BusinessMy First Million
This episode explores several fascinating business and investment concepts, starting with peculiar South Korean 'dopamine websites' and a look at emerging Asian tech trends. It delves into Kevin Ryan's counter-intuitive 'start with shitty quality and improve' strategy for Business Insider, and Shaan Puri explains Nick Sleep's 'shared scale economies' investment philosophy, exemplified by Amazon and Costco. The hosts also discuss the unconventional careers and financial habits of figures like Lloyd Blankfein, David Rubenstein, and Nat Turner's acquisition of PSA, highlighting the powerful 'credence goods' business model.
- Forget the myth of the perfect launch; Kevin Ryan's playbook for Business Insider was to start with deliberately "shitty quality" content. Read →
- "Credence goods" are products or services whose quality is hard for buyers to assess, even after they've used them—think medical procedures, car repairs, or collectible cards. Read →
- Forget maximizing profit per customer; investor Nick Sleep argued the real long-term game is maximizing 'consumer surplus' by passing savings onto customers. Read →
BusinessMy First Million
In this episode, Sam Parr and Shaan Puri interview former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who reveals his personal investment strategy, heavily weighted in tech, energy, and financial services, and shares his daily trading habits. He recounts the iconic story of Warren Buffett's $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs during the 2008 crisis and discusses his unique perspective on success, anxiety, and the profound wisdom derived from studying history. Blankfein also introduces an impactful "Obituary Test" framework for living a meaningful life beyond career accomplishments.
- Lloyd Blankfein's discomfort with the term "rich" stems directly from his upbringing in the East New York projects, where financial scarcity and fretting over rent were daily realities. Read →
- Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein proposes an "Obituary Test": your career should fill no more than one-third of your eventual obituary. He suggests aiming for 3 paragraphs out of 9 total. This isn't a hard limit, but a mental model for scope. Read →
- Lloyd Blankfein, former Goldman Sachs CEO, allocates a shocking 98% of his personal investment portfolio to risky equities, focusing heavily on a few concentrated sectors. Read →