Shaan Puri: The Entrepreneurial Journey of a Startup Maverick
Early Life and Education
Shaan Puri’s globe-trotting childhood helped shape his entrepreneurial mindset!
He grew up “all over the place,” living in as many as nine different countries by the time he finished high school, starting high school in Texas and completing it in China, with stints in places like Australia along the way. This international upbringing gave him a broad perspective from a young age. For college, Puri attended Duke University from 2006 to 2010, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology.
Despite the science degree, he quickly realized that a traditional med school or lab career wasn’t his calling. In his own words, he “immediately bailed on science to build startups”.
While at Duke, Shaan was already thinking outside the box. He once took an unconventional class titled “Getting Rich,” which signaled his early focus on understanding wealth creation. Just a few years after graduation, his entrepreneurial exploits earned him recognition from his alma mater when Duke named him the 2014 Alumnus of the Year. At age 26, he returned to campus sporting a few premature grey hairs and plenty of hard-won wisdom to share. By that point, he had already founded several startups (some “award-winning (and money losing!)” by his own admission) and found a home in Silicon Valley as CEO of a startup incubator.
This early honor from Duke underscored how rapidly Puri was making a name for himself in the startup world.
First Taste of Startups: The “Chipotle of Sushi”
Right after college, armed with ambition (and perhaps ignoring the safer path of his biology peers), Shaan Puri dove into his first venture. Together with two of his best friends, he launched a fast-casual restaurant startup with the audacious goal of becoming the “Chipotle of sushi.” As Puri later recounted, “after college, I skipped med school and started a sushi restaurant with my 2 best friends… It was supposed to be the 'Chipotle of sushi'. The company didn't work out, but I had amazing sushi everyday for lunch. So I can't complain.”. The startup, reportedly named Sabi Sushi, introduced fully customizable, quick-serve sushi rolls, an innovative concept at the time!
Although this first business ultimately failed to achieve financial success, it provided Puri with invaluable lessons. He learned how to hustle, how to copy what works, and how to bounce back from failure.
In fact, Shaan made a bit of a splash simply through his sheer boldness in pursuing the idea. He studied everything Chipotle did (from choosing a Denver location to mimicking their operational playbook) and tried to apply those tactics to sushi. While Sabi Sushi didn’t become the next fast-casual empire, it gave Shaan early experience in building a brand from scratch and a taste of what it’s like to chase an unconventional dream.
This “failed” sushi venture also taught him a guiding philosophy: don’t be afraid to do things differently. As he later pointed out, following the crowd isn’t a recipe for success. “Most people do what 'most people' do… What most people are doing isn't working. Do differently.” became one of Puri’s mantras. He was already beginning to follow the path less traveled, and this mindset would serve as a foundation for his later ventures.
Joining a Startup Studio: Monkey Inferno and the Bebo Revival
After the sushi experiment, Shaan Puri doubled down on Silicon Valley. He knew he wanted to be where big tech ideas were happening, so he essentially hunted for the perfect opportunity rather than waiting for it to come to him.
He set his sights on an early-stage startup studio/accelerator called Monkey Inferno in San Francisco, which was funded by Michael Birch (the founder of Bebo). Rather than simply submitting a résumé, Shaan proactively made himself known: he researched everything about Birch’s projects and began cold-emailing the team with ideas and improvements for their portfolio companies. Bold and innovative, very admirable!
By the time a position opened up, Puri was already a familiar name to the founder. In fact, during his “interview” trip to SF, he never formally sat down for Q&A; instead, he spent the day with Birch, brainstorming and getting to know each other. The founder later admitted, “I knew it was you before we put out a job posting.”. In this unorthodox way, Shaan landed what he calls an “absolute dream job” as the CEO of Monkey Inferno in 2012.
At Monkey Inferno, Puri had a playground for his entrepreneurial imagination. Backed by the Birch family, he led a 20-person startup lab whose job was simple in theory: dream up ideas for startups and build them into real products.
In practice, it meant juggling multiple projects at once…a thrilling and stressful endeavor that Shaan jokingly credits for giving him grey hair in his mid-twenties. During his tenure (2012–2015), Monkey Inferno experimented with various ideas and spin-off companies. Puri has described this period as getting to “build some amazing things” with a talented team, knowing that not every idea would pan out.
One of the notable creations from Monkey Inferno was Blab, an early live-streaming and group video chat platform launched around 2015. Blab allowed users to broadcast conversations with the push of a button, and it quickly caught on, amassing around 3–4 million users at its peak!
