Shaan Puri

Shaan Puri is an American entrepreneur, investor, and podcaster best known as the co-host of My First Million, a business podcast with over 25 million annual downloads^[4]. He is also known as the former CEO of Bebo, a social platform he pivoted to esports before selling to Amazon's Twitch in 2019 for up to $25 million^[1].

In 2022, Puri co-founded The Milk Road, a daily cryptocurrency newsletter that reached 250,000 subscribers in under ten months before being acquired by Bitfo in an eight-figure deal^[3]. He manages an angel fund that has deployed approximately $10 million across early-stage startups^[4].

Puri grew up in approximately nine countries, studied biology at Duke University, and has described his career philosophy as doing things differently — "most people do what most people do," he has said, and differentiation comes from unconventional approaches^[6].

Puri was born in 1988 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His family relocated frequently during his childhood — he has said he grew up in approximately nine countries, including stints in China, Indonesia, and Australia^[6]. He started high school in Texas and finished in China.

He attended Duke University from 2006 to 2010, studying biology with initial plans to attend medical school. At Duke, Puri co-founded Sabi Sushi, a fast-casual sushi concept modeled on Chipotle's assembly-line format, which won the 2010 Duke Start-up Challenge — described as the first victory by an all-undergraduate, non-technology-based startup. The team won over $40,000 through business competitions^[6]. The restaurant concept failed to scale, but the experience redirected his career toward entrepreneurship.

In 2014, at age 26, Puri was named Duke's Markets and Management Studies Alumnus of the Year. At the time, his startups had been featured by The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and Apple^[6].

Monkey Inferno and Blab (2012–2017)

After his sushi venture failed, Puri cold-emailed his way into a role at Monkey Inferno, a startup studio in San Francisco funded by Michael and Xochi Birch, the original founders of Bebo who had sold the platform to AOL in 2008 for $850 million^[7]. Rather than submitting a resume, Puri researched Birch's projects and sent unsolicited improvement ideas. As CEO of the studio, he led a team of roughly twenty people through rapid prototyping cycles, testing four to five company concepts simultaneously in eight-week sprints.

One of those projects became Blab, a live-streaming group video chat platform that Puri spun out and led as CEO. Blab grew to 3.9 million users in its first year, attracting notable users including ESPN and Tony Robbins, but suffered severe retention problems — only about 10% of users returned daily^[2]. Puri shut Blab down in August 2016, announcing the decision in a Medium post.

Bebo and Twitch (2017–2021)

After Blab's closure, Puri pivoted the remaining team toward rebuilding Bebo as an esports platform. Michael Birch had repurchased Bebo out of bankruptcy in 2013 for just $1 million — a fraction of the $850 million AOL had originally paid^[1]. Under Puri's leadership, Bebo organized tournaments and streaming services for competitive gamers during a period when the esports industry attracted 400 million users and generated $869 million in annual revenue.

Amazon's Twitch acquired Bebo in June 2019 for up to $25 million to bolster Twitch Rivals, its competitive gaming division. Competing bidders reportedly included Facebook and Discord^[1]. Approximately ten employees transferred to Twitch. Puri joined as Senior Director of Product, overseeing mobile gaming and emerging markets, and remained through 2021^[9].

My First Million (2019–present)

Puri co-hosts My First Million with Sam Parr, the founder of The Hustle newsletter. Launched in June 2019 and now produced by HubSpot Media following HubSpot's acquisition of The Hustle, the podcast features business idea brainstorming and trend analysis across two to three episodes per week^[4]. The show has accumulated over 200 million YouTube views and more than 500,000 YouTube subscribers. Guests have included Gary Vaynerchuk, Andrew Huberman, Lance Armstrong, and Hasan Minhaj. It won the 2023 Webby Award for People's Voice in the business podcast category.

The Milk Road (2022–2023)

In February 2022, Puri co-founded The Milk Road with Ben Levy, who had cold-messaged Puri on Twitter. The daily cryptocurrency newsletter reached 250,000 email subscribers in under ten months, maintaining a 45% open rate against a 34% industry average^[3].

As a marketing stunt, the pair put $1 million in a public crypto wallet and let readers watch — and vote on purchases — in real time. The portfolio lost roughly 70% during the crypto downturn, but subscriber growth accelerated^[3]. Bitfo, the parent company of EthereumPrice.org, acquired The Milk Road in January 2023 in what investors estimated as an eight-figure transaction^[3].

Investing

Puri launched the All Access rolling fund on AngelList in September 2020, raising $2.5 million from 73 limited partners in 21 days — entirely from Twitter followers and podcast listeners, none of whom he had met in person^[8]. The fund, now known as Shaan and Romeen's Angel Fund (with partner Romeen Sheth), deploys $3–4 million annually with check sizes of $25,000–$100,000. Portfolio companies include Lambda School, Kittl, and Dukaan^[4].

In December 2020, while still at Twitch, Puri announced he had moved 25% of his net worth into Bitcoin, saying he wanted to "front run a wave of institutional capital"^[5].

Puri won the 2010 Duke Start-up Challenge with Sabi Sushi, the first all-undergraduate, non-technology startup to win the competition^[6]. In 2014, he was named Duke's Markets and Management Studies Alumnus of the Year at age 26^[6].

My First Million received the 2023 Webby Award for People's Voice in the business podcast category.

Quotations attributed to Puri in published sources.

Puri has appeared as a guest on podcasts and media outlets focused on entrepreneurship, investing, and internet culture.

Puri has also been featured in TechCrunch, Bitcoin.com News, and the OpenGrowth podcast. His Twitter following exceeds 500,000, and he frequently publishes long-form threads on business strategy and internet trends.

Through his angel fund (formerly All Access, now Shaan and Romeen's Angel Fund with partner Romeen Sheth), Puri has made investments across consumer internet, SaaS, and education technology. The fund deploys $3–4 million annually in check sizes of $25,000–$100,000^[4][12].

Selected portfolio companies include:

• Lambda School (now BloomTech) — an income-share-agreement coding bootcamp
• Kittl — a Berlin-based graphic design platform
• Dukaan — an Indian e-commerce platform for small businesses
• Beehiiv — a newsletter platform (Puri uses it for The Milk Road and has publicly endorsed it)
• Hampton — a community for founders doing $1M–$100M in revenue, founded by Sam Parr

In December 2020, Puri publicly disclosed that he had moved 25% of his net worth into Bitcoin, saying he wanted to "front-run a wave of institutional capital"^[5].