Explore every episode of the podcast The Advantage with Mike Wystrach
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How to hire fast in a startup | Leandro Cabrini | 02 Sep 2026 | 00:56:48 | |
We turned the six moves from this episode into one free PDF, The Cabrini Playbook → https://mikewystrach.com/get/leandro-playbook | |||
| Your time is worth more than your wealth | Kenny Santucci | 26 Aug 2026 | 00:46:47 | |
Kenny Santucci did nine seasons of MTV's The Challenge. Today he trains Bon Jovi, guys from the Knicks, and whichever WWE wrestlers are in town, out of two New York gyms he owns. | |||
| $600M Operator: Start in a Niche. Just Don't Plan to Stay There. | Sam McBride | 19 Aug 2026 | 01:03:04 | |
Sam McBride is the CEO of Kettle & Fire and the founder of Colter Ventures, where he writes $40 to $150 million checks into a handful of businesses at a time. This episode is presented by Proppel. Hire A-player marketing and ops talent from the US and LATAM, and get 10% off your first hire: https://www.weareproppel.com/theadvantage Full show notes and everything mentioned: https://mikewystrach.com/podcast/sam-mcbride A year out of school and working in healthcare M&A, McBride sold a $10 million piece of business to a division he did not work in. He asked his MD what that was worth to him and got a story about how long the man had waited for his yacht club membership. He quit. Then he called a mentor who was buying home security companies and offered to work for $30,000 a year for six months, on one condition: he wanted to be an executive immediately. He was 21. Every decision since has the same shape. He joined RXBAR as roughly its fourth employee and was there when Kellogg bought it for $600 million. He put $44 million into a bone broth company he had sat on the board of for years, and took the CEO seat when its chief executive proposed they swap and run it together. The most portable thing he says is about niches. out at the same time. He is unsentimental about the job itself. One problem after another, almost no credit, and getting kicked in the head often enough that you stop expecting otherwise. Once in a while there is an outcome. The other 99% is the part you have to like. Chapters 00:00:00 Operating Is Solving Problems For Almost No Credit 00:02:45 The Yacht Club Story That Ended His Finance Career 00:04:00 He Offered To Work For $30,000 A Year At 21 00:13:12 RXBAR Was Three Grade School Friends And A Warehouse 00:19:51 The CrossFit Business Topped Out At $6 Million 00:32:31 There Were Four Other RXBARs 00:35:30 The Values Interview That Ran The Final Round 00:41:31 Selling To Kellogg For $600 Million 00:50:28 Fewer Bets, Bigger Bets, And Kettle & Fire 00:59:27 Start In A Niche. Just Do Not Plan To Stay There. Sam McBride Colter Ventures: https://www.colterventures.com Kettle & Fire: https://www.kettleandfire.com PRESENTED BY PROPPEL Your business is only as good as the people in it, and finding real A players is one of the hardest things you'll do. Proppel specializes in marketing and operations talent, placing top people from the US, LATAM and beyond. It's all performance-based. You pay a one-off fee only once you actually hire someone, so no retainers and no ongoing costs. Every hire comes with a three-month guarantee. Get 10% off your first hire: https://www.weareproppel.com/theadvantage All episodes: https://mikewystrach.com/podcast Instagram: https://instagram.com/mikewystrach | |||
| Navigating the Creator Economy | Vitalii Dodonov, Stan | 12 Aug 2026 | 00:49:09 | |
Vitalii Dodonov is the co-founder and CTO of Stan, a creator commerce platform that's generated over $600M for it's creators. Every other platform in the category takes 10 to 20 percent of what a creator sells. Stan takes nothing. Presented by Proppel. Hire A-player marketing and ops talent from the US and LATAM, and get 10% off your first hire: https://www.weareproppel.com/theadvantage Mike's IG: https://www.instagram.com/mikewystrach/ In late 2022 Stan was doing roughly $1 million a year, and a slice of that was commission. They had added the cut for the reason everyone adds it: the rest of the category had one. Then Vitalii and his co-founder John Hu built the spreadsheet that killed it. They deleted transaction fees entirely and put the business on a flat $30 a month. Revenue went from $1 million to $15 million to $27 million. Giving up a take rate at $1 million ARR means giving up the fastest-compounding line in the business. Mike