3 weird businesses doing $10M, $20M, $30M
Autopilot lets retail investors copy Nancy Pelosi's stock trades — she's up 240% in 3 years vs the S&P's 30-40% — and the app now manages $1.8 billion.
My First Million
3 weird businesses doing $10M, $20M, $30M
Autopilot lets retail investors copy Nancy Pelosi's stock trades — she's up 240% in 3 years vs the S&P's 30-40% — and the app now manages $1.8 billion.
TL;DR
Three founders crash the My First Million studio to share their unconventional businesses: Alex Daniels runs Haven Lifestyles, a 40-market real estate magazine doing $10M revenue and $2.5M profit [1] — Alex Daniels "Alex Daniels owns 40 real estate advertising magazines across the US and Canada, generating $10M in revenue and $2.5M in profit with just 2…" 03:33 ; Josh Weissenstein has acquired 16 family campgrounds through Team Outsider, generating $20M revenue on $60M raised [2] — Josh Weissenstein "Josh's partner Cody lived on-site at their first campground for a full year scrubbing toilets and learning every detail of the operation. T…" 28:20 ; and Brian runs Autopilot, a copy-trading platform tracking politicians and hedge funds that manages $1.8B in assets and earns $30M in real ARR [3] — Brian "Autopilot's ultimate goal is to democratize what BlackRock Aladdin does for institutions — a portfolio marketplace that generates $6B/year …" 51:50 . The single most actionable takeaway: getting from $0 to $1M is the hardest part — from $1M to $30M was "a piece of cake."
Sam Parr and Shaan Puri host three Hampton founders in person in New York: Alex Daniels (Haven Lifestyles, $10M real estate magazines), Josh Weissenstein (Team Outsider, $20M campground acquisitions), and Brian (Autopilot, $30M copy-trading fintech managing $1.8B). Each founder explains their unconventional business, fields questions on scaling and adjacent opportunities, and gets advice on their burning question.
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The episode opens with rapid-fire teaser clips from each of the three guests — revenues of $10M, $20M, and $30M — before cutting to Shaan and Sam catching up in person, riffing about New York bodegas as the purest expression of entrepreneurship ('We sell cereal now, right?'). Sam explains the premise: he Slacked the Hampton channel asking for founders in New York with genuinely weird businesses, specifically because MFM's audience loves discovering that there are countless unconventional paths to building something big. The format is set — each guest will lead with a number, explain what they do, field questions about adjacent opportunities, and share their burning question for the hosts.
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The hosts immediately want to infect Alex with their 'sickness' for scale — why isn't this $100M yet? Alex pushes back gently: his real goal is to double profit (to $5M) within 11 months, not necessarily grow top line. [1] — Alex Daniels "10,000+ agents, low retention: Haven Lifestyles works with over 10,000 real estate agents annually but struggles with low repeat advertisin…" 15:56 Shaan introduces a tiering framework for customer relationships — Tier 1 (texting buddies who'd do you a favor), Tier 2 (email acquaintances), Tier 3 (transactional) — and challenges Alex to call his top 100 agents to understand the retention gap. The adjacent opportunity they're most excited about is home services, building informational content (like winter home prep tips) that pulls in service provider advertisers, similar to what neighborhood publication franchise Stroll has done at $100M+ in revenue. But the biggest surprise is Alex's AI setup: he uses Lindy to handle all inbound sales emails, follow-ups, and upsells autonomously, with human salespeople redeployed to customer experience — an implementation praised by the founder of Lindy himself as the most impressive he had seen.
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Shaan asks why anyone would choose campgrounds over other real estate categories, and Josh rattles off the structural advantages: strong cash yields, very attractive depreciation on roads and infrastructure (similar to manufactured housing), limited land/building value making them tax-efficient, and operational complexity that keeps unsophisticated buyers away. [1] — Josh Weissenstein "A, you can't outsource culture. So that was going to be really important for our success." 28:44 He explains that two major manufactured-housing REITs have significant campground exposure, which gave the team early validation for the asset class. The biggest culture decision came early: after initially planning to outsource property management, Cody moved in on-site for a full year learning every detail, leading to the conclusion that culture cannot be outsourced and no competent third-party operators existed who could scale with them. The resulting in-house operating company is now 350 people strong. Josh closes with memorable anecdotes — a nine-bank robber quietly employed at one site, and team members selling fallen trees for cash on Facebook — that illustrate the colorful realities of managing dispersed hourly workforces.
