Costco China opening: 400K members
The first Costco store in China, which opened in 2019, attracted 400,000 members within 2 years — nearly 6x the 68,000-member average of a mature US store.
Where this was said
Carve-Outs and Closing
At 2:42:20 · chapter starts 2:39:40
The closing carve-outs section delivers a mix of product recommendations and media picks. Ben's first carve-out is Tifosi sunglasses — grippy, anti-slip, and cheap, solving his long-running annoyance of sunglasses sliding during runs. His second is a mashup by NYC DJ Dwells of Radiohead's 'Everything in Its Right Place' and Kendrick Lamar's 'N95,' posted by Jason Kottke — described as one of the best mashups Ben has ever heard, instantly transporting him back to college-era all-Radiohead programming sessions. David recommends the Patrick O'Shaughnessy / Jeremy Giffon episode of Invest Like the Best, praising it as one of the year's best podcast episodes for the density of mind-bending one-liners Giffon delivers. He also recommends San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood for a date night, specifically calling out an ice cream stop at Humphrey Slocombe and noting the neighborhood's transformation from its Hell's Angels era. The hosts close with subscription reminders — email list, LP program, Slack — and a shout-out to Fast Company writer David Lidsky for a piece chronicling Acquired's research process for the Nike episode.
Sam's Club revenue vs Costco per store
The average Sam's Club generates about half the revenue of the average Costco, and that gap has widened over time, while Sam's Club's unit count is smaller today than a decade ago.
Similar snapshots
$13K MRR with $0 marketing spend
Bhanu grew SiteGPT to $13,000 monthly recurring revenue entirely through organic channels, spending nothing on paid marketing.
1 million website visitors total
More than 1 million people have visited SiteGPT's website since launch in March 2023, all through organic channels.
90% of Google traffic from free tools
Approximately 90% of SiteGPT's Google search traffic comes from the free tools Bhanu built, not the main product pages.
Sold first SaaS for $250,000
Bhanu sold his first SaaS product, Feather, for $250,000 so he could focus fully on the faster-growing SiteGPT.
$500K total revenue since launch
SiteGPT has generated approximately $500,000 in total revenue since its launch in March 2023.
SiteGPT LTV ~$1,700–$1,800
The average customer lifetime value for SiteGPT is approximately $1,700 to $1,800, which Bhanu considers unusually high.
50,000 monthly visitors
SiteGPT receives around 50,000 visitors per month, of which about 200 convert to leads and 60 start free trials.
SiteGPT reached $10K MRR in month 1
SiteGPT hit $10,000 MRR within its very first month of launch, driven largely by early traction in the AI chatbot space.
Stuck at $2K MRR despite downloads
Despite strong download numbers, PropGPT could not push past $1,000–$2,000 MRR due to poor product retention.
