eBay marketing spend $3.2B for 1M users
Ryan Cohen argued eBay spent $3.2 billion on marketing and only acquired one million new users — a cost of $3,200 per new user.
Snapshot · God Mode Podcast
Anthropic + SpaceX, Codex 100x'd Claude Code & Half Cash Half Stock | GMP EP12
Explore episode
May 8, 2026
Where this was said
Half Cash Half Stock: Ryan Cohen's GME/eBay Play
At 1:46:14 · chapter starts 1:39:20
Ryan Cohen's No-Lose GameStop/eBay Play
Ryan Cohen didn't just make a meme — he built a no-lose trade. He secretly accumulated 25 million eBay derivative contracts, then went viral with a confusing media interview. If eBay acquisition happens, GameStop transforms. If not, he pumps the stock he already owns through derivatives.
GME 25M derivative contracts
Ryan Cohen's team reportedly accumulated close to 25 million eBay derivative contracts while only purchasing 25,000 actual shares.
Similar snapshots
$14K/month in 6 months
Sam built Algrow from zero to $14,000 in monthly revenue within just six months of shipping his first MVP.
10,000 users in 6 months
Algrow reached over 10,000 users in roughly six months, driven almost entirely by organic Discord community growth.
First 400 users from Discord
Sam acquired his first 400 users entirely through Discord communities, without paid advertising or traditional outreach.
480 new customers in one month
Algrow added exactly 480 new paying customers in its most recent month, demonstrating strong ongoing growth.
£10K revenue in last 4 weeks
Sam's Stripe dashboard showed over £10,000 in revenue in the last four weeks, equivalent to roughly $13,000–$14,000 USD.
Free access for early users as growth hack
Sam gave all early users free access so they could show the tool to friends, turning them into live demos and advocates who helped the product spread virally.
No self-promo rule exploit: screen sharing
By silently screen-sharing his tool in Discord voice chats rather than posting links, Sam attracted curiosity without violating no-self-promo server rules.
$10K+ from affiliate marketing first
Before building Algrow, Sam and two friends made over $10,000 in revenue through affiliate marketing for RizzApp by posting faceless texting story content.
$13K MRR with $0 marketing spend
Bhanu grew SiteGPT to $13,000 monthly recurring revenue entirely through organic channels, spending nothing on paid marketing.
