The $600M Protein Bar Founder is Back Again | Peter Rahal Interview

18 Oct 2024 · 1 h 1 min

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In short

My First Million - Episode 639: The $600M Protein Bar Founder is Back Again | Peter Rahal Interview

Episode Overview In this episode, hosts Sam Parr and Shaan Puri interview Peter Rahal, the founder of RXBAR, who shares insights into his entrepreneurial journey, the founding of RXBAR with just $10,000, and the subsequent $600 million sale of the brand. They also delve into Rahal's new venture, David Bar, and brainstorm several innovative business ideas.

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Episode Highlights

  1. RXBAR's Journey to Success
  2. Origin Story:
  3. Founded in 2013 with a $10,000 investment made by Rahal and his partner, Jared.
  4. They leveraged the emerging popularity of CrossFit gyms as a distribution channel.
  5. Initial sales strategy focused on producing fresh, made-to-order bars, catering to the paleo diet community.
  • Growth Stages:
  • Revenue grew from $2 million to $7 million, and then to $160 million within a few years.
  • Emphasis on branding and product-market fit adapted through rebranding to appeal to a broader audience.
  1. Branding Strategies
  2. Initial Branding Issues:
  3. RX in RXBAR was confusing, having different meanings across cultures.
  4. The original branding did not resonate with mass-market consumers.
  • Successful Rebranding:
  • Engaged a branding agency to refine product messaging and visual identity.
  • Shifted focus to highlight minimal ingredients (e.g., “three egg whites”) to establish value and quality.
  1. New Ventures and Business Ideas
  2. New Protein Bar - David Bar:
  3. Focuses on higher protein density (26-27 grams per bar) with fewer calories.
  4. Aims to convert non-consumers of protein bars into customers.
  • Business Ideas Discussed:
  • Idea 1: Differentiated Vasodilator
  • Potential to provide health benefits beyond typical bodybuilding products.
  • Idea 2: The Coffee of Sleep
  • Creating a new category of sleep products to aid in sleep hygiene.
  • Idea 3: Continuous Testosterone Monitor
  • Addressing the growing concern for testosterone levels in men through continuous monitoring.
  • Idea 4: New Religion
  • Exploring the economics of religion and the potential for innovation within spiritual practices.
  1. Entrepreneurial Insights
  2. Post-Exit Reflections:
  3. Rahal discusses the challenges of maintaining fulfillment and purpose after selling RXBAR.
  4. Emphasizes the importance of productivity and responsibility for personal happiness.
  • Advice on Startups:
  • Noted that entrepreneurship requires a balance of creativity, market understanding, and differentiation.
  • Stressed the need for self-awareness and constructive feedback in the entrepreneurial journey.
  1. Cultural and Market Observations
  2. Market Trends:
  3. Observed that many current markets appear competitive but may offer unique opportunities for differentiation.
  4. Highlighted the importance of studying both historical and cultural contexts to identify market gaps.
  • Consumer Behavior:
  • Emphasized the need for brands to connect with consumers on a deeper level beyond just the product.

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Key Takeaways

  • Entrepreneurial Spirit:
  • The blend of creativity with market research is crucial for successful ventures.
  • Personal fulfillment in entrepreneurship often comes from the challenges and responsibilities taken on.
  • Market Opportunities:
  • Innovative thinking in seemingly saturated markets can lead to significant business opportunities.
  • Identifying and addressing consumer pain points is essential for brand loyalty and growth.
  • Branding Matters:
  • A strong brand identity can significantly affect market penetration and consumer perception.

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Related Links

  • [RXBAR](https://www.rxbar.com/)
  • [David's Protein](https://davidprotein.com/)
  • [Moonbrew](https://moonbrew.co/)
  • [Levels](https://www.levels.com/)

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Additional Resources

  • Shaan's Recommendations:
  • Use Shepherd for hiring developers and designers: [Shepherd](https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd)
  • Sam's Ventures:
  • Explore Hampton and other entrepreneurial tools: [Hampton](https://www.joinhampton.com/)

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*This episode of My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast produced by Arie Desormeaux and edited by Ezra Bakker Trupiano.*

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Transcript

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0:10Today, we have the creator of RXBAR on the podcast. And we got to brainstorm with what are four other ideas that he thinks somebody could start today? Trends, opportunities, white spaces in the market, and how he thinks about them. How he even created RX Bar using the same process that he's going to outline today. So that's this episode with Peter Rahal.

0:38All right. So here's how I want to start this. you created this, this little bar, the RX bar that you made, I think in your mom's basement with you and your elementary school buddy, you each kicked in$5 ,000 and five years later, you sell it for$600 million, which is amazing. And now you're back and you're doing this bar, the David bar, which I've been eating pretty religiously. All right, let's talk a little bit about rx bar and then david i want to hear kind of this story so we've i think generally the story is out there so i don't want to make you rehash too much of it could you give us like the cliff notes of the story and then i want to i want to hear about a couple things you said you read one article on ink and forwarded it to jared's i want to kind of latch onto that but give us first just the cliff notes of rx yeah so the cliff notes um you know in chicago 2010 11 12 at the time like There's an emerging tech scene.

1:32Groupon was there. And it's sort of like, if you were doing some sort of information technology, you're a loser. There was no attention or love to a food brand. It was just - No status. Yeah, it was just like no status. And so we just wanted an opportunity. We wanted a good job. We wanted an opportunity to be successful. I had a background in food, which was really helpful on the supply chain side. And then Jared's like my total counterpart, like very, very level-headed. reliable, organized. I'm more of the creative type, I'd say. And I always like to trivialize innovation because as an entrepreneur, it's like, you have all these ideas.

2:11And it was basically like, I just read it in ink. And I was like, hey, Jared, I just sent it to him. And I was like, 10 ,000 bucks, we can do a nutrition bar. And it was like some bad article, nothing to it. What was the premise of the article? What did it say? It was sort of like an inspirational thing of like, you can start a business, like very low cost ways to start a company, basically. and it said like protein bar yeah nutrition bar it's like a wiki how article it's like showed why it's a low status thing to do right like anyone can do it you know um and i always was in a nutrition bars and so we just started making you know it just started we just started taking actions towards making it and right like where you start to ever end up and i was in a CrossFit.

2:53And so we saw a distribution channel emerge. It was very clear. I was like, I looked at Whole Foods and the traditional food retail list and had no idea how to get there. And it was hyper-competitive. I was like, how are we going to compete? Whereas CrossFit emerged, these gyms are popping up 2012, 13, no competition. You were not allowed on the shelf if you weren't paleo. So that was like the perfect example of an uncompetitive market, a small market that was growing like crazy that we could go build distribution in and we can make the product at home. So we just went for it. And once you burn the boats and just jump off the bridge and figure out how to fly.

