Crazy Origin Story of Foundr, Multi-Million Dollar Media Entrepreneurship Magazine w/ Nathan Chan

A few years ago, before I started my business and barely knew what a podcast was I listened to the Foundr podcast. I just searched Spotify for “entrepreneurship” or “founder” and I began listening. Listening to Nathan’s podcast on a regular basis allowed me to virtually meet amazing people like, Ariana Huffington, Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss, Lewis Howes, Seth Godin, Andy Puddicombe and so many more amazing individuals. The same way people talk about the Think & Grow Rich book, I view this podcast has had a similar impact on me.

Which makes today, a very special day. I got to interview Nathan Chan, the host and founder of Foundr Magazine himself! This is a dream come true for me, I got the opportunity to chat with the person who I spent my nights listening to years back and really paved the road for business and living an awesome & impactful life.

Without further ado, I present to you episode #90 of the Humans 2.0 podcast with Nathan Chan. Check out the audio links here on your phone and/or watch the Youtube video below:

Nathan Chan: 

Four or five years ago I had this crazy idea to launch this digital magazine because no one would give me a job and I wanted to get a job in marketing so I thought…what if I launched this magazine just as a side hobby passion project around business and entrepreneurship. I had no idea what it was going to be this multi-million dollar media company.

I literally was just launching it for fun because I wanted to find work that I was passionate about. When I launched the magazine I didn't really think that far ahead right. When I launched it on the first day, we made five dollars and 50 cents so we had two people subscribed to the magazine and I was like oh wow okay I've got subscribers now and they've paid to just subscribe for the next month and it's recurring. 

I remember even taking the magazine on the iPad, into like a couple of job interviews that I went for which was ridiculous, thinking back at the time and still didn't get a job and I started to really fall in love with the magazine and we were getting new subscribers every day and I thought, maybe I’m onto something here. First month we made $80, Second month we made a couple hundred and the third month we made a little bit more. Eventually got to a point where I really started to fall in love with the business and the process of producing the magazine & producing entrepreneurial content. 

We didn’t have this grandiose vision of taking over the world like we do now, we were literally just doing something for fun and still that to this day. At first I was thinking of creating a magazine around horse-racing with my housemate and he actually got a job because he just finished University and was doing freelancing and then he actually got a job at like a big company. He couldn't do any other ventures so we actually didn't work together which is kind of crazy thinking back at that and I decided to do it by myself. 

Foundr Magazine was Sued for Trademark Infringement 

It was pretty scary. I started the magazine as just a side hobby passion project or a side hustle so I kept my day job. I would be working early mornings and late nights so as soon as I get home I'd work on the magazine for a few hours then I’d go see my girlfriend. I would get up early and then I got up even earlier so I could work on it a little bit before I went to work and one morning I woke up and I saw I saw this email saying, urgent attention, something about a lawsuit.

I was kind of half asleep because you know as you do you check your email so I was just getting ready. I got this email from this hotshot lawyer from Dallas, Texas and he said - if you didn't know you're being sued for trademark infringement by this company, that didn’t even print magazines anymore. One of the biggest business magazines in the States was suing me for trademark infringement because the magazine wasn't originally called foundr. 

I was like what the hell's going on here is this sophisticated spam? A few weeks later I got served by FedEx and it was probably one of the most stressful times. It was pretty hard but in the end I didn't have to pay any money and at the end we just changed the name to foundr. I learnt some really valuable lessons around business and trademark infringement law and I think it was a pretty big blessing in disguise to be honest. 

Importance of Network & Relationships

When I started Foundr I had no network, like literally nothing. I didn't know anyone in my immediate friendship circles or anyone that was running businesses. My mom was a nurse and my dad was a teacher so I was literally starting from scratch. When you get started you got to put yourself out there and network and meet people so I started going to events and stuff like that.

