Shaan Puri
Guest on My First Million · Host of My First Million
Shaan Puri is an entrepreneur, investor, and content creator best known as the co-host and creator of the business podcast My First Million. He has founded and sold multiple companies, including the crypto newsletter business Milk Road, and is currently an active startup investor and writer sharing business and investing insights.
Products they talk about
Afina👍 Recommends
…ramon's new company selling filtered showerheads for clean water
“Ramon is doing a very cool company called Afina. If you've ever looked in your house and looked at the tap, your tap water, and you're like, I don't want to drink tap water. I want to drink clean water. I don't want water that has heavy metals in it, chemicals in it. Ramon has built a company that's around clean water for the home. And so it's started with a filtered showerhead.”
on My First Million
Art and Fear👍 Recommends
…citing a book that influenced christina cacioppo's approach to creative work and project quantity
“And she had this quote on the top of her website, of her personal site that just, it was from the book, Art and Fear. And the quote was this, it says, the function of the overwhelming majority of work is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your art that soars.”
on My First Million
Atomic Habits👍 Recommends
…charles duhigg's power of habit influenced james clear's atomic habits
“We, we, I recorded an episode on Friday with Charles Duhigg and he has a book called Super Communicators. He wrote the book Power of Habit, which was a big inspiration to Atomic Habits. And it was a great book.”
on My First Million
Ben & Jerry's👍 Recommends
…comparing ethical brands building businesses around social impact missions
“And then they start finding like-minded brands. So they're – I don't know if you know about Ben & Jerry's, but Ben & Jerry's is also one of these like very sort of like strong, ethical, moral – Yeah, opinion-driven – they stick to what they want to do. Good people corporations. I actually saw Ben or Jerry – I forgot which one – talk at an event I was at like 15 years ago. And I remember being pretty blown away by the like – how genuine it was for them and how – the extent that they had gone.”
on My First Million
Buck Mason👍 Recommends
…bootstrapped clothing brand that scaled from simple t-shirts to 52 stores
“So they started In 2013 And they started In 2013 Selling something Very simple A t-shirt And their goal Was just to make The best t-shirt I'm actually wearing One of them right now And they didn't They tried to raise money He was like I tried to raise As much money as I could That I got lucky Because I was horrible At fundraising And I could raise No money And so they bootstrapped This company”
on My First Million
Coyote👍 Recommends
…developing a card game inspired by play and creativity with friend and designer
“You said, I just spent a few days with one of the world's best game designers... And he's the man. He came on this podcast too recently. He's the man. So you went and made a game with him... Two years in the making, believe it or not. So I grew up with D&D. I still have all my original modules, Dungeons and Dragons, and played a lot of video games. And as I was looking at what to potentially experiment with next... this came about, I think, pretty naturally... It's landing in like 8,000 retail locations, Walmart, Target, everywhere. It's been exclusive to Walmart for a few months, has been a bestseller, 300 million plus social views of gameplay, which is nuts.”
on My First Million
Deep Work👍 Recommends
…discussing how passion emerges from mastery rather than the reverse
“Cal Newport who wrote Deep Work. He had this thing where he said, passion is a byproduct of mastery. And if you extend that, well, then where does mastery come from? I would say mastery comes from an enduring enthusiasm.”
on My First Million
Die With Zero👍 Recommends
…exploring philosophy of when to spend money and enjoy life experiences
“There's this book that I think a lot of people have heard about, probably even read. I read it, but I had sort of forgotten about this part of it. Die with zero. And die with zero is really like, it's just YOLO rebranded... the death wakes people up and the closer it gets, the more awake we become. Because when the end is near, that's when we suddenly start thinking, what the hell am I doing? Why did I wait this long?”
on My First Million
Elon Musk Biography👍 Recommends
…referencing Elon Musk's biography and discussing Elon-Bezos rivalry over rockets
“I was reading the Elon biography, which I'm late too, but I kind of like it because you know, everybody's out on, everybody's done with it. And I'm the only guy, you know, still in there poking around. There's an amazing section. I don't know if you guys have read this, but it's about the tweets back and forth between Elon and Bezos, the sort of rival, the passive aggressive rivalry around the launch thing.”
