Founder's Story - He Dropped Out in 8th Grade and Built a Viral Street Interview Empire | Ep. 432 with Shanes Ginsberg CEO of Street Poller

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

Daniel opens by asking Shane about one of the most surprising parts of his story: dropping out of school after eighth grade. Shane explains that the decision was shaped less by one teacher and more by his upbringing. His father was teaching people how to sell on Amazon as early as 2003, and Shane grew up attending business conferences, sitting in rooms with entrepreneurs, cash, and major speakers, then having to return to algebra class. That contrast made him feel that many of the skills that matter in real life were not being taught in school. The conversation then moves into how Street Poller Media grew from street interviews into a business with more than 300,000 interviews conducted across its team. Shane explains why the first three seconds of approaching someone on the street matter, why authenticity drives attention, and why brands are increasingly interested in real people giving real reactions. He also shares his view that AI will make human generated content more valuable, not less, because people still buy from people. Key Discussion Points Shane says dropping out after eighth grade was the right decision for him, and that every decision in his life helped bring him to where he is now. He explains that growing up around business conferences changed how he viewed school because he was exposed to entrepreneurs, money, sales, and real world business long before most kids his age. Shane says his father was teaching people how to sell on Amazon in 2003, before PayPal was widely used, which gave him an early window into online business. He remembers meeting Edward Snowden through a remote speaking device at a business conference when Snowden was in hiding, though at the time Shane did not fully understand who he was. Shane says Street Poller Media has conducted more than 300,000 street interviews across its full team, not just through him personally. When asked about a memorable answer from the street, Shane recalls asking someone whether they would choose $500,000 or dinner with Jesus, and being surprised when a Jewish respondent chose dinner with Jesus. He says street interviews reveal patterns in how people actually think that traditional media often fails to show. Shane explains that the first three seconds of approaching someone on the street are the most important, because the poller has to smile, be charismatic, and feel like someone worth talking to. He says street polling works because it creates real conversations with real people in real moments, rather than placing someone in a studio environment where they may become guarded. Shane realized the business potential after a brand paid him around $1,500 for one video and generated roughly $25,000 in sales within a day and a half. He believes AI generated content has made authentic human content more valuable because people buy from people, not machines. Shane says platforms and advertisers are beginning to recognize the need for more authentic, human generated content because AI can create misinformation or portray things that are not true. He explains that street interviews have existed for a long time, from television to comedy to digital media, and that the format continues to work because people like watching real human reactions. Shane credits Jim Carrey and Jimmy Kimmel as inspirations, especially Kimmel’s man on the street segments and disguised celebrity interviews that became memorable pieces of content. When Daniel asks how to grow Instagram, Shane says the first step is posting consistently, ideally once a day for three weeks, then comparing engagement month over month. He explains that content selection comes from data, repetition, and an internal bank of formats, ideas, and patterns that have already proven to work. Shane defines clipping as mass distribution of content through pages someone does not own, but says it is usually more of an awareness and mindshare play than a direct conversion strategy. He says street polling content can be used across landing pages, product pages, websites, pitch decks, social channels, Meta ads, TikTok ads, and other short form video placements. Shane says one of the biggest lessons from conducting interviews is that you cannot judge a book by its cover, because people often answer in ways that break stereotypes and media narratives. Looking ahead, Shane believes AI will create an age of abundance, where many basic tasks become faster and easier, but human thought and what people choose to do with that leverage will matter most. He predicts a stronger move toward real world human interaction, including communities, concerts, seminars, physical experiences, and street interviews, because people may miss humans being prioritized. When asked about the best business advice he has received, Shane says it was to go all in and put all the chips on the table. He says the worst advice he ever received was to go back to school, because he trusts his gut and believes it has usually been right. Shane says he likes when people underestimate him because proving people wrong motivates him more than proving people right. He describes himself as intense, saying the most successful people he has been around move with extreme speed and a strong bias toward getting things done. For young people thinking about dropping out or going all in, Shane says they should stop talking about it and do it, but they also cannot give up when momentum takes years to arrive. He says the first dollar he made from street polling came around two and a half years after his first video, proving that the early stage often requires patience before the business becomes real. Takeaways Real human reactions are becoming more valuable as AI generated content floods the internet. Street polling works because it captures people in authentic moments, before they overthink or perform for a polished studio environment. Consistency matters on social media. Shane’s advice is simple: post daily, study the data, and improve based on what people actually engage with. Clipping can help spread awareness, but it works best when a brand already has a strong product, infrastructure, and broader marketing foundation. Shane’s story shows that young founders can compete without traditional credentials if they move fast, trust their instincts, and keep learning from the market. Closing Thoughts Shane Ginsberg’s Founder’s Story episode is about more than viral street interviews. It is about building a business around authenticity at a time when the internet is being flooded with artificial content. At 21, Shane has already built a company around real people, real reactions, and the belief that humans still matter most in media, marketing, and trust. His journey shows that dropping out, being underestimated, and taking the harder path can become advantages when paired with speed, intensity, and the willingness to go all in. Today's Sponsors:  Start with Upwork, the one-stop platform to find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across marketing, editing, branding, development, operations, and more. Visit https://www.Upwork.com today to post your job for free and get matched with top talent ready to help your business grow. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The worst piece of advice I ever received was to go to college. You dropped out of eighth grade. Did a teacher say something to you at that time that made you say, I need to leave school? Most of the skills that actually serve you in real life are not taught in school or in the current education system. To a business conference with Kevin O'Leary when you're 13 and Edward Snowden, you know, you're sitting in rooms with like half a billion dollars cash. And then you have to go back to algebra one. 5 billion views, 300,000 street interviews, the largest street polling network on the planet, built by 21, worked with Coinbase, Polymarket, and Moon Pay.

