The creative genius behind Squatty Potty & Poo-Pourri reveals his marketing playbook
October 7, 2026 · 1 h 6 min
🎙️ Full episode
DEBRIEFWritten and voiced by AI from the episode's audio
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.
🎧 AI Debrief
Show notes
$1M Attention Guide: 15+ ways to get eyeballs on what you're building https://clickhubspot.com/okbv
Episode 869: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talks to Angel Studios founder Jeff Harmon ( https://x.com/JeffreyHarmon ) about finding and exploiting glitches.
—
Show Notes:
() I helped a dentist create one of the greatest marketing campaigns
() How to find the glitch in the system
() Go for your own problems
() Where is the attention going?
() ANGEL
() 19-minute ad experiment
() The genius moment behind Squatty Potty, Poo-Pourri
() Poo-Pourri ad
() How to craft a $100M ad
() Use comedians
() Warm up the algorithm
() Super Bowl stunts
() PG-13 content for the masses
() Base hits vs. home runs
() The economics of the movie business
() “I’ve never met a billionaire who doesn’t want to make movies”
() The brutality of Hollywood
() Having a personal vibe coder
() Advice to my younger self
—
Links:
• Angel Studios — angel.com
• Poo-Pourri — poopourri.com
• Squatty Potty — squattypotty.com
• Purple — purple.com
• A24 — a24films.com
—
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 /