He Turned $500 Into $10M | Starter Story

October 5, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Karthik turned $500 into $10 million across four e-commerce companies while working a full-time job at Amazon, then Salesforce. He started in his fraternity house in 2013, building custom apparel businesses for fraternities and sororities, then expanded into licensed college merchandise, corporate custom apparel, and most recently, co-branded athlete merchandise following the NCAA's name, image, and likeness (NIL) ruling. The entire operation was bootstrapped, built on the side, and scaled without outside funding.

The Operating Cadence: Full-Time Job, Full-Time Business

For two and a half years after graduating, Karthik worked a night shift at Amazon—Wednesday night at 11 p.m. to Sunday morning at 11 a.m.—then slept, woke up in the evening, and worked on Greek House until midnight. When he moved to a Salesforce role with a more normal schedule (8 a.m. to 5:36 p.m.), he worked on the business from 6 p.m. until midnight, six days a week, taking one weekend day off. He describes this as simply what he knew: his parents immigrated from India when he was seven, worked hard, and instilled that ethic. "I think just wanting to make my parents proud is number two," he says, adding that entrepreneurship runs in his family, which operates over 24 restaurants in India. The motivation was not passion for apparel but a straightforward sense of obligation and opportunity.

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What you'll learn

1 Timestamped Outline
2 (01:32) **Introduction: From $500 to $10M** - Karthik's background and the four e-commerce companies he built while working a full-time job
3 (03:38) **The NCAA Ruling That Created a New Business** - How the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) Supreme Court ruling led to Athletes Thread
4 (04:46) **College Hustle: Multiple Businesses Before One Stuck** - The trial-and-error phase of entrepreneurship during college
5 (06:43) **Immigrant Drive and the Motivation to Grind** - Why Karthik worked 6-day weeks for 2.5 years straight
6 (09:35) **Starting Greek House with $500** - How two college kids got their first customers without Instagram or modern tools
7 (11:11) **The $40K Licensing Scare** - A near-death experience four months after going full-time

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

He Turned $500 Into $10M

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In this episode I went into Karthik Shanadi's New York City apartment to get his story and strategies for building a $10M clothing empire. He's an absolute hustler and has built 4 ecommerce companies in the apparel industry, and he shares his advice on marketing, growing an online apparel company, and how to start a business today. Hope you guys enjoy!

0:00 - Intro 1:00 - All his businesses 3:10 - Finding the idea 4:20 - Building the business with a full time job 5:13 - How he stays motivated 6:35 - How he started the business (early days) 8:00 - Scariest moments 9:47 - Fulfillment and logistics 11:23 - How to build in saturated markets 12:11 - How to build a brand 13:17 - Marketing strategies 15:30 - 3 required skills for entrepreneurship 17:26 - How to start a business

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-------------- Keywords: tech business, entrepreneur podcast, app monetization, startup advice

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