Even large organizations and personalities (ESPN, Tony Robbins, the UFC, etc.) gave Blab a try. Despite the rapid user growth, Blab struggled with user retention and “ultimately didn’t work out” in the long run. Puri wrote a candid post-mortem explaining why Blab was shut down, demonstrating his willingness to pivot or pull the plug when an idea isn’t sustainable. This experience reinforced another lesson: success in startups often requires quick adaptation and knowing when to move on. Shaan wasn’t afraid to fail fast, an attribute that would lead to bigger wins soon.
The centerpiece of Puri’s Monkey Inferno chapter was the revival of Bebo, a once-famous social networking site. In 2013, Monkey Inferno’s backer Michael Birch had bought back Bebo out of bankruptcy for $1 million with hopes of reinventing it. He handed the challenge to Shaan and his small team.
It was a daunting task, akin to making “pigs fly,” as evidenced by the tongue-in-cheek name of their holding company, “Pigs in Flight”. Puri’s team tried several angles to breathe new life into Bebo. One attempt was a walkie-talkie video app (an idea called Blab, as mentioned) which gained millions of users but ultimately shut down after a year due to engagement issues.
Undeterred, Shaan pivoted Bebo’s focus toward the booming world of esports. They built tools for organizing online gaming tournaments and leagues, leveraging Bebo’s social features to bring gamers together. This pivot (essentially transforming Bebo into an esports tournaments platform) started to gain traction at just the right time.
By 2017, Shaan Puri officially became the CEO of Bebo as the project narrowed in on esports, and his efforts finally paid off in a big way.
In June 2019, Amazon’s Twitch (the leading game streaming platform) acquired Bebo to bolster its own esports offerings. The deal included both the technology and Puri’s team of about 10 employees. While the exact price wasn’t publicly disclosed, reports indicated Twitch paid up to $25 million for Bebo after a bidding war that even Facebook and Discord took part in. “Acquired by Twitch in 2019” became the capstone of Shaan’s five-year journey with Monkey Inferno and Bebo.
In describing that period, Shaan later reflected that it was unusual to be talking about a company he sold (Bebo), rather than one he bought or was starting from scratch, highlighting that this was a major personal milestone. The sale was a vindication of the team’s persistence through pivots, and it put Puri squarely on the map as a rising star in the tech entrepreneurship scene.
Life at Twitch and Beyond
After the acquisition, Shaan Puri transitioned into an executive role at Twitch. He worked on “special projects” at Twitch, and according to his profile he served as Senior Director of Product focusing on Mobile Gaming and Emerging Markets from 2019 to 2021. Joining a tech giant was a new experience for Puri, now he was inside one of the industry’s powerhouses, presumably helping integrate Bebo’s tournament technology into Twitch’s esports program (Twitch Rivals).
This period gave him a front-row seat to a large-scale tech operation, but Shaan remained an entrepreneur at heart. It wasn’t long before he felt the itch to build something of his own again.
By 2021, Puri decided to leave his “dream job” at Twitch and return to life as a founder. He often jokes that he’s founded 6 companies, with 2 successful exits and 1 ongoing venture so far in his career, and he wasn’t done yet!
Almost immediately after Twitch, Shaan embarked on a new experiment he dubbed “All Access Pass.” The concept: build three different $1 million businesses (in three distinct industries) and blog openly about the process. In typical Shaan fashion, he aimed big and shared candidly. “No Small Boy Stuff” is a rule he lives by, meaning he prefers to chase bold, ambitious projects rather than settle for minor wins.
With All Access Pass, he put that credo into practice publicly.
One of these ventures delved into e-commerce. (Internet sleuths later discovered that Shaan and his wife started a baby apparel company humorously named “Bums and Roses,” selling baby clothing, likely as part of this challenge.) Another venture was in a completely different arena: the world of cryptocurrency and finance, which was heating up in 2021. This led to what would become Shaan’s next big win.
The Milk Road: Crypto Newsletter Success
In late 2021, Shaan Puri co-founded The Milk Road, a daily newsletter aimed at making crypto news and insights fun and digestible. It started humbly, at first, Puri and co-founder Ben Levy were just writing a Google Doc summary of crypto happenings and emailing it out to a few friends.
They whipped up a simple milk-bottle logo and even spent $2,000 to acquire a catchy domain name, MilkRoad.com. The idea was to bring the same kind of engaging voice and consistency that Puri’s friend Sam Parr had used to grow The Hustle newsletter, but in the crypto space. Puri leveraged his existing audience from Twitter and his podcast to quickly gain subscribers, and he wasn’t afraid to employ creative stunts to spur growth.
