Smash Notes | Today in podcasts

Building a Multimillion-Dollar Newsletter Business with Sam Parr of The Hustle

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 02:30:32 +0000

Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) describes himself as a midwestern small business owner who discovered the Internet, and his journey from running a hot dog stand to building a media empire seems to prove that. His current business, The Hustle, generates 8 figures in annual revenue from newsletter advertising alone, a feat Sam attributes to great copywriting, relentless experimentation, and the massively underrated power of email. In this episode we talk about how founders can build profitable businesses by resisting the urge to make their tech businesses more complex than they need to be, why it's important to borrow lessons from businesses in other industries, and the art of getting help from others by swallowing your pride and making specific requests.

Austen Allred of Lambda School

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 02:30:38 +0000

Austen Allred is the CEO and cofounder of Lambda School. Lambda School provides a CS education that's free until you get a job. They were in the Summer 2017 batch of YC.

Finless Foods’ Mike Selden: “We brew fish meat”

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 02:30:16 +0000

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Mike Selden, founder of Finless Foods, to talk about growing fish flesh without the fish (3:15) how it works (4:30), turning mush into fillets (7:00), why he started the company (8:50), the s...

John Cook. Joys and challenging of starting GeekWire.

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 02:30:31 +0000

Eight years ago John co-founded GeekWire.com and had a kid at the same time - Although life hasn’t always been easy, the only thing he regrets is not doing both ealier in his life. Follow along and learn a bit about both entrepreneurship and parenting.

Jonathan Sposato

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 02:30:28 +0000

Serial entrepreneur, Jonathan Sposato, was the first person in history to sell two companies to Google. Since then, he's become chairman of Geekwire and PicMonkey and has recently made waves in the Seattle community by announcing he will only invest in female-founded companies moving forward. Hear from Jonathan firsthand on how he’s always felt like an outsider but hasn’t let it stop him from achieving incredible success. His unique childhood and growing up as an Asian-American in a predominately white community shaped him to become, in his words, “more of a Nick Carraway than a Jay Gatsby.” Jonathan's wisdom on family, business and life in general is something everyone needs to hear.

Submittable CEO talks startups, life, cancer and living in Missoula, Montana.

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 02:30:32 +0000

Michael FitzGerald is a prolific American writer and the founder of Submittable.com. He lives and works in Missoula, Montana with his wife and two kids. Although it isn't the easiest place to run a company from, Michael lives for the joy of living, and Missoula is where it's at. The day after raising their Series A funding, Michael found out that he had a terminal cancer and he was supposed to be dead in six months. Fortunately, thanks to the advancements in experimental medicine and a whole bunch of awesome friends, he was able to get the treatment and is here with us today. This episode will bring you closer to FitzGerald and inspire you to take full advantage of every single day in your life. Enjoy!

10 - GARFIELD AND THE BULLET

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 02:30:24 +0000

President James Garfield’s life was tragically cut short when a deranged gunman shot him on a train platform, but could modern doctors have saved him?

@DHH on startups and parenting in the new age

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 02:30:23 +0000

David Heinemeier Hansson has become a very influential person in technology and business, and has developed a number of philosophies which are helping him live a happy and fulfilling life. In this episode he explains how happiness is a simple secret.

Special interview with Mubashar Iqbal, Product Hunt Make of the Year for 2016 and founder of Pod Hunt, WILL ROBOTS TAKE MY JOB, plus 80 other projects.

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 02:30:26 +0000

Mubashar Iqbal is a developer, dad, and a maker who just cannot stop creating products on the internet. He is the guy behind Pod Hunt, Product News, Practical MVP and quite literally, 80 other projects. Some of them sold, some shut down, and some are making him passive income. He's been featured on Lifehacker, The Next Web, Mashable, Fortune and more.

Today Mubs joins us on SmashNotes to talk about his latest project, PodHunt, the life of a serial maker, what it takes to stay focused on his products without losing enthusiasm, his family life and much more. Tune in, listen in, and as always, you can get show notes on SmashNotes.com

Follow along and subscribe ~>

p.s. This episode is brought to you by Palm, a tiny phone of your dreams. Use discount code "raddad" to get $50 off.
Also, have you heard of WeWork? It's an awesome way to get an office space when you need it. I've been testing it out for a month, and I like it a lot!

#004 – Jason Schuller – Product Designer, Founder Leeflets, Co-Founder RIVYT

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 02:30:24 +0000

Jason Schuller is a designer, maker and minimalist based in Seattle, Washington. His first success was with Press75, a WordPress theme shop that infamously sold $75 themes raking in millions of dollars over several years. However money is no driver for Jason, who sold the business to pursue stimulating side-projects like Leeflets, Droplets, Cinematico, RIVYT and even joined the team over at Plasso for while. Luckily for us Jason isn’t afraid to go deep. We talk about the moment everything changed, finding the right co-founder and the struggle of competing with previous monetary success.

The Zoom IPO (with Santi Subotovsky)

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 02:30:21 +0000

Zoom board member (and general partner at Emergence Capital) Santi Subotovsky joins Aquired to tell the true underdog story behind the hottest IPO of 2019. Together they trace founder Eric Yuan’s incredible journey from immigrant software developer, who didn’t speak any English upon arriving in Silicon Valley in 1997, to Glassdoor’s #1 rated CEO in America in 2018. In an age where border walls have replaced open doors in Washington, and burn rates and privacy scandals have sidelined Silicon Valley’s pretense of making the world a better place, there is no better reminder than Zoom of everything that can be great about our country and our industry.

Dave Morin insights from Facebook, Path, and 250+ investments

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 02:30:28 +0000