I ended up meeting this guy called David who was actually cold calling me and we really connected over the phone. We became good friends from the beginning when I started foundr and then along the way we ended up working on a project and we had so much fun that I convinced him to come join us full-time. I've been really lucky to build up now what I believe to be an absolutely incredible & extremely powerful network around me over the past five years that I can do some incredible things with my network.

How has hosting the podcast helped your mission?

Over the next year to year and a half we're gonna launch a podcast network and probably in the next year I won't even be doing the founder podcast anymore. Within the next six months I'll be launching my own show which will be probably be called “Becoming a Founder” where I just give five minute bite-sized pieces of information that I'm learning along the journey. I get to learn from the greatest minds in business today and I get to ask them questions that I want to know to help me foundr. Everyone that comes on the podcast are also featured in the magazine and we turn that into articles as well. The podcast has made us develop a really good book of interviews, content and relationship with our audience. 

I’m very lucky, blessed and humbled to be able to speak to these incredible founders and entrepreneurs. It's definitely helped accelerate my own personal growth and accelerate foundr as a byproduct in many ways not just by association or brand, but also just the stuff that I'm learning. I'm always taking notes and trying to take action, even if it's just one thing that I take away from each interview.

What’s the number one lesson that you've distilled through doing the process of hosting a podcast all these years?

Once you start you have got to just never stop and keep holding on the craft so many people start podcasts and they stop…that's when you lose. It’s really about consistent great content over a long period of time. Play that long game and you will get better naturally as an interviewer. You'll get better at the audio, product and content side. It just takes time to build an audience and it takes time to build a listener base and be super consistent and once you start you never stop. It's literally like okay well you brush your teeth before you go to bed and when you wake up, you ship that podcast interview. 

Just never miss it and I think that's the biggest thing that podcasters if you're getting started you need to be able to just religiously & relentlessly have that discipline to produce and ship on time every single week. That's what we've done with founder and we do not miss it, there's no exceptions like I already know that ten episodes from now there's gonna be a podcast episode that gets published on Thursday night Australian time …. I just know it. 

Out of all the people you've had on the podcast, who has been the most influential and impactful?

When people ask me this question…it's just so hard to answer because to be honest I just have done so many interviews now man it's just like a huge blur. But, one of my personal all-time favorites was with Noah Kagan because it's so raw and real. When I met Noah in Melbourne five years ago, I asked him to be on the magazine and we had a disagreement. I quite enjoyed the interview that I did with Seth Godin because he's one of my personal heroes. 

How in the world did you get Sir Richard Branson featured on Foundr Magazine?

It just comes down to a few things. When you have a magazine it's incredibly powerful for influence building and then you find the right person and I found the gatekeeper. When it comes to PR…every person that has a bit of a profile, personal brand or any form of influence they will have a PR department or outsource PR to an agency or they will have an assistant. I just found the right person to speak to and I pitched and just played on the fact that Sir Richard's first business venture was in fact a magazine and yeah the rest is kind of history but just got lucky too. 

How do you go about reaching out to really “big” people?

I think the first piece of the puzzle is you have to you have to think about what's in it for them. When it comes to connecting with really hard to reach people or where their time is extremely expensive, like Mark Cuban the billionaire. Why would it be worth his while to come on your show? What does he want, what is he looking to promote? That's the first piece of the puzzle you have to find out what is it that person wants and how can you serve that to them on a platter to make it an absolute no brainer.

So let’s say Mark Cuban is launching a new company, you should know that he’s looking for press and second, you have to find that gatekeeper as a contact person. Make a compelling pitch that makes it an absolute no-brainer. You can only make it a no-brainer if you have an audience and I think that's really powerful and the person is looking for press. You already have the proof when you get one or two really hard to reach people. 

Check out the rest in the full podcast below...

If you’re looking for a technological self-development podcast that focuses all about the human experience transformation in this 21st-century world, you should definitely check out my podcast, Humans 2.0 

If you want more content like this, be sure to follow me on Linkedin.

You can Listen to my podcast, Humans 2.0 on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher Radio, iHeart Radio or YouTube.