My First Million
The creative genius behind Squatty Potty & Poo-Pourri reveals his marketing playbook
This debrief was written and voiced by AI from the episode's audio.
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Key Moments
While classmates dismissed the tongue cleaner because only 8% would buy online, Harmon pointed out that 8% of the US is about 30 million people. A niche can be big enough to build on.
Orabrush worked because YouTube's new ad platform cost less than a penny per view. That gave them a profitable beachhead, plus the data to keep optimizing as costs went up.
Harmon argues that optimizing for AI agents that shop through your API, without ever visiting your site, is an emerging channel incumbents are ignoring.
Harmon helped design YouTube's skippable ad and pushed against a time limit: give viewers 5 seconds to leave, then earn as many minutes as you can hold.
The Chosen pilot ran as a full-length skippable ad, and 17,000 investors put in $11M. Ad spend came to under 8% of the raise, cheaper than the 8 to 12% Wall Street would charge.
Harmon locks every stakeholder in a cabin until the script is signed. He also hires comedians, because a comedian can learn the formula faster than a marketer can learn to be funny.
Platforms recognize faces in videos and use them to decide distribution. Angel 'warmed up' Kevin James' face so a brand-new character account went viral right away.
With no commercial message at all, a tuxedoed Kevin James sitting among empty seats drove hundreds of millions of views through planted influencers.
Harmon calls Hollywood a knife fight. His diagnosis is that the industry has a cost problem, not a revenue problem.
Harmon prototypes with AI agents overnight and hands the work off to a dedicated vibe coder. Engineering builds 'harnesses' that keep the models within brand and system rules.
Harmon let go of a multi-million-dollar unpaid client fee rather than sue. He says choosing abundance over a years-long fight changed the trajectory of his life.
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Summary
In episode 869 of My First Million, Shaan Puri talks with Jeff Harmon, the marketer behind viral campaigns for Orabrush, Squatty Potty, Poo-Pourri and Purple, and now founder of Angel Studios, a public studio doing roughly $90M a quarter. The theme is finding your 'glitch': an underpriced pocket of attention or an overlooked customer segment that others ignore. Harmon traces the idea from Orabrush. A dentist couldn't sell a tongue cleaner because 'only 8%' of people wanted to buy online, which Harmon noted was about 30 million Americans. A $500 YouTube video, launched when YouTube ads cost less than a penny per view, turned each dollar into two or three and built a business that sold for about $10M. His principles are to solve your own problem (the 'user method'), go where incumbents aren't paying attention (today, AI agentic shopping), and earn attention rather than buy it. He helped YouTube design the skippable ad, then used a 19-minute skippable ad to crowdfund The Chosen: 17,000 investors put in about $11M, with under 8% of the raise spent on ads. The show now reaches a reported 200 million viewers. He explains Angel's model: about 3 million Guild members pay up to $20 a month, vote on which films get released, and receive two movie tickets. The model relies on 'breakage' and profit-sharing with filmmakers. Other topics include his comedian-led creative retreats, the Kevin James 'Matt Taylor' campaign that used face recognition in social algorithms to reach over a billion views, his personal vibe coder, his view that AI will increase hiring, and the life lesson of dropping costly fights in favor of an abundance mindset.
Key Takeaways
Find your glitch: look for channels or audiences that are getting attention but that incumbents are ignoring, such as early YouTube ads at under a penny per view, or AI agent shopping today. Then commit fully while big players commit only partly.
highA 'small' segment can be a huge beachhead. 8% of the market was about 30 million people for Orabrush, and only about 2 to 3 million paying members support hundreds of millions in revenue at Angel.
highEarn attention instead of renting it. If your content is truly entertaining, long-form ads work: a 19-minute skippable ad raised about $11M from 17,000 people for The Chosen.
highUse the user method: the strongest products, from Orabrush to Airbnb to Angel, start with founders solving their own problem.
mediumIt's easier to train comedians to be marketers than marketers to be funny. Build the persuasion structure first, then let comedians write jokes, and cut any joke that doesn't advance the message.
mediumSocial algorithms index faces, not just captions. Warming up a recognizable face and posting many clips can make a new channel go viral.
mediumDon't spend years fighting over money that's below a meaningful threshold. An abundance mindset frees you to build more value elsewhere.
lowNotable Quotes
“Everybody who starts a business, you have to find your glitch.”
— Jeff Harmon
This is the core thesis of the episode, drawn from the early-YouTube-ads arbitrage that built Orabrush.
“Give me five seconds, and then I get five minutes... Because I've earned the attention.”
— Jeff Harmon
His reasoning when helping YouTube design the skip button without a time limit on ad length.
“It's way easier to train a comedian to be a marketer than it is to train a marketer to be funny.”
— Jeff Harmon
The staffing insight behind the Harmon Brothers agency's viral ads.
“My best friend in Hollywood was worse than my worst enemy in Las Vegas.”
— Jeff Harmon
A retired executive's line that Harmon uses to describe how cutthroat the movie business is.
“The Hollywood industry has a cost problem, not a revenue problem.”
— Jeff Harmon
His diagnosis of what Angel is trying to fix.
“If you're the golden goose, you're gonna lay more eggs.”
— Jeff Harmon
An abundance mindset as the reason to walk away from draining legal fights.
Predictions
AI will not cause mass unemployment. Companies made more productive by AI will need to hire more people.
— Jeff Harmon · Confidence: high · Coming years
Agentic shopping, where consumers buy through AI agents like Grok, is a rapidly growing channel and an opportunity for businesses that build agent-friendly APIs.
— Jeff Harmon · Confidence: medium · Now and near term
The Chosen will release its crucifixion episodes around next Easter; season seven is the final season.
— Jeff Harmon · Confidence: high · Next Easter
Angel will become an excellent business despite current losses, driven by its growing member base.
— Jeff Harmon · Confidence: medium · Unspecified
A24 may catch up to Angel's independent-studio box office averages after a strong year.
— Jeff Harmon · Confidence: low · This year
Action Items
Audit your channels for a 'glitch': a new platform or behavior (for example, AI agent shopping) where attention is cheap and incumbents are underinvested. Consider exposing an API so AI agents can buy from you directly.
Harmon's playbook of being first on underpriced attention, as with early YouTube ads.
Reframe 'only X%' market data in absolute numbers before dismissing a segment.
8% of the market was about 30 million people for Orabrush.
Test long-form content as ads on skippable formats and treat completion rate as a demand signal.
The 19-minute ad for The Chosen both validated demand and raised about $11M.
For creative breakthroughs, send writers the product weeks in advance, hold a multi-day retreat with every decision-maker in the room, pick a lead script on day one, and pull the best elements from the others into it.
This avoids 'neutering a script by email' over months.
Hire comedians for marketing, and enforce the rule that every joke must advance the product message.
This is the formula behind the Squatty Potty, Poo-Pourri and Purple ads.
Assign someone to turn your AI prototypes into MVPs, and build guardrail 'harnesses', such as brand guides and rule checks, that any model must pass.
Harmon's personal vibe coder and Angel's harness system speed up experimentation.
Before starting a legal fight, ask whether it's worth more than a meaningful threshold (his mentor's was $5M) and whether the time would create more value spent elsewhere.
Letting go of a multi-million-dollar dispute changed the trajectory of Harmon's life.