We found the top 1% of the internet this week (so you don't have to)

26:02What conversation do you have with your wife? Or you're like, so what do you do? What do you do, guy? How's work today? I kind of want to get him on the pod. Jail pod? A rare category of illegal but impressive. No? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which like, it's like the Bernie Madoff scheme. Not cool and impressive. Like, you know what I'm going to? Like, I want to learn more about it. Right, right. Right. And if you judge us for saying impressive and illegal, like, do you like Ocean's Eleven? Those guys are rooting for the guys who are robbing. Anyways, here we go. So what else we got? Oh, I have something here on ChatGPT.

26:44Have you seen this? OK, so ChatGPT's product retention curves is a product manager's wet dream. Their one month retention has skyrocketed from less than 60 percent two years ago to an unprecedented 90 percent. YouTube was best in class with 85%. Six-month retention is trending towards 80 % and rapidly rising. Generational product. Okay, so this little line chart here, for people who don't really recognize this, imagine when you're at a hospital and they hook the patient up and you have the heart monitor and you see that heartbeat, that line, and it's got to keep beeping for the patient to be good, right?

27:23And you have all these monitors with these little lines. Well, this is the equivalent of that for a company. So what this is, is a retention curve. So the line at the very bottom here would be like the oldest cohort. So that's like people who signed up for ChatGPT two years ago. And as you can see, it starts at 100 % of people using it on day zero or month zero. But then even by month one, it's at 60%. By month two, only 55 % are still using it. And by the time you get to a year, you know, less than it looks like 30 % of people are still using the product. So that means more than two thirds of people just stopped using it after they tried it.

27:57And that's the sign of a product that won't win as is because the bucket is too leaky. You know, you're getting too many customers in that are that are churning out. They're not finding value in the product. And what this curve or what the other lines are, are the next month, the next month, the next month. And as they improve the product, you can see that the drop offs are way less. So now what he's saying is that basically the one month retention is now 90%. So people are finding so much value the first month that they use it that a month later, 90 % of them are still using it. And so this is how this is like the key metric for most businesses is retention.

28:33That's the thing that tells you if your business is going to be around for a long time or if it's just a leaky bucket. And seeing this with chat GPT is pretty stunning. And it kind of leads into my next tweet here, which is that open AI is now at 10 billion NARR. So that's 2x since the end of 2024. So they basically doubled revenue from 5 billion to 10 billion. And it's been less than three years since it launched. So in less than three years, they've grown this product to$10 billion in recurring revenue, which is just stunning. And it highlighted to me one very big takeaway from this, which is that OpenAI is the Facebook of this current generation.

29:09Maybe more. 20 years ago, it was Google and Amazon were the big deal. That was it. 30 years ago, it was like Microsoft. 20 years ago, it was like Google and Amazon. Maybe 15 years ago or so, you know, that was the Facebook era. and Facebook was the thing that was like, oh, it's a billion dollar company, a$10 billion company, and now it's a trillion dollar company. Well, the one right now is OpenAI. For the next decade, we're just going to, me and you are probably going to look at ourselves and be like, how are we doing this podcast? How are we looking at these tweets, these charts, and just like, why didn't we go buy OpenAI stock?

29:43Like, how dumb do we have to be? Like, it was on Sarah's list three years ago or something like that. Wait, was it really? Did we talk about it then? Maybe not three, but two for sure. I think the very first Sarah's List episode, we probably had them on there. And it's like, what kind of doofuses are we that we don't own any of this stock? Can you own it? Yeah, you can buy it in secondary. I had a buddy of mine about two or three years ago. He was at my house. You know who this guy is. And we were talking and he was like, yeah, I have a job offer from Neuralink and OpenAI. And I was like, wow, those are both pretty promising.

30:18And he was like, what should I do? And we just had a conversation about it. And I didn't know anything. I mean, at the time, it was really hard. Like, they're both, like, run by tycoons. They're both really interesting. They're both the hot startup. And he chose OpenAI. And he has made so much money just in, like, tens of millions of dollars in, like, two and a half or three years just from being, like, the 1 ,000th employee. Something like that. Like, nothing. It's just astounding at how big this is. And what is his job? Bob, he's not like the rare AI PhD type dudes, right? Is he a programmer?