He doesn't buy attention, he commands it. The CEO of Street Polar Media, Shane Ginsburg. There's going to be an anti-AI, like trend, honesty. I think people are going to... You dropped out of school. I also dropped out of college. You dropped out of eighth grade. Did a teacher say something to you at that time that made you say, I need to leave school?

I don't know if it was a teacher specifically that had said something to me. I think it was more so associated just with the way that I was raised, you know, in my upbringing. So like, because my dad, he, you know, he teach people like how to sell on Amazon. But he was doing that in 2003. So that was before PayPal even existed. So I grew up as a kid going to those business conferences with him, which, you know, how do you go, you know, into a business conference with Kevin O'Leary when you're 13 and Edward Snowden, like out of all people.

And, you know, you're sitting in rooms with like half a million dollars cash. And then you have to go back to algebra one. I think that would do something to any kid's brain when they're developing and young and like make them realize that most of the skills that actually serve you in real life are not. taught in school or in the current education system. Was there something that you wish was told to you at that time? Like looking back, was it the best decision to leave? Should you have done something different?

No, it was the best decision. Everything in my life has gone me to this point. You know, I always thank God every day. But I don't regret any decision that I ever made, you know? You just got to learn from your mistakes. how was the interaction with Snowden? Did you get to talk to him? Yeah, he was on like a like a little recording device. It was pretty weird. And he was in hiding, I think it was maybe 2016. And he was like a big keynote speaker at the time at like all these business conferences. So we spoke for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. And yeah, he just like said what's good. At the time, I didn't really know too much about like politics. I didn't really know who he was. But I was pretty interesting.

the device he used when he would speak at these events. If you could tell someone who's a teenager about making sure that they, they act like a sponge of all the information that's around them, you went to these events, but I imagine most teenagers wouldn't care at all about what's happening. What made you act like a sponge? Maybe like a bit of autism. I mean, I don't know.

I've just kind of always had that like in me. It's not really something that's been like developed, but out to that, it's definitely the way that I am for sure. So your company has done over 300,000 interviews, which is insane. 300,000 street interviews. I think I met like a thousand virtual interviews. I couldn't imagine 300,000 street interviews. Is there an answer that you've heard that somebody has said that still follows you to this day? That's a, oh, that's a good question.

In what context? Just in any answer, any question? Could be off the wall. It could be inspirational. It could be something that made you cry. We asked someone 500K or dinner with Jesus and they were Jewish and they answered dinner with Jesus. And that was a very interesting answer, I would say, which is like not an answer that I was expecting. But I would say that you'd be surprised about how people feel on the streets about certain topics and about certain things.

and over time you can identify certain patterns and answers in people's responses to certain questions that I feel like the media doesn't do a good job at showing to the public, you know? Okay. Let's say you have three seconds and a phone and you obviously have complete strangers around you. What can you say to get them to stop to even poll them? Well, I mean, that goes into like our intellectual property, which is honestly part of the

way that we train all of our pollers. So going back to, you know, the point of you saying, like, you've done 300,000 street interviews. It hasn't been me. I mean, obviously, some of the interviews that I've conducted are a part of that total number. But that's across our whole team, you know, of pollers, which we have over 25 of them across the U.S. And so the first three seconds of the interaction of approaching somebody on the street is honestly the most important. You know, you've got to be smiling, charismatic, and just somebody that they'd want to have a conversation with. Because at the end of the day, that's all that it is, right?

