This episode of the My First Million podcast features Sam Parr and Shaan Puri discussing the surprising success of “The Adventure Challenge,” a $100 million business built around a scratch-off activity book. The hosts explore the origin story of the company, its growth through social media advertising, and how it evolved from a simple idea into a multi-million dollar brand.
Topics: Entrepreneurship, Business Growth, Marketing, Startups, Product Development
The Adventure Challenge Concept [00:00]
Sam Parr: This other thing, I think it’s really interesting. So, the adventure book. Let me tell you about this story. Have you heard, do you know what this is, this product, the adventure book?
Shaan Puri: I have no idea what it is.
Sam Parr: Ben, have you ever heard of this thing?
Shaan Puri: [inaudible]
Sam Parr: Okay, all right. So you guys are also not on TikTok enough. This is like the number one ad on TikTok that I see. Uh, I don’t know if I’m just in their market or they just run a shit ton of ads, but I’ve been seeing it for like a year. So basically, it’s a, it’s kind of, it’s a book you buy, and it’s like a high-quality big book. And what it is is like there’s a bunch of, imagine like a scratch-off, like a lottery. So there’s a bunch of things you can, a bunch of adventures that you can scratch off. So you open the book to a random adventure, you scratch it off, and it reveals a thing you’re going to go do. Like it might be, um, uh, like, I don’t know, I’ve, I’ve never bought the book, so like, you know, bad example, but like, you know, you’re going to go into a store today and you’re going to give out 10 compliments to people in the store, or, uh, you’re going to go streaking around your neighborhood, or whatever. Like an adventure, a thing you can go do. And, um, so this idea, and, and, and they pair with it like a camera. So you, you’re supposed to take a Polaroid of you doing it, so it becomes a scrapbook. So on one side, it triggers you to go do something that you’ve never done or that’s like, you know, get you out of your comfort zone. Uh, and then it gives you the ability to capture it and paste, you, you glue the photo in, and it becomes this memory book of all your adventures. Like, cool, kind of novel idea. So I’d seen this and I was like, oh, that’s, that’s a cute idea, that’s a novel idea.
The Business Behind the Book [01:29]
Sam Parr: What I didn’t realize is that this is a $100 million business that was created in the last like two years. So, how do I know this? You know, like for the podcast, I don’t know if you get these emails, but I definitely do. Um, there’s a bunch of people that have like booking agents. And we get all these emails which is like, “Hey, Sean, love My First Million. Um, have you thought about having, you know, Joe, Joe on?” And you’re like, you know, it’s like, oh, first they’re, they’re complimenting me, so I like open it and I’m like, it’s like, I don’t want to be a member of any club that will have me. You know, so it’s like, that’s how I feel about the guest thing. So normally I write all these off, but this one caught my eye, which was, they said, “Would you like to have Brian Elliss on? He is a high school dropout, now owns a $100 million business called The Adventure Challenge.” And I was like, it’s like, that that adventure book thing? And, and so I replied, I go, “$100 million, no way, that sounds high.” And she goes, “Yeah, like it’s been incredible, they’ve grown, blah, blah, blah.” And I said, 100, I just like clarify, I’m like, “100 million cumulative revenue, annual revenue? What are you saying here?” And, uh, and so she goes, “Yeah, like the, the, they’ll do $85 million in revenue this year, and they have a few big bigger partnerships, the distribution partnerships that will get them over 100, um, like in the next year.” And, you know, so the business is valued over $100 million, um, with $85 million in revenue. And I was like, “What the fuck?” And so I go and I start researching this.
The Origin Story [02:56]
Sam Parr: And so here’s the story. So this guy, Brian, he’s, um, I, so I couldn’t confirm the high school dropout part. I don’t know if that was just like some post-fact shit like, like to make this sound better, but like let’s assume it’s true. So, uh, high school dropout. I think his job was, he had some job which was like, he was a skyscraper inspector. So he’s like, you know, some low man on the totem pole, doing a job he didn’t love and he’s like, “All right, I’m just doing this for the money.” He wanted to make a business, like he just, he’s like, “My whole life, I just always been, I always have ideas and, and, um, you know, I wanted to come create a product.” He’s like, “So I’m doing this job and I had this idea to do, um, to do this like adventure box.” So his original idea was, take a machine, uh, create a box like a machine, and, um, you push a button and it’s like, like prints out a receipt. The receipt is like the adventure you’re going to go on. So you get like a random adventure that comes out. Cool idea, right? And, um, and so that was the original idea and he’s like, “Ah, just tells a couple people about it,” and they’re like, “Oh yeah, that’s, that’s cool.” And he’s like, great, but he’s just doing his job and he hasn’t really, you know, figured out exactly how to do it or whatever. Um, and he’s like, he’s like, “Okay, what,” he, he’s, he’s, he everything’s like on hold until he gets fired from his job. He like, uh, he, he makes a mistake, they think he committed fraud, his boss is like, “No, no, no, this is honest mistake.” But either way, he gets fired. He’s like, “All right, shit. Um, what do I want to do?” So he’s like, “I want to go to acting school.” So he’s like, “I’m going to go to acting school, but I need to pay for life.” So he’s like, “I need to create a side hustle that’s going to make me $2,000 a month. That’s my goal.” And he’s like, he’s like, “What about that adventure box challenge thing?” And he’s like, the idea over the course of a few months had had like evolved and he’s like, “All right, what if it was actually like a book that you could scratch off the adventure?” Um, and so he tells a couple people about it and they’re like, “That’s actually a really cool idea. You should do it.” And so he goes to Hobby Lobby and he buys some paper, some of the scratch-off material, and he and he’s like buys a, goes to a different store, he buys a camera, and he’s like starts coming up with this idea. And he basically spends six to eight months prototyping this idea because nobody had really done a like kind of like, um, an adventure style scratch-off book before. So he’s like creating an actual physical product.