30:58Is he a product person? What's the role? Product person. Yeah, product person. Sorry, programmer. He's a programmer. Massive difference. Yeah. I was going to say, if you're a product guy and you made tens of millions of dollars in opening AI, how is that even possible if you're just like a random person? Engineers, okay. I guess I can see it. You know, you get a stock package that's worth$2 million over four years, but you got it when OpenAI was valued at$60 billion, and now it's valued at$400 billion, right? So it's up, you know, 8X or something like that. And so your$2 million stock package turned out to actually be a$16 million stock package.

31:36It's crazy that that's a normal thing that happens. That's happened to, like, 1 ,000 people right now or more in, like, 30-mile radius of where I live. This was sort of an un... We kind of glazed over this, but basically Harley from Shopify was on the pod. And at one point, they were worth$250 ,000. I think when we recorded with them, they were worth$150 billion. And it's basically like the 100th largest company in the world right now, which means it's like the 100th largest company probably ever, ever created. It's like around the... So every business ever created is the 100th most valuable, which is astounding, right?

32:15That's an astounding number. to think that OpenAI is a decade old or something like that company. And it is already the 50th or 25th largest company ever created. Isn't that astounding? Not even from a product or the technology, but literally, how do you organize that? Organize the people who work there, organize the investors, just the organizational... They say just the idea of... Have you heard the stories about China building like a fast railroad in like, you know, six months. Like it's, it's, it's, it's sort of fascinating like that. It's definitely the number one most valuable nonprofit ever.

32:54Is it still really a nonprofit? I think so. And he said, they're not gonna, he also said they're not going to make a profit until they hit, uh, what did he say? He goes, we can't make a profit until we get to 10 billion in revenue or something. Remember my thing earlier about like, just push me away. Their investor thing, which is like, listen, we have to put a cap, 100x cap on your returns because this is going to get bananas. So, dude, that pitch, the balls it takes to have that as your pitch, which is like, instead of promising upside, saying, listen, we're going to need to cap your upside because it's going to be so insane how much value we create.

33:29So I just need to make sure you're okay with that. I'm going to start using that. I'm going to start using that formula in my life. Skip to this Elon one. Yeah. All right. Why don't you frame this one up? All right. So, breaking news. President Trump comments on Elon Musk's apology. I thought it was very nice that he said that, Trump says. And Elon Musk has a tweet that says, I regret some of the posts about President Trump last week. They went too far. Insane. This is insane. You can't do that and apologize. Right? There is. You don't apologize. Like, dude, if I called you a pedophile or a rapist in front of literally the entire world, I can't say I'm sorry.

34:23There's no sorry big enough, you're saying? Dude, Genghis Khan doesn't apologize. Like, when you do, like, can you imagine Napoleon being like, hey, that one, it went a little far. Do you want to, like, shake it out? Oh, you're saying conquerors can't apologize? That's the take? Like that was a such a crazy thing to do and say. And he tweeted it out very casually where he said, have a nice day, Donald Trump. Like, you know what I mean? Like it was so it was it was such a dagger. You can't apologize for that. I don't see how you can come back from that. And I don't see why you would even try. Right.

34:59Well, I could see why you would try, which is like, you know, you there's no winners at war, basically, is what's going to happen here with these guys fighting. But and then look at the next one. Dude, the, the, the next one is great. Elon knows I love him. No, no, hold on. I'm open to Rick reconciling with Elon after seeing his latest post. Elon knows I love him. JD knows this too. That's just hilarious. By the way, I don't even know why that's in there. JD knows this too. I give the best and biggest reconciliations. Everybody knows this. That is incredible. I don't even know if this is fake, by the way.

35:31This could totally be a fake truth post because there's nothing easier to fake than a truth social post because nobody has, nobody I know has an account on there. And so you can just write anything and tell me that he tweeted that. And plus he might say, he could totally have said this. But, dude, how funny is this? Elon knows I love him. JD knows this too. What's that? I don't know. I think it's because JD was on Theo Vaughn's podcast talking about it. I mean, are they not talking day to day? And then he goes, I give the biggest and best reconciliation. Dude, it's insane, man. Melania knows this.