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After the three guests depart, Shaan gets reflective. He traces a personal evolution: a decade before MFM, success felt like a needle in a haystack — one brilliant idea to find, one narrow path to walk. The podcast, San Francisco, and meeting people like today's founders shifted that to pure abundance: tens of thousands of ways to win, and the real question is just which fits you. [1] — Shaan Puri "Before My First Million, Shaan Puri saw entrepreneurial success as a needle in a haystack — one brilliant idea to find. After a decade of t…" 1:06:30 Sam and Shaan riff on what they'd borrow from each guest — Alex's enviable emotional stability and calm contentment, Brian's audacity and marketing creativity, Josh's outdoorsy lifestyle appeal. Sam pushes back on the idea that small and big businesses are fundamentally different: 'I am equally impressed by a billion-dollar company versus a $5M company.' They close by quoting Jesse Itzler — 'root for everybody, because when you root for everybody, you can never lose' — and Sam teases tomorrow's Ray Dalio interview as an extension of the same lesson in a very different key.
- NOI (Net Operating Income)
- Revenue minus operating expenses, before debt service and taxes — the standard profitability metric in real estate used to value income-producing properties.
- EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail)
- A USPS program allowing businesses to mail marketing materials to every address on selected postal routes without needing individual addresses; Alex's Haven Lifestyles uses this model.
- SBA Loan
- A small business loan partially guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, allowing buyers to finance acquisitions with lower down payments — Team Outsider used one covering 80%+ of their first campground purchase.
- 13F Filing
- A quarterly SEC disclosure required of investment managers with over $100M in assets, listing their U.S. equity holdings — Autopilot uses these to track hedge fund positions, with a 45-day lag.
- Promote
- In private equity real estate, the sponsor's disproportionate share of profits above a preferred return threshold — Josh Weissenstein's primary compensation mechanism at Team Outsider.
- REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust)
- A company that owns income-producing real estate and trades like a stock, required to distribute most profits as dividends; two large REITs hold significant manufactured housing and campground assets.
- Copy trading
- Automatically mirroring another investor's trades in your own brokerage account in real time — the core mechanic of Autopilot's platform.
- ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)
- The annualized value of subscription contracts; Autopilot distinguishes between GMV-based revenue ($30M) and true ARR ($22M) to show the quality of its income.
- GMV (Gross Merchandise Value)
- Total transaction volume processed through a platform, which can be much larger than actual revenue; used in fintech to show platform scale separate from fees earned.
- Series B
- A later-stage venture capital funding round, typically for companies with proven revenue looking to scale significantly; Autopilot is preparing to raise one at a $300-400M valuation.
- 13F lag
- The 45-day reporting delay between when a hedge fund makes a trade and when it appears in their SEC-mandated 13F filing, creating a tracking delay for platforms like Autopilot.
- Pilot
- Autopilot's term for a verified portfolio manager on its platform — a person whose trades followers can automatically copy for a subscription fee.
- BlackRock Aladdin
- BlackRock's portfolio management software used by institutions to access and manage diverse investment portfolios — Brian from Autopilot cites it as the institutional equivalent of what Autopilot is building for retail investors.
- Opco
- Short for 'operating company' — the entity that actually runs day-to-day operations, as distinct from a holding company; Team Outsider built an internal opco to manage its campgrounds.
- Preferred return
- In private equity, the minimum return investors must receive before the sponsor earns any profit share (promote); a standard structure in real estate fund deals.
- Accredited investor
- An individual or entity meeting SEC wealth/income thresholds (e.g., $1M net worth or $200K+ income) who is legally permitted to invest in unregistered securities offerings.
- Situational Awareness
- A white paper and hedge fund name by Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI researcher, laying out bold predictions about AI's trajectory and its geopolitical implications — referenced as an investor manifesto.
- Fragmentation
- In market analysis, a high degree of fragmentation means no single player dominates — the campground and local real estate publishing markets are both highly fragmented, creating acquisition opportunities.
- DTCC
- Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation — the US financial market infrastructure that clears and settles securities transactions; referenced in the context of the capital requirements that nearly sank Robinhood during GameStop.
- Lindy
- An AI automation platform that can manage email workflows, sales processes, and follow-ups autonomously — used by Haven Lifestyles to run its entire inbound sales cycle without human salespeople.
