Shaun Neff's Rise from Dollar Store Hats to Building Multiple $100M Brands 🧢 E47
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I'm like, you know, you're the homie, rock a t-shirt. I'm on Burton, I'm on Nike, I'm on all these, have these big endorsement deals. I can't because of my contract. I'm like, well, let me see a contract. It said nothing about headwear. Instead of making t-shirts with my name on it, make a hat. Didn't know how to make a hat or a beanie. True story, went to a dollar store, bought like 20 of the most ghetto hats and beanies you've ever seen. Bought a Sharpie. Come on.

Come on. Wrote Neff on it. No. There was an Olympic televised event. One of the guys, you know, on the podium had my last name written on his head. And that's really where Neff cracked the code. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a very, very fun episode. You're going to want to listen to every single second of this episode because it's fascinating to listen to the journey, the investments, the brands, the products.

how he built his brands and everything between, you are going to be blown away. I'm already excited about it and I've known him for years, but to actually hear the intricacies of some of these stories is what you guys are in a treat for today. So on the Money Mondays, we cover three core topics, how to make money, how to invest money, and how to give it away to charity. This person has been around the block for many, many, many, many years and have been involved in a lot of different companies. He's even invested into a whole freaking soccer team. So we're going to get into all these things, but please give a warm round of applause wherever you are in the world to Mr. Sean Neff.

Thank you. Thank you. All right, Sean. So normally we only do two minute bios. Yeah. I always say let's do two minute bio and get straight to the money. That's not possible here. I need to hear the story. The people, they need to hear the story. They deserve to hear the story. Tell us how Sean Neff first got into the game and then let's walk through some of these brands, products, exits and all the things along the path. Love it, man. So,

So yeah, I grew up in SoCal here, a little north of LA. And I would say at a young age, I was weirdly intrigued with brands, right? Like being a surfskate snow kid, there was maybe only two or three companies that I literally rock on my chest or the hat or the sneakers or whatever. So I was very particular.

And for me being young, I was like, when I grew up, I would love to have a brand like that. Right. That was just the dream. I want to be like Tony Hawk. Exactly. It was just the dream. I like walking in as a consumer and being like, I have 30 bucks and that brand and what it felt like to show up at school the next day and rock that brand culture tribe. I just loved that feeling as a consumer. So I'm like, if I can make someone feel like that one day, mind blowing, had no idea how to do it. So yeah,

Freshman in college, like, okay, I guess I'm ready to go. I have no idea. I've never done this. I wasn't from like an entrepreneurial family, but went through a couple names and I'm like, all right, I'm going to start a clothing company. Put my, you know, ended up going through a couple different names that got botched from the trademark office, right? Like tried to register them. Oh, can't use it. Like, oh, I didn't even know there was an office. Didn't even know what the USPTO was. I'm like just this young hustling kid.

And then I'm like, uh, that Bob Hurley dude used his last name that worked. So it was as simple as that. So I'm like, okay, Neff. So literally printed some t-shirts, got a little buzz, you know, putting Neff stickers up on like stop signs, the rad little DJ in the college town, you know, uncool college town, Provo, Utah. Right. So I'm up there and literally hit this moment where there was a little buzz and I started

Hanging out and snowboarding with the biggest snowboarders in the world up in Park City and was like yo Can you rock a t-shirt? They're like no I can't but why I'm like, you know that you're the homie rock a t-shirt. I'm on Burton I'm on Nike. I'm on all these have these big endorsement deals. I Can't because of my contract. I'm like, well, let me see a contract never seen one took one home long story short It said nothing about headwear So I'm like, all right

head, right? That's what's on the camera. There's no way I can just, instead of making t-shirts with my name on it, make a hat and then they're going to rock it and be fine. Because I was like, that's impossible. That's the gold mine. That's the head. But there was an Olympic televised event and coming up in Park City for the Olympics. And I'm like, all right, well, I might as well show up instead of a backpack full of t-shirts, have some hats. But I'm like,

I never met the hat guy in Provo, Utah. There's screen printers. Didn't know how to make a hat or a beanie. True story. Went to a dollar store. Bought like 20 of the most ghetto hats and beanies you've ever seen. Bought a Sharpie. Come on. Wrote Neff on it. No. I'll show you. Or you can post it in the link. I'll show you the actual... One of these big pro riders sent it back to me like 13 years ago. Or after I started Neff and was like, you have to have this. This is one of your first 20 pieces. So literally, ghetto as can be. Sharpie.

showed up lo and behold talked to an agent talked to all these writers yo i got head you know i got hats now and beanies and you can rock it and it doesn't conflict with your contract and the agents are like oh geez they're like yeah well he's kind of right but like i ain't it's all about you you're the athlete so lo and behold they rocked it that day it was incredible one of the guys you know on the podium had my last name written on his head and that's really where neff cracked the code and you

you know, it was the true hustle and Neff from them, you know, started Surse Gate Snow. And then we quickly went into youth culture from Snoop to Wiz to Lil Wayne to Kid Cudi to Scarlett Johansson to Kevin Durant to, you know, all these collaborations. And I built Neff. That was the, that's where I cut my teeth in business. You know, we got it up to doing over a hundred million a year in revenue and, and, you know, in like 60 countries and I was young. So it was just like,

