We're still surprised people did this but... 50+ founders worth $10M to $4B reveal their personal finances. Here it is: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wr

Why do we do this? Because if you're an aspirational person or someone who runs a business and is making money, it's incredibly challenging to figure out what to do. Information is impossible to find — and that's what we put together: the net worth reveal and why we do this podcast, Moneywise.

He co-founded PayPal with Elon Musk, sold Personal Capital for nearly $1B — and spends $70K a year.

Bill Harris has a résumé that barely fits on one page. He was CEO of Intuit, founding CEO of PayPal — in the room with Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Max Levchin above a bakery near Stanford — and then founded Personal Capital, which he grew to $23 billion in AUM before selling it to Empower Retirement for close to $1 billion. He's done something like that 11 times. Today his net worth is around $100 million, he's 70 years old, and he spends less than $100,000 a year. He sold his houses, cars, airplane, and 31 pets (including two mountain goats and an iguana) and moved into a small cottage near Miami Beach where he bikes to work every day.

This episode gets into what $100 million actually looks like when it's spread across public equities and private operating companies — and why the man who built one of the most important wealth management firms in history keeps his own annual spend near $70K. We go deep on the PayPal origin story, what it was like being "theoretically the CEO" in a room full of people whose egos "wouldn't fit in a large gymnasium," and the specific moment Bill realized that his houses, cars, and airplane weren't making him richer in the ways that mattered. He also shares his best piece of investing advice for people in their 30s, his take on why the S&P 500 isn't as diversified as most people think, and what he calls "freedom money."

Also, this podcast is made by Hampton, which is a community for founders doing on average $20 million a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "What the heck, let's make it public." If you are a founder, apply here: http://joinhampton.com/mw

Timestamps: 

00:00 — Cold open: "There wasn't a single one of us whose ego would fit in a large gymnasium" 

00:36 — Full guest intro: who Bill Harris is and why this episode matters 03:23 — Bill's origin story: the golden boy path, Intuit CEO at 40, and realizing "I am not a good manager" 

06:33 — What money actually is: "It is a rocket fuel. It's the scarce resource you need to build the life you want" 

07:38 — The monthly spend reveal: $70–80K a year, all in — "my addiction is Amazon" 

09:04 — Life phases: family dole → NYC studio → two houses, 31 pets, and a 1906 Woodside farmhouse 

14:20 — Net worth reveal: ~$100M, cut in half by divorce, and the barbell portfolio breakdown 

15:27 — Why he doesn't do "fancy investing": survivorship bias, absurd fees, and why alternatives rarely outperform 

17:31 — The Evergreen Wealth philosophy: why 80–90% equity is what he'd tell a client with his profile 

19:07 — How to value a private company: "Two things dominate it — markets and story" 

21:47 — "Things are time": the real cost of owning two houses, four cars, and a small airplane 

24:33 — PayPal origin story: "We were close to fisticuffs most days. I was theoretically the CEO" 

27:38 — Luck vs. skill: "I'd say it's 80 to 90% luck" — and what that actually means 

30:13 — The personal payout from PayPal and Personal Capital: specific numbers, post-tax 

32:01 — Why he's self-funding Evergreen with $10M of his own money: "Freedom. I have no boss" 

38:05 — Why he still works at 70: mastery, not money — "I can't think of a bigger waste of time" than golf 

42:48 — Best investing advice for your 30s: "Hive off a piece and let it marinate" 

43:44 — Why the S&P 500 is riskier than it looks: top 10 stocks = 37% of the whole index 

45:40 — "Freedom money" defined: the thing that lets you say yes to your own life 

48:33 — Closing: "Money is a means to an end. It's not an end."

Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

Subscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcast 
Follow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberk 
Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

We're still surprised people did this but... 50+ founders worth $10M to $4B reveal their personal finances. Here it is: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wr

Why do we do this? Because if you're an aspirational person or someone who runs a business and is making money, it's incredibly challenging to figure out what to do. Information is impossible to find — and that's what we put together: the net worth reveal and why we do this podcast, Moneywise.

He manages $1.5 billion for other people — and still tracks his own spending in a paper checkbook.

Glenn Ullmann is a former Air Force pilot who left the military at 29 with a couple hundred thousand dollars, cold-called 200 strangers a day out of a Ponte Vedra phone book, and built Ullmann Wealth Partners into a $1.5 billion RIA that has never had a down year — including 2008. He stopped worrying about money somewhere north of $20 million. Now 63, he spends $30–40K a month, flies his own $1.25M Cirrus, gives more to charity than he can deduct, and still shows up to the office every day.