on My First Million
Flow Alarm Clock👍 Recommends
…introducing a physical alarm clock device that forces users out of bed to stop morning phone addiction
“His new thing is called Flow. It's an alarm clock. And it's basically an alarm clock that you put somewhere else. So your phone alarm won't stop beeping until you tap your phone to the brick. So it's kind of like a way to get up out of bed and stop doom scrolling. Your alarm clock goes up and that beeping is not going to stop until you're up, out of bed, and you touch the thing.”
on My First Million
Harry Potter👍 Recommends
…shaan puri indulging in nostalgic reading during off-script day planning
“I trainer to take me through a workout that he puts pro basketball players through so I woke up and I cleared the calendar this is why I missed the podcast by the way I I woke up all my favorite fiction books as a kid so I read two Harry Potter books basically in a two day span to totally just let myself indulge in something that's fun that's nostalgic I would never”
on My First Million
Harry Potter👍 Recommends
…marveling at the effort and world-building j.k. rowling invested in creating harry potter
“When I think about Harry Potter, I'm like, how on earth did this one lady invent this world? She literally invented a language. And I don't even like Harry Potter, but I'm like in awe of this.”
on My First Million
How to Do Great Work👍 Recommends
…explaining how enthusiasm should guide career direction and field selection
“Paul Graham wrote this long, long essay. I don't know if you've ever read it. It's called How to Do Great Work. Years ago. It's like it takes you like two days to read this goddamn blog post, but it's great. And in it, he has this one phrase that I remember, which is let enthusiasm be not just the motor, but the rudder of your boat.”
on My First Million
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day👍 Recommends
…discussing productivity and time management after industrial revolution
“There's this book, Sean, you'll like the name of this title. It's called How to Live on 24 Hours a Day. And it's a book written in 1908. You guys should read it. It's really cool. I just got it. And it's all about what happened after the Industrial Revolution.”
on My First Million
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion👍 Recommends
…discussing reciprocity principle and cialdini's influence book in context of customer service
“So what you're saying, by the way, is like a world famous, uh, it's the rule of reciprocity. It's Robert Cialdini's book, Influence, which is basically like, uh, if I do a favor for you... Even if those two favors are not equal, I will do something to get back to sober even because we want to feel even.”
on My First Million
Kindle👍 Recommends
…using kindle app as replacement for social media consumption
“I deleted Reddit. I deleted Twitter. I deleted Instagram. I deleted Facebook. Deleted all those apps. And instead, I just... If I open up my phone, I want to kill boredom. I have to open up Kindle. It's like the only thing left to do on my phone is Kindle.”
on My First Million
Laughing at Wall Street👍 Recommends
…discussing how chris discovered observational investing methodology as a child through garage sales
“I had read your book, Laughing at Wall Street. And you talk about like basically kind of like starting with like, you know, garage sailing. And very simple stuff when you were a kid. Noticing things, talking to your brother, talking to your dad.”
on My First Million
Marty Supreme💬 Mentioned
…comparing stress levels and quality of recent films with similar intense themes
“So Marty Supreme, which is the hottest thing going on. I went and saw it the other day. How is it like must watch? OK, where are we at? Did you see Uncut Gems? Loved Uncut Gems. Loved. Then you'll like this. So if Uncut Gems is a 9 out of 10 on the stress scale, Marty Supreme is an 8 out of 10. And for people like me, if you're in my boat, you'll hate it. I hated Uncut Gems and I hate Marty Supreme. Too much stress.”
on My First Million
Nugget Modular Foam Furniture👍 Recommends
…modular foam furniture system for children combining play and seating
“Yeah. So the nugget is this incredible business where they created kids furniture, but it's not, doesn't look like furniture, right? Because if you, if you thought of kids furniture from first principles, as Elon would say, then you would make this, you would make something with no hard edges, no corners that they can get cut on. It's like, you know, a couple of foam kind of base pieces and then a foam triangle, foam circle, whatever. And so you get these like shapes that you can just set up as a couch when you're not using it or when you want to just sit, or you can fold them up and create like basically a jungle gym.”
