From losing $1B to running a $100m per year business - Noah Kagan [AppSumo] episode artwork

EPISODE · Feb 6, 2026 · 1H 4M

From losing $1B to running a $100m per year business - Noah Kagan [AppSumo]

from BILLIONS · host Guillaume Moubeche

Today on BILLIONS, I’m sitting down with Noah Kagan — the guy who got fired from Facebook before it was worth a trillion… and turned that loss into the biggest comeback story in online business.He went from losing a fortune on paper to building AppSumo, a $100 million-a-year bootstrapped empire - all without raising a single dollar of VC money.Noah, thanks a lot for being here!TIMELINE00:00:00 - 00:02:10 : The trillion-dollar miss at Facebook00:02:10 - 00:06:43 : Leadership lessons from Mark Zuckerberg's billion-dollar rejection00:06:43 - 00:12:13 : The lifetime deal dilemma destroying software value00:12:13 - 00:19:40 : Why most entrepreneurs never take action00:19:40 - 00:26:49 : Building discipline through small daily choices00:26:49 - 00:33:10 : The scary reality of AppSumo's uncertain future00:33:10 - 00:42:09 : Community quality crisis in the AI era00:42:09 - 00:48:58 : Testing new models before it's too late00:48:58 - 00:57:07 : Hiring secrets for bootstrap businesses00:57:07 - 01:04:29 : Finding contentment beyond the billion-dollar dreamREFERENCES- Mark Zuckerberg - Peter Thiel - Marc Andreessen- Sean Parker- Dustin Moskovitz- Soleio - Bill Gates - Steve Jobs - Moody- Christine Rogers- Jesse Mecham – - Ayman Al-Abdullah- Reid Hoffman- Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan- AppSumo  - TidyCal  - Airbnb   - Asana  - Lemlist   - Reclaim- Bolt- Hostinger- Emergent- Pika  - YNAB- Vercel- Tabby  - YC

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From losing $1B to running a $100m per year business - Noah Kagan [AppSumo]

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