36:08It's insane, man. This is crazy. This is a reality show. By the way, we need to clip in you calling this on the podcast that they would break up. You were like, how long do you give this? And it was like a couple months or something. And I was like, well, I don't know. They're both like pretty all in on each other. It seems like it's going to be really hard to be really messy if they try to break this off. And you're like rule number one from the 48 laws of power, right? Is that what you were quoting? You were like, never outshine the master. Yeah. And I also said they're going to break up in June.

36:38I said it's going to only last until June. Wow. What a waste of an incredible prediction. Yeah. I mean, it's like being the tallest midget. It's not that interesting. But it was a very easy prediction. We knew they were going to have a falling out. And I had an 8 % chance of guessing the month. It was very predictable. But this was sort of one of those moments where I remember where I was when it happened. When I saw that tweet, my company had a meeting and everyone said, oh my God. It was pretty crazy how Elon and Trump fighting, it brought down the stock market. Did you see that? Yeah. It was absolutely ridiculous that my finances were impacted by this spat.

37:23And I thought it was kind of funny. It was a wild day. The memes that day were incredible. I think I tweeted that out. I was like, listen, this is a sad day for America, but the content is outstanding right now. Let's talk self-driving real quick. So self-driving cars are on fire in LA. The rioters are beating up the self-driving cars. Not sure exactly why. But I like this one from Andrew Ackerman. Nodded at the Waymo in downtown DC so it would know I'm one of the good ones.

37:51All right, let's take a quick break because I got to tell you a story. Let me tell you about the first time I tried to run payroll for my team. I was using a traditional bank and you know the type. It's got a janky interface. It's built like a 2002 tax form and it was open only during business hours. And I hit send and it froze. They flagged the transaction. They locked my account. They put me on hold for 45 minutes. And then they told me I got to visit my local branch. And that was the day I started looking for a new banking solution. After asking a few founders what they were using, I found out about Mercury.

38:17And so now my payroll is two clicks. I can wire money. I can pay invoices. I can reimburse the team all from one clean dashboard. That's why I use it for all of my companies. And so do 200 ,000 other startup founders. And so if you're looking to level up your banking, head to mercury.com and apply in minutes. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided through Choice Financial Group, column A, and Evolve Bank & Trust members FDIC. Have you developed a relationship with your AI? I mean, I don't like to say that, but yeah. Like, my voice changed on my chat GPT, like the talking voice, and I had to like, I was like, I felt uncomfortable talking to her because I had gotten close to the other one.

38:55Sarah, you're okay. So I had to change it back. And so he's joking, but not really. Right. I mean, this is kind of like the sometimes I pray to God, even though I don't believe, but just in case. There's definitely an element of that with AI where I'm like, I'm going to say please and thank you, you know, just in case. Just in case things get a little crazy. Have you taken away Mo? Yeah, they're amazing. Have you? No, they don't have them in Connecticut. in Connecticut. It's not exactly the best place to try it out. But no, I think they're amazing. Everyone says they're amazing. Go to that one.

39:33Go to the Eric one. I think this is an inspirational one. So check this out. So I met Eric. So Eric's the CEO of a company called Ramp, which has grown to a$6 billion valuation in four or five years. And he was telling me about... What's it called? TBPN? What's it stand for? The Tech Bros Podcast Network? I don't know what that actually stands for. They tried to change it so it's not Technology Brothers. I think it's called the Business Podcast. I think that's what they changed it. But it'll always be Technology Brothers to me. So it's this guy named Jordy and John Coogan. They're fantastic. They have this new podcast.

40:09It's more like a daily news show, not even a podcast, but like a video show. It's not even a show. It's basically they do stuff, but you don't even need to watch the show. So it's all clips for Twitter. So it's like Twitter is like shorts and clips is what they make. They're hilarious. And I was at Eric's office and I said, what's this? And it was a little booklet. And apparently they had made like a 20-page book that they sent to potential sponsors, people they're courting to like, you know, be their sponsor. And they wanted to get like a big check. And I turned the page and on one of them was this piece of copy in the deck.