3:39And so you're literally making bars in like your mom's basement type of thing. yeah we got we had a five quart and eventually got a 20 quart sort of vertical mixer and like we didn't know how to form the products we had to figure out how to like form and package and and you said uh there's this really great article you're like you know it sounds cool we're we're in there just like in the lab mixing these things together and making it and you're like it didn't feel cool it felt horrible like we people were making fun of us oh yeah like i i I remember, I think another thing, you just can't care what people think.

4:13And it's also a great test of who actually cares about you and who's a good influence. Like you're the sum of who you surround yourself with. Like you want your friends supporting you and saying, no, you have to work on the weekends. Like not saying drag, trying to drag you out, pull you down. But yeah, looking at, I mean, looking at from the outside, looking at what we were, Jared and I were doing, there was no way it was successful. It was going to be successful. It was just some local, local little thing. were you doing crossfit or you just literally saw it as a distribution channel i was doing crossfit yeah i i got i got i was in the part of the crossfit religion so you take a box to your uh to your gym and you're like hey i made these yeah i just show up with tupperware and so there was like a little consumer insights like what do you think and then built the relationship with the owner i'm like i would love to sell some product here and of course they're good people and you know it starts there and then in the theory so it's like if it's going to be successful one across their chin?

5:08Why wouldn't it be successful across others? And so... What did it taste good? So I eat RX bars all the time, by the way. I love them. But the first time you open it up, it looks different than a granola bar. You have to get used to it being made out of dates and it being dark. What did they say at first to the dark bar? And were they any good at first? Yeah. So they're really good at first because they're made to order. So we never carried any inventory. So everything was super fresh. So that certainly helped. And a customer back then was all paleo people who were very familiar with Larabar. So there was a familiarity to it that was helpful for the adoption.

5:52And I think we had this guy from FitAid come on. He did the same thing. He used CrossFit as the initial distribution for the same reason. He's like, I don't know how to get into retail, but I know this community. I'm in this community. and what he realized was he gave them mini fridges. He's like, they didn't have a fridge already. So he's like, cool, I'll give you the fridge, but then you stock my stuff in there at the beginning. And if you want to switch it out later and put other stuff in there, fine. You get to keep the fridge. But sure enough, they just kept it going. And he used CrossFit to get to, I don't know, 20,$30 million a year in sales.

6:23CrossFit is the main engine at the time. And same for us. And then we merchandised on top of his refrigerators.

6:34so you go and you're so you're like if this works at one it'll work at many then what you're just knocking on doors every day like what was your schedule what was your life like we wanted to get data on convenience stores grocery stores other places of distribution that are to get an understanding and so we we tested at all those other areas were more like normal markets where there's regular competition and the brand didn't work. So like velocities at a CrossFit gym would be maybe 80 bars a week, whereas the convenience store and the local grocery store was like one or four a week. So obviously we would just rather be in every CrossFit gym across the country prior to any other distribution.

7:18So we were just laser focused on putting the product where it's successful and meeting the customer where they shop and um the whole plan was like let's just get to scale through this this early adopter and this this market and then let's figure out how to cross the chasm once we have some scale and we're commercially produced around the kitchen um and so that was a plan to like be the bar of crossfit get some scale and then figure out across the chasm once we're close to that size i kind of triangulated a bunch of articles and your revenue was something like$2 million a year and then$7 million and then$160 million or something ridiculous like that.

7:58Is that accurate? And if that is accurate, I think that coincides with the rebrand. Making your rebrand or your new labels the greatest value creation to ever exist. The best use of designers. Yeah, absolutely. Basically, it was like.com and Amazon for three years. and we'd like put our foot into some retailers and the current branding or the old branding didn't work. So it was like, didn't have product and market fit where we, with our core early adopters, whenever we started to go to like the mass market or not our core, it was like, this ain't working. So basically we timed the rebranding with retail.

8:38And so there was a year before the 161, that was 36. And that was basically like getting into, call it early adopters of food retail. So the Wegmans and these like Publix, these regional ones that are really high quality. And then once that works, the larger ones adopted. And so it was like 36 and then most of the market at 161. So 7, 36, 161. That's insane. Well, the most insane thing is actually like just the way we use profitable sales to finance the growth. Like there wasn't like a big equity check that came in that finance inventory. So how does that work? Because that scaling is so crazy, right?

9:14Even if you're super profitable at$7 ,000, how do you buy inventory for$36 ,000? Did you have a really fast turnover? A line of credit, line of credit, personally guaranteed by your parents for$400 ,000. But we actually didn't dip into it, which is funny. So that's nice. It gives you confidence. And you started the business with 10 Gs, 10 grand, $5 ,000 each. Yeah, it was brutal. And then, so just profitables. You know,.com, they give you cash. You ship products. So the cycle is much better. And it goes back to sales cures all, right? We talked a little bit about the rebrand before, but who did that?

9:54You did that? You hired an agency to do that? What was the genius behind that rebrand? Because this stood out to me from moment one, and it sounds like I'm not alone, that this helped explode sales outside of CrossFit. Yeah, so we hired an agency called Scott Victor, very talented brand strategist. But I think something I want to mention that's really, really important, because I get people coming to me wanting to do rebrands all the time, and they're so fixated on the agency that they think the agency comes in and does it. But really, the responsibility and accountability goes on the brand owner to articulate the problem to solve and to communicate it in a brief for the assignment for the creative to figure out how to solve the problem.

10:38What did you write in that brief? So the output of our design is very simple. We had a name problem. Rx meant prescription in the mass market, but in CrossFit, it meant doing something of a high standard. So in the language, in the culture of CrossFit, doing something Rx, it was language. So if you did a workout, the first question you get is like, did you do an Rx? And so it had a different meaning in this culture than it did the normal American culture. So that was a problem, name problem. And then it was very clear RX meant nothing and it wasn't a valuable name. You remembered it, which was nice, but it was a source of confusion.

11:18Okay. So you pull that through to the design. The logo and name is very small. So we've minimized it. Second, when you formulate a product that's minimal ingredient and design the way ours is, you can claim anything, gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free, high protein. Well, the list goes on. None of that mattered when we sampled it to people. And the only thing that mattered is when I'd flip over the back and say, it's RxBard. I was like, what is it? And I'd be like, it's like eating three egg whites, two dates, six almonds, four cashews. So that back of label thing that I referenced earlier, that was a value communication.