walks him back into the room where that call was made, who pushed back, and what settled it. Vitalii is also clear that removing the fee is not what caused the 8.5x. The growth came from building a product people talked about, on no marketing budget. A team of 30 changes the operative question: it stops being what to build and becomes what to refuse to build. And the thesis underneath is strange for a monetization company. Monetization was never the hard part. Attention is easy to accumulate and almost nobody knows what to do with it. Distribution is the bottleneck, and creator churn is structural rather than a product failure. That produced Stanley, the AI head of content Stan built in 14 days. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction 00:07:46 He Turned Down A Mid-Six-Figure Amazon Offer 00:14:01 Time In The Arena Beats Founder Dating 00:17:56 What Do You Do With The Attention? 00:21:50 They Added A Commission Because Everyone Else Had One 00:22:29 The Spreadsheet That Killed The Commission 00:24:26 Removing The Fee Was Not What Drove The Growth 00:27:38 $1M To $15M To $27M 00:29:54 Crossing $30M ARR With Fewer Than 30 People 00:30:14 No Marketing Budget, And Gas In A Tank 00:32:49 What A Personal Head Of Content Actually Does 00:39:31 Every Founder Is About To Need A Digital Identity 00:43:48 At 30, Optimize For The Rooms You Sit In Vitalii Dodonov LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitddnv/ PRESENTED BY PROPPEL Your business is only as good as the people in it, and finding real A players is one of the hardest things you'll do. Proppel specializes in marketing and operations talent, placing top people from the US, LATAM and beyond. Whether you need video editors, graphic designers, or media buyers from LATAM, or managers, directors, heads of department and VPs in the US, they'll help you build the team you actually need to grow. It's all performance-based. You pay a one-off fee only once you actually hire someone, so no retainers and no ongoing costs. Every hire comes with a three-month guarantee. Get 10% off your first hire: https://www.weareproppel.com/theadvantage | |||
| The Best Hire beehiiv Almost Never Made | Daniel Berk | 05 Aug 2026 | 00:52:00 | |
Daniel Berk is giving you the Owned Audience Playbook · beehiiv's first sales hire on betting on yourself Presented by Proppel · A-player marketing and ops talent, 10% off your first hire → https://www.weareproppel.com/the-advantage-proppel Daniel Berk built a $78,000-a-year podcast working one hour a week. He learned the system as beehiiv's first sales hire, joining at 12 employees and under $1M in revenue. The company now reports $30M ARR.
00:00:00 Trailer 00:00:38 Meet Daniel Berk, beehiiv's First Sales Hire 00:02:06 From Mowing Lawns at 12 to $2.5M of Sneeze Guards 00:05:46 Rejected for Employee #1, Hired 7 Months Later 00:07:32 Building beehiiv's Sales Motion From Zero 00:10:20 A Reported $30M ARR and a Self-Given C-Suite Title 00:13:27 The Podcast That Started With One DM 00:14:15 The Clipping Engine: $78K on One Hour a Week 00:17:53 90% of Podcasts Die Before Episode 20 00:18:51 Turning Down $300K to Bet on Himself 00:21:24 MoneyWise, Local Newsletters and a Micro SaaS Bet 00:23:06 Every Single Person Starts at Zero 00:24:48 Commit to 10 Years or Don't Start 00:26:55 The Threshold Number: When More Money Stops Mattering 00:30:06 Your First Dollar Online Changes Everything 00:31:43 Build the Marketing Machine Before the Product 00:35:26 The Lawn-Mowing YouTuber Making $100K a Video 00:40:00 A Claude Agent That Clips, Writes and Posts for Him 00:43:50 Be an AI Super User or Compete With One 00:47:52 Practical Edges: Claude, Wispr Flow and Building Apps 🔗 DANIEL BERK Website: https://danielberk.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielberk MoneyWise: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfszC9-H9y38eA-h77OzJhw ⚡ PRESENTED BY PROPPEL Finding real A players is one of the hardest things you'll do. Proppel places marketing and operations talent from the US, LATAM and beyond: video editors, graphic designers and media buyers from LATAM, or managers, directors, heads of department and VPs in the US. Performance-based, one-off fee only when you hire, no retainers. Every hire comes with a three-month guarantee. Get 10% off your first hire → https://www.weareproppel.com/the-advantage-proppel All episodes: https://mikewystrach.com/podcast Instagram: @mikewystrach — https://instagram.com/mikewystrach | |||