40:44And it said, our hope is that this partnership is the domino that bankrupts your competitors and grants you a monopoly so powerful that you are dragged in front of Congress. And I read that line and I was like, that is the greatest opening line for a pitch deck that I've ever read. It was fantastic. And I read that line and I was joking with Eric. I'm like, this is the greatest thing I've ever read. And it made him giggle. So I guess he shared that. and it's wonderful. How good is that? Dude, they're so fucking good. I love those guys. Also, I have a funny Eric story. I met Eric when I was in college and we both got picked for this trip to go to the Alibaba headquarters.

41:29So it was like a free, all expenses paid trip to China, courtesy of Jack Ma, for 50 of the top college entrepreneurs. And I was on this bus and Eric was right next to me. Nice guy. He's kind of a baby-faced guy at the time. I don't know if he still is. you said you met him in person but yeah he's like he's like he doesn't come off like a tycoon like he comes off like very kind and warm yeah he's lovely and uh at the time i think he was literally in an mlm i'm not 100 sure but i'm pretty sure he was selling products that were part of a like a like an mlm sort of scheme or he was i don't remember exactly like essential oils it was like as creams or something like that and i i'm vaguely remembering this so i could totally be wrong sorry Eric if I got some of the details wrong but I swear if it's not that it's in the zip code and I just remember thinking like oh this guy's kind of cool he's a hustler really nice guy uh I don't know what he's doing with these you know whatever it was creams or whatever he was doing at the time and then I've seen him build ramp and I'm like is that the dude from the bus in China who was trying to sell me creams and uh it just goes to show anything is possible dude when I talked to him it was him and his part it was like me David Senra Eric and then Eric's partner all in a room.

42:43And we were just riffing and then hanging out. I was wanting to meet up with David because David's a buddy of mine. He goes, hey, I'm going to be hanging out at Ramp's office. If you just want to come and see me, it's right down the street from your office. So I go to see him and I walk in and it's these guys. And so it was pretty cool. And the partner of, co-founder of Ramp, Kareem, I think his name was, he told me this story. He was like, yeah, like we had this idea and our goal was to get to a billion dollar valuation in 12 months. That was the goal. And we did the math and we thought that was possible.

43:09And I was flabbergasted. I was like, what? I was like, did you hit it? He goes, no, man, we didn't hit it. It took like 18 months. And it was just really cool to be in a room of people who thought like craziness like that. And it actually worked. Well, you know what's crazy? You know, I think they were a massive underdog when they started. So if you remember back when they were early, Brex was already out and early as well. And Brex was the San Francisco-based company. Ramp is in New York. Brex had the YC network and connection. They went through YC and they were all the YC companies were kind of like, you know, YC is kind of like this network effect, this little mafia that they have that can kind of king make certain companies if you get enough momentum.

43:53And I just remember I would have bet like the odds, the betting odds were that Brex, given those advantages, given that they're the SF, the tech tech focus one, like really was is the New York startup going to beat the Silicon Valley startup? It didn't really seem like that was usually the case. And they had ads everywhere. Brex did. They were advertising everywhere. They were a hot name. They were NYC. Like they had a lot of things that would have made you think they would be the winner here. And Ramp has thoroughly kicked the shit out of Brex. They are worth way more and have done a much better job.

44:21I use Ramp. It's a great product. So, you know, that is very impressive to me. I think that is not how I would have guessed that that would have played out. 100 % I agree with you. Apparently, the story is that they ran a company called Paribus, which is something like you get rebates online. So you buy something and they help you find a deal and you get a little bit of money and the brand saves a little bit of money. Something like that. Like, you know, something's$100, you pay$90 and they give you a little bit of cash back, whatever. They sold the company after three years for$40 or$50 million.