It's, you just imagine that there's no camera and you're having, you know, real conversations with real people about things that others care about, you know. It's a brilliant idea. And it's a brilliant strategy because you're going to get people at almost a vulnerable moment, but a moment where they might be more open than if you sit somebody in front of a camera, it's very uncomfortable. They get very uneasy. You catch them in the moment, though. How did you learn that this was a real business strategy? It kind of just came together, you know, came together and developed over time. I had a brand that paid me in 2023 or maybe even like a 22.

It paid me like, you know, $1,500 for one video. And they made $25 grand in sales in a day and a half. And I was like, oh, shit, like I have a business. So I just have to scale myself. and a lot of other things kind of happened. I didn't anticipate that AI was going to be the way that it was in the sense that over 80% of the content on your feed is AI generated. And at the end of day, it's like people buy from people, right? They don't buy from machines.

And so that's why you're seeing platforms like Snapchat as of, you know, a couple days ago, revert back to authentic content and, you know, human generated content. And you're seeing states like New York that are banning AI generated content. in advertising for this exact reason, right? Because you're portraying things that are just simply not true and it's misinformation. And that was a part of the whole reason in 2020 that we started this company was because the left and the right in the media, CNN and Fox were both so biased in their agenda that we just wanted to give everyday people, you know, a voice to say how they really feel and think. Do you find that these people are very open and they're excited to talk? Or are they

typically guarded off. I mean, the street polling actually brings out aside in people that really you can't bring out, right? Because to your point, it's just a stranger with the microphone. It's not really that invasive. It's not like you're sitting down in a studio where the lights are, you know, very bright and there's 17 different cameras and four people checking your audio. So you actually get the best responses out of people because of it's just authenticity and it's just on a random corner, you know, on the street. It seems like right now attention is the new gold. Attention is everything.

And every brand now is racing to get attention. You have a lot of marketing costs, advertising costs going up where brands, it doesn't even make sense for them to use maybe Google ads or meta ads or SEO anymore because it's too expensive or it doesn't work. When you talk to brands about this, how do you get them bought into the idea? Street interviews have been around for hundreds of years, right? Like the format clearly works with, to your point, capturing attention, you know? I mean, we were talking about like before you started recording how there was someone

that interviewed New York before there was even a FYP that you like watching, right? I mean, Jim Carrey has a movie in the 80s where he's literally just a man on the street interviewer for a TV channel. So clearly the format is validated in the sense that humans like. to interact with it and they like to watch it or else people wouldn't make it and it wouldn't work. So that's just applied to digital advertising, which works extremely well because, again, it's authentic, right? And it's real. So usually the brand already knows that the format works. They just want to go to the most proven source, right? That kind of created it as a way to market,

not just, you know, laugh and kind of to do both at the same time. Jim Carrey inspired me. I wanted to be a comedian because of him. Just the way he played characters, I used to do monologues and pretend like I was doing Jim Carrey in a movie. Who inspired you? Yeah, I mean, I've loved Jim Carrey. Jimmy Kimmel, when I was a kid, used to do like a lot of man on the street interviews,

which his opinions nowadays, maybe I don't agree with as much. but when I was younger, his show was, like, hilarious. He would have, like, Drake on the street in, like, a disguise doing interviews, asking people, what do they think? I'm sure you remember that. Like, he had some very creative ideas. But as soon as I say it, you can literally visualize the piece of content, you know, it's like, it's that memorable.

But, yeah, I would say, like, the two of them, for sure. You have five million following across platforms. I have 30,000 on IG right now. I really want to grow my Instagram. What am I doing wrong? How much are you posting? Like, how consistently? I'm not even every day.

I mean, look, you should probably try to post at least once a day. Do that for three weeks and then compare your engagement month over month, you know? But it's a marathon, not a sprint. And it's just like you can't really think about it. You just got to post content that you like and that's funny. And then also what people want to see as well. Right. And that's a big part of it is like just making it shareable.