Here I am, and there's so many little stories I don't have the time to get into, but like from showing up at our first trade show, and you're like, okay, I've got this huge roster of dope athletes that I'm not paying because there isn't a headwear company, and I found this niche, and that allowed me to get sales reps because I called the Burton guy, and I'm like, hey, after you sell the three-hour Burton deal, bring out my little backpack full of beanies and just sell a couple. So I came in on this little niche and back to the trade show, and

I had all these dope athletes and no money. I'm like a sophomore at this time. And I show up, we have the dopest spot. Cause I was like talking to the trade show guy going, yo, I need this dope spot. Cause I'm coming with all these athletes. We're going to be the dope kids. We're showing up. And I got my little 10 by 10 booth right next to Burton. Yep.

Burton, lo and behold, obviously spent probably $3 million on their booth, right? This massive booth building this city. And I hustled a guy as the haunted house was being shut down because it was like two days after Halloween. I gave a dude like 50 bucks. I said, it's 10 by 10. He literally cut stuff. And I showed up with a haunted house ghetto booth right next to Burton. And that was the Neff story. And it was, I ended up selling Neff, uh,

you know, nine and a half years into it. And it was, that's a dream come true. How old were you when you sold it? Gosh, I was probably, probably 29. Oh wow. Yeah. Oh wow. 30. Yeah. Okay. It was insane. I got into the fast version story. So I started my clothing brand in high school, 17 and a half years old.

I trademarked the catchphrase, who's your daddy? I love it. USPTO. I couldn't even spell USPTO. I didn't know what you were talking about. Exactly. We didn't have internet back then. This was 1999. So...

I started the brand and similarly I went to Magic, the clothing convention. Oh yeah. Right. Been there several times. So 15, 16, 17 years old. I worked three jobs. I save up $43,000 to go to college at SDSU. Instead I use it for the brand. I thought I'm going to have two years of money. Yeah. Two weeks later we're broke because I bought a booth. Someone charged me $30,000 for samples. Yep.

Nuts. Right? They told us it was going to be five grand. They charged us 30. And so we get to the magic convention. Same thing. Instead of being a 10 by 10, I'm going to go crazy. I'm going to get a 10 by 20. Wow. I'm going to make it rain. Yeah, you're coming in hot. I'm going to spend $3,500, get a 10 by 20, and I'm going to be right next to a new brand called Sean John and another brand called FUBU. Great location. 1999. I am 10 feet by 20 feet. They are a million dollars and a bazillion dollars. They're like castles. I still remember them. I still have pictures there.

It's me, two high school girls, and a rack, a metal rack of t-shirts. I love it. I love it.

Fast forward, I'm walking through the halls and a guy stops me. He's like, whoa, your shirt says Hoosier Daddy. Where'd you get that from? I was like, oh, I own it. He's like, okay, kid. Like, where'd you get it from? Yeah. He was the director of ASR, the Action Sports Retail Show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so he's like, oh, my convention is next week. And I was like, oh, I'm based in San Diego. He's like, oh, do you want a booth? Yeah. He's like, we don't have room for you, but I can like put you next to this brand called Calvin Klein that shouldn't even be there.

Like Calvin Klein shouldn't be ASR. Yeah, that's not really the vibe. So we go there, get a booth next to Calvin Klein. I show up with a couch from my mom's house. I love it. That same rack. We're steaming it as people are walking by. I love it. But the crazy part was that booth was right by the check-in. So all 10,000 people had to check in right next to us. Genius. But then they never come back for three more days. Oh.

Right? And so I get to become friends with the head of Calvin Klein. He's like, oh, come see me in New York sometime. I'm with FUBU and Sean John. I fly the next morning. There's no cell phone. There's no texting. Yeah. I show up there. The rest is history. You end up doing nine and a half million dollars next year. Love it. Tens of millions of dollars after that. Based on this one accidental meeting was that guy. He introduced me to Macy's and everything else. Okay. So the hustle though. Oh my God. Right? I mean, like most people, right? That's what I love about your story, my story.