44:53And he was like, it was nice. But we got a lot wrong. And when we sold it, we sold it to Capital One. And in Capital One, we learned about the demand for all these things. and like the demand for like a good bank account system, demand for all these business services that people needed. And we ran the math because we saw like how big Capital One was. And we thought that we could build a billion dollar company in the first year if we did one or two things right. And it was amazing to hear that story. That's pretty cool. We should get Eric on. That would be, he should come on and tell the story.

45:24I'm working with them on it. They have this like huge like event. They're basically, what they're doing doesn't sound like it would work, but it's working. So they're like doing all this goodwill stuff. sponsoring podcasts they have this huge office that seats 300 people and they just host events there like these things where like people are like oh but like what's the attribution to that and it's like i don't know but it somehow it still works right okay we got to do one uh here this is uh oh no hold on my my text is gone here but i have a uh new segment sam rich guy house alert What happened?

46:01All right. I saw this tweet about some event. It was like an event, I think, for like San Francisco, like kind of like policy maybe. And I was like, OK, cool. Whatever. Hundreds of people went to this like San Francisco policy thing. And then somebody goes, but the tweet said, overwhelmed with the standing room only crowd at Gary Tan's house. And I just remember thinking, Gary Tan's house. And I see this tweet that says, this is Gary Tan's house? Big ass house. Dude, Gary Tan told us he lived in a neighborhood of the city of San Francisco. Yeah, so we're going to try not to dox him, although he came in and he goes, hell yeah, it is my house.

46:36And this is the house. So have you seen this? It is an old church. I remember that. Yeah, across the street from Dolores Park. Yeah, exactly. So he owns this thing called the Lighthouse. It's a townhouse condo at a 100-year-old restored church right across from Dolores. Four-beds, three-beds, but it's got 30-foot ceilings. It's crazy. So look at this house, dude. Wait, he lives there or is that like an event space? He owns it. I don't know if he full-time lives there. I don't want to comment on that. But like how insane is this? I've always, by the way, I've always dreamed of doing this, buying an old church.

47:07Because old churches have like sometimes amazing locations and really like unique bones and structure. I didn't know you could convert them to housing. So this is kind of interesting here. But dude, how crazy is this house? I remember when this was for sale in San Francisco. I still live there and I remember it being for sale. And I remember there was another person living there. Not living there. It was another rich guy who was using it for events. And they put it for sale. And I'm amazed that he bought this. This looks awesome. Oh, my God. Look at this bedroom, dude. Sleeping in a steel cage.

47:40I don't want... That's pretty sick. Yeah, I don't want that. You know, if I was like Brock Lesnar or someone like really hardcore, like that looks cool. But like... When you watch too much WWE, you're like, fuck it, hell in the cell bedroom. Look, I'm not a tough guy. I'm not Brock Lesnar. I mean, how hardcore is this bedroom, dude? This is amazing. I love how he's got like the plush carpet right outside, like a waiting room lobby before you enter the bed zone. All right, do we want to do any more or are we out? Oh, yeah. Two more. I want to show you guys my oldest bookmark from the year 2018.

48:26In preparation for this podcast, Sam's like, cool, let me just go look at my Twitter bookmarks and see what good tweets I have. And you found this, your first ever bookmark. Is this in 2018? Yep. What is this? So it's this group of Kenyan men, the Samburu men. Describe this like, you know, because there's people who listen to this only on audio. By the way, if you've been listening to this on audio the whole time, please get to YouTube. Please go to YouTube and watch this because this whole thing works if you see the tweets. Do you remember that movie with Kevin Bacon where he went to Africa to play basketball and he found this tribe of really tall guys and they would jump up and they would wear very traditional, what you would think of an African tribesperson wearing.

49:10They're shirtless and they have amazing beads and whatever and they have the red hair just like the guy in the movie. That's what this is. It's a group of guys in Kenya, and the tweet says that these men are often considered to be the most stylish men on the planet. And it's a photo of these guys. And so, look. Honestly, agreed. First of all, the account is called AtKenyaPix. Is that an account you just follow? Yeah, I love Kenya because I like runners. And so my goal has always been to go to the Rift Valley, which is this area of Kenya, and see Kenyan runners. I've always admired like running and particularly there's like this group.

