Whatnot founder: This is the future of e-commerce

Shaan Puri (0:00)

You built a company that is worth $20 billion. But just to put it out in perspective, that is more than if you add up the entire market cap of Wendy's, Under Armour, Hertz Rental Car, Harley Davidson, American Airlines also.

Isn't that bananas when you hear that?

Grant Lafontaine (0:18)

Yeah, I think it's absolutely nuts.

Shaan Puri (0:29)

What I find interesting about you is that you went from a kid who was working in a deli, almost failed out of high school, to now you've built a company that is worth $20 billion.

Grant Lafontaine (0:42)

In all honesty, I try not to focus on the number. Because if you focus on it scene, zip scene and then you're like, well, I've done a lot already, I pat myself on the back.

But I think we're pretty early in what we're doing. And so I just try not to think about it and just sort of look at like the problem ahead and put one step, one foot in front of the other. And yeah, we started this thing six and a half years ago. There's still a lot of work to do.

Shaan Puri (1:03)

Yeah, I remember because you may not remember this, but we were on a phone call and I was like, hey, this is a great idea. I'd love to invest. And you're like, I don't know, we got like kind of, it's already full. And I was like, oh, but I'm such a great guy.

And then you were like, we'll see. And I didn't follow up. And that not following up cost me, cost me dearly.

Grant Lafontaine (1:21)

I actually do remember.

Sam Parr (1:24)

Say more.

Shaan Puri (1:24)

I wrote it down in my diary that day.

Sam Parr (1:26)

Grant, what happened from your perspective?

Shaan Puri (1:28)

Yeah, yeah, you tell the story.

Sam Parr (1:30)

Yeah.

Grant Lafontaine (1:30)

So what happened? I mean, whenever you're like one of the, like we've had rounds where we've been a hot company and we've had rounds where we've not been a hot company. Sort of like seeing the full spectrum of things.

And once the rounds close, all we really want to do is go back to work. So I remember talking to Shaan and I'm like, I should probably follow up with him. And then I just got busy with work and didn't. And I think I, like in my head, I sort of felt bad because I think I should have done something, but I don't know.

Shaan Puri (2:00)

Well, listen, I've been a fan. I was a fan before. I'm still a fan now. Now I'm just a bitter fan, which is a unique place to be in. And we should explain what the company is, right? You're the founder of Whatnot. What's amazing is you've built a large company in a space that I think most people would have found very small and unusual. Unusual, it's almost like a stack of unusual behaviors. We'll just give a kind of quick summary, which is if you open up Whatnot today, the app, you will see people selling all kinds of things. It started off with collectibles and, you know, like these little Funko dolls, and then opening up packs of cards and stuff like that. But now you could buy anything. Sam, I don't know if you know this, you could buy crazy shit on Whatnot. I bought a crab this morning. It was like a fisherman fishing.

And he's like, oh, I got these crabs. And then he's like, you can buy this crab right now.

Bought a crab. He's like, it's gonna be sent to the mail to you. Congratulations, Shaan. And there's a crab coming my way now. And that's, I don't know what just happened, but I have a crab coming in the mail.

Grant Lafontaine (3:00)

The seafood's incredibly good, to be honest. Like I actually eat it. I eat it like very regularly. It's my favorite category.

Shaan Puri (3:05)

It better be because I'm telling my wife, I bought internet crab. And I don't know if she wants that to be in the house, but I got internet crabs coming my way.

Grant Lafontaine (3:13)

You saw where it came from. You don't know what you're getting if you go to the supermarket.

Shaan Puri (3:16)

That's true.

Grant Lafontaine (3:16)

That thing came off the boat.

Shaan Puri (3:17)

The person who was doing it, their profile shows how many they've sold. And it says 3,300, her username's a shout out to I Love Crabs. So I Love Crabs, she sold 3,300.

This crab pack I bought when it was $34, she's made over 100 grand selling crabs on the internet. This is unbelievable.