Sam runs through two businesspeople he’s lost respect for: Richard Branson, based on a Conan O’Brien clip with Salma Hayek and his memoirs, and Naveen Jain, based on a documented pattern — InfoSpace’s fraudulent accounting, a $250M settlement for insider trading, Intelius’s dark-pattern subscription scam, and a pattern of controversy surrounding his ventures.
Speakers: Sam Parr (host, presenting), Shaan Puri (host, reacting)
Richard Branson [00:00:00]
Sam: I think Richard Branson is not a wonderful person.
Shaan: Before the podcast you showed me a video. What year is that?
Sam: It’s on YouTube. Search “Richard Branson Salma Hayek Conan O’Brien.” Branson comes on the show, sits Salma on his lap, and is clearly flirting — I think kissing her neck. It’s embarrassing. Whenever I saw that, I was like: oh, I don’t look up to you anymore.
Shaan: Even in 1999 — the crowd looked uncomfortable. She’s trying to be polite and not make a big deal out of it.
Sam: You could tell she’s not into it. And I read his book. He just seemed like a guy who cheated on his wives. It’s okay that he has his lifestyle, but I can see how that crosses lines even if his intentions weren’t to cross them.
Shaan: This is the play I hate — you’re hating the player. Richard Branson looks like he’s always having a great time. Watch him on Necker Island. It’s the lifestyle.
Sam: Once the Jeffrey Epstein stuff came out, you start wondering: what are these very rich people actually doing on these islands? That’s all I’ll say. Zero proof. One video. A vibe.
Naveen Jain [00:05:00]
Sam: There’s this guy named Naveen Jain. You ever heard of him?
Shaan: I know a lot about him. Tell the story — most people don’t know it.
Sam: To this day he’s considered a billionaire. He’s on the cover of Inc. magazine, always on these Tony Robbins stages. Incredibly charismatic. Good smile.
Started at Microsoft in 1989. In the late ’90s he started a company called InfoSpace — helped power web directories and maps for other sites. Classic dot-com business. The stock went public, crushed it, peaked at $138. Then crashed to $1.56 in March of 2000.
The problem: InfoSpace used controversial accounting. They claimed $46 million in profit. In reality they lost nearly $300 million. Employees and shareholders filed suit because they’d been promised stock options that were now worthless. In 2003, Jain was ordered to pay $250 million for violations — essentially insider trading. He had sold his stock near the peak. Most of the other people did not.
Shaan: So he made out. Everyone else lost.
Sam: Then after that he starts a company called Intelius. You know what Intelius is?
Shaan: Yeah.
Sam: It’s those sites that pop up when you get a scam phone call and you Google the number. It says “We found information about this number — for only $18 you can see the report.” You end up entering your parents’ names, your address. It offers to check if your family has a criminal record. You think you’re getting a one-time report for $18. Buried in tiny font below a checkbox: actually, this is a $19/month subscription.
I have a screenshot of the actual landing page. It says something like: “Get $10 for giving us information” — and then, in very small text below: “after that we charge you $19/month.” The company grew to hundreds of millions in revenue on that model. Got sued constantly by consumers who’d been billed for months without knowing it.
Shaan: And Intelius eventually sold to private equity.
Sam: After all that hot water, yes. And now Jain is on to moon mining and gut health. The gut health company — Viome — that’s a legitimate-seeming one. But the pattern is hard to ignore. If you’re accused this often of stuff, even if you didn’t do everything, you have to ask: what’s the common denominator? It’s you.
Shaan: Yeah. That’s the list.