11:58And second, we're in the third point, we're a protein no man's land. The market was at 20. We're at 12. Grams of protein you're talking about. Yeah. So we're kind of like, for protein people, they're like, yeah, it's not enough. But if you just lead with egg whites, so three egg whites is the first thing. That's like our hierarchies, actually three egg whites. And so that creates a lot of consumer surplus because when you go shopping at a cafe for breakfast and you get egg whites, you get charged a premium. So egg whites are associated with premium. They're associated with quality. And they're more expensive.

12:35And so that was a great way to communicate sort of value and surplus. So all these things are in the brief, like name doesn't matter. Here's the only thing that matters. We don't want to be paleo position because that is a death trap. It's a laziness trap. And so all those factors are laid out in a brief. And then the designer really extracts, synthesizes, and pulls that out. And they're not just a designer. they're like a brand strategist. So it's very important for any entrepreneur. It's not just, you got to do the work and actually define the problems and then you bring in an agency. Now you have this thing, which I feel like you did an amazing job on the brand.

13:17I think we talked about this on the pod. We're like, dude, did you see the RX guy? He's back. He's got this new bar. Love the name. Love the branding right off the bat. Can I read out some of these, what are some of the lines from his site, Sean? The copywriting on the site. Yeah, do it. It's beautiful. Your new thing is a protein bar. And the whole shtick is that like Quest, which is like a leading protein bar is only 20 grams of protein, but 150 calories. You're roughly 150 calories and like 26 or 27 grams of protein. And so the copywriting of the website is beautiful. It says the genius of a product is it has the protein of a meal, but the calories of a snack.

13:50We thank our predecessors in the protein industry, but we'll take it from here. Meet David, your protein bar. idealized. I saw the angel in marble and carved it until I set him free. These are all Instagram quotes or a copy of the website. Be beautiful. Protein is essential to maintaining your skin's firmness and electricity in hair and scalp and nail health. It participates in practically every process of a cell in your body. So you're explaining how important the protein is. But then you have this one line where you have this graph on your website where you say how many grams of protein per calorie and you include Quest and Luna, I think, and a couple others, or Laura Bar, something like that.

14:27But then you even include cod, which I thought is ridiculous. Because when I saw that graph, I was like, wait, you're telling me that David is even more protein dense per calorie than cod? And so it's quite good. Oh, here's the part that I love. You say, we are a company that is here to make your bodies better. We're going to give you protein. And it just so happens some of our products might be edible, but some in the future may not be. We build tools to help you increase muscle and decrease fat. And so that can come in. I think that's our mission. So whether that's food, beverage, or apparel, that's what gives us permission to go create and serve.

15:06And that came from my observation in the nutrition bar space. That's the most fundamental thing people want. So we want to deliver that in the best way possible. The thing that would be the most fun for us is if we got to sit down with the founder of RxBar and just shoot the shit and brainstorm business ideas. And we asked you beforehand, we said, hey, this is what we like to do. Are you the kind of founder who your brain never turns off? You're always seeing opportunities that somebody could go do. And you sent us a little list. So let's start with that list. And I think the fun way to do this is, I'll just read the name of the thing you wrote.

15:38You didn't give us any details. And you kind of pitched the idea of what you see as a potential opportunity here. So idea one, vasodilator. Yes. Okay. Okay, so I think history is really important to study in business. I think it doesn't get enough credit to look for the patterns in history. So for this one, in 2003, 2004, and 2005, I was in high school. This product called NO2 came to market, and it just blew up the supplement industry in a good way. Pre-workout, right? Yeah, it was like you got these big pump. Was that like NO Explode? that turn into NO explode. Me and Ari were just talking about it.

16:19She said she likes drinking pre-workout. And I remember the days of taking that and it would like make me NO explode on my butt. Like it was like the worst. It was like cocaine, except it would make you like diarrhea. Yeah. So what happened is people started adding different features to it, but it has like having healthy blood cells like really important. And if you look at the market today, it's like super, I call it like chains and gains, like screaming to not a sophisticated audience. Like it's just for pure gains. And so I would say there's probably an opportunity to sort of commercialize something on just the broader benefits of healthy blood flow.

17:01And it's like for especially for men, like ED is a huge one. Like I think the positioning of the market, I think they're all very, very, very bodybuilding oriented. And I think there's one for like pedestrians. did you remember the one sean the deer one the deal it's like it's like bucked up yeah well yeah exactly it's sort of like analogous to dick pills in uh gas stations versus him yeah versus him yeah exactly there was a guy who came and spoke at one of sam's conferences he created um sam what's the guy's name he created the method soap and then he's created the band-aid brand and they created ollie gummies or whatever vitamins yeah that's the guy he's created three brands that are all like big in Target, different categories.

17:43And he talked about, he goes, what I could do, I could just walk through a store, like a Target or a grocery store. It's like, what are you looking for when you're walking through those aisles? He goes, I'm looking for a sea of sameness. And anytime I see a category on a shelf where they're all positioning, they're all chasing the same target or they're all positioned the same way. So for example, he said, Band-Aids. Band-Aids were all sort of boring, neutral, try to be the color of your skin, blah, blah, blah. So they made a Band-Aid brand that was the opposite. It was like very loud. badge of honor for a boo-boo, right?

18:12Or vitamins looked a certain way, they came in and tried to do it differently. So do you have a similar sort of philosophy where you see, let's say, these vasodilators, they're all broed out and you're like, if I just reposition the same product, I would have a new audience? Yeah, I think Eric's strategy is very much design-oriented, like differentiation through design and that's like looking for. I don't have a clear of strategy. I just really focus on differentiation and actually determining how competitive a category is and how easily you can differentiate with what I call valuable novelty.

18:54Sorry, does that mean that you actually want it to be the most competitive? So then being very different? Yeah. So it's like you want it to be perceived as very competitive, but then when you actually apply some rigor, look at it, it's actually not that competitive. The protein bar market is perfect. Example of that. Barrier entry is pretty low, lots of noise. On the surface, extremely competitive. But if you look at it, there's actually three and then a long tail. You want an uncompetitive market. Where can you find an uncompetitive market in a perceived competitive market, I'd say? because like food leverage is like it's too easy it's just the world is easy to make food like relatively so it's unavoidable like of course everything's competitive

19:47yeah it's like Peter Thiel Peter Thiel talks about the best investments are ones that seem like bad investments what are actually good investments and the things that seem like good investments but actually are good investments the returns aren't even there so you need that sort of you need to be counter consensus meaning you need to find something that looks one way, but is actually another. So you're saying, looks super competitive. But when you sort of break it down, you realize, actually, there's a pretty big opportunity that it's not as competitive as it looks on the surface. Yeah, I mean, yeah, exactly.

