SimpliSafe: 50% off + free first month
SimpliSafe is offering Pod Save America listeners 50% off a new system when signing up for professional monitoring, with the first month free.
Snapshot · Pod Save America
LIVE(ish) from the Obama Presidential Center
Explore episode
Jun 19, 2026
Where this was said
Sponsor: SimpliSafe + Show Intro
At 0:23 · chapter starts 0:00
The episode kicks off with a SimpliSafe sponsorship read offering Pod Save America listeners 50% off a new system with professional monitoring. Jon Favreau then introduces the four hosts — himself, Dan Pfeiffer, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor — recording from inside the Obama Presidential Center's reading library branch of the Chicago Public Library on the very day the center opened to the public. The hosts spot Dan Pfeiffer's book on the shelf and immediately begin joking about their own irrelevance versus the historic weight of the room they're sitting in.
First Reactions: Walking Through the Obama Presidential Center
The Obama Presidential Center opened its doors today in Chicago, and the PSA hosts were among the first inside. The museum is less a monument to the past and more a deliberate call to action, built around the idea that community organizing, not nostalgia, is what actually changes America.
Similar snapshots
Zero users on launch day
Despite months of meticulous preparation, Starter Story's initial launch attracted zero users — a humbling reminder that building alone guarantees nothing.
First Reddit post: 100 users
A single Reddit link post quickly drove 100 visitors to the Starter Story website, igniting the founder's belief in social traffic.
Hundreds of upvotes on repackaged post
After reformatting content as a native self-post (no direct link spam), the post exploded with hundreds of upvotes and thousands of readers.
Millions reading his content on Reddit
By posting again and again with the native-content strategy, the founder's posts repeatedly hit Reddit's front page, reaching millions of readers.
Tens of thousands of email subscribers
Before Reddit banned his domain, the founder converted his viral traffic into an email list of tens of thousands — a self-owned audience independent of Reddit.
Reddit petition to ban domain
Redditors eventually organized a petition to ban starterstory.com posts, effectively ending the Reddit growth channel — but the email list was already built.
$1M business built on Reddit hack
The Reddit attention strategy ultimately served as the foundation for a million-dollar business, proving that free distribution channels can replace paid marketing.
Strategy: native content, small footer link
The key tactic was keeping content fully on-platform (no direct link spam), then adding a small link at the post's end for users who wanted more.
Quit 9-to-5 after email list built
With a thriving email list and a self-owned audience, the founder quit his six-figure New York City salary job to go all-in on Starter Story.
