From: myfirstmillionpod
This article explores various business startup growth and entrepreneurial success stories that represent unexpected or innovative ventures, often spun out of existing platforms or personal brands. These examples highlight diverse paths to success, from media spin-offs to curated auction platforms and unique product launches.
The Daily Wire and Jeremy’s Razors
Ben Shapiro co-founded The Daily Wire, a subscription media company that positioned itself as an alternative to mainstream media [00:12:22]. In just three to four years, it generates over $100 million annually in subscription revenue [00:12:35].
An unexpected spin-off from The Daily Wire is Jeremy’s Razors [00:12:44]. This venture was launched after Harry’s Razors, a former advertiser, pulled its support from The Daily Wire due to ideological differences [00:13:08]. The Daily Wire’s CEO, Jeremy, launched his own razor company, Jeremy’s Razors, with a direct challenge to Harry’s. The launch video alone garnered 22 million views in nine months, and the company is reportedly selling millions of dollars in products [00:13:31]. The website and branding are designed to be a “middle finger” to Harry’s Razors, emphasizing values like truth, free speech, and masculinity [00:13:52]. This strategy demonstrated how to capitalize on a perceived “Us Versus Them” narrative [00:14:15].
Creator-Led Business Empires
Several content creators have leveraged their audience to build substantial businesses beyond ad revenue, providing valuable lessons from entrepreneurship.
Derek (More Plates More Dates)
Derek, known for his YouTube channel More Plates More Dates, has built two brands: Gorilla Mind and Marek Health [00:07:11]. Gorilla Mind, a supplements brand, receives over a million visits a month and is conservatively estimated to be doing at least 4 million a month [00:07:29]. Marek Health is a TRT (testosterone replacement therapy) clinic that helps men with hormone replacement, hair loss, and sexual wellness, and has grown to over 200 employees [00:08:14].
Kayla Itsines (Sweat App)
Kayla Itsines, a fitness influencer, created “The Sweat App,” which was reportedly sold for $400 million [00:10:18]. This demonstrates a shift from merely promoting products to creating a proprietary business from a large following [00:10:42].
Mark Rober (Science Kits)
Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer known for his engineering YouTube videos, launched a monthly subscription box featuring science kits [00:11:02]. This “on-brand” venture is doing millions of dollars annually, leveraging his 23 million YouTube subscribers [00:11:14].
Danny Austin (Divi)
Danny Austin created Divi, a scalp care brand for women [00:16:56]. She initially discussed her personal struggle with hair loss, creating relatable content, and then offered a solution through her product [00:17:24]. Divi achieved $20 million in sales within its first 10 months [00:17:44].
Mindy McKnight (Cute Girl Hair)
Mindy McKnight, a YouTube content creator who demonstrated hairstyles for her five daughters, launched a product line called Cute Girl Hair [00:18:20]. Her brand achieved over $100 million in sales with a launch through Walmart [00:19:03]. This success story highlights the power of aligning a creator’s personal story, content, and product with mass distribution [00:19:23].
Guzman (Alphaland)
Guzman, a fitness influencer with a large Hispanic following, launched a 50,000-square-foot gym called Alphaland [00:20:08]. He also has a successful clothing line, demonstrating how personal brand and community can be leveraged for large-scale physical and product ventures [00:20:59].
Curated Online Auctions
The rise of specialized online auction platforms like Bring a Trailer and Cars & Bids represents an interesting new business model, serving as case studies of business startup growth in niche markets.
Bring a Trailer
Bring a Trailer is an online platform for car enthusiasts, specializing in vehicles from the 1970s to the early 1990s [00:24:11]. Despite a seemingly unsophisticated, blog-like website, it sold 100 million in net revenue with only about 80 employees [00:24:28].
Cars & Bids
Doug DeMuro, a popular YouTube car reviewer, launched Cars & Bids, a similar curated auction platform [00:25:59]. This platform is predicted to become a multi-hundred-million-dollar business [00:26:04]. The success of these platforms lies in their ability to offer a “beautifully done” and curated experience, avoiding the overwhelming options found on general sites like eBay [00:26:53].
Other Curated Auction Opportunities
The concept of curated online auctions could extend to other high-ticket items, such as luxury watches (like Hodinkee, which sells 50,000 [00:29:13].
Sam Altman’s Investment Philosophy
Sam Altman, known for his work with Y Combinator and OpenAI (ChatGPT), has a unique investment philosophy that has led to significant wealth and impact [00:31:53].
Early Success and Prolific Investing
Altman’s first startup, Looped, sold for 5 million [00:34:44]. Despite this, he quickly became a prolific investor. His second investment was in Stripe, which became one of the decade’s best investments [00:35:40]. He raised a $21 million fund from Peter Thiel and other “prodigies” after his first startup [00:38:22]. Within four years, this fund was up 10x [00:53:51].
Investing in “Non-Obvious but Correct” Ideas
Altman’s adventurous business ventures and investment strategy focused on “non-obvious but correct” ideas, especially in science and technology [00:54:07]. He made significant early investments in companies like Cruise (a self-driving car company, acquired by GM for 375 million personal check into Helion, a nuclear fusion company [00:41:01].
He observed that four out of his five biggest early winners were companies that nobody else wanted to fund, and were often considered bad ideas at the time [00:55:06]. This highlights the importance of being willing to invest in unpopular but potentially transformative ventures [00:56:23].
“Of all the biggest winners… four of the five nobody wanted to fund. They were not oversubscribed. People generally thought they were bad ideas. In fact, I almost got talked out of doing them because smart people were telling me why these are bad ideas.” [00:55:03]
This philosophy extends to his view on growth, where he advises focusing on adding “one zero” to what you’re doing each year, rather than getting caught in unrealistic fantasy [00:51:38].
“Every year you need to think about how you’re going to add one zero to what you’re doing but don’t think beyond one zero.” [00:51:38]
These success stories and lessons in entrepreneurship from unexpected ventures emphasize the value of identifying niche markets, leveraging personal brands, and making bold, contrarian bets.