I interviewed the founders of P. Terry’s on Moneywise, Patrick and Kathy Terry. They opened a 500-square-foot burger stand in South Austin in 2005, 90 days into their marriage, selling $1.60 hamburgers. Today they’ve got 37 locations, 1,800 employees, and do $150-200M a year growing 20%+. In 2016 a buyer offered them $70-100M. They said no. The only money they’ve ever taken in 21 years: just under $10M. - $900K in interest-free loans to hourly employees - Only $5K ever defaulted - Every decision runs through the “Maggie rule” (woman on the grill for 21 years) Instead of selling, they’re giving the whole company to their employees through an Employee Ownership Trust. Fewer than 100 American companies have ever done this. Full episode available everywhere.

Great question! And the reason you’ve never found a solid answer is that most people mash two different things together: Salary and Distributions DISTRIBUTIONS never touch your P&L. They’re an equity draw on the balance sheet, so the only thing you’re placing on the P&L is your salary (and you should be paying yourself a salary). SALARY follows the WORK, not the person. If you’re doing the delivery, that portion of your pay belongs in COGS, because if you hired someone to do that exact work tomorrow, that’s where THEIR pay would go. The “running the company” portion (admin, strategy, etc.) goes below the line as owner comp. So split it. If you pay yourself $120K and spend half your time on delivery, then $60K would get allocated to COGS and $60K to opex. A rough time allocation is fine and a good bookkeeper (and definitely a controller or CPA) should be able to help with this. Why bother? Because it’s the only way your gross margin can tell you the truth about what it actually costs to run your business. Business owners who don’t do this watch their “amazing” 90% margin that evaporates the day they make their first hire, and they don’t know why. Simple rule: book your labor where an employee’s labor would go. Also, pay yourself a salary based on fair market rate for the work you’re actually doing. Don’t pay yourself too little and take it all in distributions, because not only are you lying about the fundamentals of your business, you’re potentially pissing off the IRS and you REALLY don’t want to do that. (Disclaimer: None of this should be seen as tax and legal advice. I’m neither an attorney nor am I a CPA. I’m just a business owner who’s done it wrong and paid the price... literally.) xitter.cf/damn_ethan/status/2083…

We've worked with 100+ newsletters and have access to data that's rarely public. Here are 5 funnels working right now and what “good” benchmarks look like in each: 1. Sponsorship-monetized newsletters The vast majority of sponsor-monetized newsletters earn $2.50 to $5 per subscriber per year. Go niche B2B, think CXO-level in a specific industry, and that number can reach $20 to $40. Specific examples: a) B2C newsletters (multi-million subs, broad appeal, 1440-esque) • CPM: $10-25 • Ad CTR: 0.02-0.2% average; 0.5%+ elite • CPC: $1.50-3 best case, $5-11 worst case b) Prosumer newsletters (tighter audience, think The Rundown or Morning Brew): • CPM: $20-40 • Ad CTR: 0.20-0.90% average; 1%+ elite • CPC: $3-7 best case c) B2B newsletters (smaller lists, sponsors who overlap with the audience, think Industry Dive-types): • CPM: $50-100+ • CPC: $8-15; $20-50+ if they're niche 2. Affiliate funnels Two camps here. a) Financial publishers Target: • ~100% ROAS in 30-60 days • Revenue as high as $10-12/subscriber/year. b) Everyone else: • 20-35% ROAS target in 30 days • 60-90+ day payback • $8-10/subscriber/year This funnel is difficult to scale without paid ads, but significantly more profitable than sponsorships when done right. 3. Webinar funnels This is best for information products (cohort-based courses, coaching, community) and service offers. Metrics to target: • Cost per registration: $8 to $12 • Reminder email open rate: 40-60% average • Show rate on cold traffic: 20% average, 25%+ strong • Retention rate: 80% • Close rate, direct to checkout: 8 to 10% Done well, these funnels can generate $10-$100 per subscriber per year. 4. Book-a-call funnels This is the core funnel for paid ads to a service (coaching/consulting/agency). But don't start paid ads until you're doing $1M ARR. Here's why: • CAC runs $1,500-4,500 (plan around $3,000) • Cost per qualified booked call: $150-600 • Show rate: 50-75% • Close rate: 10-30% • Don't let people book more than 4 days out; show rates decay fast past that Even in the best case, your first client signs on day 14-21, which barely covers the ad spend you've already burned. Make sure you can comfortably support $20-30K upfront before starting. 5. Paid subscription funnels a) Consumer paid sub • CAC: $150 • Profitable on day 366 when the renewal hits • AOV = ~$100 or less Grow organically and buy placements in other newsletters unless you're in the top 5-10% of operators. b) B2B paid sub: AOV $200-340 Structure it as a qualified lead funnel and get people to self-identify as your ICP before they hit a paywall. Paid ads have a much stronger shot at in-year ROAS above 1x.