20:13And it's as simple as, like, people will come to me, oh, protein bars are so competitive. And I always ask, tell me about that. Like, you know, you just ask a couple questions. And it would be interesting that one can't either be... What are those questions? What are the questions? Tell me, like, please explain more. Like, what do you... They just can't explain the competitors. They're only referencing the volume of the category, like the volume of brands, but they're not necessarily actually referencing what they like, who's good, who's not. And then second, a lot of times they're not even consumers of the category, which to me is the opportunity.

20:50It's like, all right, well, why aren't you the consumer in the category? It's some dissatisfaction with taste or texture usually or price or something else. And so that's the opportunity actually. How do you bring new people to the category? So yeah, just stuff like that. It's just funny. That's cool. So let's take this vasodilator thing for a second. In the first 90 days of that, what would you be doing to figure this out? What do you actually go do to get these answers? Oh, so first I'd figure out, I'd look at the literature and is it good or like just, so it's like two searches. One, what does the internet say?

21:26Like what is the reputation of it? What does culture say about it? and then two, what does the actual literature say? So like, what is the, what are the ideas of the world? What does Huberman, Wayne Norton, what do they believe through syndicating the actual literature? So does that basically just mean like, like is the perfect blend of that? Like a vasodilator is good. And then you also see like, NO explode looks way too bro-y and is lame. Or do you want yes, yes on the culture? Or do you, why the two, what are you looking for as the perfect answer for those two? So on the cultural thing, second would be like a landscape, like what does the market look like?

22:05But before that, I would just say, is this a reputation that I can overcome? Is there some sort of stigma that is, it's good if it's okay if it's contrarian, but is it actually something so bad that I can't overcome it? Or like, what is reputation, just general? And then second would be like, what's like this market map? Like, how do I define this market? and what I know, I probably just defined it as simply bodybuilding oriented. There isn't actually a continuum of natural people, bodybuilders. That's a natural opposing continuum. But yeah, so just to study the market, reputation of the market.

22:47And then most importantly, because if the market says this is bad, but the literature says it really has all these benefits then that's a contrarian thing of like, alright, people disagree with you but then there's... So it's sort of triangulating those things. Sam, you invested in Lucy, right? Yeah. So Lucy, the nicotine gum our buddy John Coogan's involved with it and now it's a pouch. Pouch, yeah. At the time I think the sort of cultural stigma this pre-Zen being really popular was nicotine equals bad, right? Aren't we supposed to be not having cigarettes bad, nicotine bad, blah, blah, blah.

23:28Science actually showed that there were some, I guess, some benefits. And then what they did was they were like, cool, can we overcome this? And it took actually many years, but the business is now exploding. But for years, it was kind of just trying to get enough momentum culturally to get over the hump. Yeah, and that's so like the Peter Thiel's approach to consumer is actually how you make money in this business. And there's plenty of examples like kombucha. Protein bars are constantly this because no one thinks there's too many of them. Collagen was one. Nicotine's one. You know another one that's happening right now?

24:05Creatine. So creatine, the science, it's one of the most studied supplements of all time. It's like there's so many benefits. But for years, it was like, this is only for football high school pros. like, you know, and now we've made it cool or now like women are like, no, there's actually a lot of benefit here or normal average Joe's like, there's a lot of benefit here. The whole creative movement, Sean, have you seen that right now? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I would say like the way you figure it out is just ask your friends like, Hey, what do you think of this? And it's like, Oh, it's, it's sort of that.

24:33And that's like cultural reputation. Right. So that's people are kind of disagreeing with you. So I, I'd say generally, like if you're asked what my pattern is for sort of consumer investing, it's really that like, what is something on the fringes or what is something? people disagree with or is it in culture that actually, if you look at it from a first principles perspective, there's actually something there. So let me ask one more question before we move to the next idea, which is I'm a smart guy. I can almost talk myself into anything or talk myself out of anything. I have a very good debater in my own head.

25:03And so what you're giving examples of is maybe things that are misunderstood or it looks competitive, but actually it's not. I can almost see myself justifying anything under that umbrella. Yeah. Hey, Peter kind of said this and I just don't have the actual judgment to be able to do it correctly. what's an example of an idea sean of our product well i actually want to ask you about the opposite which is like what are categories that you think you would like run away from you're like no no this is the type of thing i wouldn't go into for these reasons fast anything fast following like following liquid death following olipop you gotta you gotta be the first one in the controversial disagreeable thing you can't you know yeah because you're trying to win big and And I think I read something the other day in the AI category that Sequoia was talking about.

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25:47They're like, if you just study all markets, the market leader, so whoever becomes number one of a new category will take something like 75 % of all the profits, 50 % of all the revenues and whatever. It's just like the spoils really do go to the winner if you're trying to win the biggest. And I think if you look at the history, and this is why I think history is something I just think is so important in studying consumer. like that would be true with that would that that would be true with kombucha collagen market these sort of big breakthrough new markets that emerge like the first one to do it well takes all the problems are you when you when you say you're studying history what does that mean like you're reading biographies you're you're looking at old financial statements what are you doing uh it's it might you know be like one would be looking through your phone at the old category so like what did what did photos of the category look like in 2012 but for me it's my own just experience going through it and remembering you know the different trends the different new products that you know and just keeping that recollection of that and i think it just isn't talked about when i see people starting consumer brands it's kind of like oh here's today here's the future it's just such an important piece of like in the equation of whether this is going to work or not.

27:03But yeah, there's no one writing books on this stuff and no one cares. So it's really, you have to just - You have to piece together your own history. Yeah, piece together and yeah. All right, let's go to idea number two. I don't even know what this means. Night occasion in general. I don't know. Is that an idea? What is that? Okay. So again, I feel I view myself as like an anthropologist. So if you look at the morning occasion. It is very fixed, right? It's all around coffee, waking up, sunlight. Sunlight observation is a new one, thanks to I think a cube of red is a big change culture in that way.

27:37So circadian rhythm, taking supplements maybe, or morning pills, whatever rituals there are. The morning occasion is kind of like clear in terms of like what products or services are there. And so sleep hygiene and the sleep occasion is something that it's become very clear that's super important. And if you look at that, to me, it's a wide open, like there isn't a coffee of the sleep occasion. At night, you have what, like magnesium maybe or something like that, right? It's like one maybe cat product. Yeah. No one's owning it right now. You brush your teeth, right? So there's like Colgate's got it.

