Sam Parr

Sam Parr is an entrepreneur who founded The Hustle, a business and technology newsletter that grew to over a million subscribers and was acquired by HubSpot in 2021. Following the acquisition, he co-launched My First Million, a podcast and YouTube show with Shaan Puri that covers business ideas, market opportunities, and entrepreneurship through unscripted discussion and brainstorming. The show has become one of the more widely listened to business podcasts and has a YouTube channel with several million subscribers.

The My First Million format involves Parr and Puri discussing business opportunities they have identified, analyzing market trends, and brainstorming hypothetical companies on air. The unscripted conversation format creates an accessible listening experience that some entrepreneurs describe as useful for idea generation and for understanding how business operators evaluate opportunities. The format's strength — unfiltered real-time thinking — is also a limitation: not all ideas discussed on air are well-developed, and the conversational format does not typically include systematic critical analysis of the risks or challenges associated with the businesses discussed.

Parr's background building and selling a media company gives him practical context for discussing media business models. His and Puri's backgrounds are concentrated in internet businesses, content, and software, which shapes what kinds of opportunities they discuss with the most familiarity. The show also covers general entrepreneurship and investment topics beyond their direct experience.

My First Million earns revenue through advertising and sponsorships. Parr has been transparent about his business background and the sale of The Hustle. The show occupies a niche in business media that combines entertainment with practical business analysis, and its format has influenced other business-idea podcasts and social media content.