A Texas-built drone boat just made history, executing the first sea drone rescue in combat. This is what happens when you let businesses innovate and give them freedom to build. Texas companies are leading the world and strengthening our nation. Texans take care of America. expressnews.com/business/art…

2025 Broke Me and Hampton Wide Open I don’t usually write posts like this. Ever. Most founders don’t. It feels safer to share the highlight reel, the wins, the cool logos, the big revenue numbers. But 2025 wasn’t a highlight reel for me. It was a year of collisions: between ambition and reality, between growth and quality, between what I thought Hampton was and what it actually needed to become. It was the year we stopped treating Hampton like a clever idea and started treating it like a real institution. And institutions aren’t built on vibes. They’re built on sweat, and sometimes a little tears. So here’s the truth, the whole year, as honestly as I can remember it. We started 2025 with momentum and no real spine We had fast growth, a passionate team, and a “this is working” confidence. But underneath, the machine was wobbling. Our virtual groups were slipping structurally, energetically, culturally. Our IRL cities were growing, but held together by duct tape from a handful of heroic operators we are blessed to have on our team. We were onboarding new members into a process held together with post-its and personality. And our early group model, which worked at 400 members, was starting to buckle at 1,000. But when growth is good, you look the other way. 2025 didn’t let me look away. The failures hit early. And stupidly. I’m not talking about existential failures. I’m talking about the embarrassing ones, the ones that shouldn’t happen, but did. We genuinely forgot who owned a critical process We launched a new member process using a Google Doc titled “Use This Until We Build Something Real” We shipped an onboarding step that literally contradicted the previous step We found two different teams unknowingly building the same workflow We ran an event where half the RSVPs ended up at the wrong location We tried to run an in-person onboarding… through a Zoom link Now, these were small individually. Together? A signal. They told me: “You’re operating at a bigger scale now. And the systems that got you here won’t get you to the next layer.” I hate hearing that sentence. But it was true. We rebuilt the almost everything from the inside out We tore into every piece of the product: IRL became the core of Hampton We stopped pretending virtual could keep up. We doubled down on cities where founders actually show up. We rebuilt group compositions, and curation methodology It changed everything. Core Groups got a total reboot Top/Bottom 5%. MITs. Reflections Deeper Business Explorations. The famous 3Ms, 3Cs, and 3Ls (iykyk) A real year-one flow. A real year-two model. A real operating rhythm instead of moderator improvisation. A true Hampton way, consistent and powerful for moderators and members. This wasn’t cosmetic. It was structural. The team doubled up on accountability Some people stepped up. Some didn’t. We reorganized almost every major function, sales, events, retreats, member success, ops, marketing. We started bringing on leaders with more experience We sunset roles that weren’t driving impact. We called out communication problems in real-time, even when it felt uncomfortable. (Jori called me out for this one) And the market punched back, hard Costs went up. Lead volume went down. Twitter performance swung like a yo-yo. CAC crept. Retention became an obsession, not just a dashboard line item. But we didn’t hide from the numbers. We rebuilt the funnel, ad by ad, landing page by landing page. We launched our internal OS (TU Doug!) We added activation fees, future price tiers, and a membership model that actually matches the value we deliver. 