Sam Parr
- Founder and CEO of The Hustle
- $1+ million The Hustle monthly revenue
- Published August 20, 2020 by Niall Doherty
How does Sam make money online?
Sam makes money online in many ways, but his largest source of income likely comes from The Hustle, a media company he started in 2014.
The Hustle is primarily a free daily newsletter with a focus on business and tech. As of this writing it is reported to have more than 1 million subscribers and is mainly monetized with advertising.
Sam’s other online business interests include:
- Trends
This is a premium version of The Hustle newsletter – regular price $299 per year – sending out weekly reports to help subscribers jump on hot business opportunities. Subscribers also get access to a private community, weekly lectures, and some other resources. (Read my in-depth review of Trends.) - My First Million
This is the podcast arm of The Hustle. Sam often co-hosts episodes. The podcast is monetized with advertising. (Full list of best business podcasts.) - Other software and content companies
Sam writes on his personal site: “I also own a few other software and content companies. I’ve installed CEO’s at these companies so I do not run the day to day.”
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How much money does Sam make?
Sam revealed in a January 2020 tweet that The Hustle earns more than $1 million per month in revenue…
It’s unclear how much Sam pays himself out of the business, or how much he earns from his other online business interests.
But Sam did write in December 2018 that he paid himself only $20k in salary the first year of The Hustle’s existence, and $33k the second year.
We can also make a guess at how well Trends is doing.
Here are the numbers for the private Facebook group subscribers are invited to join (as of July 27, 2020):
Trends does run occasional special offers and they also have a $1 trial, so not everyone in the group is paying $299 per year for access. Also, probably not every subscriber joins the Facebook group.
$100/year per member in that group is probably a conservative estimate, so that would mean Trends is earning $644k/year from subscriptions as of this writing.
(Again, that’s a total guess. I have no idea how much that business is actually earning.)
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How did Sam get started?
Sam has a bullet-point breakdown of his entrepreneurial journey on his personal website, and you fill in the gaps via his LinkedIn.
Highlights:
- While studying at Belmont University in Tennessee, he started a chain of hot dog stands and an online liquor store. Both businesses helped pay the bills.
- In 2012 he moved to San Francisco and co-founded a roommate-matching startup called Bunk. The startup was acquired soon after and Sam worked for the acquirer (Do-er) for a year.
- He started Hustle Con in 2014, “a TED-like conference for entrepreneurs.”
- Sam started a newsletter to promote Hustle Con and that grew into The Hustle.
To learn how The Hustle went from 0 to 75k subscribers in six months, check out this 2016 interview with Sam on Mixergy.
And this 2018 talk from Sam gives some great insights into The Hustle’s content creation strategy:
What type of online business does Sam have?
Sam runs a multifaceted online business.
According to our framework it can be broken down like this:
- Authority (Level 4)
The Hustle fits here with over 1 million newsletter subscribers. Sam can also be considered an authority with a big following on social media. - Digital Products (Level 4)
Some aspects of Trends can be considered a digital product first and foremost. Particularly the weekly reports. - Cloud Service (Level 5)
Sam mentions on his personal site that he owns “a few other software and content companies.” I’m guessing at least one of those is a SaaS. - Social Network (Level 5)
Trends has a significant social networking aspect in the form of a private Facebook group.
Follow the links above for more info and examples for each type of business.
Other ways to make money online
There are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
This has the top SEO result for “Sam Parr net worth” which is good for you, but unfortunately I don’t see a good estimate listed here.
Here is what I estimate it as based on some more recent information than the sources of this article.
The Hustle was recently acquired by Hubspot for an undisclosed amount, but based on this article linked from a recent edition of The Hustle a “source familiar with the matters” says it was about $27M
-Assuming Sam owns the vast majority of it (which I think is true based on them only raising a $1M round previously and comments he’s made through the MFM podcast) then we can say about 75% of that or $20M ballpark
He also recently stated on MFM that his goal was to make about $50k/month with a 2-3% withdraw rate which he recently accomplished with this acquisition which would give us $24M
Assuming he owns a couple other assets (like primary residence, profit from investments/previous companies etc.) I’d feel comfortable rounding that up to just north of $25M
So Sam Parr’s net worth is ~$25M