This episode gets into the tension between saving and actually living: why Glenn tells clients with health issues to fly private before their kids do it with the inheritance, how a $10M portfolio pays you $300K a year in "rent" whether markets are up or down, and why he thinks stocks are a bad word. We also cover how he gave up 80% of his own firm to keep his partners, the paper ledger that runs his life, the client who started at $100 a month and now takes the best trips on earth, and why he'd tell a 20-year-old to study English or history instead of finance.

Also, this podcast is made by Hampton, which is a community for founders doing on average $20 million a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "What the heck, let's make it public." If you are a founder, apply here: http://joinhampton.com/mw

Timestamps:
01:46 — Who Glenn is, what Ullmann Wealth Partners does, and why "returns don't matter if you rear-end Melinda Gates without an umbrella policy"
04:16 — Growing up in his grandfather's plastics business, the Robin's-egg Cadillac, and the gold coin that says "your friendship means more to me than a pot of gold"
06:26 — A Morgan Stanley account at 14, paper route money, and his first stock: Sears Roebuck
07:44 — Nobody from his high school went to the military. He went to the Air Force Academy three days after graduation: "the best thing I ever did, other than marrying my spouse"
11:50 — The Cirrus G7, the parachute that lowers the whole plane, and the button his wife can push if Glenn stops functioning mid-flight
13:35 — From AWACS pilot to pharma rep to stockbroker: dialing 200 people a day, 10 conversations, one client
17:45 — Net worth leaving the Air Force at 29 and the million-dollar goal on a piece of paper that "never happened"
19:26 — The $2M–$20M client sweet spot, and why the firm has never contracted in 25 years — even 2007–2009
21:57 — Why he went from owning 100% of the firm to 20%: "How could they not have equity?"
24:03 — The 11x17 "life map," and the client who was stabbed and left for dead in her New York apartment
26:15 — HENRYs who save $10K a month and still need to be told to go enjoy the rest: "People get cancer. People die falling off a ledge."
28:49 — "If you don't spend this money and fly first class, your kids will when you're dead"
30:40 — The net worth where Glenn stopped worrying: "probably above 20"
31:49 — Alimony, fun, and the pen-and-paper checkbook ledger a $1.5B wealth manager uses to track his Amex
33:29 — The $1.25M four-seat plane, $40–50K a year to operate, and a $30–40K monthly burn before philanthropy
35:10 — Giving appreciated stock and exceeding his deduction limit every year
36:21 — Why he still goes to work at 63, the wingman system, three chronic illnesses, and "sometimes a founder needs to get out of the way"
39:40 — The Melissa example: $100 a month in 1993 to the best trips on earth
41:26 — Where to park $10M after a liquidity event: "you're going to collect around $300,000 a year in dividends and interest"
42:55 — Not a real estate guy, the $100K driveway, and "I never invest in things that eat while I'm asleep"
44:48 — 90% in global equity, and why "they're not stocks, they're companies"
45:40 — Reframing an $80K private flight as a month and a half of portfolio income
47:39 — What he'd tell a 20-year-old picking a major: English or history

Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

Subscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcast
Follow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberk
Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

We're still surprised people did this but... 50+ founders worth $10M to $4B reveal their personal finances. Here it is: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wr

Why do we do this? Because if you're an aspirational person or someone who runs a business and is making money, it's incredibly challenging to figure out what to do. Information is impossible to find — and that's what we put together: the net worth reveal and why we do this podcast, Moneywise.

A $3 billion founder's money advice: keep driving the Chevrolet. Here's why the richest guests all say the same five things.

After 100+ episodes of Moneywise, the same five spending refusals kept showing up — from a $3B founder who's never sold a company, a guy who lost 95% of his net worth and won't buy his own socks, and Bryan Johnson, who spends $2M a year on his body and almost nothing on anything else. None of them read the research. There's 50 years of it, and they all landed in the same place anyway.

This episode covers all five: first class, new cars, meaningless stuff, angel checks, and kids' comfort — plus the study behind each one (lottery winners, the MIT Celtics auction, the marshmallow test follow-up). Then Anne Mahlum, who sold SolidCore for nearly $100M and forces herself to spend $200K/month, tears the whole list apart. The episode ends with a 10-minute exercise using two questions that decide what stays on your card statement.