2025 was the year Hampton taught me how to be an operator again. (With a lot of help from Sam pushing me) We had wins too, big ones NYC hit retention numbers that felt unreal in this industry. Austin began to turn its flywheel. We built multiple IRL groups that feel like they’ll last a decade. We hosted 6 amazing retreats that created life long members We rebuilt pricing for 2026 in a way I’m proud of, thoughtful, honest, sustainable. We're adding structure to our chapter leadership that will compound for years. We started building our Video capabilities and muscle And best of all I joined my first IRL core group and I was blown away. A year ago, my virtual group was ok to good. Today, my IRL group is pacing to be game changing. It's night and day the difference. I couldn't be more excited. But the biggest win? We finally know what we are: Hampton is a real community. Not a whim, not a startup idea a lineage. It's weird to talk in terms like this, but when I look at YPO, EO, Vistage, we are talking about institutions that have been around for 60-70 years. That's my singular goal and purpose. To nurture something that can outlive me and change lives for tens of thousands of members. And personally… this year exposed some big gaps in me I walked into 2025 still operating like a founder, not a CEO. My instincts were all speed, improvisation, and “I’ll handle it.” That works when you’re building the first version of something. It does not work when 1,000+ founders depend on your systems actually… existing. I learned the hard way that a lot of Hampton’s growing pains weren’t “the team.” They were me. Hormozi says: Before you get mad at your team ask yourself: Do they know WHAT to do? Do they know HOW to do it? Do they know WHEN to do it? Do they know WHY they should do it? Is something blocking them? Diagnose first. Then fix the actual problem. It was clear that; I wasn’t giving enough structure. I wasn’t giving enough clarity or communication And I was still solving problems myself instead of building the processes that solve them forever. And without meaning to, I became a bottleneck inside the company I’m trying to scale. The truth is, my skill set is still heavily tilted toward founder chaos, not CEO discipline. I’m weak on frameworks, systems, and documentation all the things that feel slow and annoying when all you’ve ever done is move fast and break things. This is the biggest friction point I have with Sam. He wants CEO excellence, and I'm a founder trying to pretend I know what that is. But if you want to build something that lasts decades, not years, you eventually have to do the unsexy work: SOPs. Process, frameworks (EOS!). Clear accountability. Structure. Redundancies. No founder wants to think about that stuff. But Hampton (and Sam) forced me to stretch into it. To build muscles I’ve avoided for 20 years. To lead with more truth, more candor, more structure, more accountability and a lot less ego. I’m not done learning. But for the first time, I’m learning in the direction that Hampton actually needs. And here’s what I know going into 2026 We’re not trying to be the biggest founder community. We’re trying to be the deepest. The most transformational. The one that actually makes people’s careers and marriages and companies better. The one that lasts. 2025 was the year we earned the right to try. And if you’re building something hard right now something that keeps you up at night, something that exposes every weakness you didn’t know you had I hope this gives you at least one thing: You’re not supposed to have it all figured out. You’re just supposed to keep rebuilding the parts that break. That’s what we did this year. And we’re better for it. Here’s to the next version. - Joe Co-Founder, Hampton