We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. There wasn't some massive business plan that we had to like articulate and show it to five successful guys to say, Hey, is this going to work? Cause in the end, right? Like, sure. It's good to know where you're heading, but like, you know, I always say three things, dream, believe, hustle. And the dream goes so far, bro. Right? Like the dream is what you had, what I had. And it's like,

Okay, like I drew you know in your mind you can see this. It's not an ego thing It's more of just like this. I'm a dreamer. I'm a dreamer Let's go and then if you believe in yourself right and you're like that's the hustle right like that's you riffing this dude catching this guy We're rocking the shirt. Hey Calvin Klein guy. Oh see you sometime now you showed up the next day. Mm-hmm, right? So like I love it and and and and I think that's for everyone right like sometimes I

entrepreneur and look today's world it's easier to start things it's easier to get stuff going social media but like a lot of people still feel that they might not be cut for it and that's what I love I'm like

I had nothing really special. I just went. And I think that's the message for everyone is just go. Like have an idea and go. Because worst case scenario, you lose like 99% of people. And if it works... Especially in your 20s. Exactly. You just go. That's the best age. When you're young, I'd recommend every kid in college start three businesses. Yes. That's called real life university. Love that. Okay. So...

You're 29 years old. You sell this company. It's named after you. You've been doing it for a decade. How do you decide, I'm just going to chill out and hang out on the beach and hang out with girls and go eat and whatever? Or I'm going to do my next venture or advise companies, consult. How do you decide what your next thing is once you have that exit? Yeah, it was kind of cool because even pre the exit,

I'd got my hands dabbling in a couple things right like Sony Electronics the big company they were in San Diego they reached out to me and they were like hey can you help us advise like color palettes what's cool what's on trend kind of you stuff right so I was kind of dabbling there and then a pretty cool opportunity came across I had a college buddy hit me right and and

you know, we all have college buddies and college buddies could all give you a call. Hey, like, can you talk to my neighbor? Right. So generally the neighbor call, you're like, all right, bro, I got you. But like, I didn't have high expectations just because it is what it is. So I ended up calling this company and I was like, wow, okay.

There's something here. It was in the Suncare market. So they had reached out to me because I had just built Neff. So they wanted to start in like the Searce Gates, no distribution, get credibility and then scale. So I was like, this is interesting. And I kind of saw it. And at the time it was a smaller brand. And the crazy thing is they had been out trying to raise capital and they hadn't been able to do it. And or they didn't find the right person that they trusted.

So I was lucky enough to meet them and I basically ended up looking into it. I loved their packaging. I love their logo. And I was in this spot where I was like, okay, I think there's something here. I think I can add value.

And more importantly, I think this could go. So this was like my first real investment, right? Because everything else, like Neff, I literally started with like pizza money, right? And just sold some, bought some, sold some, made some, right? So this opportunity came across and I just felt that this thing could scale. And I ended up writing a check. They probably had weeks left of runway, like weeks.

arguably in my opinion if I didn't write this check I don't know if this company would have made it right very very slim chance um and this company ended up being sun bum like from a random college phone call random college buddy phone call to his neighbor who was one of the original guys and that was insane right because for me

I was already dabbling knowing I wanted to do some other stuff. After the Sony stuff, it was really cool. Target reached out and Target was redoing their kids apparel business. So it used to be Sean White, Mossimo and Cherokee. And they're like, let's get rid of all those. Those brands are relevant. Let's incubate internally.

So they hired me as an advisor and I was kind of initially like cool I'll go and advise but and I'm here to add value but more importantly I'm like I want to bring stuff through the target pipeline. Of course. So I ended up helping them redo their kids apparel business. The two brands were Art Class and Cat and Jack and I was highly focused on Art Class and helped them you know launch that. So but lo and behold they

i wrote for me a pretty good sized check right just shy of a million dollars right you know into this company which was small and who knows i think the valuation at the time i think it was around five million bucks right so they were maybe doing who knows a couple million in revenue i can't remember small um and uh but lo and behold we hired a killer operator there's a guy named renee who kind of designed the famous

yellow ape in the cool wood grain so i just saw it from day one i was like the packaging's incredible the smell was was amazing but for me my litmus test i'll never forget i was like you know what there's not a company in the sun care market today where i would take a sticker or a logo and throw it on my surfboard of my car right copper tone banana vote neutrogena lame

So that was literally my litmus test. And then when I came in and wrote my check, another guy came in. He was the operator, great guy out of Australia, a phenomenal operator. And then I, you know, so I don't take credit of, I didn't start Sunbum. I don't take credit of, I didn't run it every day today. I was on the board, but obviously putting in the cash. And I would say my most important bad add value there was while I was on Target's payroll.

I was in at X Games staying in the Target house, right, where Sean White and all those guys are hanging. And I met someone that introduced me to one of the big sales agencies in Minneapolis. So I kind of opened the door, got that agency started, and then I set up the meeting with the agency. So here I'm literally in meetings in Minneapolis at Target working on their internal kids business. Right.

And then I like walked down the hallway, went up, here comes in the Sunbum guys. I set up this meeting, we sit down and literally open the door. And when we sold, you know, Sunbum to Target, that was... We sold to Target. No, no. So we, no, sorry. We're selling it in, right? No, no, no. We sold it to SC Johnson. Got it. So SC Johnson bought the company. But when we sold in to Target, right? And when we ended up having the exit to SC Johnson, it was probably more than half of our revenue.