Chapter 1 · 00:00
Intro
The episode opens with rapid-fire teaser clips from each of the three guests — revenues of $10M, $20M, and $30M — before cutting to Shaan and Sam catching up in person, riffing about New York bodegas as the purest expression of entrepreneurship ('We sell cereal now, right?'). Sam explains the premise: he Slacked the Hampton channel asking for founders in New York with genuinely weird businesses, specifically because MFM's audience loves discovering that there are countless unconventional paths to building something big. The format is set — each guest will lead with a number, explain what they do, field questions about adjacent opportunities, and share their burning question for the hosts.
Chapter 2 · 03:32
Alex Daniels, $10M real estate magazine
The hosts immediately want to infect Alex with their 'sickness' for scale — why isn't this $100M yet? Alex pushes back gently: his real goal is to double profit (to $5M) within 11 months, not necessarily grow top line. [1] — Alex Daniels "10,000+ agents, low retention: Haven Lifestyles works with over 10,000 real estate agents annually but struggles with low repeat advertisin…" 15:56 Shaan introduces a tiering framework for customer relationships — Tier 1 (texting buddies who'd do you a favor), Tier 2 (email acquaintances), Tier 3 (transactional) — and challenges Alex to call his top 100 agents to understand the retention gap. The adjacent opportunity they're most excited about is home services, building informational content (like winter home prep tips) that pulls in service provider advertisers, similar to what neighborhood publication franchise Stroll has done at $100M+ in revenue. But the biggest surprise is Alex's AI setup: he uses Lindy to handle all inbound sales emails, follow-ups, and upsells autonomously, with human salespeople redeployed to customer experience — an implementation praised by the founder of Lindy himself as the most impressive he had seen.
Claims made here
Haven Lifestyles generates $10M in revenue and approximately $2.5M in profit from 40 real estate advertising magazines across the US and Canada.
Haven Lifestyles mails approximately 500,000 physical magazines per year via USPS postal routes.
Stroll, a neighborhood publication franchise company, is valued at over $100M in revenue.
Haven Lifestyles works with over 10,000 real estate agents annually and has approximately 1,500 on year-long auto-debit contracts.
Alex Daniels owns 40 real estate advertising magazines across the US and Canada, generating $10M in revenue and $2.5M in profit with just 20 employees. There are no subscribers — he mails 500,000 magazines a year to targeted households via USPS postal routes, funded by real estate agents paying to advertise their listings.
Haven Lifestyles publishes 40 real estate magazines across the US and Canada, generating $10M in revenue and $2.5M in profit with just 20 employees.
Haven Lifestyles generated $300K in its first year purely through Alex Daniels grinding out in-person sales meetings.
Haven Lifestyles sends approximately half a million physical magazines per year via USPS, targeting homes by postal route based on property value and income.
Haven Lifestyles works with over 10,000 real estate agents annually but struggles with low repeat advertising rates, which Alex identified as the biggest lever to double profits.
Haven Lifestyles replaced its core inbound sales function with Lindy AI, which handles every incoming email, follow-ups, and upsells automatically. Human salespeople have been redeployed to focus on customer experience and retention instead — a radical operational shift praised as the most impressive AI setup one tech founder had ever seen.
Chapter 3 · 20:31
Josh Weissenstein, $20M camp ground business
Shaan asks why anyone would choose campgrounds over other real estate categories, and Josh rattles off the structural advantages: strong cash yields, very attractive depreciation on roads and infrastructure (similar to manufactured housing), limited land/building value making them tax-efficient, and operational complexity that keeps unsophisticated buyers away. [1] — Josh Weissenstein "A, you can't outsource culture. So that was going to be really important for our success." 28:44 He explains that two major manufactured-housing REITs have significant campground exposure, which gave the team early validation for the asset class. The biggest culture decision came early: after initially planning to outsource property management, Cody moved in on-site for a full year learning every detail, leading to the conclusion that culture cannot be outsourced and no competent third-party operators existed who could scale with them. The resulting in-house operating company is now 350 people strong. Josh closes with memorable anecdotes — a nine-bank robber quietly employed at one site, and team members selling fallen trees for cash on Facebook — that illustrate the colorful realities of managing dispersed hourly workforces.
Claims made here
Team Outsider owns 16 campgrounds across 10 states with approximately 4,000 sites and generates around $20M in annual revenue.
Team Outsider's first campground near Grand Teton generated $500K in revenue and $150K NOI at acquisition, which was doubled to ~$300K NOI before refinancing.
Team Outsider raised approximately $60M in capital and its portfolio is now worth north of $100M.