on My First Million
Plaud👎 Not a fan
…physical AI devices combining artificial intelligence with consumer electronics
“Have you ever seen ads for this thing called Plaud? No. No. Could use a better name. P-L-A-U-D. I bought this thing. I don't use it. This is like an anti-endorsement. I don't use it. I think it's kind of junk. But this company has done $100 million in revenue on this device. The premise of this is it looks like a business card almost or this is what it did. It looked like a business card, but it basically is like a physical meeting recorder. So you could bring this to any meeting. You could put this on the table and it'll record your conversation.”
on My First Million
Profit First👍 Recommends
…discussing profit first methodology for business accounting and cash management
“And Andrew Wilkins, I came on this podcast and had this book. He was talking about profit first. I really like the philosophy of it, which is basically with normal business, you have your revenue. Then you have all your expenses. And then it's like, surprise, here's how much profits left over after all that.”
on My First Million
Profit First👍 Recommends
…discussing books on profit management and business discipline
“Somebody recommended on the podcast and they go, it was like the time when my girlfriend bought me the book, The Game before I went to college. My friend told me about this book Profit First. I think it was a gift and a message. And the message was, hey, you're running this business and you've been doing it for years, but you're not pulling out any profits and you don't know where all the money's going. It's profitable on paper, but like you're not getting money out of this.”
on My First Million
Purple Cow👍 Recommends
…discussing how standing out requires being different rather than better
“It was Cameron Haynes, his son, Tanner Truett is a beast right now. He basically is running marathons at a wicked fast pace, like two hours and 30 minutes, which for anyone who runs a marathon, that's fast. B, he's like 220 pounds. He's like huge. And C, he's doing it in blue jeans. And the reason you're like that right there is a purple cow and purple cow is a book by Seth Godin. And it's one of many books that basically say the same thing, which is like in order to stand out, you have to have it's better to be different than it is better.”
on My First Million
Pushscroll👍 Recommends
…discussing viral ios app that blocks social media until you do push-ups
“Push-scroll screen time control. So, you replace doom scrolling with a healthy habit. It literally has a picture of a guy doing push-ups like with AI watching him. And then it says it can limit the apps you're addicted to. And basically, you earn it as you make progress.”
on My First Million
Ready, Fire, Aim👍 Recommends
…discussing underground marketing and copywriting books that changed perspectives on business
“So he has this book called Ready, Fire, Aim on business. And he's pretty under the radar guy. I think he's probably in his 70s at this point, but he helped make Agora really popular.”
on My First Million
Rework👍 Recommends
…discussing 37signals' philosophy-first approach to marketing and content
“Rework was a fantastic book. Your website right now is basically kind of like Rework. It's just 30 chapters of shit we believe rather than trying to sell you on our software.”
on My First Million
Steal Like an Artist💬 Mentioned
…discussing how beehiiv's strategy was a remix of morning brew's growth tactics
“I have this book that's on my bookshelf called Steal Like an Artist. And this book is basically about how most of what we think is original is a remix or a straight-up copy of something that came before it.”
on My First Million
Stolen Focus💬 Mentioned
…discussing how smartphones and social media are impacting attention spans and focus
“Well, I'm reading this book called Stolen Focus because I'm basically like incredibly depressed by the fact that like I get 10,000 notifications a day and it's like impacting my mood. And so I saw this book called Stolen Focus. Have you ever seen it?”
on My First Million
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing👍 Recommends
…discussing how marketing principles help understand business strategy and positioning
“Have you one of the most suggested books that he has or that he recommends to others is the 22 immutable laws of marketing. Have you read that book? I've never actually read it now. I started reading it this weekend because I'm just I want to learn and he was just on and whatever. And it's only 110 pages. It's very short. And it's very easy. And one and it's written by these two guys that are marketing consultants, whatever. And they have a lot of wonderful clients, you kind of trust them. But they give you 22 laws not to break.”