No way. So that was the catalyst. That was the big money maker for that brand. Whoa. At scale. So that's a fun little like, you know, and all the other stuff usually I start and create. How big did someone get? Approximately. Yeah, I mean, approximately. I mean, look, we were ballpark brands.

On our way, you know, I think we closed around, I think we're around seven, heading to around 70 million on revenue, probably heading towards a hundred, right? Ish. And you found them at a couple of million. Oh yeah. It was tiny. Yeah. When I got in, it was, it was very tiny. So yeah, as far as making money Mondays, that was a good Monday when that sold. It was a big exit and you know, I, you know, it's, it was,

do the math there's a lot of multiples on that that reward but but you know so i was always wanting to do more sure so from the time of finding them the college friends next door neighbor to them selling what age are you now you go from 29 now are you 34 34 you got me on the age game ballpark yeah probably i mean i'm i was probably yeah sunbum sold right before kovitz i was probably 30

I think some of them was, I should look at my LinkedIn, seven or eight years or something. So I was probably like 37-ish, eight-ish. So now you've got your original exit. You own a big chunk of another big exit. Yeah. Was there investments in between or this where you're like, okay, well now I've got a lot of extra capital. Yeah. I've got my two exits under my belt. Like is this the time you're going to start investing and starting products with Kendall Jenner and start like whole brands? When does that change happen?

Yeah. So gradual journey. So like, even throughout that time, I got lucky. I got introduced to Beju, who founded, was a co-founder of Robin Hood. So I was like, I think they had three or four people in their office. I just saw him in Vegas last week at F1. But yeah.

Lucky enough to find him I got introduced as hey you should bring Neff in for brand and kind of so I came in super early got in super early on that. You invested in that? Oh yeah and they gave me shares. And they gave me shares. I talk about that company in almost all my speeches. Oh really? I love it. Oh yeah dude it was I was up there at their office like I remember Beju and I went up there there was probably four or five people at the company I mean the thing was small.

I can't remember the valuation I got in, but I mean, wrote a check and they gave me a bunch of shares. It's kind of like the David Cho thing where he like was able to, he was able to paint and then they gave him shares and was worth a lot of money. So like I did a couple of laps around the, the neighborhood with Beju walking and we kind of worked out our deal where he gave me a bunch of shares. I put some money in and yeah,

That was a good, you know, that was a good multiple as well. So, but so I was always doing stuff like that. And, you know, for me, just, I was at this stage where I think I,

I was starting to get some inbound, right? Like talent, people coming like, hey, you want to start this? You want to do this? You want to start that? And I had just right when I sold Neff and I don't know, this was just for me. Like, I don't think I'm an investor guy, right? Like everything that I've really made money at. Sure, I've might have invested. Nowadays, they just want me on their cap table. I'm not really writing checks and they give me a piece of the company, but

But my thesis was always like, I'm here to add value. And right when I sold Neff, I remember I was like, oh, meeting with dudes and getting on Y Combinator calls. Like, oh, geez, they're having some summit. And I got in and I can look at 30 companies. I remember right after I made my first money, I probably wrote 10 or 12 checks just really quick because I'm like, oh, I guess you make money, you do some best. I don't even remember what those were. I think a couple of them hit. Right.

I don't even remember the names of the other ones. So I remember like, I don't like doing or touching anything where I just spray and pray or write a check and like hope something happens. Literally like sun bum, like pretty much opened the door at target, which was critical and gave him capital at the time to keep him in, you know, um, Robin hood, don't take much credit. But in the beginning I was able to vibe with, with, with Bayes you. And so all these other things. So I was at this spot where there was a ton of inbound. I

I knew I didn't want to just throw money at stuff and hope it works. It's not fun. I love building. I love thinking. I love ideating. I love like, you know, and getting into, you know, the company where I spend a lot of time now, Beach House, right? Like I'm in a spot where I love what I do because it's ideation, incubation. And I was at this spot where there was a lot of inbound. I was meeting with a lot of talent and I

And I was kind of like, okay, I learned very quickly that I'm not an operator, right? That's the biggest advice to any entrepreneur. Like, what are you great at? And just own that. Like me, I know where I'm great and it's not me. Like I don't take at this stage in my life credit for anything. It's all, I just play my role and

And I need other people at the table, right? And as long as you have killers at the table that are great, that's how you win, right? So I always kind of had to realize, like, is it neff when, you know, the company's blowing up and there's 150 employees. We're in 60 countries. I'm, like, reading Jack Welch books going, all right, I think I'm going to be a big CEO one day, you know? And I'm like, that's so not me. Like, nowadays...