28:10But like there is a huge opportunity to sort of be the brand for that occasion. There's some obstacles obviously, but to me, that's like if I'm an entrepreneur, I'm really studying that. That's a strange insight to have. What made you get to that conclusion? You just got to think about it. Everything's occasion-based, right? The best example is champagne dominates a celebration occasion. Outside of that, it's a terrible problem, right? Or for RX Bar, it's like, I'm driving somewhere. I'm going to a gas station, and I want to get something healthy. Yeah, RX Bar was obviously on the go. It was a big occasion.

28:46But to be honest, it was because of the egg whites. There were some signals. It was breakfast. It was sort of like a great fast breakfast. When I think about like everyone's talking about sleep, you have eight sleep, you have all these brands kind of getting there. But on the consumers, like the food or beverage or supplement side, there's all these like sleep packs things. But like the real opportunity is like, how do you be the coffee of fucking sleep? And that's where I would spend time. You know, coffee is the best drug. It's the biggest drug. So is there something like that? there's some brands working on it but that that i think there's there's which promising ones uh there's one called um uh moon brew there's one called uh beam i use both of them one is melatonin one doesn't that's the big controversial one melatonin is actually sort of you could have melatonin is actually something that could be um contrarian um people say it's bad for you it's hyperformates, exogenous hormone, but then there's also literature that's high in antioxidants too.

29:49Those are good, but me and my fiance, we find ourselves having this beverage at a small dose before bed and it's like a nice ritual. Yeah, I think that's brilliant actually. Basically looking at moments and looking for openings, there's a Chinese company, I think maybe it was ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, maybe it was the one that owns WeChat, not sure, but they, at their annual meeting, I remember going and watching their annual meeting, which was weird because it's all in Mandarin. I don't speak Mandarin, but I'm like sitting there trying to translate these slides because I was like, I want to learn from where other people are not learning from to try to see if there's any alpha there.

30:25And one of the interesting things was they, their opening slide was all of the moments of the day, like so a 24 hour cycle broken into 15 minute intervals. And what they did was they were like, we want to have a product or an app for every moment of your day. This is a totally dominating philosophy. That's insane. American companies, you couldn't come out and say it, but obviously Zuck probably feels the same way. But they were like, you're in line for coffee. What's the inline coffee app? We need an app that is designed to be awesome for that moment. Okay, now you have an hour in bed scrolling at night.

30:58What do we have for that? That's like the TikTok app where you're just going to infinitely swipe and be amused. And so seeing them think that way, I was like, oh, wow. And then that creates white spaces. So you say, oh, you might think photos is a crowded category. It seemed like photos was dominated by Facebook and Instagram. And the Snapchat came out and was like, oh, we'll use photos for messaging instead of photos for memories. And the way they just looked at it with a different lens, suddenly photos was totally a wide open, multi-billion dollar opportunity that you had to look at it in some other angle in order to see it.

31:30Yeah, and it was just emphasized the consumer is all that matters. So putting yourself and empathizing and going through that is where it all starts, in my view. Yeah, I like that. Do you also look for product inspiration from other places? I know some people that do CPG that they travel a bunch or they'll be like, oh yeah, in Thailand they drink this. What is this? If we just take this and now we wrap it in a new label that's American friendly, we might be able to have a product here. So basically, you want to consume as much information, collect as many dots so you can connect the dots at some point.

32:02And the best example of that is I had an internship in Belgium and we supplied Innocent Beverage, which is a smoothie company. And their ingredient statement would be like one apple, one banana, and half a lemon or a pinch of lemon. and obviously I took that dot and connected it to RX bar which on the back of our label was two dates, three eggs six almonds, four cashews, etc. But that insight was from just purely observing different markets and different brands. You're just like journaling or to keep track of these or it's all just in your head? It's in the way. Let's finish up these ideas that I want to ask you about the bar businesses.

32:47Idea number three, continuous testosterone monitor. This is pretty fascinating. Oh, yeah, yeah. I think the American male cares so much about testosterone. And I think, I don't know if this is feasible. I mean, we do blood tests. And I actually looked into this for like 10 minutes. but if you were to have some way to measure testosterone or some broader hormones in a continuous way so like when you wake up I think there's a lot of demand for that and I think the American male would love that Sam you're the American male what are your T levels right now? Dude I want to know my T 24-7 Are you 400?

33:35Where are you at? Is it higher than your math SAT score was? that's the test I don't even what's the SAT out of I don't even know what do you not get you don't get yours checked Sean I've never got I don't think maybe I got it checked once I don't think I've ever really I definitely am not the typical American male wait Peter do you do you do you get yours checked yeah I do it quarterly do you have by the way I'm what's an investor I'm an investor in that thing called levels which is a continuous glucose monitor and like yeah Yeah. Everyone has to figure this out. And if you do figure it out, it's pretty awesome.

34:12But do you have some like, because you're friends with like, I think Peter T is one of your investors because you're a young rich guy in the health space. Do you have some crazy Brian Johnson setup where you have someone measuring your nighttime erections and all this crazy stuff? No. So I've gone from like getting close to being obsessive about measuring everything to just now I'm like totally over. It's like so easy to ever do it. My routine is, I'm currently off supplements right now. I just want to get a baseline of my blood markers. I test it quarterly. And then normally I take supplements in the AM and PM.

34:47I think culture is going that way. This is my prediction for 2025, which is that I think everybody got really inspired and sort of overanalyzed everything through Huberman and Brian Johnson. I love those guys. But I think the average person, it's way too much work for way too little payoff. and we all kind of know the sort of core four or five things you should do and most people don't even do those. And so without doing the basic fundamentals, like none of the rest really matters, the sort of fine-tune, optimizing. And so I think there's going to be a giant retreat back to simplicity and basics for like health craze.

35:23So for the listener, Brian Johnson is like a tech billionaire who likes the headline is he spends$2 million a year on his health to live forever, whatever. He's got this thing called the Rejuvenation Olympics where you can get your blood work done and ranks you amongst tens of other thousands of people to let you know how good your blood work is and how long you're going to live, whatever. There was this woman in the Wall Street Journal. She was a substitute teacher. And she says her income. She's like, I make$50 ,000 a year. And I just go for walks and I eat healthy. And she was number one on the list.

35:54And Brian Johnson was number six. And it was pretty funny that all these guys are dedicating their lives and all their resources. It's just bingo night that you need with the community. Yeah, and I think it actually causes emotional regulation and not being stressed or anxious is probably more important than obsessing about some other stuff. Exactly. All right, let's do the most exciting idea you have on this list. New religion. Talk to me. I'm ready. Preach. Religion, I think it's a bad word. It's like something to belong to that helps you guide morality and ethics that can be a ritual or tradition that we all can bond over and feel aligned on.