on My First Million
The 48 Laws of Power👍 Recommends
…referencing a book on reinventing yourself and personal power
“I have a couple of examples that work here. First, I'm just going to read you from Robert Green, who came on the podcast. Really interesting guy. He wrote 48 Laws of Power. Law number 25, recreate yourself.”
on My First Million
The 48 Laws of Power👍 Recommends
…recommending rereading a book to identify patterns in business behavior
“And so it's this book is really good. You should reread it because what you're describing is like, it's sort of like when you reread the 48 laws of power, and you like see like, oh, this person is committing this, like they are doing this, like you could do the same thing.”
on My First Million
The 5 Second Rule👍 Recommends
…discussing mel robbins's famous five second rule concept from her book
“She's got her, the five second rule. You know, the Mel Robbins five second rule. Like where you could eat stuff off the floor. You would think, right? It's world famous. It turns out this is the alternate. So her five second rule, this is her book, which is basically if you are procrastinating or you have self-doubt. So let's just take an example. You're a guy, you see a cute girl at the cafe. There's that moment where you have to decide, am I going to approach her and say something to her or not? And her rule is basically you count backwards, five, four, three, two, one.”
on My First Million
The Algorithm👍 Recommends
…discussing the book the algorithm by jon mcneill covering tesla and business insights
“So I have I have the book here. So I have like highlighting all my favorite stories as we go. But you have a sale, a Tesla sales story. Can you explain? Tell that story. I thought it was a great one. Yeah, I've written the book called The Algorithm. So I'm glad you're enjoying it.”
on My First Million
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant👍 Recommends
…discussing successful book compilation of naval ravikant's wisdom and philosophy
“So Eric Jorgensen, he runs Scribe and he wrote the Navalmanac. So he wrote a book that compiled like all of Naval's wisdom... I think he sold a million copies of that. Is that true? I think he sold a lot more than that. More than one million copies? Yeah.”
on My First Million
The Blue Zones👍 Recommends
…discussing longevity trends and age fraud in osaka
“Yeah, there's a book called The Blue Zones. And basically, like I read it 10 years ago or something and I was like, this is my Bible for living a long, healthy life. But the idea is that someone studied Osaka's population and they found that too many people claimed to have the same birth date in Osaka.”
on My First Million
The Fish That Ate the Whale👍 Recommends
…discussing the history of the united fruit company and banana empire
“Have you read about United Fruit? If we're going to talk about fruits. Haven't you read about United Fruit? Man, that's a great book. I'm in the middle of reading it. And it's the story of United Fruit, which is basically centered around bananas.”
on My First Million
The Inner Game of Tennis👍 Recommends
…discussing flow states and trusting instinct versus conscious analysis when performing under pressure
“I read a ton. I would say almost a book a week. And the reason I read so much is because my philosophy towards reading is I want to see what worked for the winners that I love and what strategies they use. Have you ever read the inner game of tennis, Daniel? No. We talked about it on here. And what you're describing is exactly that. So it's this amazing book. I don't play tennis, but it's about how to play tennis. But it's one of these books where it teaches you about life. And the concept of the book is basically that you have two selves.”
on My First Million
The Money Game👍 Recommends
…book discussing money as tool versus measuring stick
“Morgan Hounsel wrote this thing in his book that really resonated with me. He goes, there's two ways to use money. Number one is as a tool to improve the quality of your life.”
on My First Million
The One Minute Manager👍 Recommends
…discussing management books and techniques for planning and giving feedback
“Have you ever read The One Minute Manager? Years ago. What was the takeaway? I can't remember. So it's a very thin book. Love it because it's very short. You can read the whole thing in probably 25 minutes, 30 minutes, something like that.”
on My First Million
The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking👍 Recommends
…referencing dale carnegie speaking programs and public speaking education
“I'm reading this book. Can you see this? It sounds silly, but hear me out. The quick and easy way to effective speaking by Dale Carnegie. Oh, very cool. So Dale Carnegie, you know, famously wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People.”