KOA (Kampgrounds of America) has approximately 550 campground locations across the country and owns about 50 themselves, with the rest being franchises.
Chipotle pays general managers $10,000 for every former employee they trained who later becomes a general manager, even after the employee leaves the company.
Josh Weissenstein and his partner Cody have acquired 16 family campgrounds across 10 states, generating $20M in annual revenue on $60M raised — with a portfolio worth over $100M. They specifically target mom-and-pop operators approaching retirement who care deeply about who takes over their community.
Team Outsider owns 16 family campgrounds across 10 states with ~4,000 sites, generating $20M in annual revenue after raising $60M.
Team Outsider's first buy was a campground near Grand Teton generating $500K revenue and $150K NOI, purchased for $3M with an SBA loan covering 80%+ of the cost. They doubled the NOI to ~$300K, refinanced to pull all their cash out, and used that capital to buy the next one.
Team Outsider's first acquisition near Grand Teton generated ~$500K top line revenue with a 35% NOI margin (~$150K), bought for $3M using an SBA loan covering 80%+ of the cost.
Team Outsider's 16-campground portfolio is now worth over $100M, having been built on $60M of raised capital.
Campgrounds offer strong cash yields, very attractive depreciation characteristics similar to manufactured housing (roads and infrastructure are depreciable), and limited land/building value — making them tax-efficient. The operational complexity that scares most investors is actually the moat: it creates value-add opportunities that simpler real estate doesn't.
Josh's partner Cody lived on-site at their first campground for a full year scrubbing toilets and learning every detail of the operation. The lesson: you can't outsource culture, and at the time there were no competent third-party operators who could scale with them. So they built the entire management company in-house.
Shaan Puri shared that Chipotle pays general managers $10,000 for every employee they ever trained who later becomes a GM — even after they leave the company. This one incentive structure creates a culture where frontline workers invest in each other and think like owners, which is the hardest and most valuable thing in hospitality.
Sam Parr recounted two stories from Will Guidara's 'Unreasonable Hospitality': a Ford dealer who put $15 Starbucks gift cards in every glove box, and a UPS store owner who gave a weekly $20 bill to the most hospitable employee. Both tiny gestures measurably increased referral business and transformed team culture.
Autopilot lets retail investors automatically copy the trades of politicians and hedge funds using publicly reported data — without giving custody of funds away. The platform grew to managing $1.8B in assets in just 3 years, faster than it took Bill Ackman or Ray Dalio to reach $1B. The Nancy Pelosi tracker, launched on Twitter, was the viral growth engine.
Chapter 4 · 38:36
The $1.8B App Copying Politicians & Hedge Funds
After the three guests depart, Shaan gets reflective. He traces a personal evolution: a decade before MFM, success felt like a needle in a haystack — one brilliant idea to find, one narrow path to walk. The podcast, San Francisco, and meeting people like today's founders shifted that to pure abundance: tens of thousands of ways to win, and the real question is just which fits you. [1] — Shaan Puri "Before My First Million, Shaan Puri saw entrepreneurial success as a needle in a haystack — one brilliant idea to find. After a decade of t…" 1:06:30 Sam and Shaan riff on what they'd borrow from each guest — Alex's enviable emotional stability and calm contentment, Brian's audacity and marketing creativity, Josh's outdoorsy lifestyle appeal. Sam pushes back on the idea that small and big businesses are fundamentally different: 'I am equally impressed by a billion-dollar company versus a $5M company.' They close by quoting Jesse Itzler — 'root for everybody, because when you root for everybody, you can never lose' — and Sam teases tomorrow's Ray Dalio interview as an extension of the same lesson in a very different key.
Claims made here
Autopilot manages $1.8 billion in assets under management within 3 years of operation, faster than it took Bill Ackman and Ray Dalio (10-15 years) to reach $1 billion.
Nancy Pelosi's tracked stock portfolio is up approximately 240% over the last 3 years, compared to the S&P 500 which gained roughly 30-40% in the same period.
Autopilot has raised approximately $16M in total funding and is going out to raise a Series B at a valuation of $300-400M.
Top portfolio managers ('pilots') on Autopilot earn between $1M and $2M per year in subscription revenue from followers.
Bill Ackman took approximately 5 years to raise $60M early in his career, while a trader named Peter Wolf raised $220M on Autopilot within 1 year.
Autopilot's GMV revenue is $30M while true ARR is approximately $22M, and the company is targeting $100M in recurring revenue by March of the following year.