36:41My hypothesis is that there's no money to make in religion. So no one joins, no talent, no good leader joins the church. And therefore, it hasn't been innovating at all. and therefore so the economics aren't there for a priest and so therefore there's no innovation and there's a desperate need for innovation and then so and then second like no one wants to be jesus and someone has to be jesus that's why i think why we are where we are at right now so if someone wants to be jesus i think there's a real opportunity

37:19have you guys ever gone to a shabbat no something like that dude it's the shit it's the best shabbat is the shit i love it it's like basically a friday meal where you don't use cell phones and you tell everyone how much you love each other yeah and like saturday i'm not working like forced and i just think that's pretty obvious we want that why are you saying there's no money i've These mega churches have$100 million run rates. The priests are driving private, flying private jets. Like, have you seen Joel Osteen? That smile, that's a billion dollar smile right there. So I think maybe it's like actually the best business of all businesses.

37:56It's just... I'm pretty sure that the Catholic church is the largest landowner in the whole world. Not to reference Peter Thiel again, but he talks about for monopolies. He's like all the companies that talk about how much of a monopoly they have, how dominant they are. They're usually the most vulnerable. and the ones that are super dominant always try to downplay how dominant they are because they don't want anyone to take aim at them for antitrust. It's the same thing, I think, for money. It's like the folks that are bragging about how much money they make are the dropshippers. And then the people who are silent, pretend it's not about the money, have all the money.

38:28And that's the churches. It's probably totally right. So I misread this, but maybe I should be a priest. Well, I've thought about this a bunch of ways. I think you can either unbundle it. So one strategy for business is unbundle things. So take things that come in a bundle. So you get God and a higher power. You're going to get community and a rich, a Sunday ritual. And then you're going to get an operating philosophy for life. And so that's the, that's the current religion bundle. And then, then you see things like, you know, look at the NFL every Sunday, look at soul cycle, look at these, these things where it's like, oh, they're giving, they have, they have two other components, but not the other three.

39:04Right. But then there's Tony Robbins. He'll maybe give you the operating philosophy without God. And, and for me, for example, that resonated, I was like, cool. I want this without the, but I, you know, I'd like to be in charge of it and not sort of say it's somebody else that's deciding my fate. And so I think some people have unbundled this, but it would be very interesting to see somebody actually try to provide a new bundle. And I think you could really just like, it's a first principles approach, but like across the different domains of life, like who's got it right? Like the Buddhists have got stuff right.

39:31The Jews have got stuff right. I'm sure Islam's got stuff right. Christianity too. And just sort of build, like sort of look at it from that perspective. I bet you'd come up with something great. you actually have a it appears to be a fairly academic point of view when it comes to operating a business and I think that that's actually pretty cool because I think it's considered like cool to not care or like I'm just going to follow my gut which I tend to fall in that category but to hear your kind of academic point of view I actually think it's pretty neat. Thank you. I wouldn't call it that but I guess from where you're I'm a terrible student but I study a lot.

40:11What does that mean? I was literally a terrible student, but all I do in my free time is study. Yeah, it's actually nice for me because I do the same and then sometimes I meet people who are 10 times more successful than me and they're like, yeah, I don't even think about all that stuff. I'm like, oh wait, am I wasting my time? But you're like, oh yeah, we looked at this. It seemed like really good distribution or I really thought that for the design agency, the inputs matter as much as the inputs will dictate the outputs. And so I was super clear on this. whereas like I think a lot of successful entrepreneurs just sort of hand wave and I get the sense that it's not really as hand wavy as they think and it either they're downplaying it or or they're kind of like Michael Jordan you're like how do you shoot a jump shot he's like I don't know I just just do it I don't really think too much but I like that you're able to articulate some of these things because at least for someone like me that that resonates because that's how I think so you know it's I would I would perhaps say like they're not as introspective they're probably analyzing why they came up with what they came up.

41:08And they're probably not. They're just like, I think a lot of entrepreneurs are all about charging forward and moving forward. I'm always sort of like looking back and studying the past of like, why did this work? Was it a framework? Can I come up with a framework? Was it a pattern? Well, let's do a little introspection on why do David? Because you've, on one hand, one way of looking at this is you've already beat this level of the video game. You created a protein bar, you won$600 million. You get the nice house in Miami and it's all done, right? And of course you could go back and do it again, but maybe you should do a new thing.

41:41That would be one argument. Me and Sam have talked about this before. There's two type one, type two entrepreneurs. Type ones are always looking for the variety, the next new thing. Even though they're most equipped to actually go do the thing that they know really well, they don't want to do it. And then there's other people we call speed runners as type two, which is now that they feel like they have a new point of view, a new mastery of the game. They're really excited to go do it. This is just in their blood. It's in their DNA. They just want to go back to the same space. I don't know if it's as simple as that, but why did you decide to do it again?

42:09Yeah. So it was in process. So I had an ugly key. So that was a constraint, but then I wanted to actually prove to myself that I wasn't just a CPG entrepreneur, that I could go do this in other industries. I went to go explore different industries and try to I started and stopped a lot of times. What sorts of stuff? Give us a sense. Synthetic biology, I think, is fascinating. That's a perfect example. I was like, this sounds like science fiction. Biotech is incredible. If we can actually control biology, this would be an amazing thing. I started studying it. This is where I think Elon's not a good influence.

42:50I was like, oh, I can learn anything. And then very quickly, I was like, I can't fucking learn this stuff. Like biology, these people spend their whole careers learning this. And I was like, I'm not that smart. I can't learn new things. And I'm never going to start a business where I have to pick up the phone to fix a problem. Like if I can't, don't have the competency to fix the problem or understand it, that's like a position I'll never want to be in. That was a bit of self-awareness, call it a humbling moment. I spent some time, then I came back. Then when my non-compete came up, I was like, oh my God, I see it.

43:30I couldn't help but see a vision of something to do. I was like, you know what? I'm okay with just being called a type two. and I'm okay. Once I die, it just says nose protein bar. Watch what I'm going for. Am I gravestone? That's okay. It goes back to self-awareness. You got to do what you're good at. One thing I've learned is as I'm older, I'm 38 now, I do find it harder to learn new things. I'm a later adopter. Why do it again is I see a huge opportunity to grow the market, to delight customers, and it's fun. Are you calling the shots? Are you the CEO and are you like a very hands-on CEO or are you doing it?

44:17Are you chairman? No, I'm the CEO and I'm in the office every day. I'm in manufacturing right now. I only have one way.