The Kickstarter and Growth [05:06]
Sam Parr: And so he’s like, um, he has this idea and he, um, he just keeps telling people about it. And so he, um, he gets to the point where he’s prototyped the idea several times. And there’s videos I found online of like, he’s creating a vlog while he’s doing it. He’s like, “All right, it’s 11:00 p.m., April 1st. Uh, I just got this really cool material for this scratch-off. I really like this one, but I’m having trouble with the bindings,” you know, and he’s like, “So maybe I’ll try this other thing tomorrow.” And then like he has the next video, you know, a week later, he’s like, “Okay, I figured out the bindings part and now I need to figure out this other thing.” I love seeing the, the start, the early stages of these ideas. So he creates a Kickstarter. He’s like, “I’m going to do a Kickstarter, it’s going to be great. I want to raise $10,000 for this book.” And, uh, Kickstarter goes live, he makes $1,300 the first day, and he’s like, “Fuck yeah, I’m the man.” He, you know, goes to a coffee shop, he’s strutting in, he’s like, “I made $1,300 today. I don’t know about you guys. I’ll take, you know, your best, give me your finest coffee.” And, uh, he’s like, “All right, we’re, you know, we’re already 13% of the way to the goal. Let’s keep going.” But day two, $400. Day three, $0. And like the Kickstarter like runs out of steam and he’s like, “Shit. I was kind of just banking on this going viral and now it’s not viral, so what now?” And so he’s like, “All right, basically he’s going to throw in the towel because he’s like, for, for, for only $1,700, I can’t even get the quality of book made that I want. Uh, maybe I’ll just quit.” So he’s like, “I need to get a job to pay for life. Um, you know, like I’m, I’m out of money.” And so he’s like, he’s like, “Oh, maybe I’ll contact my buddy, I don’t know, I forgot his name, but Ben. My, my buddy Ben to, uh, to get a sales job. He has like this company, I can do sales.” So he calls him up, he gets a sales job. He’s like, “I want to do a sales job. I want to do it for one year, and I’m just saving up money so I can go back out there and build a product.” And the guy’s like, “All right, cool, that’s fine. Like, you’re upfront about it. Like, I’m down with that. Let’s do it.” So he gets a sales job there and while he’s there, he’s telling people at work this idea. He can’t shut up about the idea. And, um, and the guy there was like, “You know, have you tried ads?” He’s like, “Oh dude, nobody clicks ads. Like ads, like, are ads like, ads are scams, basically.” Like, that was his mentality at the time. And the guy’s like, “No, like that’s how we grow our business. Like, you know, you should try.” So he puts a little money into ads. He’s like, “I don’t know if it worked or not, but like, you know, I got this like 10x ROAS.” And the guy’s like, “What? What? Like, no way.” And he’s like, “Yeah, like people really like the, the ad or whatever.” And so the guy, he partners with his buddy, the guy who hired him, and he, so I’m fast-forwarding some parts of the story, but basically he ends up leaving. That guy partners with him. That guy’s like, “Look, we’re going to grow this thing through ads.” And, um, and they basically run a shit ton of TikTok ads, Facebook ads, whatever, and they’ve grown this thing to now 85, if this is true, $85 million in sales. They’ve sold about 2 million copies of this book. It’s like a $40 book, which is like, you know, something 70, something million dollars in sales if you do the math. And, um, and yeah, what an adventure. And now they have like a couples book, so he’s like 50 fun adventures to go on with your date. They have a family book, here’s some things to do with your family, a friend’s book, and then a by-yourself book. And, um, yeah, it’s kind of amazing.