For example, in spring 2022 the Milk Road team put $1 million of their own money into a public crypto wallet so readers could track its progress (and misadventures) in real-time, a dramatic gimmick that attracted even more interest, even though the crypto market dropped 70% soon after.
The growth of Milk Road was explosive. Thanks to Shaan’s content creation skills and marketing savvy, the newsletter amassed 250,000 subscribers in just 10 months!! By consistently delivering witty commentary and clear analysis on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the latest crypto trends, Milk Road became one of the fastest-growing newsletters in America for crypto investors.
Importantly, it also became a profitable business through sponsorships and a premium “Milk Road PRO” offering. Puri’s approach of turning a personal passion into a daily discipline paid off handsomely.
In January 2023, less than a year after launch, Shaan announced that he sold Milk Road to a company called Axios (via a subsidiary, Bitfo). Although the exact figures weren’t publicly shared, multiple sources reported it as an eight-figure acquisition (i.e. tens of millions of dollars).
Puri himself hinted on LinkedIn that it was his second company sale, accomplished in record time – “zero to 250,000 readers in <1 year, self-funded & profitable.” The Milk Road journey is a prime example of Shaan’s ability to identify opportunities early (in this case, the need for a crypto newsletter with personality), execute quickly, and build audience as a competitive moat. As one write-up noted, he basically “turned a crypto newsletter into a $10M exit”. Not many founders can claim a major exit in back-to-back industries as different as gaming and crypto, within a span of just a few years.
Today, Shaan Puri remains involved with Milk Road as its Chairman, even as the day-to-day operations have passed to its new owners. True to form, he didn’t rest long after this success – he’s always on the lookout for the next idea or investment.
“My First Million” Podcast and Media Presence
Amidst all these business ventures, Shaan Puri also became a well-known voice in the business world through podcasting. In 2019, he teamed up with fellow entrepreneur Sam Parr (founder of The Hustle) to launch My First Million, a podcast that quickly gained a cult following among startup enthusiasts.
Every week on My First Million, Shaan and Sam brainstorm new business ideas, share market trends, and swap stories about entrepreneurship. The show’s casual, brainstorming format (essentially two friends bantering about “what if we tried this?” ideas) struck a chord with listeners looking for inspiration and entertainment. It didn’t hurt that both hosts had real credibility (Sam had sold The Hustle to HubSpot, and Shaan had sold Bebo to Twitch), so they could speak from experience about making millions.
The podcast grew into a chart-topping business podcast with a large and very loyal audience. By early 2021, My First Million was reportedly getting over 300,000 downloads per month, and it has only grown since then! It frequently ranks among the top entrepreneurship podcasts globally. Fans tune in for Shaan’s energetic storytelling and idea-generating prowess.
One episode he might be sketching out a plan for a new e-commerce brand, and the next he’s interviewing a billionaire founder about their journey. Puri’s style on the mic is much like his Twitter persona (witty, curious, and unpretentious) which makes complex business concepts feel accessible. As a result, My First Million has become a community of dreamers and builders, spawning its own inside jokes and even real businesses that listeners launched after hearing ideas on the show.
Shaan’s involvement in the podcast also synergizes with his other endeavors. He often tests out concepts on the show, promotes his projects like Milk Road to the audience, and brings on guests who end up becoming collaborators. The show’s success further cemented Puri’s status as a thought leader for young entrepreneurs.
In fact, Entrepreneur magazine featured Sam and Shaan, highlighting their formula for achieving that first million dollars and noting their belief that anyone can make it happen with the right approach. Through My First Million, Puri doesn’t just share ideas, he also shares candid advice, failures, and wins, which humanizes the often glamorized process of building a business.
Investing and Other Ventures
Beyond starting companies and hosting podcasts, Shaan Puri wears a third hat: angel investor and mentor. Puri has been actively investing in startups, averaging about 20–25 startup investments per year as an angel. He tends to focus on sectors he knows well (SaaS, consumer internet, crypto, and the like), and often backs scrappy founders with big ideas (much like himself). By spreading bets across dozens of new companies annually, he stays at the cutting edge of emerging trends and technologies.
This also feeds his constant curiosity; each investment is a chance to learn about a new business model or market. Puri’s network of fellow “builders” is one of his greatest assets, and he often says one key to success is to “be friends with winners, then learn from them.” Surrounding himself with other successful entrepreneurs and investors has provided deal flow for him and learning opportunities that shape his own strategies.
