Podbit · My First Million
After Marks sent Buffett a memo that mentioned him, Buffett replied saying he should write a book and offered to provide a blurb. That single note moved up Marks' planned book by decades — and 'The Most Important Thing' was the result.
Where this was said
At 36:35 · chapter starts 34:17
Sam Parr asks for Warren Buffett stories, and Marks tells one that has never been made public before. After the Enron scandal, Oaktree became the largest holder of the debt of an off-balance-sheet Enron entity called Osprey; Buffett was the second largest. Buffett gave Oaktree his proxy, Bruce Karsh restructured the position masterfully, and in 2003–2004 Buffett wrote a note saying if you're ever in Omaha, let's have lunch. Marks and Karsh promptly wrote back claiming to be in Omaha that week. The relationship grew from there, and in 2009 Marks sent Buffett a memo mentioning him — Buffett responded to say he already read the memos, and then added: 'you should write a book, and if you do, I'll give you a blurb.' That single note is the reason 'The Most Important Thing' exists. [1] — Howard Marks "After Marks sent Buffett a memo that mentioned him, Buffett replied saying he should write a book and offered to provide a blurb. That sing…" 36:35 Marks had always planned to write a book in retirement; Buffett's note moved the timeline up by decades.
Warren Buffett sent Howard Marks a note in 2009 saying he should write a book and promised a blurb — directly causing Marks to write 'The Most Important Thing' years ahead of his planned retirement.
SiteGPT attracted over 1 million visitors and $500K in total revenue without spending a cent on paid marketing. The secret: engineering as marketing — building free tools that rank on Google.
Bhanu quit his first job after just 8 months, moved back to his parents' house to cut costs, and started building. One product sold for $250K; the next hit $10K MRR in its first month.
90% of SiteGPT's Google search traffic comes not from the main product but from ~50 free tools Bhanu built. Each tool targets a low-competition keyword and funnels users back to the paid product.
50,000 monthly visitors become 200 leads, 60 trials, and roughly 15–24 new customers per month at ~$100 average revenue each. Add a $1,700–$1,800 LTV and you have a very healthy SaaS.
Start with a blank Ahrefs search, layer in keyword filters (include term, KD < 10, volume > 1,000), list candidates in Notion, design a CTA linking to your main product, then score by volume, difficulty, build effort, and product relevance. That's the whole playbook.
Marketing feels painful for most builders. Engineering as marketing flips the script: instead of writing cold emails or blog posts, you build things — and those things rank on Google forever.
Don't spend months perfecting before launch. Ship the core feature, get real users, and let their feedback dictate the product roadmap. Premature polish is a trap.
SiteGPT launched and hit $10,000 MRR within its first month. That momentum was so overwhelming that Bhanu sold his existing SaaS, Feather, for $250,000 to free up all his time.
PropGPT launched with 20 downloads a day and strong influencer marketing but hit a ceiling at $1,000–$2,000 MRR. High download numbers masked a critical flaw: almost nobody stuck around after the free trial ended.
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