on My First Million
The Top Five Regrets of the Dying👍 Recommends
…exploring the regrets people have at end of life and how they relate to career choices
“Let me ask you something first. Have you read this book? I read this, I think, five years ago. I told you about it when I read it. It's called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. So she was a nurse. She was a nurse. This was her occupation. And she saw thousands of people die. And she wrote this book called The Top Five Regrets for Dying—of the Dying, where she put together a list of the five things that were most common amongst the people she worked with.”
on My First Million
The Triple Package👍 Recommends
…explaining traits common to ultra successful people and groups
“There's a book called The Triple Package. And the author claims to have analyzed incredibly successful groups of people, ultra successful people. And she narrows it down to three reasons as to what are three things they all have in common. The first is the superiority complex. So they feel that they are born to be better. You know, there's a lot of people listening to this podcast and you look around at your job that you hate and you think, I was destined to do something greater than this.”
on My First Million
The Viral Loop💬 Mentioned
…discussing viral growth and early internet business strategies
“In Silicon Valley, virality rules all. And, you know, the early growth hackers. In fact, there's a book called The Viral Loop. My mentor, the guy who kind of plucked me when I got to Silicon Valley, he's featured in that book because early on he was like scraping hotmail and he realized, wait, I have no marketing budget, but one user can get me the next user through this thing called the K factor.”
on My First Million
The Will of the Many👍 Recommends
…recommending fantasy fiction series with complex world-building and political intrigue
“I read a lot of stuff. I mean, fiction. There's this book called The Will of the Many. Highly recommend. If you like stuff that's in the kind of like Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, like fantasy, sci-fi... it's basically this book that's like this kind of – it mirrors like the Roman political structure.”
on My First Million
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.👍 Recommends
…praising ron chernow's biographical writing style and effort
“I think Ron Chernow is one of my favorite authors. He wrote Titan, which is the story of John Rockefeller. He wrote Hamilton, which became Hamilton. And he's written one of Mark Twain and a couple others. And it's these – they're biographies.”
on My First Million
Tony's Chocolonely👍 Recommends
…discussing ethical chocolate brand that started as a journalism investigation
“Okay, I have another one for you. Can I give you another one? So we did kids' toys. I have another one. You might know the story of this one. Have you ever had one of these before? Okay, what's this? Oh. I'm holding up – No, it looks like – What is that bubblegum? A box of Tony's Chocoloney. Hell yeah, brother. I love Tony's Chocoloney. Do they have some that have pop rocks in them?”
on My First Million
Train Hard, Win Easy👍 Recommends
…discussing the importance of doing hard things first rather than taking easy routes
“One of my favorite books, when I was in high school, I ran cross-country track and field, and I ran in college, and I was pretty decent. And there was a book that changed my life. It was called Train Hard, Win Easy. That's the same phrase where I think about that all the time. Train hard, win easy.”
on My First Million
Unreasonable Hospitality👍 Recommends
…recommending hospitality book about creating remarkable guest experiences
“Obviously you've read Will Gadara's Unreasonable Hospitality. We had him on the podcast and he told two stories that was interesting because I was like, okay, this works good in a fancy restaurant. Where else does this work?”
on My First Million
VOLTRA👍 Recommends
…innovative fitness equipment enabling precise eccentric load training in small footprint
“So I was watching this guy, what's his name? Home Gym Reviews or something like that. Coop Mitchell. So I want to tell you all about Coop, yeah. He was talking about it. Somebody else was talking about it. And then in general, like all of my training has been like, the number of times my trainer has said the word eccentric load... So let's explain what it is. Yeah, so basically if you're looking at it, it looks like it's the size of a red brick. Like for building a house, it looks about that size. And so if you imagine you have a home gym or any gym, and you have a squat rack, imagine having this brick that you could attach to various points of the squat rack, and then you could attach a pulley or a handle to it.”
on My First Million