How Blockworks Bootstrapped To A +$20M/yr Crypto Empire
About This Episode
Sam Parr interviews Jason Yanowitz, co-founder of Blockworks, about bootstrapping a $20 million crypto media empire from scratch. They explore the unit economics of large-scale conferences, the shift from agency-style podcast production to proprietary research platforms, and the importance of grit and sales skills for early-stage founders.
Episode Description
Show Notes
- 0:00Intro
- 1:45Blockworks revenue and profitability
- 4:00How to crush it with a conference
- 10:00Conferences are really 3-day marketplaces
- 15:00Jason's accidental MLM success story
- 23:00The difference between MLMs and pyramid schemes
- 27:00How Sam Ovens inspired Blockworks
- 30:00The fallacy of founder origin stories
- 35:00How Sam is optimizing his life
- 42:00Business Idea: Beehiiv for Conferences
- 45:00Business Idea: Hair transplants for the masses
- 48:00Blockworks Research
- 55:00Where is Jason putting his money?
- 1:00:00How Sam thinks about crypto
Links
- Blockworks
- Blockworks Research
- Blockworks Twitter
- Jason’s Twitter
- Sam Ovens Consulting company
- Peter Turchin
- beehiiv
- Eventbrite
- Splash
- Hopin acquisition
- ‘Elon Musk,’ by Walter Isaacson
- Jeff Bezo’s Regret Minimization Framework
- Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
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Key Takeaways
Scale is the primary driver of profitability in events; small events are excellent for community building but represent poor business models compared to massive, consolidated conferences that act as physical marketplaces.
Media businesses can maximize their value by transitioning from 'renting' intellectual property through agency services to 'owning' intellectual property through original content and high-ticket research subscriptions.
The hair transplant market is a massive, underserved opportunity for professionalization and branding, mirroring the historical evolution and normalization of Lasik eye surgery.
Business Ideas Mentioned
Next Generation Enterprise Event Management SaaS
SaaS
Modernized Branded Hair Transplant Clinics
Boring Business