#84 with Noah Kagan - How the Founder of AppSumo Walked Away From $100m

**Sam Parr** (0:00)
All right, everyone, we have a quick ad for HubSpot. Sales super teams aren't built overnight. They require unicorn-level talent, endless training, huge budgets, and lots of luck.
Or you could just use Sales Hub from HubSpot. It's an all-in-one platform built with all the tools for your success. Smarter prospecting, check. Faster revenue, yup. Scales with your team, sure does. But in Sam's speak, I'm gonna put it way simpler. Just go to hubspot.com/sales, and it will make selling easier, faster, and more efficient.
Noah, what's going on?

**Noah Kagan** (0:40)
Sam Parr, I'm in meetings all day, and then I'm heading out to California in four hours.

**Sam Parr** (0:46)
So I was just, I haven't been on this podcast in a minute because I was in Austin.
I drove from California to Austin. I hung out with Noah and Neville and a bunch of people. And now Noah is coming to Malibu or somewhere.

**Noah Kagan** (1:01)
I'm coming to SF for a month, and then I'm gonna go to Malibu for a month.

**Sam Parr** (1:05)
Where are you staying in San Francisco?

**Noah Kagan** (1:07)
Andrew Chen's house.

**Sam Parr** (1:09)
Oh, that's right. You told me.
I've decided that I'm gonna get rid of my apartment in San Francisco and I'm gonna live in different cities for one or two months each.

**Noah Kagan** (1:19)
We're copying each other, Sam. You went bald, so I went bald. I'm moving places, so you're moving places. I need to get glasses, a dog.

**Sam Parr** (1:27)
Well, yeah, you need a few things.

**Noah Kagan** (1:31)
I need a few things, you're funny.

**Sam Parr** (1:34)
We know each other well, but can you tell the listeners who you are?

**Noah Kagan** (1:37)
What is up, you sexy listeners? Noah Kagan, I'm a cyclist, I'm a chess player. Lately, I'm making a lot of content on YouTube about everything I'm learning at appsumo.com. That's youtube.com/ okay dork. I helped start appsumo.com, which is the number one site online for software deals and aid for your company. Been around 10 years.
I was number 30 at Facebook, number four at mint.com.
And then the two other things that I like working on and playing with business-wise is sendfox.com, which is a free email list for content creators. And okdork.com, which is my site about overcoming fear, starting and marketing startups.

**Sam Parr** (2:11)
And Noah and I have known each other for six or seven years, a while now. We're, I think you're five or six years older than me. We're very similar personalities. We're a little crazy. We have a bunch of different ideas.
Would you say that's accurate?

**Noah Kagan** (2:30)
Yeah, I didn't like you for a long time.

**Sam Parr** (2:32)
Why?

**Noah Kagan** (2:33)
Yeah, so sometimes you'll hang out with Sam. If you guys have hung out or had the chance, you'll hang out with Sam. He's like, how much money are you making doing this one thing? And it's like, it's like someone asks you like, how big is your penis? You're like, dude, I don't know you. And you're asking a really personal kind of aggressive.
It's almost, it's like to the level of transactional, that's just a little too much versus what you'd expect from a friend.
And I think sometimes it's interesting to observe the people or companies that we're jealous of or the companies we're reacting negatively to and really trying to understand that. And our first experience, I think if I recall, you wanted me to come speak at the Hustle conference.

**Sam Parr** (3:05)
No, I wanted you to, it was, yeah, I wanted you to speak at an event. And you asked me to write a blog post for you and I wrote this blog post.

**Noah Kagan** (3:13)
And then?

**Sam Parr** (3:14)
You didn't publish it. And I was like, what the fuck?

**Noah Kagan** (3:16)
There was just weird vibes I was getting from you. And so it didn't make me excited to want to do anything. And then you sent me like a NutriBullet or some kind of item.
And I was just like, this guy weirds me out. I don't like how he's behaving.
And so over the years though, I've started to appreciate your quirkiness. And it's probably like me. I'm sure some people are listening to me with like, I don't like the style. I think the point for everyone is not to just go and accept everyone and love everything, but to observe our jealousy, observe our negativity, observe our criticism, and think about what we're trying to really say about ourselves or learn about ourselves. I think one thing I would say about you Sam that I've appreciated is that it's interesting to observe the people in life who get what they want. Because those people, you don't see all the things they're not getting. And I really respect with Sam how persevering you are. I think there's a lot of times where I'm like, oh yeah, this guy's gonna, there's so many people I'm like, oh they're gonna quit soon. And I definitely, the hustle wouldn't be anything without effort. And I think without, you just kept going and won't stop. And I think more people have to, some people are like, well I don't have that, I'm not Sam Parr, I'm not Noah Kagan. It's like yeah, you're yourself, which is even better.