Robinhood raised approximately $4 billion in emergency funding during the GameStop crisis to meet DTCC capital requirements.
The average AUM fee that users pay on Autopilot is approximately 3-4% annually.
Autopilot spent $450,000 on a UFC ring sponsorship featuring a Nancy Pelosi lookalike intended to be seen on camera next to Donald Trump.
BlackRock's Aladdin portfolio management platform generates approximately $6 billion per year for BlackRock.
Leopold Aschenbrenner's hedge fund started with approximately $500M in fundraising and has grown to approximately $5 billion in AUM.
Autopilot, a copy-trading platform, reached $1.8 billion in assets under management within just 3 years of operating, faster than legendary investors like Bill Ackman and Ray Dalio.
Nancy Pelosi's tracked portfolio is up approximately 240% over 3 years versus the S&P 500's 30-40%. Autopilot bootstrapped its marketplace by manufacturing supply-side content from publicly available congressional trading disclosures and hedge fund 13F filings — solving the classic two-sided marketplace cold-start problem.
Over the last 3 years, Nancy Pelosi's tracked stock portfolio is up approximately 240%, compared to the S&P 500 which gained roughly 30-40% in the same period.
Venture firms have floated a $300-400M valuation for Autopilot as it goes out to raise a Series B, after previously raising $16M total.
The highest-earning 'pilots' on Autopilot's platform make between $1M and $2M per year in subscription fees from followers, separate from any investment gains.
A trader named Peter Wolf attracted $220M in follower assets on Autopilot within one year, compared to the 5 years it took Bill Ackman to raise $60M early in his career.
Autopilot earns $22M in actual recurring ARR and $30M in GMV-based revenue, with some portfolios owned outright generating 100% of their subscription fees.
Autopilot spent $450,000 to sponsor a UFC ring and plant a Nancy Pelosi lookalike in a front-row seat next to where Trump was supposed to sit, with the slogan 'Invest Like a Politician' visible on camera. Trump skipped due to an assassination attempt, killing the earned media opportunity. Brian admitted the ROI was limited but the brand awareness was real.
Autopilot spent $450,000 on a UFC sponsorship stunt featuring a fake Nancy Pelosi lookalike seated near Trump, which Brian admitted did not produce direct ROI.
Autopilot's ultimate goal is to democratize what BlackRock Aladdin does for institutions — a portfolio marketplace that generates $6B/year — and bring it to retail investors. Top 'pilots' already earn $1-2M/year in subscription fees, and the platform is targeting $100M ARR by next March on a current $70M run rate.
Autopilot is on a $70M annual run rate and is targeting $100M in recurring revenue by March of the following year, representing roughly 250% growth.
Autopilot's Brian said reaching the first million in revenue was the hardest thing he had ever done, while scaling from $1M to $30M felt comparatively easy.
Shaan Puri says the best hiring comes from two pools: people who have literally solved the exact same problem before, and unproven 'diamonds in the rough' you can stock-pick like a venture investor. Most founders under-invest in sourcing from both systematically and spend too little time recruiting — under 20% of their week.
Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI researcher who published the 'Situational Awareness' AI white paper, launched a hedge fund at 22 and has grown it to approximately $5 billion. He found the overlooked AI trade — SSDs and infrastructure bottlenecks instead of GPUs — and attracted top investors including Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman.
Before My First Million, Shaan Puri saw entrepreneurial success as a needle in a haystack — one brilliant idea to find. After a decade of the podcast, he realized opportunity is everywhere, with tens of thousands of ways to win. Today's session with three unconventional founders was a live demonstration of that abundance mindset.
No indexed bits in this chapter.
Show stoppers
Nancy Pelosi's tracked portfolio is up approximately 240% over 3 years versus the S&P 500's 30-40%. Autopilot bootstrapped its marketplace by manufacturing supply-side content from publicly available congressional trading disclosures and hedge fund 13F filings — solving the classic two-sided marketplace cold-start problem.
Before My First Million, Shaan Puri saw entrepreneurial success as a needle in a haystack — one brilliant idea to find. After a decade of the podcast, he realized opportunity is everywhere, with tens of thousands of ways to win. Today's session with three unconventional founders was a live demonstration of that abundance mindset.
Snapshots ()
Key Quotes ()
This episode
Cast
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Former US Speaker of the House whose publicly disclosed stock trades Autopilot tracks; up 240% in 3 years vs SPY's 30-40%.