Also, this podcast is made by Hampton, which is a community for founders doing on average $20 million a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "What the heck, let's make it public." If you are a founder, apply here: http://joinhampton.com/mw

Episodes Mentioned:
How Rich Is 'Rich Enough' to Fly Private? — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZyTo6gppPw
"I'm worth about $3 billion": What Happens When You DON'T Sell Your Business — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZM0K9eqzx0
What It's Like to Lose 95% of Your Net Worth Overnight (the socks guy) — https://youtu.be/fW-F3MKwevI
Bryan Johnson: I Probably Won't Actually Live Forever — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icWHq_xjhac
How to Not Ruin Your Kids with Your Wealth ft. Dr. Becky — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB1SmMA-nLk

Timestamps:
0:00 — Cold open: the $3B founder, the socks guy, and Bryan Johnson's $2M body budget
0:28 — 100 episodes in, the same five patterns kept repeating — and 50 years of research explains them
1:05 — Why guests reveal their real numbers on Moneywise
1:50 — #1: First class. "I still fly coach unless it's international" — his "poor kid habit"
2:27 — Hedonic adaptation, and the lottery winners who scored lower on enjoying breakfast
3:52 — #2: New cars. The $3B founder's advice: don't buy the Ferrari, drive the Chevrolet
4:14 — The Millionaire Next Door data (most popular millionaire car: Ford F-150), "big hat, no cattle"
4:40 — The commute study: zero relationship between car value and happiness
5:35 — #3: Stuff. The socks guy's filter: "Does this dollar come back to me or is it gone?"
6:03 — Stanford brain scans: every purchase is want vs. hurt
6:28 — The MIT Celtics auction — credit card bidders paid double
7:26 — #4: Angel checks. Bryan Johnson writes none — half of deals lose money, 7% produce 75% of returns
8:41 — Opportunity cost neglect and attention residue: every check is an open tab in your head
10:15 — #5: Kids' comfort. Parents who could buy any seat, flying the family in coach on purpose
11:06 — The marshmallow test follow-up wealthy parents actually care about
12:11 — 70% of family money gone by generation two, 90% by generation three
13:17 — The counterargument: Anne Mahlum ($115M, spends $200K/month) — "I hate when people don't spend on principle"
14:19 — The 2023 rerun of the $75K happiness study, and buying back time
15:55 — The 10-minute exercise: two questions to run against last month's card statement
16:33 — If you run a $3M+ company: Hampton

Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

Subscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcast
Follow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberk
Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

We're still surprised people did this but... 50+ founders worth $10M to $4B reveal their personal finances. Here it is: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wr

Why do we do this? Because if you're an aspirational person or someone who runs a business and is making money, it's incredibly challenging to figure out what to do. Information is impossible to find — and that's what we put together: the net worth reveal and why we do this podcast, Moneywise.

He spends $50,000 a month and keeps $50,000 in the bank. He's 27.

Mo Moahid is a 27-year-old who runs the finances for his entire family — parents, brother, sister, and seven operating companies across Canada, Dubai, and Pakistan. His great-grandfather built the family fortune. The next generation lost it. His dad rebuilt the whole thing from a sales job after immigrating to Canada, and Mo grew up watching both halves of that cycle happen in his own house. He started his first company at 18, scaled it to 200 employees, sold it at 21 for low seven figures, and now moves capital between line painting, real estate development, consumer electronics, eSIMs in 125 countries, and the AI company he started with his 21-year-old brother.

This episode gets into what it actually looks like to manage generational money instead of making it: why he keeps almost nothing liquid, how a $50,000 monthly burn covers five people, what happens when your dad is the chairman and your brother is your co-founder, and how inheritance gets split between three siblings before anyone dies. We go deep on the acquisition he closed the week before we recorded, the corporate job his father made him take, and the question he's already thinking about at 27 — what he wants his own kids to inherit, and what he'd rather they didn't.

Also, this podcast is made by Hampton, which is a community for founders doing on average $20 million a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "What the heck, let's make it public." If you are a founder, apply here: http://joinhampton.com/mw

Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

Subscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcast
Follow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberk
Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

We're still surprised people did this but... 50+ founders worth $10M to $4B reveal their personal finances. Here it is: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wr

Why do we do this? Because if you're an aspirational person or someone who runs a business and is making money, it's incredibly challenging to figure out what to do. Information is impossible to find — and that's what we put together: the net worth reveal and why we do this podcast, Moneywise.

He turned down $250 million for less than half his company — and admits he'd say yes today.

Onyi Odunukwe is the son of two Nigerian immigrant doctors who dropped out of nursing school during finals week and opened a tanning salon at 21. By 30 he had seven locations, sold five to Palm Beach Tan for $2.3 million in a single week, and thought he was rich. Eight years later his net worth is $247 million — roughly $100M in commercial real estate, $194M in business equity across 26 companies, and under $10M in cash — and he recently walked away from a $250 million offer for 49% of Glo Tanning.