If anything comes with like logistics or any of this stuff, I like just leave the room. So, you know, I think that's a critical point is up to that point in my life, I learned my superpower. I learned what I was great at. And I think from then I was like, okay, I want to put myself in a position where I can do what I love, do what I'm great at and put myself around with great people. So I had an opportunity and I got introduced by, you know, a couple of amazing people who

you know, to this guy named PJ Bryce, right? And at the time, PJ had a couple partners, they had a company and they were kind of making like private label type product at Target. So it was more like Target wants this, they can source it and produce it and they go and make it, right? So Target and some other people were like, you should meet this PJ guy 'cause he's got operational excellence, he's a good operator, he's got supply chain backend.

but they're just making stuff. They're not really creating brands. So for me, I was like, okay, do I go do a bunch of things on my own or maybe I can team up with PJ, which we started Beach House.

And maybe we can create this company called Beach House where we incubate brands because back to the table. Like I know what I'm great at. PJ and I are yin yang. Like he comes in a suit. He's from like, he's from like England. He's all dappered up and he does his thing. And I come in like 10 minutes late. I'm just like, yeah, what up? And I just like riff with the buyers and then like I leave and then it works. Right. So, so yeah.

That's really where I was at a spot where I'm like, I want to be in a place where I can have a playground. There's operational excellence here that we can execute some of my brand ideas. And that's where we started Beach House five years ago. And five years ago, we started this thing. And now Beach House this year,

we're going to do over 300 million a year in revenue we already you know how many brands is it so today currently we operate base which is the travel brand and shay mitchell is our partner on that which base a couple hundred million this year in revenue black friday i know i got the little text message but it was wild like 26 million dollars that day on our website

big but it's kind of like it's the new away it's yeah it's that that brand's even blown my mind like i invest in a lot of companies these are some amazing numbers and it just yeah no these are big and base and and look when you look at it because there's so many like how'd you get there what you do and and and base in particular was our first business at beach house so so beach house is a beauty incubator got it moving forward base is not a beauty company

Everything else we've done is in beauty. Everything we're doing in the future is beauty. But base, it was interesting because I teamed up with PJ. He kind of sold his bag company to Conair. It was a beauty bag business. He had to wait. He had kind of like a non-compete. So we couldn't get into beauty right out of the way. And then a friend of mine introduced me to Shea Mitchell.

And Shay had this idea of like, hey, nail salons. Like someone came to her and said, hey, I want you to be a partner in this nail salon business. And then she showed that to me and it was kind of like tough business, capital intensive, tough to scale, tough to exit. But I was like, hey, like you should come over to Beach House. We're just starting this incubator. And I saw on her that she was super smart.

she was all in she wanted to work hard there all these things have to line up with talent which we can get into but and she was doing shaycations at the time like authentically doing shaycations on a youtube page so she was already credible in travel so i'm like hey let's come over here we went into beach house and basically that's was our first brand at beach house was base and shay mitchell's our partner in face of it um and it's that thing's been crazy just

It's so insane. Rocket ship. And like even me, I'll go, you know, because the Neff days, I couldn't, there were years where I could not leave my house and go 10 minutes without seeing Neff somewhere on a beanie or a t-shirt, right? It was just, it got that crazy. It was just everywhere. I saw it everywhere, yeah. So it's been fun lately and even Sunbum, right? You're kind of like, every time you go to the pool, the beach, you kind of see it. That's what motivates me, right? It's not this and that. It's like, I love...

when stuff's tiny and you ideate something and then you can go out and experience it in the world. And then it kind of comes back to me being that consumer of loving what it meant to be a part of a tribe and a brand. And the fact that I've been able to do that a handful of times and be a part of doing that just blows my mind and keeps me going and psychs me out. So exit one, exit two, start creating brands under beach house, multiple different brands.

How do you decide what you're going to dive into? There's lots of celebrities and lots of influencers, lots of partners that you could choose. How do you decide like this is the factor or this is someone I can actually build a brand product or service around? Love that. So let's go back to Beach House, right? Because that's the perfect scenario, right? We've got infrastructure. We have capital like we're scaling. We have relationships with retailers. It's a machine now.

So like going through it, right, the next business, you know, we started was Florence with Millie Bobby Brown. So it's kind of this like talking with Ulta. What's, you know, hey, what are you missing? Where do you think there's gaps on the shelf? You know, what if we're going to bring you something and innovate something together together?

you know, where's the opportunity, right? So like me, I like one in a weird way, walking retail. Like I'm, I'll just like chill out in like a Sephora or a Target or Walmart for hours and just creep. And like, that's how Moon was started. I literally walked to the oral care aisle and I was like,

It's disgusting. It's ugly. It's red, white, and blue. It's Crest Colgate. And I was like, there's nothing that would look rad sitting next to a Chanel bottle. So I literally was like, let's start Moon. So that's what I do. So I spend a lot of time doing that. And with talent in particular, right? Like at the time, Stranger Things, the biggest show in the world, Millie probably had more pull on Gen Z than anyone else in the world. And Ulta was like, we need clean beauty and we need Gen Z.

