Napkin Math – Details, episodes & analysis

Charlie is back from Dracula's castle and Sabba is back from running a marathon. They are both arriving inspired. They do some Napkin Math on the economics of the running industry and the opportunities there, and how long it will be before they can pump out daily Dracula movies.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro
• 04:00 Marathon running breakdown and opportunties
• 12:35 Runna acquisition Napkin Math
• 25:18 Building interesting things vs networking
• 28:31 How to stick to ideas
• 40:08 How long before we can make feature length AI films
• 54:32 Ramen Club launch party

After 7 beautiful episodes, the MRR show is dead. But fear not, Napkin Math is born from its ashes. Sabba and Charlie discuss the performance of the show, dig into where Sabba invests his angel money, do a business breakdown (some actual napkin math) before going on a tirade on founders why founders aren't working hard enough...

Timestamps

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:23 New podcast name
• 05:27 Podcast growth numbers
• 16:22 Listener Labs napkin math
• 23:49 Sabba's angel investing strategy
• 28:03 Sabba's lunch hack
• 36:23 How hard do founders need to work?
• 46:50 Long term vs short term revenue

Sabba is tired after being at a trade show all week for VEED, but was it worth it? Sabba and Charlie discuss the cost and results. But there's nothing better than a pick me up recording with BBQ crisp-eating Charlie Ward, who finally has some MRR for his SaaS app. The chaps talk all things AI, opportunities, SaaS drama and more.

Timestamps

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:20 How much does a SaaS trade show cost?
• 05:56 What makes an entertaining video according to VEED
• 09:32 Rippling vs Deel drama update
• 11:29 AI image generation opportunities
• 16:24 Sabba gets upset
• 19:30 Cool opportunities in the AI image generation space
• 22:13 AI products to help user research
• 28:35 Other AI ideas
• 32:08 Will we get AI fatigue?
• 33:01 Scam call curiosity
• 35:34 Loveable 2.0 release
• 43:41 Charlie has some MRR
• 46:33 Matthew McConaughey's audiobook

Sabba went to Sri Lanka and came back with fire in his belly. He's ready to make money from the tariffs and so he discusses with Charlie how he'd do it. This got them thinking about the lack of energy in the US at the moment, and why they're bullish on the UK as a place to build. They wrap up talking about the biggest mega trend to make money with in 2025.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Intro
• 00:27 What Sabba learned about business in Sri Lanka
• 03:10 VEED's billboard ad cost and results
• 07:38 Tariffs chat
• 11:33 Making money from the tariffs
• 15:25 Europe vs USA vs UK
• 20:34 The evolution of "make something people search for"
• 23:27 Sabba's mega trend - AI wrappers
• 32:17 The future of AI products
• 37:50 Charlie's coworking space update
• 44:49 Charlie's vending machine business

B2B SaaS drama has got spicy recently, with both 11x and Deel making headlines. Sabba and Charlie give their take on why the companies got in hot water and if it's justified. Sabba also gives his thoughts on the future of VEED as they storm towards their $100m ARR goal and what happens next for the company.

Timestamps

• 00:00 MRR Show 005
• 01:06 Harry Dry's marketing course
• 08:02 The 11x drama
• 14:16 Deel drama
• 17:50 Do you need an audience?
• 24:55 Loom exit
• 31:55 The future of VEED
• 35:01 Studio Ghibli virality
• 39:47 The future of AI image generation

This week Sabba and Charlie still struggle to get their audio recorded properly* but the content is top notch. Dubbed the UK's answer to My First Million, the two kick off with debating if the UK is better than the US for building a startup. Sabba questions Charlie's sanity starting a coworking space in London, before explaining how much VEED spent on bright green advertising on the NYC subway.

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:04 Charlie almost gets robbed by a creative director
• 03:25 Is the UK a good place to build a startup?
• 16:09 What to do when you're successful but unhappy
• 24:45 Charlie's new coworking space
• 38:34 One thing vs multiple projects
• 44:33 Breakdown of VEED's NYC subway ad

*(salty Producer James writing this)

Charlie and Sabba are back three weeks later for their weekly podcast, bringing you some banger business ideas. The chaps dive into Exploding Topics and discuss opportunities in ADHD, creating a Third Space style martial arts gym and building a better dentist. They're also bullish on Project Europe.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:39 VC fund for consumer brands
• 05:23 Charlie's consumer trend idea
• 22:45 Innovating in the health space
• 24:48 High end martial arts gym
• 33:38 AI Agents
• 43:18 Model Context Protocol
• 49:24 Project Europe

Charlie and Sabba are back, fighting through a challenging remote connection, bringing you a cracking set of business ideas. Charlie brings a few interesting product discoveries from Indie Beers in Lisbon and Sabba stumbled across a $5-10k MRR idea while in a Ford Fiesta.

Timestamps

• 00:00 The MRR Show ep 2
• 01:28 D*ck measuring app
• 03:52 Funeral directory business
• 08:16 Feedback on episode 1
• 13:48 Car error code business idea
• 23:02 How to find new business ideas

Hello and welcome to the pilot episode of The MRR Show, with Charlie Ward and Sabba Keynejad. Charlie is the founder of Ramen Club and Sabba is the co-founder of VEED.io. The duo are coming together for this pilot episode, to share their thoughts on SaaS, tech and startups, from the perspective of two successful founders with Charlie being the heart of the london indie community and Sabba running an 8 figure VC backed SaaS. AI is a prominent feature in this first episode, talking about meetups, fine tuning LLMs and being able to talk to your dog.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Intro
• 01:35 - AI Events
• 04:30 - is Meetup full of grifters?
• 08:18 - Who is going to be the next billion $ company?
• 11:18 - Competing against AI
• 16:56 - How to capitilise on the AI tool trend
• 24:19 - Character.ai
• 30:37 - Fine tuning LLMs
• 35:44 - Loveable for X
• 37:46 - Build something people search for
• 41:12 - Micro tool strategy
• 46:46 - Should you have a free plan 
• 50:34 - Peach.ai
• 52:12 - Sabba's local sauna

The boys are back talking about Loveable's insane growth and $200m raise, the dangers of founder liquidity, plus more AI chat (of course). Charlie turns Sabba into BusinessGuruGPT prompting him with how he'd grow an eSIM business to $1m in a year. All this, and more, in this week's episode of NAPKIN MATH.

Timestamps

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:30 Loveable raises $200m
• 05:58 Jason Lemkin's Replit disaster
• 09:38 Takeaways from Loveable's raise and the future of AI companies
• 15:53 Generative content opportunities
• 18:19 Making £1m from e-sims
• 30:17 Founder liquidity
• 40:14 Focusing on a single growth channel
• 45:25 Are AI influencers important in the future of marketing
• 48:34 Should we be worried about the AI backlash?
• 53:30 The seasonality of SaaS