Moneywise

Craig Newmark turned down an $11 billion offer for Craigslist, and he's already given away $570 million of his own money chasing a number even bigger than that.This podcast is made by Hampton, a community for founders doing on average $25 million a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "What the heck, let's make it public." If you're a founder, apply here: joinhampton.com/mwCraig founded Craigslist off a mailing list in 1995. He turned down that $11 billion offer, and since then has given away $570 million through his foundation, aiming for a billion before he dies. He funds NYPD bomb squad gear, an NYU cardiologist's AI research, Wikipedia, journalism schools, and pigeon rescue. He's 73, hasn't owned a car in ten years, and just upgraded from $50 Skechers to $80 Skechers.This one gets into what happens once a founder's number stops being the problem, the Sunday school lesson behind his moral compass, why his own headline net worth is wrong, the two causes eating most of his giving budget, and his plan to train an LLM to keep making his philanthropic decisions after he's gone. It closes on Take Nine, his campaign for the nine-second pause that stops most scams.Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.comSubscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcastFollow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberkListen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

He had $15 in the bank and a $1M judgment against him. Eight years later, Nestlé bought his company for $1.5B — then shut it down.Also, this podcast is made by Hampton, which is a community for founders doing on average $20 million a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "What the heck, let's make it public." If you are a founder, apply here: http://joinhampton.com/mwMichael Wystrach built Freshly out of the wreckage of a failing restaurant, with $15 in the bank and a personally-guaranteed lease that left him with a $1M judgment against him. Six years later he sold the company to Nestlé for $1.5B — then watched it get shut down. He never took time off. He started a veterinary platform with his sister, raised a $75M venture fund, and put almost his entire payout back to work.This episode gets into what really happens to your bank account after a nine-figure exit — secondary sales, earn-out math, his actual living costs, his real estate philosophy at 2% interest rates, and what it felt like to lose the company he built after selling it. He also shares why he believes the first $10M matters more than the hundredth, and why he plans to keep building for the rest of his life.Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.comSubscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcastFollow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberkListen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

We did something nuts: we got 50+ founders to reveal their net worth, portfolios, income, expenses. Its free and right here: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wrWhy this podcast exists:Hampton is a community for founders. Members do an ave of $20m/year in revenue.Tons of the convos within the community are about money: how to invest, how to spend, how much to pay yourself...all this stuff you can't Google.We thought "Let’s just make these convos public". And thus, this podcast Moneywise came to be.We publish weekly. Click the subscribe button and the goodness will be delivered. Also...we've done 100+ episodes. If you want the aggregate info of all the numbers, meaning the net worth, spending, income of 50+ founders ranging from $10m to $1 billion: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wrOk, so let's talk David Royce, today's guest:He built the same pest control company four times — $13M, $30M, $135M, $1.5B — and says the first exit was the most life-changing.David Royce sold four pest control companies — Moxie, Eco First, Altera, and Aptiv — each bigger than the last, culminating in a $1.5B sale of Aptiv when it was doing $508M in annual revenue. He kept 100% equity through the first three, gave 25% of the last one to his employees, and personally walked away with hundreds of millions across the run. He's now on an indefinite sabbatical, investing through Iconic (the firm that manages Zuckerberg's and Dorsey's money), with half his net worth in S&P 500 and the rest in private equity, direct deals, and alternatives — including multiple Anthropic investments.This episode covers the exact mechanics of each asset-sale exit, why David kept restarting instead of holding, his full portfolio framework (including the 4-year cash buffer strategy), the "the answer is just a little more" moment that hit every entrepreneur in the room, and the story of flying his dying father on a private jet from a New Orleans hospital to Cedars-Sinai at 2am — made possible only by one call to a CEO WhatsApp chain.Timestamps:00:01:39 — David's full intro: four companies, four exits, what actually happened with the money01:55 — First company (Moxie): nearly went bankrupt the first year, how a cash flow crisis taught him "cash was king"03:14 — The asset-sale strategy: selling customers and technicians to Terminix while keeping the sales operation04:57 — "Pretty close" — David confirms Forbes' reported $13M and $30M exit figures05:37 — Why he gave 25% of Aptiv to employees and stepped back as chairman06:23 — Aptiv was doing $508M in revenue; Daniel and David settle on $1.5B as the sale range07:13 — What he actually took home: cap gains, California taxes, "hundreds of millions"08:37 — Net worth today: "do the math backwards and figure it out"09:09 — Portfolio breakdown: 4-year cash buffer in fixed income, S&P 500 with tax-loss harvesting, alternatives11:31 — "I just invested in Anthropic — three different times in the last year and a half" via Iconic14:35 — "The one that was life-changing was the first one" — $13M from nothing hits differently than $1.5B17:46 — Why pest control? A starving college student, a friend who made $25K in a summer, and zero sales for five days straight21:16 — His boss's question that changed everything: "What on earth would you go work for somebody else?"27:31 — Fifth grade through eleventh grade: watching his family nearly lose the house, the fear that built everything36:35 — Flying his dying father on a private jet from New Orleans to Cedars-Sinai at 2am39:36 — What he wants to be remembered for: "The sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have, but how many leaders you create"Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.comSubscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcastFollow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberkListen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