How do you determine from the clips that you're taking that is something that people will resonate with? Just with data, you know, after doing this so many times, we can just have an internal rolodex and like bank of the contents, ideas, formats that work versus what doesn't work. And then we just kind of internalize that and, you know, have that work at scale. I've heard short form clipping, as we know, clipping as a strategy is the fastest or, maybe one of the only ways to really grow right now in social media. If people don't know what clipping is, can you explain it? Yeah, I mean, clipping is basically mass distribution of content from pages that you don't

own and that don't look like they're you. So I guess the closest thing it would be similar to is astroturfing content, right? But it's a very popular form of marketing. And I would say, look, like the type of brand that, you know, benefits from clipping, usually already has most other aspects of their marketing handled and the infrastructure already in place. If you have never ran ads on meta, if you don't have many followers, clipping is more so an awareness play, right?

And like a, you know, a mind share sort of play than it is a direct conversion where I'm going to put in $1 and get four back. So that's what I would say to clipping. And the, you know, the benefits of clipping will benefit a Celsius, right? or a Warner Brothers or Netflix. But are they going to do that for your average mom and pop, you know, candy company? No, not at all, right? So could they add in the polling that you do the street interviews with the clipping combined?

Would that lead to possible more success? Or what strategy would you recommend around leveraging the content from the street interviews? Exactly. Yeah, but that's just one way to distribute the content, you know. on social media we have brands they'll put it on the company's landing pages product pages websites use it in pitch decks all that good stuff you know posted on their social medias run it as meta ads tic talk ads any short form sort of video ad as well do you what is maybe one of the funniest moments that you've witnessed yeah i mean look there's been a lot of like you know there's

been so many um like where i'm like i did not expect this person to give this answer um But it happens quite frequently, you know, but at the end of the day, that's just breaking down the traditional mainstream media narratives that have been circulating, right? Which is because you look like this, you're supposed to think like this. And everyone that looks like this thinks like this and looks like this. And that's not true. You know, people have very diverse opinions and profiles and there's character profiles that you would think would say something different than they actually say, which is, you know, I think probably the biggest thing. that I've realized is like you can you can't judge a book by its cover you know there's a lot of people that you think with say or feel one certain way about a certain topic but when you actually just talk with them it's a totally different answer you know than what you were expecting when you think about from 14 to 21 you've had seven years that you've been learning about business that you've been in business combined here all the things that you've done what do you think is going to happen in the next seven years when you're 28 I think that there's a

going to be an age of abundance where AI can do a lot of the basic things that take up most of your time on a day-to-day basis. And then I think that the thought and like what you do with that is what's going to matter most. Nowadays, you can deploy a website in a day and a half because AI is that good, but it's only as good as the person that's using it behind. Right. So I think that not only is there going to be more and more of a shift towards real human interaction, and you're seeing a lot of people talk about this. Like Gary Vee is yapping about this on the news all day every day, which is, you know, there's going to be a shift towards physical brick and mortar, towards communities, towards concerts, towards in-person seminars, whatever the name may be, towards

street interviews because AI can't replace humans and humans are going to be on this earth and have a place in society, at least while we're all here. You know, I don't think we're going to go away that quickly to the robots. And so I just think that there's going to be a anti- AI, like, trend, honesty. What's been the best piece of advice that someone's given you about business? Just to go all in, put all your chips on the table.

What's more motivating for you, though, to prove them wrong, that they were wrong about you? So you're proving them wrong or to prove them right because they believed in you? I like to prove people wrong. That's definitely more motivating.

There's very few people that actually believe in you when you're first starting something. It's very few people. There's like very few. So there's not really many people to prove right, except for yourself. There's a lot more people to prove wrong. And so I have a lot more options and like things that I can channel my energy and efforts

towards proving, like there's, you know, more variation. I think there's maybe two people that I could like prove right. And then it's not as fun. That's true. My wife yells on me sometimes. She's like, you got to start being motivated by other things because you can't. I just get so excited when someone doesn't believe in me for some reason. I think it could be a trauma from when I was younger, though, like my childhood.

I'm not sure. I'm trying to work through it, though, Shane. Yeah, I'm trying to work through it. You shouldn't. You should embrace it. That's the way you are. You should love it. You think so?

Yeah. If it gets you up in the morning, why not? Unless you don't like it. It's like it's a character flaw, then scrap it, you know? What character flaws do you have or something that you're working on? I would say, look, like, I think, uh, I'm intense. you know, that's one thing for sure that some people don't like. I'm very intense as like a person.

I'm just like, yo, let's get things done. Let's move a speed. Let's figure this out. And some people don't like that, but that's why they're not successful, you know. The most successful people I've ever been around, they move with that unparalleled speed. It's just very quick to do things. And I don't think people like that. And I could say that is that a character flaw to me?

