My First Million
My First Million
Hubspot Media
The insane true story behind MTV
1 hour 2 minutes Posted May 29, 2026 at 11:57 am.
) Intro
) Millionaire by 26, broke by 33
) The first days of MTV (no frontal nudity)
) Music Videos
) How to spot culture-changing talent
) Making your employees party together
) Nickelodeon, SpongeBob, and Building Legacy IP
) Programming for a Specific Audience
) The Facebook Acquisition That Almost Happened
) Founders Who Refuse to Sell
) Rupert Murdoch vs. Sumner Redstone
) MySpace, Big Bets, and Getting Fired
) Inside the writers room
) Oprah Calling
) The End of Monoculture and the Creator Economy
0:00
1:02:50
Download MP3
Show notes
Sam & Shaan's hard-won CEO lessons in one guide: https://clickhubspot.com/eokb
Episode 829: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) sits down with Tom Freston to talk about the insane story of starting MTV and shaping America in the 80s and 90s. 
Show Notes: 
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
Links:
Unplugged - https://a.co/d/0ef6YVu2 
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 - Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies!
Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, 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 /