If you know anything about business podcasts, you’ve probably come across Shaan Puri’s name. That statement might also be true if you’re a Twitch type, or if you’ve heard of Blab or Milk Road. He’s come through a lot of failure to build a net worth of $15 million. Currently, he owns a baby related ecommerce business that makes $25 million in annual revenue.
Early Life
Puri was born in 1988, and is currently based in San Francisco. He graduated from Duke in 2010 with a degree in Biology and Chemistry, but Puri decided to skip out on med school. Instead he started a sushi restaurant with two close friends.
Bad idea. Sabi Sushi was supposed to be the “Chipotle of sushi” but went belly up. At least Puri ate well during his struggles as a fledgling restaurateur.
The setback didn’t stick for long, though. Puri is one of those determined types hell bent to succeed at any cost. He found his path to success when he discovered that he had a knack for starting and building companies.
The Business Build Up
The best way to track Puri’s business success is to look at some of the companies he’s founded. The first one that commonly gets mentioned is Blab, a social media IM app that was basically a video precursor of Zoom. It shut down in 2016, but that didn’t stop Puri in his quest for success.
Next up is Bebo. This social network was more successful, to the point where it was sold to Twitch for $850 million, then bought back by Michael Birch and Puri was hired as the CEO.
My First Million and Milk Road
But Puri is about more than social media companies. He runs a popular business podcast called My First Million with Sam Parr that is developing a cult-like following. The podcast now has over 400,000 subscribers on YouTube and is sponsored by HubSpot.
In addition to a promising podcast, Shaan co-founded a crypto newsletter cleverly named Milk Road and is read by 250,000+ users. He sold the Milk Road in a multi-million dollar deal around December 2022. It’s safe to say, Shaan took some inspiration from Parr’s success with the Hustle. Puri also invests in crypto and lost $1 million when LUNA collapsed.
In 2021, he launched an ecommerce business with his wife and has grown it to $25 million in annual revenue. Despite the revenue, Shaan has to keep reinvesting all of the cash back into the company to fuel growth. Puri hasn’t revealed the name of the company but if you know where to look, it’s not hard to find. Outside of starting businesses, Puri invests in startups like Shepherd, a headhunter agency for overseas workers.
Personal Life
As public as Shaan Puri has been about his endless quest for endless wealth, he’s just as private about his personal life. His wife, Sonia, is referred to on most of his social media posts as “Shaan Puri’s wife,” although there are some entertaining posts about the ups and downs of their personal life and the extensive purchases she makes along the way.
