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December 23, 2024 • 1hr 6min
$500M Founder: “This is the biggest opportunity in the US today”
My First Million
Justin Mares joins Sam Parr and Shaan Puri to discuss business opportunities in health and wellness. Justin has started multiple successful companies in this space, collectively doing hundreds of millions in revenue. He brings a balanced perspective - interested in cutting-edge health optimization while remaining practical about what interventions actually matter most.
$500M Founder: “This is the biggest opportunity in the US today”
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Key Takeaways
- The Great American Poisoning - Americans are getting sicker at record levels, creating both a massive health crisis and business opportunity
- Three major business opportunities identified in health/wellness space:
- Home health services and environmental testing
- Premium butcher shops focused on high-quality meats
- Fertility optimization services as an alternative to IVF
- Focus on one problem - There are benefits to picking one major problem to solve across your career rather than bouncing between industries
- Start small and validate - Test demand with minimal investment before going all-in on a business idea
Introduction
Justin Mares joins Sam Parr and Shaan Puri to discuss business opportunities in health and wellness. Justin has started multiple successful companies in this space, collectively doing hundreds of millions in revenue. He brings a balanced perspective - interested in cutting-edge health optimization while remaining practical about what interventions actually matter most.
Topics Discussed
The Great American Poisoning (0:00)
Justin discusses his viral blog post about how Americans are getting sicker at record levels, dubbed "The Great American Poisoning":
- Chronic disease burden has grown 700% in the last 90 years
- Default outcome for Americans today is getting one or more chronic conditions
- Our medical system isn't built to handle a population where the average person is sick
- "This is literally, I think the biggest problem in the country" - Justin Mares
Home Health Services Opportunity (7:17)
Discussion of the opportunity to build services helping people optimize their home environment for health:
- Key areas to address:
- Water filtration systems
- Lighting (replacing LED with incandescent)
- EMF exposure reduction
- Air quality
- Business model could include:
- Annual home health checkups
- Ongoing maintenance services
- Product recommendations and installation
- "You could build a massive company that helps people look at their environment, their home and office and say, okay, you're spending 80% of your time in these three spaces...how do we make it so that these spaces are maximally healthy?" - Justin Mares
Modern Butcher Shop Concept (25:26)
Detailed discussion of the opportunity to create a premium butcher shop chain:
- Market opportunity:
- Meat today is where coffee was in the 1980s - undifferentiated commodity
- No focus on genetics, aging, sourcing, etc.
- Huge price elasticity for premium meat ($20/lb vs $70/lb)
- Differentiation factors:
- Genetics and breeding
- Feed and raising practices
- Dry aging capabilities
- Education and storytelling
- "I think there's this massive opportunity to build what I'm calling like the Blue Bottle of the modern butcher shop" - Justin Mares
Fertility Services Opportunity (38:58)
Discussion of the opportunity to create alternative fertility services:
- Market dynamics:
- IVF costs $20-30k and is very invasive
- Fertility issues increasingly common
- Search volume for "IVF clinic near me" up dramatically
- Business concept:
- Monthly subscription model
- Lifestyle interventions
- Supplements and peptides
- Environmental optimization
- "Before going the $20-30,000 very expensive, very invasive IVF route, do this several hundred dollars a month lifestyle based fertility approach" - Justin Mares
Career Focus and Problem Selection (45:34)
Justin discusses his approach to entrepreneurship and career focus:
- Benefits of focus:
- Relationship compounding
- Knowledge compounding
- Brand building
- Multiple shots on goal
- Selection criteria:
- Personal interest and passion
- Size of problem
- Career-long potential
- "I think for me what has been very rewarding is basically choosing one problem which for me is the chronic disease crisis that I want to spend the rest of my career on" - Justin Mares
Building Kettle & Fire Case Study (48:50)
Detailed breakdown of how Justin built his bone broth company:
- Initial validation:
- Built landing page with no product
- Ran Facebook/AdWords ads
- Generated $2k in pre-orders
- Key steps:
- Found manufacturer through Mark Cuban connection
- Invested life savings in first production run
- Got into Whole Foods through influencer mention
- Scaled to $2.8M in first year
- "Either this is going to work great or I'm going to eat bone broth for two years. Either way I'll feel pretty good" - Justin Mares
Zuckerberg Chain Auction (59:18)
Discussion of Mark Zuckerberg auctioning his gold chain for charity:
- Inflection Grants:
- $2,000 grants for entrepreneurs under 24
- Inspired by mentor who helped Justin
- Chain auction raised $41,000
- "Someone made an offer to me when I was in my 20s...that offer would make a big difference in my decision making" - Justin Mares
Conclusion
The episode highlights several major business opportunities in health and wellness, particularly around solving what Justin calls "The Great American Poisoning." His approach of focusing deeply on one problem area while taking multiple shots on goal through different business models provides a valuable framework for entrepreneurs. The discussion of his success with Kettle & Fire demonstrates how to validate and execute on opportunities in this space.
Key themes that emerged:
- Problem focus - Pick one major problem to solve across your career
- Market timing - Many health/wellness categories are where coffee was in the 1980s
- Validation - Test demand before going all-in
- Storytelling - Education and brand building are critical for premium products
- Persistence - Success often comes from staying in the game long enough