The Money Mondays - Shaun Neff's Rise from Dollar Store Hats to Building Multiple $100M Brands 🧢 E47

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

Explore the incredible journey of Shaun Neff's success in this episode. From humble beginnings creating hats sold in dollar stores to spearheading million-dollar brands like Neff Headwear, Shaun Neff shares his remarkable path to success. 🏆 Shaun Neff is a visionary entrepreneur known for revolutionizing the headwear industry. As the founder of Neff Headwear, his innovative designs and strategic marketing propelled the brand to global recognition. Passionate about merging fashion with function, Neff's creativity has reshaped streetwear culture. His commitment to authenticity and bold ideas continues to inspire aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide. Like this episode? Watch more like it 👇 Tim Storey and Him500 on Building Recession-Proof Generational Wealth: https://youtu.be/mO60DQQKCVs We Broke a Guinness Record for World's Largest Toy Drive! 🎁 : https://youtu.be/TceHrvI0vVA 'Million Dollar Wheels' RD Whittington Sells Luxury Cars to A-Listers: https://youtu.be/F6yp96uMz9Y Watch ALL Full Episodes Here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs0D-M5aH-0IOUKtQPKts-VZfO55mfH6k --- The Money Mondays is a business podcast here to teach you how to make money, invest money, and donate money by showcasing some of the world's most successful people and how they do the same. Hosted by serial entrepreneur Dan Fleyshman, the youngest founder of a publicly traded company in history, this money podcast gives you an exclusive behind the scenes look at how the wealthiest celebrities, entrepreneurs, athletes and influencers make, invest and donate money. If you want to learn more business and investing while you work to improve your financial life, you're in the right place! Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneymondays?sub_confirmation=1 Dan Fleyshman, The Money Mondays Learn more here: https://themoneymondays.com Watch all the podcast episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs0D-M5aH-0IOUKtQPKts-VZfO55mfH6k Let’s Connect... Website: https://themoneymondays.com Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-money-mondays/id1663564091 Twitter: https://twitter.com/themoneymondays LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-money-mondays/about/ TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@themoneymondays FB: https://www.facebook.com/The-Money-Mondays-110233585203220/

I'm like, you know, you're the homie, rocket t-shirt. I'm on Burton, I'm on Nike, I'm on all these, I have these big endorsement deals. I can't because of my contract. I'm like, well, I miss you contract. It said nothing about headwear. Instead of making t-shirts, my name on it, make a hat. Didn't want to make a hat or a beanie,

true story went to a dollar store, bought like 20 the most ghetto hats and beanie you've ever seen. Bottish Sharpie. Come on. Wrote net 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 naff 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 builds 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 the treat for today.

So on the money money, 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 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. It's 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 bios. Yeah. I always say, let's do two-minute bio, 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 yeah, grew up in SoCal here, little North of LA.

And I would say at a young age, I was weirdly intrigued with brands, right? Like, being a surskate, snow kid, there was maybe only two or three companies that I literally rock on my chest or the head 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 wanna 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,

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, I can't use it. I'm like, oh, I didn't even know there was an office, didn't even know what the USPTO was,

and like just this young hustling kid. And then I'm like, uh, that Bob Hurley dude used his last name, that worked. He was mine. So it was as simple as that. So I'm like,, dude, used his last name. That worked. He was mine. 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,

put Neff stickers up on like stop signs, the Radleau 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 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 I was like, you know, can you rock a t-shirt?

They're like, no, I can't. But why? I'm like, you know, you're the homey 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. I've never seen one. Took one home, long story short.

It said nothing about head wear. 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 when I name on it, make a hat, and then they're gonna rock it and be fine. Cause 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 mines will 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 tea screen printers. Didn't know how to make a hat or a beanie.

True story went to a dollar store, bought like 20 the most ghetto hats and beanie you've ever seen bought a Sharpie come on wrote net on it no I'll show you or you can post in the name I'll show you the actual one of the one of these big pro writers sent it back to me like 13 years ago after I started net and was like you have to have this this is one of your first 20 pieces so literally ghetto is can be showed up low and behold Talk to an agent talked all these writers. Yo, I got head You know, I got hats now in beanies and you can rock it and it doesn't conflict with your contract and the agents are like a little geez

They're like always kind of right, but like I ain't it's all about you. You're the athlete. So low and behold They rocked it that day 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 it was the true hustle. And Neff from them started search hate snow and then we quickly went into youth culture from snoop to whizz to little wine to kid cutty to scotch and to Kevin Durant to all these collaborations. And I built Neff, 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, when I 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, 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 because I was like talking to the trade show guy going, you know, I need this dope spot because 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 low 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 next story and it was I ended up selling Neff you know Nine and a half years into it and it was that's a dream come true. How old were you? Let me show that gosh I was probably Probably 29 oh wow. Oh wow.

I 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're talking about. We didn't have internet back then, this is 1999. So I start the brand and similarly, I went to magic, the clothing convention. Oh yeah. Right in there several times. So 15, 16, 17 years old, I worked three jobs.

I saved up $43,000 to go to college, SDSU. Instead, I used it for the brand. I thought I'm gonna have two years of money. Yeah. Two weeks later, we're broke. Because I bought a booth. Someone charged me $30,000 for samples. Yeah.

That's right. They told us it was going to be $5,000,000, they charged us $30,000. And so it gets 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. Yeah. And I'm going to be right next to a new brand called Shonjon and another brand called Fubu. Great location. 1999.

I am 10 feet by 20 feet. They are a million dollars and a million dollars. They're like castles. I can 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 who's your 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 hotel. 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 Kevin Klein that shouldn't even be there. Like Kevin Klein shouldn't be there. Sorry. Yeah, it's not really the vibe. So we go there, get a booth next to Kevin Klein, I show up with a couch for my mom's house. I love it. That same rack, we're steaming it, actually people are walking by.

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. Right? And so I get to become friends with a head of Calvin Klein. Yeah. Because like, oh, come see me in New York sometime.

I'm with Fubu and Sean John. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. I fly the next morning. There's no cell phone. There's no texting. Yeah. I show up there.

The rest of his three. We end up doing $9.5 million next year. Love it. Tense of $1 million after that. Based on this one accidental meeting with 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 gonna work? Because 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 riff in this dude

Catching this guy where it rock in 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 Entrepreneur and look, today's world is 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 lose like 99% of people. And especially 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, you've been, this named after you. Yeah, you've been doing for a decade How do you decide? Oh, I'm just gonna chill out and you know hang on the beach and hang out with girls and go eat whatever

Or I'm gonna do my next venture or advice companies consult like 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 Yeah, it was kind of cool because even pre the exit, I had 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're like, Hey, can you help us advise like color palettes? What's cool? What's on trend? Kind of use 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, 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, see, it is what it is. So I ended up calling this company and I was like, wow, okay.

Interesting. There's something here. It was in the sun care market. So they had reached out to me because I had just built Neff. So they wanted to start in like the Surks 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 loved their logo. And I was in the 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 real investment, right? Because everything else, like, Neff, I literally started with pizza money, right? And just sold some, bought some, sold some, made some, bought, 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, arguably, in my opinion, if I didn't write this check, I don't know if of runway. Like, 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. And this company ended up being Sunbum. Well, 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? Indom 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 dabbily 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 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 launch that. But lo and behold, I wrote for me a pretty good sized check, just shy of a million dollars, right, into this company which was small. And who knows, I think the valuation at the time, I think it was around 5 million bucks, so they were maybe doing who knows, a million and ravenil I care member small

and but lo and behold we hired a killer operator There's a guy named Renee who kind of designed the famous yellow ape and the cool wood grain So I just saw it from day one. I was like the packaging is 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 on my car. Coppertone, banana, nutrogena, 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, you know, so I don't take credit of, I didn't start Sunbomb, 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 ad value there was while I was on target payroll. I was in at X Games staying in the target house 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. And then I like walk down the hall, went up, here comes in the sun bum guys. I set up this meeting, we sit down and literally open the door.

And when we sold, you know, sun bummed a target. That was a two target. No, no, so we, sorry, the product is on right. No, no, we sold, you know, Sunbum to Target, that was- That was too Target. No, no, sorry, the product didn't, right? The product didn't, right? No, no, no, we sold it to the Galaxy Johnson. Got it, yeah. So, S.E. Johnson bought the company, but when we sold in to Target, right,

and when we ended up having the exit, S.E. Johnson, it was probably more than half of our revenue. At Target. So, that was the catalyst. That was the big money maker for that brand. Whoa. That scale. So, that's catalyst. That was the big money maker for that brand. Whoa. That 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 a project? Yeah, I mean, it proximate. I mean, look, we were ballpark on our way, you know, I think we closed around, I think we're around seven, to around a 70 million on revenue probably heading towards a hundred right? Ish and you found them in a couple 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

Good Monday when that sold. It was a big exit and you know, I You know it, it was, do the math. There's a lot of multiples on that reward. But, you know, so I was always wanting to do more. Sure. So, from the time of finding them, the college friend, next door neighbor, to them selling, what age are you now? You go from 29 hour, you're 34.

And you're on the age game. Yeah, probably. to them selling what age you now go from 29 hour you 34 and you got the age game. Yeah, probably, I mean I'm, I was probably, yes, sunbum sold right before COVID saw as probably 30. I think some of them was, I was, I should look at my LinkedIn seven or eight years or something saw as probably like 36, 37ish, eightish.

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. I've got my two X-attend in my belt. Is this the time you're just starting investing

and starting products with Kendall Jenner and started like, whole brands, like, when is that change happening? Yeah, so gradual journey. So like even throughout that time, I got lucky, I got introduced to Bezue who founded as 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, enough one. But lucky enough to find him, I got introduced as, hey, you should bring Neffin for brand and kinda, so I came in super early, got in super early on that.

Are you invested in that? Oh yeah, and they gave me shares. And they gave me shares. I talked about that company and almost all my speeches. Oh really? I love it. Oh yeah, dude, I was up there at their office. Like, I remember Beiju and I went up there.

There was probably four or five people at the come, 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 was able, he was able to paint and then they gave him shares and was worth a lot of money. So I did a couple of laps around the neighborhood

with Beiju walking and we kind of worked out our deal where he gave me a bunch of shares. I put some money in and 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 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 piece the company but But right my thesis was always like I'm here to add value and right when I sold Neff I remember I was like oh

Like meeting with dudes and like getting on white combinator like 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've made my first money. I probably wrote 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.

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 sunbomb. Like pretty much open the door at Target, which was critical and gave him capital at the time to keep him. You know, Robinhood don't take much credit, but in the beginning I was able to vibe with Beiju. So all these other things.

So I was at this spot where there was a ton of inbound. 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, oh, you know, and getting into 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 was kinda like, okay, I learned lot of inbound. I was meeting with a lot of talent. 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 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 was kind of, had to realize like, is it naff 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? Like, 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 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 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 a couple amazing people 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, because he's got operational excellence, he's a good operator, he's got supply chain back end, 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.

Pigeonare Ying 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 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 gonna 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 shave Mitchell's our partner on that, which base couple hundred million this year in revenue, Black Friday. I know I got the little text message, but it was wild, like $26 million that day on our website. Big.

But it's kind of like, it's the new away. It's yeah, it's that that brands even blow in my mind. Like, I had messed a lot of companies. These are some amazing numbers. And it's just, yeah, no, these are big and base. And look, when you look at it, because there's so many like, how do you get there? What you do?

And, and, and base in particular was our first business at Beach House. 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 to kind of like a non-compete, so we couldn't like get into beauty right other way. And then a friend of mine introduced me to Shay 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 are all these things have to line up with talent, which we can get into. But and she was doing shakations at the time, like authentically doing shakations 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 was our first brand at beach house was base.

And Shay Mitchell is our partner in face of it. And it's, that thing's been crazy. Just so insane. Rocket ship. And like even me, I'll go, you know, because the next been crazy. Just, it's so insane. Rocket ship. And like, even me, I'll go, you know, because the nep days, I couldn't, there were years where I could not leave my house and go 10 minutes without seeing nep somewhere,

on a beanie or a t-shirt, right? It was just, it got that crazy. It was just everywhere. I thought it would be. So, it's been fun lately. And even sunbomb, right? You're kind of like, every time you go to the pool, the beach, you kind of see it. It's all, yeah. That's what motivates me, right? It's not fun lately and even sunbomb, 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 cikes me out. So, exit one, exit two, start creating brands under B-chiles, multiple different brands. How do you decide what you're gonna dive into? There's lots of celebrities and lots of influencers, lots of partners that you could choose. How do you decide this is the effect or this is someone I could actually build

a brand product or service around? Love that. Let's go back to B-chouse, right? Because that's the perfect scenario, right? We've got infrastructure, we have capital, we're scaling, we have relationships with retailers, it's a machine now. Going through it, right? The next business

You know, we we started was Florence with Millie Bobby Brown. So it was 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 gonna bring you something and innovate something 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 press call gate. 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, white, and blue, it's a crash call gate, 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 so that's what I do So I spent 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 one of the Had more pool on Gen Z than anyone else in the world. And Ulta was like, we need clean beauty

and we need Gen Z. So 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, we ended up selling Florence, probably a 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 we got out of that one, which was good. And then the next one, right, we did was pattern Matrice Ellis Ross. So I think when we look at talent And especially me particular because that's kind of my role at beach houses I'd eat the brand lock in the talent What's the right? We've met with in me personally I probably met with over 200 talent the way since beach house started easy and you're talking like

200 talent in bounds way more right because every YouTuber, influencer, new tick talk or whatever we get in bounds daily I get in bounds of like hey do you think she can do a brand or you think he can do a brand 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 a conversation. So do the math. A ton of inbound and we've done four. Right. 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 Biosuit case one every five years and go travel. No, it's like it's Coachella. It's Palm Springs for the weekend We have this bad 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. Because 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, 200 million plus followers on Instagram

alone, gone down the path, 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 and deal to get the least amount of deliverables in the most equity, right? And those you run away from. So, you know, that's the formula is, it's not just one thing, right? It's every brand, there's a different need, every brand, there's the formula is it's it's not just one thing right it's 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 can be an 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 known 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 but you know Kendall was perfect for that brand and unlike Shea who was doing shake-hations, right? We position Kendall in a way where look like She's not like the authority of oral care, but she's not trying to be. She's as a whitening pen. It's rad.

It's cool and about aesthetic is her story. So who knows? It's a lot though. It's not just like, oh, yeah, this is how you pick the right one because it was that easy We'd all be starting 20 of these week. Right. So I use a similar thing. I've angel invested in 43 companies Which sounds like a lot. Mm-hmm. It's been a decade So it's really like you. 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, 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's gonna change. Their finances are gonna change. Their forecasts and projections.

And everything in between is relevant to me because it's all gonna change. And sometimes the whole product is gonna change. It's gonna do a full shift. Yep. Or a full pivot. And so I care about the person. Who am I betting on and what are they gonna do?

And recently this last year or so, last two years, I raised $44 million for companies that are already doing two to 20 million in sales. Love that. We put in three to six million bucks. 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 to $6 million mark of capital because I don't have to go raise 10, 15,

20 million bucks, which takes a long time. I can get a lot of 100,000. Still early. You can get a chunk of 100,000. Still early. You can get a chunk of the business. Right. They're doing 12 million. They're still navigate a little bit, but there's a little proof of concept. Yes.

Yeah. They reduce my risk for me, my investors, my friends, etc. Because when a company's doing over 2 million bucks, I always say this. Going zero to 1 million, super hard, super rare. Going from 4 million to 12, it's nothing. Yeah. No. It's a gasoline on a fire. Tighten 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 pies something and they spend $4 million, you know that thing will sell.

When someone's at idea and zero, you have to be a visionary. Yep. You're like, hey, Shay is gonna work. Kendall's gonna work. Like this person's gonna work. Because you don't know until people vote with their a visionary. Yep. You're like, hey, Shay is going to work. Kendall is going to work. This person is going to 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 of key things. First off, act as if, meaning, act as if you're actually going to start this idea. If you come pick Pitch Sean F 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 gonna give you a hundred K or five hundred K 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 pictures per year and I get to be the nice guy because my response is Sure, I'd love to see it, semi-business plan. Guess how many semi-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 there. Quiver. And on stage, when 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, 1000 people, 5000 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 or here's my phone number when you have the business plan to 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 minutes 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 gonna 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 gotta get some type of traction, right? Because people care.

Yeah. To 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 the majority of the people that have had been fortunate enough to have some wins, 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 going to say I never went anywhere, but like, even when I would go with the fam to like, Hawaii and we're chilling, I'm stressing because I'm like, wait, I want to have the office. After paying P.O. financing, the target pay me on time, like, what's that like? You're just hustling by nature, right? And I think you, you know, 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, 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. Right, today I can't wait for the weekend. And then it's like, Monday's, 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's like, let's go. Like I want to ideate, I want to createate I want to create I want to crack and look It's 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 like, I wasn't better than anyone else. There was a million lucky little things. There's a million this.

There's, I randomly meet Snoop at this moment. And then he, you know, 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 like a nef shirt with like 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 it's like okay?

I'm gonna show up here's your back pack full of cash and here's your neph shirt So it's just stuff like that where like sure was I hustlin was I think in was I Aware to be like at that stage no social media the VMAs were the biggest thing here. So if like if I can get a nuff shirt on Snoop with Katie Perry when she was at her peak. The value of that marketing is bigger than my marketing budget that year. So I was witty in hustlin. I was able to spit the game. But for tourists that like a

Retailer knew this dude Nick Nick kind of you know Nick out there, but Nick Adler's 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 sure no one's just I've never meant some people that are billionaires I literally literally go. I wouldn't let them run a company for me I wouldn't trust them to get my talk over. No, yeah, literally. I'm serious. 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 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 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 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 play. Yeah. 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 largest toy drive.com This is day one of a ten city tour where we're taking the toy drive in honor of our 10 year anniversary

All over the country literally right the 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's fine because it 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. Right. That's one form of charity, but you're giving something who needs those kids and those families need that, right? And even me pulling up seeing this huge activation signs, Santa's hot chocolate bars, pizza, toys everywhere, you did 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 consider on this podcast, we've both fortunate enough to have some W's and we've probably had some losses. But like, 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 a 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 tearied 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 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. 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, like people talk about politics and this and that, and you know, wars that everything's gonna like end,

I guarantee you if we stopped if you stopped caring about others and helping other people we're done yeah hi guys I'm gonna try to convince Sean to come back on the podcast and 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 important for us to have a good listen through rate so that you guys share it comment like subscribe have these deep Discussion to your friends about money because we all group 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 literally don't know how to do their taxes because you wouldn't talk about it in school. We don't talk about the household. So it's really important for us for you guys to have these discussions. Your friends, family followers, talk about money, study it, research it, but more importantly, charity. We are going to the holiday season.

This episode's probably 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? Does someone pass away from cancer in your family? You care about homelessness, autism, all the time, or anything between. You don't need to have much money. You can go volunteer, spend your time energy, post about the monthly social media, but please

get involved in some type of charity. And when 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 that by millions, we're going to 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.