David Rubenstein: We took $5M and turned it into $500B episode artwork

EPISODE · Sep 14, 2026 · 46 MIN

David Rubenstein: We took $5M and turned it into $500B

from My First Million · host Hubspot Media

Sam's database on how long it takes to become a millionaire: https://clickhubspot.com/pnlv Episode 861: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) sits down with David Rubenstein ( https://x.com/DM_Rubenstein ) to talk about turning Carlyle into $500B, his $14B miss, and the greatest business lessons in history.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Turning $5M into $500B (5:13) Scrappy private equity (11:58) Don’t fool yourself (14:14) Turning down 20% of Amazon (16:23) Recruiting big shots (20:40) Finding the right partner (22:02) Trade-offs (27:39) Witnessing ascents to power (31:40) The Greatest Sentence Ever Written (33:37) History that repeats itself (35:49) Recommended Reading — Links: • Carlyl - https://www.carlyle.com/  • David’s books - https://www.davidrubenstein.com/books/  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

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David Rubenstein: We took $5M and turned it into $500B

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