So like, it's kind of like, it's not just like a one-off, oh, Millie would be great for beauty. It was more of like, retailer has a need, market has a need. Millie is perfect for that. So we ideated that, launched that, and we ended up selling, you know, Florence, probably a year

year and a half, two years into it pretty quick. So we scaled it quick. We got it to like, I don't know, 20 something million in revenue after like 18 months, right? Just a quick little nice hockey stick growth. And, and we got out of that one, um, which was good. And, and then, and then the next one, right, we did, um, was pattern with Tracy Ellis Ross. So, so I think when we look at talent, um,

and especially me particular, because that's kind of my role at Beach House is ideate the brand, lock in the talent, what's the right. We've met with, in me personally, I've probably met with over 200 talent. No way. Since Beach House started. Easy. And you're talking like 200 talent inbounds way more, right? Because every YouTuber, influencer, new TikTok or whatever, we get inbounds daily. I get inbounds of like, hey, do you think she can do a brand? Do you think he can do a brand? Right.

But like proper like, hey, there's maybe 50 to 100 people that was like, oh, this is an intriguing idea. Let's have a conversation. So do the math. A ton of inbound and we've done four. And each person is very different, right? Like Shay, I mean, give her all the credit for base. She's like all the product, the mindset around the business, how travel is not just like,

the old school away thinking of like buy a suitcase one every five years and go travel no it's like it's coachella it's palm springs for the weekend we have this bag called the weekender that just crushes it right probably is a 50 60 million dollar skew right it's just something ridiculous right and and just just rocks right but but that's shea being authentic she's in it every design every pouch every this every that so we try to find talent that

is ridiculously engaged in the category. I mean, authenticity and realness and storytelling, all of that's key. Cause for me, creating a brand is just telling a story. So if you don't have someone that can tell the story that people can believe and are going to be in, that's the biggest difference. I mean, we've met with, I don't want to drop names, but I've sat with a handful of individuals, household, 200 million plus followers on Instagram alone, gone down the path of,

And in the end, you know, okay, they want money. They don't care about this brand as much as these others. They're not going to work hard and they're going to spend three months negotiating a deal to get the least amount of deliverables and the most equity, right? And those you run away from. So, you know, that's the formula. It's not just one thing, right? It's every brand, there's a different need. Every brand, there's a different story. Like Kendall's perfect for Moon because...

that brand was all about aesthetic and being amazing. I mean, she's the biggest supermodel in the world. She's got the following. She's got great taste. So it was like a no brainer when we ideated moon and I ended up calling Chris, Chris, you know, our first meeting was actually randomly at Kylie's house. I don't know why, but Kylie wasn't even there, but Chris and Kendall were there. Um, but you know, Kendall was perfect for that brand. And unlike, uh,

Shay, who was doing Shaycations, right? We positioned Kendall in a way where, look, like she's not like the authority of oral care, but she's not trying to be. She has her whitening pen. It's rad. It's cool. And about aesthetic is her story. So who knows? There's, it's a lot though. It's not just like, oh yeah, this is how you pick the right one. Because if it was that easy, we'd all be starting 20 of these a week. Right. So I use a similar thing. I've angel invested in 43 companies, which sounds like a lot. It's been a decade.

So it's really like you, it's around four a year that I'm cherry picking out of hundreds and hundreds of messages and events and DMs and hey, meet my friend and call it, you know, like all the stories you have.

One here, one there, one here. Because the main thing I'm looking for is the quarterback. Yeah. I'm betting on the person because their business plan is going to change. Their finances are going to change. Their forecasts and projections and everything in between is irrelevant to me because it's all going to change. And sometimes the whole product is going to change. It's going to do a full shift or a full pivot. And so I care about the person. Who am I betting on and what are they going to do?

And recently, this last year or so, last two years, I raised $44 million for companies that are already doing $2 to $20 million in sales. Love that. We put in $3 to $6 million. We're trying to buy a good chunk of them between 15% and 35% on average, sometimes more, depending on the valuation of the situation.

But we like that $3 million to $6 million mark of capital because I don't have to go raise $10 million, $15 million, $20 million, which takes a long time. I can get a lot of $100K. Still early. You can get a chunk of the business. Right. They're doing $12 million. You can still navigate a little bit, but there's a little proof of concept. It reduced my risk for me, my investors, my friends, et cetera, because when a company is doing over $2 million, I always say this. Going from $0 to $1 million, super hard, super rare. Going from $4 million to $12 million,

Yeah, no, it's a gasoline on the fire tightening up the business model, right? It's doing more of the same fixing some things getting the right pieces together But you already know that people cared because people vote with their wallets Yeah, when someone buy something and they spend four million dollars, you know, that thing will sell when someone's that idea and zero You have to be a visionary. Yep. You're like hey shay's gonna work Kendall's gonna work like this person's gonna work Because you don't know until people vote with their wallets. Yes, and so

