CEOs Pay Him $10,000 Per Appointment

Shaan's billion-dollar idea: Executive Check-ups (00:00:00)

• Shaan introduces his idea for a new business venture: opening executive health checkup centers in the Bay Area, LA, and New York.
• Executive health checkups are comprehensive medical examinations that typically cost between $5,000 and $10,000 and are popular among CEOs and high net worth individuals.
• These checkups involve a battery of tests conducted over one or two days, providing a comprehensive assessment of an individual's health.
• Traditional doctors may not recommend these checkups or may not be able to provide all the tests in a timely manner.
• Executive health checkups offer a convenient and efficient way for individuals to proactively monitor their health.
• They provide a comprehensive assessment of an individual's health, including tests for heart health, cancer screenings, and other important health markers.
• The results of these checkups can help individuals make informed decisions about their health and lifestyle, potentially preventing or detecting serious health issues early on.

Mayo Clinic’s $100M proof of concept (00:02:12)

• The Mayo Clinic generates over $100 million annually from executive health checkups, and a similar business model could be created in major cities, offering annual checkups for a membership fee, potentially generating millions in recurring revenue.
• The trend towards health optimization and longevity emphasizes early detection and prevention of diseases like cancer for improved health outcomes.
• Tyler Cowen recommends using Beehive for publishing content and connecting with like-minded individuals, and praises Tyler's Spotify playlist "Big Desk Energy" for its music selection.
• Full-body MRI scans are reliable for early detection of diseases, as demonstrated by a couple who detected cancer through this method.
• The "My First Million" podcast has helped listeners generate million-dollar businesses based on ideas shared on the show, and HubSpot has compiled a database of over 50 business ideas discussed on the podcast, available for free.
• An AI that can generate rap songs based on user prompts impressed the hosts of the podcast with its quality, showcasing its potential for creating theme songs or background music.

15K/mo lead gen arbitrage (00:12:58)

• Three college dropouts, aged 20, established a marketing agency to assist small businesses, offering services such as promotional videos, Google ads, and website creation.
• Their unique approach involved using iPhones to facilitate direct connections between clients and business owners, resulting in a monthly revenue of $155,000 within a year.
• The narrator's brother-in-law fondly recalls his first job at Smoothie King due to his humorous boss and a memorable catchphrase.
• A 19-year-old Smoothie King manager received a prank call from someone pretending to be Michael Jordan inquiring about the summer league.
• The brother-in-law found the situation amusing and began using the phrase "must be Jordan about that summer league" whenever the phone rang, which became a source of humor and positivity for him.
• A new phrase, "when you hang $ um you want to do one what do you got," has emerged as a replacement for the original catchphrase.

Pizza intelligence (00:17:25)

• The pizza meter is a way people on the internet knew about the Iran strikes before the news reported it.
• People watch pizza shops around the White House and the Pentagon for sudden spikes in business, indicating something is happening.
• The pizza meter has been a signal for major events like the invasion of Kuwait, the Iraq War, and the recent Iran missile launch.
• A man named Frank, who owned 60 pizza franchises around DC, told the LA Times that his delivery guys knew when something was going down because of the spike in deliveries to the Pentagon late at night.
• The government responded by sending out a memo to pizza shops, asking them not to reveal such information, and now they send staff out to pick up pizzas to smooth out the curve and make it less obvious when something is happening.

Shaan's Mount Rushmore of indexes (00:19:41)

• The Soviet intelligence agency used indicators like pizza deliveries and other signals to alert them of potential global crises, such as the increased Domino's pizza deliveries before the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989.
• The "DC Bear Index" measures foot traffic in gay bars as an indicator of government activity, while the Big Mac Index is a better indicator of inflation and currency strength compared to government reports.
• The Waffle House Index uses a three-color system to indicate the severity of storms, with green meaning Waffle House is fully operational, yellow indicating a limited menu, and red meaning it's closed.
• Reddit users often solve mysteries in real-time through open-source intelligence, but mistakes can be made, as in the case of the Silk Road discovery through message board postings.
• There is an "open-source community of internet sleuths" that complements official agencies in solving mysteries.

The most profitable companies in the world (00:24:54)

• Visa, Nvidia, Berkshire Hathaway, Public Storage, and RELX are some of the most profitable companies globally.
• Public Storage makes a 50% profit on each dollar of revenue.
• RELX owns the academic publishing industry and operates on a controversial pay-to-play model.
• Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) owns the New York Stock Exchange and is one of the most profitable public companies in the US.
• In 2018, ICE had a profit margin of 60% and a revenue of $10 billion.
• ICE is currently valued at around $35-40 billion.

Why stock exchanges have the best business model (00:26:32)

• Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup," founded the Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) in 2010 to promote long-term thinking and discourage short-term trading.
• Companies listed on the LTSE must demonstrate their long-term viability and are subject to a mandatory one-year holding period, giving more voting power to long-term shareholders.
• Despite securing $100 million in funding, the LTSE has only a few listed companies, including Twilio, Asana, and ThreadUp, which are also listed on the NASDAQ.
• Stock exchanges operate as software companies, powering the stock exchanges of many countries and competing for IPOs, particularly big tech companies, to increase their exchange's value.
• Their business model combines network effects, regulatory defensibility, enterprise sales, and transaction fees, making them a marketplace.

"Shoot your old idea in the head" - Eric Ries (00:33:20)

• Eric Reese, a successful entrepreneur and blogger, advised against doing a big launch for a new product and suggested starting with a minimal viable product instead.
• Reese emphasized the importance of clearly communicating a pivot to the team and publicly acknowledging that previous assumptions were incorrect.
• The speaker highlights the importance of receiving honest and critical advice, even if it goes against one's own preferences.
• The speaker proposes eliminating quarterly earnings calls and suggests that long-term stock exchanges could be a viable alternative.
• The speaker believes that early adopters, evangelists, and contributors should own a piece of the upside in a company.

Hustler of the week: The Female Pieter Levels (00:41:20)

• Danielle Baskin is the "Hustler of the week".
• She runs a fruit swag company that prints corporate names onto fruits and charges $5 per fruit.
• Companies pay for this for their conferences.
• Baskin has also started other random businesses, including a bike helmet company and a vintage tricycle stand company.
• Baskin's fruit swag company is a success and she has made a lot of money from it.
• She is an opinionated artist who has a knack for creating unique and successful businesses.

Marketing is the tax you pay for an unremarkable product (00:43:30)

• Danielle Baskin, a creative entrepreneur, creates remarkable products that gain popularity through word-of-mouth, eliminating the need for marketing.
• Danielle's branded fruit website collaborates with local farms to place stickers on produce.
• Sam Soy, a college friend, shared a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the health benefits of beets and provided a recipe for a beet smoothie.
• Danielle's approach to creating unique products is compared to Peter Levels, an Indie hacker, and she has a diverse range of innovative ideas for products and services.
• Her ideas include company-sponsored produce, drone clothing, an escape room for babies, funerals for expired domains, and collectible trading cards of venture capitalists.
• Danielle also offers unique services such as printing pitch decks onto yoga mats, immersive scanning of places about to be demolished, and a spatial service that provides verified blue checkmarks for homes of public figures.
• Her latest project is Moonlight.world, a sass tool for witches that enables online tarot card readings.