backgrounds from major crypto exchanges like FTX, BitMEX, and Crypto.com [00:46:18].
Business Model and Risks
The business model of crypto casinos, similar to exchanges, profits from transaction fees [00:46:44]. The primary risk for Shuffle is regulatory, as these businesses often operate with licenses from specific, less stringent jurisdictions [00:48:41]. Unlike typical startups, Shuffle faces little market or technical risk, but must navigate the volatile regulatory landscape [00:51:12].
Growth and Strategy
Since its launch in February of this year, Shuffle has achieved significant traction, processing half a billion dollars in volume monthly and generating a few million in monthly revenue and profit [00:52:21]. The business is designed to strip out cash flow rather than seek an exit, acknowledging that no one will buy a crypto casino [00:52:50].
For customer acquisition, Shuffle initially targeted crypto enthusiasts who enjoyed gambling [00:54:11]. A key lesson was to focus on “high-value” customers (VIPs) over a large number of low-spending users, as the latter often demand excessive support for minimal losses [00:55:04]. Markets like Japan proved ideal, as players bet big, are respectful, and require less support [00:55:10].
Marketing and Localization
Since traditional advertising channels like Facebook and Google are prohibited for crypto casinos, Shuffle relies on creative customer acquisition strategies, particularly affiliate marketing and influencers [00:55:38]. They observed that influencers with highly engaged, community-driven followings (e.g., Discord channels) are more effective than those with large but less active follower counts [00:58:25]. This aligns with the “thousand true fans” concept [00:11:38].
International expansion, particularly into Japan, presented challenges related to localization and cultural nuances [01:17:11]. Standard AI translation tools proved insufficient due to issues with tone and context [01:20:36]. Hiring native speakers fluent in English who understand the local market was crucial for respectful communication and appearing as a local entity [01:18:12]. This highlights the importance of deeply understanding the target market’s culture and avoiding assumptions [01:22:15].
Key Entrepreneurial Lessons
- Define Success: Clearly establish “win conditions” and benchmarks for experiments to accurately assess their outcomes [00:10:58].
- Perseverance: “Stick-to-it-ness” is vital for success, especially for projects that take longer than anticipated, like the podcast [00:12:21].
- Embrace Serendipity: Engage actively online to create opportunities, as connections build over time (“lines not dots”) [00:13:03].
- Recognize Opportunity: Be prepared to act decisively on key market moments, even if it seems “degenerate,” as these can yield significant returns [00:20:04].
- Value of “Degeneracy”: In a positive sense, “degeneracy” refers to an intense, obsessive drive to master a skill or project, often seen in individuals who excel in competitive fields like gaming [00:59:52].
- Focus on High-Intent Customers: For some businesses, a smaller number of high-value, engaged customers can be more profitable and less resource-intensive than a large volume of low-spending ones [00:54:40].
- Intensity as Strategy: Apply an unusual level of focus and intensity to tasks, pushing past self-imposed limits and conventional approaches to accelerate progress [01:34:39].