She sold for $88M, almost bought a lake house she didn't want, and spent $340K on Knicks playoff tickets — then gave two away because it felt better.We're still surprised people did this but... 50+ founders worth $10M to $4B reveal their personal finances. Here it is: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wrWhy do we do this? Because if you're an aspirational person or someone who runs a business and is making money, it's incredibly challenging to figure out what to do. Information is impossible to find — and that's what we put together: the net worth reveal and why we do this podcast, Moneywise.Also, this podcast is made by Hampton, which is a community for founders doing on average $20M a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "Why not, let's make it public." If you are a founder, apply here: https://joinhampton.com/mwAnne Mahlum built Solid Core from $175,000 of her own savings into an $88M exit. Two years later, her net worth is $115–120M, with $65M in public equities and $15M in a single stock alone. But the numbers are the least interesting thing that's happened since.After the sale, she secretly launched a second fitness company, had panic attacks she's never talked publicly about, shut the whole thing down, and spent two years in legal fallout. Then she had a baby, pulled an accepted lake house offer the morning after making it, and started forcing herself to spend $200K a month just to stop the money from piling up.This episode covers the full portfolio breakdown two years post-exit, why she's done with private investments, the Ambition story she's never told, what a baby did to how she thinks about money and time, and what she actually wants to be remembered for — which has nothing to do with net worth.Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

JOIN HAMPTON:These episodes often come directly out of conversations happening inside Hampton, a private community for founders and CEOs with $3M+ in revenue or $10M+ exits. Members range from $5M net worth to billions. They wrestle with these same questions off the record. Apply at http://joinhampton.com/mw.HOW FOUNDERS ARE BUILDING WEALTH:How much do founders actually make, spend, invest, work, and keep in net worth? Hampton surveyed founders directly and put the answers into one report. Download it for free here: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wrEPISODE DETAILS:Most founders spend years learning how to make money. Almost none of them prepare for what their brain does once they have it.Henrik Cronqvist is a behavioral finance professor who trained under Nobel laureate Richard Thaler and has spent 25 years studying exactly that. His research has been cited over 7,000 times. He has studied 38,000 people to answer one uncomfortable question: how much of the way you save, spend, and invest is actually hardwired into your DNA?The answer will change how you think about every financial decision you make after an exit.This episode covers the science behind why the traits that made you a great founder may work against you as an investor, what actually happens in your brain the day the wire hits, and the one thing Henrik says every founder should do before making a single investment.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 — The traits that made you a great founder will make you a bad investor 01:45 — What is behavioral finance and why should founders care 04:35 — How Henrik got into this research (the Stockholm subway story) 06:39 — The 38,000 twin study: how much of your money behavior is genetic 10:56 — The first thing to do when the wire hits your account 12:49 — Loss aversion, performance chasing, and home bias explained 20:35 — Your personal mortgage predicts how you'll run your company's finances 30:08 — Why your brokerage app is designed to work against you 37:07 — Why founders feel depressed after selling (the science behind post-exit emotions) 47:14 — "I think I'm the exception" — and what the data actually says about that