Why it's so important people out there listening when you are starting your business when you're starting your idea There's a couple key things first off act as if meaning acts as if you're actually gonna start this idea if you come pick pitch Sean Neff or you come pitch me or some of our mutual friends and You have this idea for a new pillow company, but you don't have a business plan. You don't have a website You don't have a social media accounts. You don't have a corporation. You don't have a bank account You don't have investment documents

these are almost all free besides the corporation which is a few hundred bucks everything else i just said is basically free but if you won't go through the steps and actually like have a bank account and have a business plan and have like your free social media accounts that cost nothing to open up the main six social media accounts why are we going to give you 100k or 500k or a million or whatever the number is if you can't even do the basics for free and so i get on average 300 pitches per year and i get to be the nice guy because my response is sure

I'd love to see it. Send me a business plan. Yeah. Guess how many send me a business plan? It rhymes with zero. Unless someone sent it to me first, they've never sent me a business plan. Yeah. It's just not in their quiver. And I'm on stage and I talk about this. I have an investment talk called 40-40-20 where I talk about investments. And I talk about some of my investments and I walk through and I say to the audience, 100 people, 1,000 people, 5,000 people, I say the same thing and nothing's ever changed. Hey, guys. Sometimes I put my phone number or my email on the freaking screen.

And I say, a lot of you guys in the room have offered to send me a business plan. And you come up to me in the hallways. Here's my email. Here's my phone number. When you have the business plan, send it to me. And then I tell them, hey, guys, nobody's actually ever sent me a business plan after I've done this before. And I've spoken 100 events a year. And you guys are going to laugh and say that you guys are going to be the one. And then you're not going to do it, even though I'm poking at you. And nobody does it. It's so crazy, right? Because even...

That example, even your investment thesis, right? Like you're not going to put money unless there's proof of concept. There's something kind of working, right? And that as to your point, that's the biggest cliff, right? It's just like you got to get some type of traction, right? Because people care. Do people care? And is this person willing to roll the dice, put his life on the line and go, right? Like I'm sure all of us, right? And majority of the people that have had been fortunate enough to have some wins, right?

you're all in like I for the first 10 years of my life like first six years of my life I didn't vacation yes I'm like I'm like wait like if I'm just and you know you went on a couple I'm gonna say I never went anywhere but like

Even when I would go with the fam to Hawaii and we're chilling, I'm stressing because I'm like, wait, I wonder what happened at the office. Shitman, sub-factoring, PO financing. Did Target pay me on time? You're just hustling by nature, right? And I think being an entrepreneur, you kind of have to be a little wild, right? And I've been saying lately, it's almost my drug.

Like being an entrepreneur is almost my drug. Like you're called the money, you know, the, you know, money Mondays. Right. And it's just like most people and all that I hear around general environment is like,

Oh, yes, it's Friday. I can't wait for the weekend. And then it's like, Mondays. Oh, my gosh. I hate Mondays. And I'm like, I'm down for a Friday. Trust. Like, I'm cool. But I'm not mad at a Monday. Because a Monday is like, let's go. Like, I want to ideate. I want to create. I want to crack. And look, I understand it's funner now and I have access and, you know, kind of...

you know, it's a little bit now where life I can pick and choose, but still back to when I was hustling, I had such this like will in me that I'm like, I'm all in like, and, and it wasn't like I wasn't better than anyone else.

There was a million lucky little things. There's a million this. I randomly meet Snoop at this moment, and then his agent calls, and we're chatting, and it's five days before the VMAs, and randomly he doesn't have a shirt picked out, and I'm randomly going, well, what happened if I made a Neff shirt with a dog on it? And he's like, well, that's crazy. I'm performing with Katy Perry, and we're singing California Dream. And I'm like, okay, well, how much cash do you need? And he's like, okay, I'm going to show up. Here's your...

backpack full of cash and here's your Neff shirt. So it's just stuff like that. We're like, sure. Was I hustling? Was I thinking, was I aware to be like at that stage, no social media, the VMAs were the biggest thing of the year. So if like, if I can get a Neff shirt on Snoop with Katy Perry, when she was at her peak, like,

the value of that in marketing is bigger than my marketing budget that year. So I was witty and hustling. I was able to spit the game, but fortuitous that like a retailer knew this dude, Nick, Nick, I don't know if you know Nick Adler, but Nick Adler is the guy that works with Snoop. So,

there's a lot of luck too. So like no one's, that's, that's I think the biggest thing is like no entrepreneur is just born perfect. For sure. No one's just, I've never met some people that are billionaires. I literally go, I wouldn't let them run a company for me. I wouldn't trust them to get my taco. Yeah, literally. I'm serious. Like it's serious. Like, but,

But that just should make everyone so excited because, and look, not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur. Not everyone needs to start something, right? But it's like, if you do have a little bit of that burning desire and you do have that want, and I think it's like, like everyone's always like, well, what do you start? How do you ideate? And I'm like, look, look at a retailer. There's already product on the shelf.