In 2020, Shaan even spun up a rolling fund (a type of venture fund) to formalize some of his investing. And through his popular Twitter account (under the handle @ShaanVP), he regularly shares hot takes on startup ideas, investing tips, and sometimes solicits pitches publicly.
In essence, he’s building an ecosystem where he can both inspire founders and potentially back them. It’s not uncommon to hear on My First Million that he ended up investing in a company that first came to his attention as a podcast topic or a cold email from a listener. This fluid overlap of content creation and investing is a hallmark of Puri’s approach, he leverages platforms like the podcast, newsletters, and social media to create opportunities for deal-making and collaboration.
Even as an investor, Shaan maintains a builder’s mentality. He has a knack for identifying “hidden” opportunities in boring or unexpected places. For instance, he once noticed the mandatory labor law posters that every office has to buy and asked, “How did this get here?”
That question led him to discover a niche business selling those posters on subscription, netting the owner millions with almost no competition. It’s a perfect example of the way Puri’s mind works: always peeling back the layers of everyday things to find the business case underneath. “If I could teach my daughter 1 question to ask, it would be: ‘How did this get here?’” he told one interviewer, emphasizing that curiosity is a powerful tool in entrepreneurship. This mindset has guided his investing and new ventures, as he constantly looks for pain points or unmet needs that could spark the next startup.
Business Philosophy and Key Lessons
Shaan Puri’s journey is filled with valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and investors. He has openly shared his philosophies in interviews, on Twitter, and on his blog, often in a quotable, no-nonsense style. Here are some of the key principles and insights that define Shaan’s approach:
Think Differently: Shaan believes that following the crowd is a recipe for mediocrity. “Most people do what ‘most people’ do. This is a huge mistake… What most people are doing isn’t working. Do differently.” He preaches the importance of zigging when others zag, whether in career choices, business ideas, or life decisions. This contrarian streak led him away from a typical science career into startups, and it’s why he’s constantly seeking non-obvious opportunities.
Focus on One Big Thing: Puri advises entrepreneurs to be very deliberate in choosing what to pour their energy into. “…At any given time you’re really only going to get to throw your all into one thing… if you’re going to do that, choose really wisely.” This quote reflects his belief in prioritization; you can do many things in your life, but not all at once. For Shaan, this meant sequentially focusing on building one venture at a time (sushi, then Monkey Inferno projects, then Bebo, etc.), rather than diluting himself across too many projects simultaneously.
“No Small Boy Stuff”: This cheeky phrase is essentially Shaan’s rule to think big. He encourages aiming for ideas that have massive potential rather than settling for small, safe projects. This philosophy is evident in how he chose an audacious goal for All Access Pass (three $1M businesses) and how he’s drawn to large markets like crypto or social networks. Puri often reminds others not to shortchange themselves with low ambitions.
Copy What Works: One of Puri’s more counterintuitive lessons is “Copy, don’t create.” He argues that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, instead, learn from successful examples and imitate the parts that make them work (while adding your own twist). Early in his career, Shaan copied Chipotle’s model for his sushi venture. Later, when launching My First Million, he noted that he and Sam simply took a format that was working (casual conversational podcasts like Joe Rogan or Tim Ferriss) and applied it to their niche of business ideas. By standing on the shoulders of giants, Shaan sped up his learning curve. The takeaway: in business, originality is overrated if you can execute a proven playbook better than others.
Learn from “Winners”: Shaan is a big proponent of networking up and surrounding yourself with people you can learn from. “Be friends with winners, then learn from them.” he advises. In his own life, he actively sought mentors and successful peers (whether it was Michael Birch in the early days, or befriending other accomplished entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley). This not only gave him knowledge but also opened doors (it’s likely how opportunities like partnering with Sam Parr came about). He often encourages young entrepreneurs to provide value to potential mentors first (as he did by emailing Birch’s accelerator) as a way to build those relationships.
Stay Curious and Resourceful: Puri’s habit of asking “How did this get here?” about random things underscores a deeper philosophy of lifelong curiosity. He treats the world like an idea buffet, where any small observation could lead to a business idea. This feeds into his talent for spotting trends early, he was diving into crypto content before most media caught on, for example. Coupled with curiosity is his scrappiness; Shaan often finds clever, low-cost ways to validate ideas (like the Milk Road Google Doc test) before going all-in.
