š The best personal monopoly I've ever seen
Shaan Puri
June 26, 2023
Dear friends, founders, and people who miss the simpler daysā¦ back when the floor was lava and the roof was being raised.
Todayās story is about Kevin Van Trump. Youāve probably never heard of him, but hereās 3 things you need to know:
He writes a newsletter for farmers that makes $20M+/year
He created FarmCon, a huge conference for thousands of farmers
Heās built a personal monopoly in his niche
OK - the story starts with me landing in Kansas (and itās freezing). Iām here to speak at a Farming conference (called FarmCon).
Why am I, a non-farmer, talking at FarmCon? Unclear, but Iām rolling with it.
I was expecting to see:
Tons of plaid
Endless overalls
Chicken Fried Chicken
Trucker Hats
A few glances like āwhy are you here, tech bro?ā
Instead, what I got was a business education worth its weight in gold.
Let me explain.
Surprise #1 - Farmers are rich.
I donāt know why, but I always thought of farmers as blue collar, laborer types.
Thatās only sorta true. They do work hard, and do manual labor, but donāt get it twisted, they are smart business minds and they are loaded.
They wear Rolexes, drive $100,000 souped-up trucks, and talk like Wall Street hedge fund guys when it comes to trading crop futures & options.
Surprise #2 - The farmers have a leader
And his name is Kevin Van Trump.
Heās been writing a farming newsletter called the Van Trump Report for nearly 20 years.
He writes it by himself. By hand. Every night. And hasnāt missed a day in 20 years.
Itās like ~2 pages of info and 10 pages of memes. I love it, and Iām not even a farmer.
There are no ads.
He charges a $1,000 per year subscription, and Iām pretty sure heās making $25-$30M a year off the newsletter.
Forget Morning Brew, this guy might be the most impressive ānewsletter-preneurā and nobody in our game has heard of him.
Surprise #3 - The industry needed Swag
Kevin Van Trumpās son (Jordan) saw a gap in the market to provide high quality swag to agriculture companies.
So he created āAg Swagā. They make hats, shirts, vests, etc.. for huge companies like John Deere.
I donāt know the exact numbers, but Iām pretty sure this thing generates tens of millions in revenue, and is profitable.
Surprise #4 - Getting out of the bubble helps
I spend most of my time in Silicon Valley, surrounded by tech nerds like me.
But going to a farming conference in Kansas was a āshake up the snow globeā moment, where I added all kinds of new inputs into my brain.
The result was a new business with a farm inspired name (Milk Road). It was a newsletter (like the Van Trump Report), but for the crypto industry.
Fast forward 1 year - Milk Road was the #1 crypto newsletter in the world, with over 250,000 readers, and we sold the business to a private buyer for millions of dollars.
But thatās a story for another dayā¦
Iāll leave you with a few nuggets of Wisdom from Kevin Van Trump:
On hiring:
āI hate hiring Ivy Leagueārs because theyāre too afraid of failure. Theyāve done so well their whole life, they arenāt used to being wrong or looking silly. You canāt reach your full potential if youāre not kissing cousins with failureā
On teaching your kids to takeover the family business:
āI say hey Iām gonna take a nap, you take the wheel and drive us home. No seatbelts, thatās how we role. Take some risks! get your knee skinned up! break some bones!
I give them a portion of the farm to try things, and have skin in the game. I gotta have kids that donāt melt down when the rug gets pulled, when things go wrong. I need them to learn sometimes you gotta say weāre changing plans, TONIGHT.ā
On rejection: (Overheard at a dinner with Kevin, not something he said)
āIāve stood in front of a woman naked before. So Iāve heard āno no noā before. Iām used to rejectionā
Career advice:
āThe best job in the world is being a professional investor. But itās a job you have to create for yourself. Nobody hands it to youā
On FOMO investing:
āThe best trades you do, you make the decision once and put it in the drawer for years. I bought bitcoin because it was interesting. Then I didnāt touch it for years even though the news everyday was up or down.
And remember, even the best assets, if thereās real demand, thereās always a second chance to get on the train. Look at Amazon, stock got crushed down to less than a dollar during the bust. Look at facebook, after IPO was trading back down around $19. Thereās always a second chance to get in on the best companiesā
My takeaway: Sometimes you gotta take a random trip to Kansas. Get out of your comfort zone, add some new compounds into your brain chemistry and watch what happens.
- shaan
P.S. The Money Move of The Week goes out to Karl Malone (former pro basketball player).
Back in 1992, Malone asked every player on the Dream Team for a pair of game-worn sneakers. 20 years later The Mailman took those shoes & sold them for a cool $5.38 million.
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