49:49Imagine like a suburb and like something like 90 % of the distance gold medals have been won by this group of like 10 ,000 people in Kenya. And that's always fascinates me. And so I've always wanted to go and see these guys. And this is like nearby in that tribe. And so then and then it just says hashtag International Men's Day. So that was cool back when hashtags were a thing. and then there's also a picture of the guy jumping, and he's, guys, easily five feet off the ground. I don't know how, is this photoshopped? This is incredible. What is this? No, I don't know what that is. I don't know.

50:25I don't know that much about Ken yet, but it looks dope to me. Should we wear this for next Casual Friday? Dude, look how, like, yoked those guys are. I get made fun of for, like, commenting on people's calves and, like, guys' bodies, but, like, these guys are just jacked, right? Yeah, yeah. What about the Theo Vaughn one? Let's do the last one. because I actually think this is amazing. It's a picture of Theo Vaughn smiling like how my son does when we try to get him to take a picture. He's with Ivanka Trump and who's that, Jared, right? Yeah, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. And he says, y 'all's posture is so good.

51:03What the hell? Are y 'all in Spine Club or something? I'm built like a damn raccoon. Thanks for the hospitality. Had a blast. it's pretty amazing dude you and i okay so when sean and i started this podcast uh sean started it and then i joined a little bit later and i said do you like fighter and the kid and sean was like i love fighter and the kid and fighter and the kid is a not so much popular podcast anymore but it was two guys brennan schaub and brian callen who would talk about ufc fighting and their friend theo vaughn would occasionally come on the pod he was just a guy he was a he was a character on the pod.

51:42And that slowly has developed into they had another pod together called King It and Sting It. And he rose further and further and further. Dude, look at him now. He's like, he's talking to the president, the vice president. He's hanging out with these guys. How crazy of a career has Theo had in the last decade? It's amazing. It's his rise is pretty great. I actually knew him from when he was on like road rules 20 years ago, like because I like real world road rules and the challenge and stuff like that. And so, yeah, it's pretty wild to see kind of the crazy growth. But even more wild is this.

52:13This is what I appreciate about this. Because this tweet, it's funny. But do you know how hard it is as a man to put up like a kind of like a thank you post or congratulatory post but not be lame? And Theo did it. You know what I mean? Like think about what this post is. This post is basically like had such a good time at brunch. But if you just posted that, dude, you know, that's the lamest thing that you could possibly do. but to go with this y 'all's posture is so good what the hell are y 'all in spine club or something it's just that's how it's done and so i'm studying the art of how how men can express themselves while still being still being cool about it you know i mean dude he's the best he's one of the few podcasts that i listen to i listen to him and tim tim dylan have you listened to him and tim dylan i'm not a huge tim dylan guy but it's an acquired taste yeah yeah it's very much an acquired taste it took me about two years to get into him he's uh it's pretty raunchy uh it's he's these guys are like uh my two favorite podcasters right now it's pretty amazing how good they are all right that's it that's the pod i feel like i can rule the world i know i could be what i want to i put my all in it like no days off on the road let's travel never looking back

53:27all right this episode is brought to you by mercury they are the finance platform of choice for over 200 ,000 companies. Shouldn't be surprised because I use it myself for not one, not two, but I have eight different Mercury accounts. I have seven for different companies that I'm a part of and then I have my own personal account because now they have personal banking, which is a really cool feature. I highly, highly recommend it. Like I said, I use it myself. And the reason why is because the way that Mercury works is beautiful. It's very intuitive and you could tell that it's actually made by a startup founder.

53:55It's an entrepreneur. You could tell it's made by somebody who used other banking products in the past and didn't like all the different rough edges and annoyances and decided to actually fix it himself. And really any type of entrepreneur you are, let's say you're an agency, well, one of the things every agency has to do is be able to send invoices, easily create them, send them to customers and stay current on your balances with all your customers. Well, you can do that inside Mercury. And so I think that Mercury is great. Highly recommend you check it out. And thank you for sponsoring the show.

54:21For more information, check out mercury.com. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Check show notes for details.