Sharing this here. This was my reply to this Jesse guy. 1. The price paid cash up front (something like 21 or 22m). 2. Then I personally was given a bunch of stock as talent (I was hosting MFM and The Hustle was, in part, my personality). 3. Also, some key employees got stock deals too. 3. The stock went up a ton as it vested, but even if it didn't go up, I don't think that's part of the total sum of $40m+, just the base number (but i'd have to do the math). 4. We were also given a contract that was all performance to continue hosting the pod. Originally, that contract was decent. But as the podcast exploded, it was a lot more. If you say that was part of the The Hustle deal (but it'd also be fair to say that was separate talent contract and not part of The Hustle deal), then it changed things a lot. I don't reveal that as I'm not the only party involved. The #4 part is still in action, so it could be a lot higher (or lower, as its all performance). But assuming the pod does NOT grow and stays constant...the total price of all the things above combine to that $40m number, which is what i said in that post. I can prove it all to you, if you'd like. But frankly, I think you're a punk and don't want to talk to you. You've contacted me before. You said you liked me and listened to my content. Then you try to call me out here to look cool. Like dunking on the cool kid as it'll get you points, which I'm not the cool kid but podcasters are easy to mock because we put ourselves out there. And then on this very thread you said you don't consume my content to add to the narrative of "f this sam guy, he sucks!". I'm a very flawed person, not doubt about it. But I work so hard to be a stand up guy and serve others. And being polite to me and my business partners in private, but trying to tear my down in public to gain cool points -- its so low character. I'm a person and you trying to hurt me when I can prove all of this AND you speak nicely to me in private, well, it brings me down and hate twitter.

Hampton has a Slack channel called sh*t i'm f*cked where people tell stories when they nearly failed. The channel is our most popular channel. Its honestly pretty awesome seeing super successful people talk about near-business-death experiences. Also fun to celebrate these f*ck ups and laugh at it all. A few highlights (anonymized): 1. $140k payroll due in 6 days. $550k in receivables. $7k in the bank. 2. Judge’s decision coming at 3pm. Outcome could erase 3 years of work. 3. Got cut halfway through vesting, lost millions. Divorce followed. Threw savings into Bitcoin at $800. That bet saved me. 4. A week before launch, every customer froze. Same week, the place we were staying literally burned down. Still raised at a $50M+ valuation. 5. Finance head quit on Monday. Controller quit Tuesday. By Friday, sales VP + 5 reps gone. Found $700k in fake receivables, $350k unpaid bills, and $250k in “free product” promised to customers. 6. $120M exit offer in writing. Buyer cut it in half. Walked. A year later, sold for less than $15M. At the same time: parent passed away, other parent hospitalized, had to run their debt-heavy business overnight. 7. All funds at the wrong bank. Friday collapse. Payroll due Monday. 8. $450k of personal-guarantee debt, buggy product, entire team gone. Bankruptcy docs ready to sign. Didn’t file. Paid it all back. 9. Biggest client worth $280k/month vanished. Another $250k project canceled over the holidays. Burned millions trying to hang on. 10. House flip disaster: 5 months late, $100k over budget, $70k in maxed credit cards, pregnant wife, $20 in the bank, $20k/month burn. First rainstorm: roof leaked everywhere. Took years to climb out.

Google just made a subtle but massive change Last month, Google quietly removed the num=100 search parameter. This means you can no longer view 100 results at once. The default max is now 10. Why does this matter? - Most LLMs (OpenAI, Perplexity, etc.) rely (directly or indirectly) on Google’s indexed results, alongside their own crawlers. - Overnight, their access to the “long tail” of the internet was cut by 90%. The fallout: - According to Search Engine Land, 88% of sites saw a drop in impressions. - Reddit, which often ranks in positions 11–100, saw its LLM citations plummet. Its stock dropped 15%. For startups, this is brutal. Visibility just got harder. Reddit as part of AEO just changed entirely. It’s no longer enough to build a great product you need to crack distribution first. Because if people can’t discover you, they’ll never get to evaluate you. Most engineers seem to always neglect this reality, but a mediocre product with great distribution will always beat a great product with mediocre distribution. As Peter Thiel says: “Most businesses get zero distribution channels to work: poor sales rather than bad product is the most common cause of failure. If you can get just one distribution channel to work, you have a great business. If you try for several but don’t nail one, you’re finished. Superior sales and distribution by itself can create a monopoly, even with no product differentiation. The converse is not true. No matter how strong your product — even if it easily fits into already established habits and anybody who tries it likes it immediately — you must still support it with a strong distribution plan." Distribution > Product (h/t Adarsh Appaiah on LinkedIn)

Honestly, @damn_ethan hosted a great meetup. Watch me nail two discs in one shot! Looking forward to taking 1st place next time