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Former OpenAI researcher who published the 'Situational Awareness' AI white paper, launched a hedge fund at 22, and grew it to ~$5B by identifying overlooked AI infrastructure bottlenecks.
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Legendary hedge fund manager used as a benchmark — it took him 5 years to raise $60M and 10-15 years to reach $1B, while Autopilot reached $1.8B in 3 years.
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Founder of Bridgewater Associates, referenced as a benchmark investor whose $1B milestone Autopilot surpassed much faster; also discussed as a future MFM interview guest.
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Brian's copy-trading platform managing $1.8B in assets, $22M ARR, targeting $100M ARR by next year.
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Josh Weissenstein's campground acquisition company owning 16 properties across 10 states with $20M revenue and $100M+ portfolio value.
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Alex Daniels's 40-market real estate advertising magazine company generating $10M revenue and $2.5M profit.
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Track
Retail brokerage platform that Autopilot integrates with for copy-trading; discussed as having nearly failed during the GameStop crisis.
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Sam Parr's community for founders averaging $25M/year in revenue; the source for all three guest entrepreneurs on this episode.
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Track
World's largest asset manager, whose Aladdin institutional portfolio platform generating $6B/year is cited as Autopilot's ultimate ambition for retail investors.
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The dominant campground franchise brand with 550 locations across the US, described as the 'McDonald's of campgrounds'; Team Outsider is a KOA franchisee in certain markets.
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Track
Used as a case study in frontline worker culture — Chipotle pays GMs $10,000 for every past employee they trained who becomes a GM, creating owner-like thinking throughout the workforce.
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AI company where Leopold Aschenbrenner worked before leaving to launch his hedge fund; referenced in context of AI infrastructure investment bottlenecks.
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Financial media company cited as a comparable to Autopilot, doing nine figures in subscription revenue from stock picks and running a fund with over $1B AUM.
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AI automation platform used by Haven Lifestyles to handle its entire inbound sales email process without human salespeople.
Stats
This episode
Claims & Sources
Factual claims made this episode, and whether a source was named.
Haven Lifestyles generates $10M in revenue and approximately $2.5M in profit from 40 real estate advertising magazines across the US and Canada.
Haven Lifestyles mails approximately 500,000 physical magazines per year via USPS postal routes.
Haven Lifestyles works with over 10,000 real estate agents annually and has approximately 1,500 on year-long auto-debit contracts.
Team Outsider owns 16 campgrounds across 10 states with approximately 4,000 sites and generates around $20M in annual revenue.
Team Outsider raised approximately $60M in capital and its portfolio is now worth north of $100M.
Team Outsider's first campground near Grand Teton generated $500K in revenue and $150K NOI at acquisition, which was doubled to ~$300K NOI before refinancing.
KOA (Kampgrounds of America) has approximately 550 campground locations across the country and owns about 50 themselves, with the rest being franchises.
Autopilot manages $1.8 billion in assets under management within 3 years of operation, faster than it took Bill Ackman and Ray Dalio (10-15 years) to reach $1 billion.
Nancy Pelosi's tracked stock portfolio is up approximately 240% over the last 3 years, compared to the S&P 500 which gained roughly 30-40% in the same period.
Autopilot has raised approximately $16M in total funding and is going out to raise a Series B at a valuation of $300-400M.
Top portfolio managers ('pilots') on Autopilot earn between $1M and $2M per year in subscription revenue from followers.
Bill Ackman took approximately 5 years to raise $60M early in his career, while a trader named Peter Wolf raised $220M on Autopilot within 1 year.
Autopilot spent $450,000 on a UFC ring sponsorship featuring a Nancy Pelosi lookalike intended to be seen on camera next to Donald Trump.
Autopilot's GMV revenue is $30M while true ARR is approximately $22M, and the company is targeting $100M in recurring revenue by March of the following year.
Chipotle pays general managers $10,000 for every former employee they trained who later becomes a general manager, even after the employee leaves the company.
BlackRock's Aladdin portfolio management platform generates approximately $6 billion per year for BlackRock.
The average AUM fee that users pay on Autopilot is approximately 3-4% annually.
Robinhood raised approximately $4 billion in emergency funding during the GameStop crisis to meet DTCC capital requirements.
Stroll, a neighborhood publication franchise company, is valued at over $100M in revenue.
Leopold Aschenbrenner's hedge fund started with approximately $500M in fundraising and has grown to approximately $5 billion in AUM.