Personal Growth over Rigid Goals: Interestingly, Shaan isn’t a huge fan of traditional goal-setting or meticulous productivity hacks. Instead, he focuses on personal values and identity. He keeps a poster above his desk that asks “Who am I becoming?” and chooses a few core identities to cultivate (e.g. great dad, great CEO, etc.). By becoming a better version of himself, he believes “the score will take care of itself”. This philosophy means he’s less worried about short-term wins or losses; he’s playing the long game of character and skill-building. It’s a mindset that many find refreshing in a world obsessed with hustle and to-do lists.
Shaan Puri’s business philosophies all point to a common theme: question conventional wisdom, and build the life you want. Whether it’s ignoring the typical career path, borrowing great ideas, or defining success on his own terms, he exemplifies a modern, self-directed approach to entrepreneurship.
Personal Life and Interesting Facts
On a personal note, Shaan Puri is known for his friendly, upbeat demeanor and love of sharing what he’s learned.
He’s a family man, often mentioning his wife and daughter in stories. In fact, becoming a father has further motivated his entrepreneurial drive (and provided inspiration for at least one business, as noted). Balancing family and business is one of the reasons he’s mindful about how he spends his time. It’s no surprise that one of his “Power Four” life priorities (his four Kings) is being a great dad. He has even joked about inventing the 2-hour lunch to make time for enjoyable midday breaks, demonstrating his belief in designing a flexible lifestyle.
Puri is also an avid communicator, beyond the podcast, he actively writes online. He has a newsletter and frequently posts long, insightful Twitter threads on topics ranging from investing theses to life lessons (his thread on 10 years of money musings is particularly popular). These writings have garnered him a large following and established him as an approachable mentor figure to many young founders.
Another interesting tidbit: Shaan has a knack for creative naming and marketing. From “Milk Road” to “Bums and Roses” to calling his project “All Access Pass,” he picks names that are quirky and memorable. This reflects his fun-loving side, he doesn’t take himself too seriously despite the serious money involved in his ventures. Listeners of My First Million know he’s quick with a joke, a movie reference, or an off-the-cuff analogy (who else would compare business ideas to catching a bus or finding a wife in the way Shaan humorously does?).
This relatability is a big part of his brand.
Puri’s journey also highlights some personal resilience. He has openly discussed the stress and self-doubt that can come with entrepreneurship, for example, the tough moments when Blab shut down or when a big idea flops. Rather than conceal these struggles, Shaan shares them so others can learn. He often frames failures as funny stories or lessons in disguise. This outlook has endeared him to a community of followers who appreciate that he’s real about the rollercoaster of startup life, not just the highs.
From dining on sushi everyday during a failing startup, to negotiating multimillion-dollar deals, to riffing on business ideas over a podcast mic, Shaan Puri’s life so far has been anything but boring. And he’s still in his 30s, which means the story is far from over. He embodies a blend of hustle and curiosity, and he’s constantly reinventing himself in pursuit of the next big thing.
The Ongoing Legacy of Shaan Puri
Shaan Puri’s biography reads like a crash course in 21st-century entrepreneurship.
Early failure? Check: he learned from it.
Big comeback? Check: he built and sold companies in competitive arenas.
Sharing the journey? Absolutely! He’s invited the world in via podcasts and blogs. Along the way, he’s amassed a wealth of experiences that he generously shares, from quirky life hacks to deep business insights.
One of his notable quotes encapsulates his perspective on wealth: “A million bucks sounds sexy, but it’s not an end goal… ask at what thresholds do things actually change, versus what are the arbitrary numbers that just sound good.”. In other words, don’t chase a number for its own sake; chase the life you want.
For Shaan, the life he wants is one of creation, freedom, and continuous learning. He often says he’s more interested in who he’s becoming than what he’s achieving. That growth mindset has taken him from a kid hopping between countries, to a Duke grad with a dream, to a multi-exit entrepreneur and media personality.
Puri’s story shows that there’s no single formula for success, you can carve your own path by staying curious, taking risks, and not being afraid to do things differently. As co-host of My First Million and beyond, Shaan Puri continues to inspire a new generation of founders to think big, have fun, and go make their own first (or next) million!
This biography of Shaan Puri is based on his own accounts, interviews, and reputable profiles from a variety of trusted sources. Key references include TechCrunch’s coverage of the Twitch acquisition of Bebo (techcrunch.com), a Duke University alumni feature (calendar.duke.edu), Puri’s professional timeline on The Network (thenetwork.com), insights from Entrepreneur magazine (entrepreneur.com), and numerous quotes and stories shared by Shaan himself across podcasts, newsletters, and blog posts (adamsletter.com, starterstory.com, trevormckendrick.com). Together, these sources offer a comprehensive view of Shaan Puri’s entrepreneurial journey, philosophies, and milestones.