44:33Hey, this episode is brought to you by Mercury. They're the fintech of choice for over 200 ,000 companies. I myself use it for eight different companies. The reason why we all choose it is because it has everything you need under one roof. So like my e-commerce company, it's super important for us to be able to easily wire transfer, pay all our different vendors and suppliers all around the world. And the old way with our more traditional bank that shall now be named, I try it online. It would say no. It would freeze my account. Then I'd have to go in, book an appointment, speak to a specialist who would try to upsell me on something I didn't need.

45:03And then finally, after, you know, 30 minutes there, then they charge me 50 bucks for the pleasure of that terrible interaction. and now with Mercury, I just go online, push two buttons, and I'm done. It's such a seamless experience. It's very intuitive. Everything's under one place. They basically took all the things any company would need for their financial tech, and they made it super easy to use and put it into one platform. So highly, highly recommend it. If you're not using Mercury, I question your judgment. So that's it. You've heard it on My First Million. For more information, check out Mercury.com.

45:30Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Check show notes for details.

45:36when you uh you have a four-month-old kid it sounds like you're gonna you're gonna get married soon um you know a lot of people in your position who imagine you have roughly in the ballpark of nine figures liquid that's enough money for many generations you have a new kid where you could be at home with them why do you even give a shit about starting this new thing i think the idle mind's a devil's playground but you've had an idle mind no for the past few years yeah but i still made myself busy, but it was idle relative to now. Yes. I just think it's dangerous. I need to produce. I need to make stuff.

46:12I need stress. I need to be challenged. I need risk. I'm a way better man with responsibility. And then second, I want to make sure my son sees daddy working, working hard. I need to be a role model for him. I need to be in an office. I need to be sacrificing and then like at a fundamental level like as a human i'm just i'm not happy if i don't i'm not like risk on i don't have responsibility so that does that mean you're you're kind of bummed out or like for the past few years yeah i just was unfulfilled like i i was just like and like being an investor sucks i like yeah it's pretty boring isn't it like the only good thing about it is you're you can like you have um more freedom of time and responsibility like that's the great thing about it.

46:58And I just don't actually like that. Have you ever seen this Reddit post by this guy, Jake, who started Movement Watches? No. They were one of the early DTC brands. They made a watch brand that got really big off of Instagram. And he wrote this thing on Reddit, which I think you would never expect this guy to be here, right? They sold it for, I think,$100 million. You would never expect him to just be lurking random, like beginner threads about entrepreneurship. And he wrote a thread that says, I sold my company for millions and I'm lost more than ever, 31 years old. he says it pretty openly. I sold my company movement for a lot of money.

47:30I thought all my problems would be solved. It made my life really cushy and comfortable. I optimized for being as stressful as possible. I play video games when I want. I wake up when I want. I have really no reason to go out of bed if I don't want to. I always thought this was the dream and I'd be happy forever until I wasn't. And I realized I'm in this incredibly unique situation. I want to share some things. And then I'll just fast forward. There's a bunch of stuff he talks about. I've been separated from the company for two years. I'm 31, single. I never have to work again. I'm also lonelier than ever and deeply depressed.

47:56I really believe that we need purpose in our lives to be happy. For some, that's raising a family. Others, it's their career, blah, blah, blah. And then he goes to the bottom and he just says, we can plan and analyze forever, but here's the lessons. But there are lessons that are unknown until you start moving forward. You cannot live without struggle and pain. We either choose our struggle and pain or it will find us through depression and loneliness. I thought that was really powerful what he wrote. And you, at my point, my feedback statement would be like, you have to work. You said you don't have to work.

48:23Like, you have to. just not for money it wasn't for money that you had to work it was for yourself yeah yeah just like you need to produce i want to bring up this article that uh you that got written about you um it was on medium you know i'm talking about yeah it was like a super sensationalized terribly accurate and she was just projecting i thought that was going to be the case i told sean was gonna bring it up and he goes he's this is what he's probably gonna say it uh sean nailed the prediction but for anyone who's talking about he's thinking about uh or the article that i'm describing it's basically the head it's beautiful photos but it's kind of like they kind of paint this article as the lost young rich guy who doesn't know what the hell he's doing in life and is unhappy and like the photos are like you like looking off to the distance but there was one pretty amazing pro tip for founders anytime somebody wants their article at you and they want you to take photos looking longingly out the window they're about to fuck you that's what they're trying to do and just don't take the photo and don't do the article the paragraph goes a...

49:21So Peter bought a fully furnished house for$19 million in May. He spent his time between here and Chicago. He chose Miami because there's no income taxes. He has a Ferrari and a Vespa parked in the driveway. A housekeeper who comes daily keeps the seven bedrooms spotless. The most are usually empty. Like, just little jabs right there. It's true. And then she basically says, this looks like a place that ticked a box requesting the newly rich bachelor package. And this setup fell straight from the sky just like constant jabs like do it and first of all isn't it crazy that you probably spent the whole day with this woman and you probably became friendly with her and that she just kind of like yeah and like she couldn't like I'm very introverted and I love being alone and I never once said I was unhappy it's more that like she was projecting what she would be like she's like couldn't imagine living here alone and I'm like this is fucking great like it was just like it's like it just shows that you can't trust media like the story was supposed to be about my process for finding my next business.

50:24But it was still a good article. There were some cool insights. A little bit about your background story. And the photos are dope. One of the things Sam and I like to talk about, when we both sold our companies, we were like, there's this whole process of the journey of the thing. And then you're going to sell. That's kind of a stressful time. And it's just kind of like a relief when you sell, at least that was how it was for me and him. It's like more than what you think should be just exuberance, was actually just relief that the process actually finished and it was successful. And your employees are all at a good spot and everything worked out.

50:56But then there's that post-exit, right? Figuring out what you want to do, go to the ATM, you print out the balance the first time, you're like, holy shit, this is cool. Do you have any of those moments that you remember that were just memorable for you, just unique human life experiences that you had going through it? That's the first question. The second would be, if your cousin or your brother was going through this or was about to do it, what would you tell them? what would you advise them now that you've been through it yeah i would say by going through the process it took me a while to like actually comprehend the money had you taken money out of the business before that no no so i went from basically like you know 75k a year to it's like really crazy money so um that process took me a while and in general like that's just financial literacy.

