Snapshot · Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
When F1 Academy launched, each driver was expected to find €150,000 of their own sponsorship — a requirement that proved immediately unworkable and nearly collapsed the series.
Where this was said
At 1:22:33 · chapter starts 1:22:30
Dax admits he only got into Formula 1 because of Drive to Survive, which reframed the sport from boring to a 'science fair with drama.' The female fan demographic had shifted massively. Liberty and Stefano Domenicali recognised the opportunity: create a funded pathway for female talent. Susie is clear that F1 Academy is the only race series in the world where over 80% of driver costs are covered — roughly €500,000 per driver per season. She also notes the philosophical complexity: does an all-female series represent progress or a step backwards? She distinguishes F1 Academy from the failed W Series by pointing to its backing: F1 teams, Liberty Media investment, and a sustainable commercial model.
F1 Academy originally split costs three ways: driver, team, Liberty Media. The driver third was €150,000 nobody could raise. Susie scrapped the model, brought all 10 F1 teams on board (including going to Christian Horner, Toto's rival, who came in quickly), got Sephora, American Express, LEGO and Pepsi as sponsors, and created the only race series in the world that funds over 80% of its drivers' costs.
Bhanu grew SiteGPT to $13,000 monthly recurring revenue entirely through organic channels, spending nothing on paid marketing.
More than 1 million people have visited SiteGPT's website since launch in March 2023, all through organic channels.
Approximately 90% of SiteGPT's Google search traffic comes from the free tools Bhanu built, not the main product pages.
Bhanu sold his first SaaS product, Feather, for $250,000 so he could focus fully on the faster-growing SiteGPT.
SiteGPT has generated approximately $500,000 in total revenue since its launch in March 2023.
The average customer lifetime value for SiteGPT is approximately $1,700 to $1,800, which Bhanu considers unusually high.
SiteGPT receives around 50,000 visitors per month, of which about 200 convert to leads and 60 start free trials.
SiteGPT hit $10,000 MRR within its very first month of launch, driven largely by early traction in the AI chatbot space.
Despite strong download numbers, PropGPT could not push past $1,000–$2,000 MRR due to poor product retention.
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