#717: Noah Kagan — How to Launch a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend

Brought to you by LinkedIn
Jobs recruitment platform with 1B+
users; Eight Sleep’s Pod
Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling
and
heating; and Shopify global
commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and
manage a retail business.


Noah Kagan (@noahkagan) was #30 at
Facebook, #4 at Mint, and has since created seven million-dollar
businesses (Kickflip/Gambit, AppSumo, KingSumo, SendFox,
Sumo, TidyCal, and Monthly1k).


He is the CEO of AppSumo.com, the #1 software-deals site for
entrepreneurs, and has a popular YouTube channel, Noah
Kagan. 


His new book is Million Dollar Weekend: The
Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48
Hours.


Please enjoy!


*


The blog post for this episode:
https://tim.blog/2024/01/23/noah-kagan-million-dollar-weekend/


*


This episode is brought to you
by Shopify! Shopify is
one of my favorite platforms and one of my favorite
companies. Shopify is designed for anyone
to sell anywhere, giving entrepreneurs the resources
once reserved for big business. In no time flat, you can have a
great-looking online store that brings your ideas to life, and
you can have the tools to manage your day-to-day and drive sales.
No coding or design experience required.


Go
to shopify.com/Tim to
sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period. It’s a great
deal for a great service, so I encourage you to check it out.
Take your business to the next level today by
visiting shopify.com/Tim.


*


This episode is also brought to you
by Eight
Sleep! Eight
Sleep’s Pod Cover is
the easiest and fastest way to sleep at the perfect
temperature. It pairs dynamic cooling and heating with
biometric tracking to offer the most advanced (and user-friendly)
solution on the market. Simply add the Pod Cover to
your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as
hot as 110°F. It also splits your bed in half, so your partner
can choose a totally different temperature.


Conquer this winter season with the best in sleep tech and sleep
at your perfect temperature. Many of my listeners in colder areas
enjoy warming up their bed after a freezing day. Go
to eightsleep.com/Tim and
save $250 on the Pod Cover by Eight Sleep this
winter. Eight Sleep currently ships within the
USA, Canada, the UK, select countries in the EU, and
Australia. 


*


This episode is also brought to you
by LinkedIn
Jobs. Whether you are looking to
hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may
have in the future, LinkedIn Jobs can help. LinkedIn
screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking
for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job
opportunities that match what you have to offer.


Using LinkedIn’s active community of more than one billion
professionals worldwide, LinkedIn
Jobs can help you find and hire the right person
faster. When your business is ready to make that
next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. And now, you
can post a job for free. Just visit
LinkedIn.com/Tim.


*


[00:00] Start


[03:55] Noah and some of his notable successes.


[07:00] Is Barcelona the new Austin?


[13:43] Navigating the legal hurdles to living/working in another
country.


[17:44] Running an $80 million business.


[20:41] Noah’s negotiating basics.


[24:33] The chargeback maneuver.


[27:02] WIIFT (What’s In It For Them?)


[29:54] A recap of the coffee challenge.


[31:31] “Life punishes the vague wish and rewards the specific
ask.”


[34:12] Other comfort challenges Noah recommends.


[39:12] Feedback is a gift.


[42:26] When comfort challenges aren’t appropriate.


[45:33] LOT (Listen, Options, Transition).


[46:59] Tracking metrics that matter.


[52:17] T3 B3 (Top Three, Bottom Three).


[59:46] Weekly reviews.


[1:02:42] The value of unambitious goals.


[1:06:51] Regrets of billionaires.


[1:13:32] My approach to book launches: then and now.


[1:26:50] Priorities: then and now.


[1:43:19] Finding a sustainable purpose.


[1:49:42] Do I still find my past work useful today?


[1:52:44] Testing the waters with new hires.


[1:55:22] Don’t forget to look in the rear-view mirror sometimes.


[1:56:23] Why should you trust Noah’s advice in Million Dollar
Weekend?


[1:59:47] Now, not how.


[2:03:18] What’s your freedom number?


[2:03:59] Getting your ask in gear.


[2:05:09] Counterintuitively, constraints catalyze creativity.


[2:08:17] Turning annoyance into opportunity.


[2:11:21] Determining if your intended market has value.


[2:14:12] Most profitable, elegant businesses are simple at their
core.


[2:14:57] Entrepreneurs rise from the ashes of fired employees.


[2:17:14] Why you should start a podcast or business.


[2:18:18] “No solutions, only trade-offs.”


[2:19:01] Putting the idea to the test.


[2:22:52] Are you making this harder than it needs to be?


[2:24:09] The Dream 10 as a test for market viability — and your
commitment.


[2:27:07] Rejection as teacher.


[2:27:58] Deliver on promises before worrying about scaling up.


[2:32:01] The three Ws: what, who, and where?


[2:33:04] The AppSumo origin story.


[2:36:24] Early high-touch community building and scaling
considerations.


[2:38:29] The BrainQUICKENing.


[2:42:43] Finding underserved opportunities.


[2:44:48] Initiate correspondence with humility.


[2:48:12] Little ask, big ask.


[2:48:56] How do I handle rejection?


[2:51:18] Revisiting the Law of Category.


[2:56:16] How Noah handled a recent rejection.


[2:57:28] Dating circa now and learning optimism.


[2:59:18] How Pat seized opportunity in Poland.


[3:00:36] Free work?


[3:04:35] Behind the scenes of my Opening the Kimono event.


[3:12:02] Making sponsorship deals win/win.


[3:15:47] Streamlining business idea validation.


[3:19:42] Unorthodox simplicity.


[3:22:02] Better to be chased for money than chasing it.


[3:23:45] Best holiday purchases for under $50.


[3:31:28] Is competing for attention on YouTube worth my time and
sanity?


[3:39:55] Low-effort, high-reward YouTube experiments.


[3:45:21] Lessons learned from spending more than a million
dollars on coaching.


[3:53:01] Benefits of the board.


[3:53:35] How to take on the 48-hour challenge.


[3:56:00] What’s the DEAL with Cindy 10 years after meeting Noah
and me?


[4:00:34] Parting thoughts.


*


For show notes and past guests
on The Tim Ferriss Show,
please
visit tim.blog/podcast.


For deals from sponsors of The Tim
Ferriss Show, please
visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors


Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday)
at tim.blog/friday.


For transcripts of episodes, go
to tim.blog/transcripts.


Discover Tim’s
books: tim.blog/books.


Follow Tim:


Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss 


Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss


YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss


Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss 


LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferriss


Past guests on The Tim Ferriss
Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh
Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin
Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew
McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth
Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah
Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine
Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary
Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael
Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria
Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de
Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly
Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard
Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael
Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan
Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit
Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim
Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval
Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth
Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard
Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid
Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick
Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren
Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter
Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah
Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.


See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California
Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.