AI Summary
5 min readGrant Grant, the co-founder and CEO of Whatnot, built a company now worth over $20 billion. That market cap exceeds the combined value of Wendy’s, Under Armour, Hertz, Harley-Davidson, and American Airlines. But Grant is careful not to dwell on the number. He says he tries not to focus on it because the moment you start patting yourself on the back, you risk complacency. “We’re pretty early in what we’re doing,” he says. “I just try to look at the problem ahead and put one foot in front of the other.”
Starting from a broken Craigslist clone
Grant and his co-founder Logan started Whatnot after meeting in a bar in Tokyo. They bought 50 domains and initially set out to build a better, full-service version of Craigslist. That idea died quickly. Grant spent days calling delivery companies on LinkedIn to understand the unit economics. After two calls, he realized the delivery cost relative to the value of used goods made the business impossible. “Oh shit, we have to change this business,” he recalls.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **From Deli Worker to $20B Founder** - Grant introduces the improbable scale of Whatnot's valuation and sets up the founder's backstory.
- 2 (01:28) **The Missed Investment & Company Origin Story** - The host recounts a failed attempt to invest, which leads into the founding narrative in a Tokyo bar.
- 3 (07:40) **The Pivot from Craigslist to Collectibles** - After proving the first idea wrong, the team pivots to a collectibles marketplace, driven by data and a hunch about social experiences.
- 4 (13:58) **Rejecting the "Visionary Founder" Myth** - Grant explains why he believes being customer-driven is more important than having a rigid, visionary idea.
- 5 (19:40) **Scrappy Hacks for the Chicken-and-Egg Problem** - The founders acted as their own sellers and used viral giveaways to bootstrap the marketplace's early growth.
- 6 (28:57) **The First 12 Months: From 30 Sales to a Pivot to Live** - The timeline from a disastrous first month to the crucial insight that unlocked hyper-growth: live selling.
- 7 (33:40) **The Trajectory: From $2M to $1B in Sales** - Grant lays out the staggering growth numbers, crediting the core live experience and a great early team.
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Show Notes
$1M Attention Guide: 15+ ways to get eyeballs on what you're building https://clickhubspot.com/brcv
Episode 863: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) and Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) talk to Grant Lafontaine ( https://x.com/GrantLaFontaine ) the founder of Whatnot.
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Show Notes:
(0:00) Intro
(1:00) Grant turned down Shaan’s investment
(2:12) Shaan buys a crab on Whatnot
(3:58) First 1,000 users
(19:07) Black hat growth tactics
(28:52) 30 sales to $2.3M in year 1
(34:03) $2.3M to $163M in year 2
(34:56) $163M to $1B in year 3
(37:02) How to be a billion-dollar founder
(42:04) Going all the way deep on a single problem
(45:44) Don’t let people use fancy language
(49:48) Being disagreeable but likable
(50:43) The reason I left Facebook
(53:39) “If you think you’re moving fast, you’re probably not”
(54:13) Trends: NeeDohs, squishies, gold bars
(56:21) 9-figure sellers
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Links:
• Whatnot - https://www.whatnot.com/
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Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm
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Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
• Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com
• Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents.
• Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/
Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC
• I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out:
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My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /