← All episodes

The Simplest Way To Make $1M In 2026

| 21 products mentioned
My First Million My First Million host
Sam Parr co-host
Shaan Puri co-host
Watch on YouTube employee equity strategy hard tech manufacturing ai music generation vertical ai software fintech infrastructure space manufacturing bootstrap businesses

Sam Parr and Shaan Puri present "Sarah's List," an annual ranking of 10+ companies they'd recommend joining as an employee to achieve wealth through equity upside, using Sam's wife's early Airbnb investment as the template. The hosts and guests from TBPN (The Business Podcast Network) argue that joining obvious winner companies at scale often beats starting risky ventures, and highlight emerging opportunities across hard tech, AI, and fintech that could deliver 5-10x returns for early employees.

Key takeaways
  • • The core thesis is that joining established companies with 5-10x upside potential is often more reliable than starting from scratch, demonstrated by how Sarah's $200k Airbnb equity grant compounded to $1M+ over four years.
  • • Hard tech manufacturing expertise is a rare advantage; the founder of Zuru Tech demonstrates how mastering factory automation across toys, diapers, and now AI-powered home construction creates defensible moats that software-only competitors can't replicate.
  • • Space manufacturing through companies like Varda Industries represents a multi-decade bet on declining launch costs and new applications in pharmaceuticals and defense, particularly as Blue Origin and SpaceX compete on pricing.
  • • AI-generated music tools like Suno are capturing a 10-50x larger addressable market than traditional musicians by enabling non-musicians to create songs, with 300M ARR already at $2.5B+ valuation suggesting room for 10-20x growth.
  • • Vertical AI software for regulated industries like Harvey (legal) and TrueMed (healthcare payments) outperform general-purpose AI because they build compliance, security, and domain-specific workflows that ChatGPT cannot easily replicate.
  • • Bootstrap, profitable manufacturing platforms like SendCutSend that scale to $100M+ ARR without dilution offer better equity outcomes than VC-backed companies, and serve as indexes into broader hard tech trends.
  • • Financial infrastructure plays like Column (the underlying bank powering fintech) and SaaS stalwarts like HubSpot remain valuable despite AI disruption fears, because enterprise relationships and system-of-record status create durable moats.

Recommendations (7)

Zuru Tech recommends

"If there was one company that I could empty the tank of my life savings into, I would be pouring it into this, which means it's a contender for Sarah's list for me."

Shaan Puri · ▶ 5:16

Varda Space Industries
Varda Space Industries recommends

"If you get a group of ultra talented people together that can develop the capability of simply putting stuff up in space and bringing it back down, it's going to have a really wide range of applica..."

John Coogan · ▶ 12:47

Suno
Suno uses

"I'm addicted to the app. I use it all the time. I've probably made 40 or 50 songs. I've burned tens of thousands of credits on this thing."

Shaan Puri · ▶ 19:54

TrueMed
TrueMed uses

"We're a happy TrueMed customer. TrueMed has a very meaningful take rate, but it's a great trade because you're able to sell incremental product."

Jordi Hays · ▶ 29:44

Check price →
SemiAnalysis recommends

"The real model to think about this, the comp is Moody's. Moody's is now an 80 billion dollar business and if you look at the stock it has not moved during the selloff."

John Coogan · ▶ 45:19

Check price →
Harvey
Harvey recommends

"I think Harvey is a perfect example of like as AI happens right now, there's going to be these winners for the decade. The legal one is like a clear-cut obvious in-your-face vertical one that will ..."

Shaan Puri · ▶ 52:41

SendCutSend
SendCutSend recommends

"Send Cut Send is really focused on speed and ease of use. And they've scaled up organically. The founder, Jim, is just amazing."

John Coogan · ▶ 1:00:08

Mentioned (14)

Airbnb
Airbnb "She got a job at Airbnb and that stock package, which over a 4-year period is about $200,000 wort..." ▶ 0:44
OpenAI
OpenAI "When we did OpenAI, it was a hundred billion dollar valuation at the time. It's now close to 800 ..." ▶ 3:35
Anthropic
Anthropic "The biggest thing that OpenAI or Anthropic is going to try to roll out and make mainstream." ▶ 22:34
ChatGPT
ChatGPT "It's like ChatGPT. You just describe, you drop a pin where you're going to put the home." ▶ 6:16
Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine "It renders it all using Unreal Engine. It renders the whole thing in front of you." ▶ 6:45
Midjourney
Midjourney "It creates like an AI video of like a home walkthrough for you using kind of like a midjourney ty..." ▶ 6:54
SpaceX "They partner with SpaceX to launch a capsule and then inside that capsule they effectively have c..." ▶ 13:15
SoundCloud
SoundCloud "SoundCloud has 40 million music creators. So that's 40 million people who around the world who ac..." ▶ 20:37
Spotify
Spotify "Spotify never created an Ableton competitor, Fruity Loops competitor. They never sold guitars. Th..." ▶ 24:44
Andrew Huberman
Andrew Huberman "Andrew Huberman's been an early partner there, which is awesome." ▶ 30:42
Monday.com
Monday.com "I think I saw Monday.com, they do a billion in revenue at a $2 billion market cap, something like..." ▶ 39:03
Moody's
Moody's "Moody's got started during the railroad buildout because the railroad buildout was so capital int..." ▶ 48:41
Column
Column "The founder of Plaid, his new company called Column, he actually bought a bank for $60 million of..." ▶ 1:05:02
Plaud
Plaud "Column was started due to his experience building Plaid, because Plaid basically created in large..." ▶ 1:06:31

More from these creators

How To Get Ahead Of 90% Of People in 2026

My First Million · Mar 27, 2026 · 2 recs

Watch This Before You Invest Another Dollar

My First Million · Mar 25, 2026 · 2 recs

The AI Company Everyone Slept On Just Broke Every Record

My First Million · Mar 19, 2026 · 5 recs

$100M+ Advice That'll Piss Off Every Business Guru (ft. DHH)

My First Million · Mar 17, 2026 · 9 recs

This guy named BlackBerry, Febreze and Swiffer, here’s his exact 3-step naming formula

My First Million · Mar 13, 2026 · 7 recs

Uber's Legendary Investor Explains Who Will Thrive in the AI Era (And Who Won't)

My First Million · Mar 09, 2026