No, but to other people, when I was younger, they're like, you're very intense. But it's like the only reason that I'm here at the end of the day because you just got to get it done. You're right, man. The most successful people I've spoken with, people would say that they're intense for sure. I mean, that's the only way you can survive, I think, in business. It's hard. There's ups. There's downs.

You lose everything. And then you've got to start over and you hit these milestones. You're excited. Then everything collapses. You've got to be intense. It's not for most people. I would like to say that most people can start a business. Like you said, it's easier now, but I don't know if maybe 99% of people can make it in business.

What do you think? Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. I think it's the way it's always been. But you can't really worry about what all these other people are doing. I like to work with the best businesses and the most elite businesses in the world. But I think that, you know, yeah, being an entrepreneur isn't really built for everybody. Have you ever heard of the B-Hag, the big hairy? audacious goal? I have not. Okay, so what this is, it's from a book, a very famous book,

it's basically a goal that it's so big that it scares you. It could be like a goal that you might not hit for 30 years. Do you have a B-Hag? Do you have a big, hairy, audacious goal, like a massive goal that you want to hit? Yeah, I don't think of it like that because anything is possible, you know, so I don't really, like, I feel like if you automatically put it and categorize it as a B-Hag, then how are you going to achieve it? Because you think it's scary. So you can't really think of it as that, you know? I almost want to say that you're like a reincarnation of somebody because I don't get to talk to too many 21-year-olds that provide this type of information. This is someone who's like 70 years old, who's been through many. I mean, you might have,

I don't know what you were doing in your past life, but I'm impressed. I'm amazed. I've talked to a thousand people. And I don't know if I've ever talked to anyone that was under the age of probably 23 about business. So I'm very excited. If there's someone else out there who's 21, and they also are like, screw it, I'm dropping out of college. This is not for me. What's a piece of advice you give to them? They got to go all in to put the chips on the table, drop out or don't. If it stop saying you're going to do it and then don't do it, might as well just do it. But then what have to do is you can't give up. So it might take you two, three years to get some momentum. But the first dollar I ever made from street polling was like two and a half years after my first video of doing it.

I had like credit repair company and I sold that. But I wasn't making money. And it wasn't like a business. And you also kind of have to love it too. Because to your point, you can't really ride the highs and you can't ride the lows. And they're only going to get bigger and lower as you go on. And so what you have to do is it should be something that's like passion for you to a degree so that it gets you up in the morning, right? Man, final question for you. How do you define success and have you hit that point in your life already? Or is there something you haven't done yet that when you hit that point at whenever that is,

that's when you've made it? I don't think there's a specific point where it's like, oh, you know, I've made it. I'm going to chill on the beach, drink, and vibe. I don't know if there's one specific point. I think it's hitting thing after thing after thing after thing. And it also is all personal. Like some people, their success is defined by how happy they are.

Some people, it's assigned by their business. Some people, their success is, you know, the way they look. Some people, it's what car they drive.

That's to each individual person. I'm not really that, like, content. Like, you know, I'm happy. I'm not like chasing money. But I'm just like, I always know that it can be a lot bigger, you know? So I think that once you start getting complacent, that's kind of when you have issues in general, you know, business, life, whatever. I just came up with something and

I'll share this final thing with you. You know, there's looks maxing. Is there business maxing or success maxing. I know that there's something I've heard of that Mark Andreessen, I didn't say it. Like, I can't get canceled because this guy's the CEO of a damn near a trillion dollar VC company. And he goes on Twitter and says that he's retard maxing on Sundays. So I know about that. But I think you can apply like clavicular's lingo of maxing to anything to make it into like a

plural word. So you could have biz maxing, life maxing, success maxing. we have with our sales guys they lead max you know deal max um yeah like podcast maxing that's what you're doing right i mean you have over a million subscribers you're for sure podcast maxing right now we we did podcast therapy maxing you have some good questions i i see why people like really like to listen to you because but you you do it in a way where you you kind of started off with like get them comfortable then it's like all right how are you feeling today and as you mental health okay. But I love it. Dude, I'm all about mental health. When I was a teenager,

I had a lot of struggles. And so I always said my goal in life is to impact people positively. And if I can help someone going through it, I wish there was someone there. Like, I wish there was an outlet that I could have listened because it could have saved me from getting into a lot of things I wish I didn't get into. But Shaney, pioneer in your industry at only 21. I know maybe age isn't a big thing. But I think many people would say, Wow, a pioneer at 21. That's incredible. Sky's the freaking limit for you.

Can't wait to see what else. But CEO of Street Polar Media, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. Make sure I subscribe.