So if you go give them something similar or exactly near the same to what's already on the shelf, no one needs it. The retailers are doing just fine. Target doesn't need more cheese or potato chips or more bottled water. But if you can tell a different story,

and tweak it and you have the drive, there's always room for something new. So it's like, you know, I just love doing what I do now, building, ideating, and just meeting with amazing talent, right? Because that's why I like working with talent because they're special in themselves. They've already done this once. They've already somehow beat...

all the odds in the world to become a big artist or become a movie star. Like that alone is a unicorn. So me personally, I love working with talent because I, it's very respectful because a lot of people are like, Oh, celebrity brand, this and that. But I'm like, no, like if they were able to do that, that's almost tougher than becoming a successful businessman. So it's almost like check you're already winning. And then if they can be who they are,

Vibe with me and we get a good operator get a little cash behind the thing we can we can play yeah, I

So we're inside the RV Motorhome that's actually parked outside of the largest toy drive in the world. We call it the world's largest toy drive. It's largesttoydrive.com. This is day one of a 10-city tour where we're taking the toy drive in honor of our 10-year anniversary all over the country, literally right this second. Sean and I are sitting outside of the toy drive right now. So my last question is, why should people or brands do some type of charity or incorporate some charity into their world?

Man, how I would answer that would just probably be even from simplicity, right? Like you just spoke about your event. I just pulled up and I parked illegal somewhere. I hope my car is fine because it's slammed. But pulling up and just seeing that line of families and kids, nothing else, nothing more needs to be said. Like even for me on like a real...

You like see those kids running in. I see you running with these massive bags of toys and these kids are lit up literally like it's Christmas morning there. That's one form of charity, but you're giving something who needs something.

Those kids and those families need that, right? And even me pulling up, seeing this huge activation, signs, Santas, hot chocolate bars, pizza, toys everywhere. You've done a phenomenal job doing this. But yes, should every human and should every brand –

Think about charity, of course, right? Because look, life's not easy for anyone, right? And we can sit here on this podcast. We're both fortunate enough to have some Ws and we've probably had some losses. But in the end, life's not easy, right? No matter who you are, we're all humans. The world's not perfect. We're not perfect.

But I think if you're a brand and you can create an opportunity to give back to charity, if you're someone like Dan who has a platform and you can show up and have a thousand families lined up and literally making them smile and literally teary-eyed as they leave...

That's way better than making money. That's way better than being successful. It's way better than a podcast. It's the best thing ever. So, I mean, I think it comes down to your nature as a human. And I think all of us just growing up, having families, having anything, right? Like if you could be kind and give to others, there's nothing that sucks about that. It's only rad.

Right. And I just saw it like what you've done here is incredible. Like even pulling up and I pulled up with my kid and it's just like, you just felt happy. Right. Like you put a smile on my face. It's awesome. And I'm not here to take anything. I actually donated, but you made me smile, but we're not doing it. We're doing it for those amazing families that needed this and to change. And that's what makes the world go around. If that kind of charity stopped and helping others stopped,

People talk about politics and this and that and wars, that everything's going to end. I guarantee you if you stopped caring about others and helping other people, we're done. All right, guys. I'm going to try to convince Sean to come back on the podcast a few months from now. I could ask him hours and hours of questions. The reason we do 40-minute podcasts is the average commute is 45 minutes and the average workout is 45 minutes. That's why we like to do 40-minute podcasts for you guys.

It's important for us to have a good listen through rate so that you guys share it, comment, like, subscribe, have these deep discussions with your friends about money because we all grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. I grew up thinking it's rude to not talk about it because we now see what happens in our country and all over the planet where people can't spell FICO. They don't know what IRS is. They don't know. They literally don't know how to do their taxes because you wouldn't talk about in school. We don't talk about the household. So it's really important for us for you guys to have these discussions with your friends, family, followers, talk about money.

Study it, research it. But more importantly, charity. We are going into the holiday season. This episode is probably going to come out right around December 15th. This is my guess on that Monday. Please.

Think about the charities that impact you who do you care about? Did someone pass away from cancer in your family? Do you care about homelessness? Autism alzheimer anything between you don't need to have a bunch of money You can go volunteer spend your time energy post about them on social media But please get involved in some type of charity And with the millions and millions of people that are listening to this podcast Imagine if all of you guys did one two, three pieces of charity times up by millions We're gonna have a butterfly effect that changes the world so

After you listen to this podcast, you might want to go back and listen to some parts of it. It's very fascinating to hear just the intricacies of how Sean's story played together. Hopefully we'll get him back here soon. Make sure to follow Sean Neff across Instagram and other social media platforms. And we'll see you guys next Monday.