51:47I don't have good instincts on it for some reason. So it took me about a year to realize what it was. And then going through it, maybe it's like I have low self-esteem for being dyslexic, I think. So I didn't think I was great. I just don't think I'm that special. And then I didn't realize you just get treated differently. you also were living in uh maybe not the most friendly or um not the most miami is not the best place to be i think well you could say it's the best place to be for the newly rich or you could also say it's probably it could be a pretty bad place to live if you're newly rich and a young man who's single like it could be it could you could go you become a d-gen pretty easily yeah yeah if you're able to have discipline it's a really dangerous place but it's actually a great place because there's a lot of high network people there that you actually can learn from the issue with Miami is that there is no residue of the actual building it's just the outcome so you don't see the office you don't see you don't hear the stories you just see the outcome and so it's a bunch of like it's yeah it's a byproduct of all that you don't see the process any any remnants of the process and so that's what's dangerous about Miami on wealth management and I would just define the different sort of options like you can go with Goldman they're going to fee you.

53:10They're going to make you feel good. Just go through how to manage this money because that's what you need to get. You immediately need to figure out what to do and how to do it. And there's different categories and approaches based on your risk appetite or what you want to do. So that's what I wanted to help with. And I would help someone is like, here's how you should think about it and help them not waste their time. All right. I want to ask you two questions. First one is real simple. How big can this be, David, as I'm 75 % away through this bar right now? I would say how big, so the market, I think it's like a$8 billion TAM, the protein subcategory.

53:45For me, the big exciting opportunity is to convert non-protein bar people and bring them into the category. So just interviewing people, they'll often say, I'm not a protein bar consumer. So if we can achieve the mission of converting as many non-protein bar people into protein bar people, that would be huge. I see a clear path to a billion in sales, top line. Is that your threshold for success? That's a good question. Enterprise value, yeah. I would say, yeah. I would want a billion in top line. What's that worth? Depending on growth and EBITDA, you put a three or five on it. I love how you don't shy away.

54:30We have a lot of people that come on this podcast that they want to win. and they want to win big and they want money and they want things. We all want things. Whenever Sam will ask a question like that, would anything less than that be not a success for you or something like that? They'll always go back to what they think they're supposed to say. No, no, no. This doesn't define me. As long as I wake up every day and my wife kisses me on the cheek, I'm good. I love that you don't give a fuck. I see that in a bunch of your quotes. We have this quote section. I just want you to react to some of these.

55:07My favorite, by the way, don't trust a guy who celebrates his birthday. Yeah, I know. He's coming through, but I'm not interested, but it's kind of true. You talked about how most people don't really experience any adversity and you said, quote, most people are soft as baby shit. Expand on that. Yeah, I just think it's character shit. I think it's like anyone with a really high character usually some trauma in it. The trauma is relative. And if you haven't gone through trauma, it's fine. But just if you're just self-aware of it, like that's the first step. You do things now, even though your life could be very comfortable.

55:44We got a bunch of money. You could, you could make your life as comfortable as you want it. Do you do things now that kind of voluntarily make your life less comfortable than you otherwise could? Um, without sounding like a rich asshole, like, no, I mean, I'm like, I like the rich asshole. asshole version of you. Feel free to sound like that. He's like, I have one butler, not three now. It's tough out there. It's like, oh, I don't have a nightmare. That's such a... It sounds so terrible. No, I mean, so I think physical exertion and doing physically things hard is the easiest way to do adversity, and that's why you see a lot of people doing that, and so that's easy.

56:28But my company's a priority, and the first thing to go is my health. It's my company, my family. My family is probably more important now. I'm not as more... My family is more important than my company and then me. And so, my health is the first thing to fucking go. Is your new company in person or remote? What do you think? Yeah, I made the biggest mistake. Dude. He's like, have you been listening? I was hoping there was like a 3 % chance. My company, we started it kind of like right after COVID. I've made such a mistake, dude. We did remote and it's like an irreversible thing. Yeah, if you want a high performing company, if you want to win, you obviously have to do it.

57:14And it's like my work's fun. So being the office... Yeah, well that's why I'm doing it. I don't care about the winning. It just is fun. It's fun to be around your... to become your friends. Oh, and that's the thing is my social bucket is fulfilled through my work colleagues. So I don't really socialize outside of my work. Yeah, I mean, I was in the same boat. You just, you give someone a job, you're hired, want to be friends? Yeah, my paid friends are the best friends I've found. My W2 friends are awesome. Yeah.

57:48Well, dude, Peter, I know we're a little over time, so we'll let you go, but you're awesome. I really appreciate you coming on. I think your story's dope. I think you're very truthful and self-aware. And that's a pretty deadly combo. It's something I think two virtues to strive for. And I think you have a hardcore approach to this at a time where it is unpopular to be hardcore. You almost have to apologize for caring and trying and working and prioritizing stuff. I think there's a bunch of people who will listen to this that want that also and will feel more empowered to do it. In the same way that you were saying, Elon lets you think, wait, shit, can I do anything?

58:25It gives you permission. to be the way you want to be. And I think you've done that today on this pod. So I appreciate you coming on. Thank you, guys.

58:48Hey, let's take a quick break because there's a quote that I love I want to read you. It's that we shape our tools and thereafter, they shape us. And as an entrepreneur, if you're using a bank that was built in the 90s, you're operating like you're in the 90s. And trust me, I've been there. Clunky portals, random holds on your money,$50 wire fees, and then being told, please visit your local branch. Well, that's why I switched to a different type of banking solution, Mercury. It turns your financial chores into a smooth workflow. You can do wires, invoices, cards, reimbursements, two clicks, and I'm done.

59:18If you're already using Mercury, respect. If you're still using one of the old big banks, I got questions for you. So go visit mercury.com and give it a test drive. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided through Choice Financial Group, column N-A, and Evolve Bank and Trust members, FDIC.

From the publisher

Episode 639: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Peter Rahal ( https://x.com/peterrahal ) about starting RXBAR with $10K and selling it for $600M, business ideas he would chase today, plus why he’s back with another bar.  
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Show Notes: 
(0:00) RX Bar's path to $600M
(8:32) Branding to solve a problem
(14:03) David Protein
(16:22) Idea 1: Differentiated vasodilator
(27:53) Idea 2: The coffee of sleep
(32:28) Idea 3: Continuous Testosterone meter
(36:58)Idea 4: New religion 
(42:03) Why do this again?
(45:28) How to survive the first year after exiting
(53:03) How big is David going to get?
(56:18) Remote v in-office

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Links:
• RXBAR - https://www.rxbar.com/
• SCOTT & VICTOR - https://scottandvictor.com/ 
• David’s Protein - https://davidprotein.com/
• Lucy - https://lucy.co/ 
• Moonbrew - https://moonbrew.co/ 
• Levels - https://www.levels.com/ 

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Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
Need to hire? You should use the same service Shaan uses to hire developers, designers, & Virtual Assistants → it’s called Shepherd (tell ‘em Shaan sent you): https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd

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Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/
• Copy That - https://copythat.com
• Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth
• Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/

My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano

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