This episode gets into the exact breakdown of a $247M net worth, why he rejected the biggest check of his life and what changed his mind since, his $75-100K monthly burn (full-time driver, live-in nanny, a ranch on the way), the franchise math behind Blackstone's $8B Jersey Mike's deal, how he plans to keep his kids from being ruined by money — and a confession he's never made publicly before.

Also, this podcast is made by Hampton, which is a community for founders doing on average $20 million a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "What the heck, let's make it public." If you are a founder, apply here: http://joinhampton.com/mw

Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

Subscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcast
Follow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberk
Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

We're still surprised people did this but... 50+ founders worth $10M to $4B reveal their personal finances. Here it is: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wr

Why do we do this? Because if you're an aspirational person or someone who runs a business and is making money, it's incredibly challenging to figure out what to do. Information is impossible to find — and that's what we put together: the net worth reveal and why we do this podcast, Moneywise.

He got his first $5M check and expected to feel superhuman. The next day was one of the most disappointing of his life.

Jesse Pujji walked away from a Goldman Sachs job where he made $500K at 25 — with a boss making $3M and a group head making $20M — to bootstrap an ad agency on $33K per partner and a stack of Amex cards. Ampush cracked the Facebook arbitrage before almost anyone: $100K in monthly revenue in June 2010 became $2M a month with $600K in EBITDA fourteen months later. He scaled it to half a billion in annual ad spend and 250 employees without raising a dollar, turned down $25M at 27, sold 20% to Red Ventures in 2015, and sold the whole thing to New Mountain Capital in 2022 for somewhere between $40M and $60M on a 35% stake. He never got the nine-figure number he made up in his head, and he says chasing it was the mistake.

This episode gets into the exact allocation of a post-exit portfolio, why Jesse refuses to let his advisors put illiquid startup equity on his balance sheet, what $500K a year of "normal" spending actually buys, and why he asked his financial advisor how people possibly spend more than that. He's honest about the gap between the money he expected to change him and the money that didn't. And we spend real time on the part most founders avoid: three kids who never saw him grind, a Greenlight allowance split into thirds, a $63 JCPenney paycheck at 16 that taught him more than any of it, and the question of whether to leave them anything at all.

Also, this podcast is made by Hampton, which is a community for founders doing on average $20 million a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "What the heck, let's make it public." If you are a founder, apply here: http://joinhampton.com/mw

Timestamps:

00:00 — Jesse's origin story: immigrant household in St. Louis, a snow shoveling business in middle school, and $33K each plus Amex cards to start Ampush

02:00 — The Facebook arbitrage that changed everything: $100K/month in June 2010 to $2M in revenue and $600K in EBITDA fourteen months later

02:49 — "Sandbox entrepreneurship" — Facebook cold-calls them: "Who the hell are you guys? You're one of our top 100 advertisers"

04:24 — Why he left Goldman at 25 making $500K: "I would rather make half of my future expected earnings and do something I feel excited about"

06:18 — The $25M offer two years in, why they said no, and the $3M dividend they took instead — $1M each, which bought his SF house

07:30 — The made-up number that wrecked them: hoping for $150M, getting $60–75M offers, and turning down $190M in Marin stock

09:24 — The Red Ventures deal and $5M after tax: "I thought I would get wings or superhuman strength... nothing changed"

11:16 — 2022: selling to New Mountain and walking away without going with the deal

13:12 — The exit number, on the record: a $40–60M range on a stake "a little bit more than a third"

16:04 — The Zone of Genius framework, and why being a CEO sat in his zone of excellence — good at it, drained by it

17:52 — Gateway X by the numbers

19:06 — Whether the scarcity ever goes away: "nine days out of ten" became "one day out of ten," and the coach question he couldn't answer

20:16 — The Deer Valley condo, and finally understanding why people buy vacation homes

21:08 — Full portfolio breakdown and why he tells his advisors to mark his startup equity at zero

23:24 — Annual spend 

26:52 — The schedule that makes it work: Tuesdays and Thursdays he misses bedtime, Monday/Wednesday/Friday he doesn't, and he deletes Slack on vacation

28:16 — The thing that keeps him up: "They've gotten all the fruits of the grind without actually observing the grind"

29:23 — Greenlight, allowance equal to their age, and splitting it into thirds — spend, save, give

30:19 — Running a Starbucks P&L with his 9-year-old daughter in the store

32:30 — The four-bucket framework: spend it, give it to the government, give it to charity, or give it to your kids

34:44 — A Schnucks family board member on generational wealth: "Money doesn't ruin kids. Lack of values does."

35:36 — What Jesse wants said at his funeral

Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

Subscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcast

Follow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberk

Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

Craig Newmark turned down an $11 billion offer for Craigslist, and he's already given away $570 million of his own money chasing a number even bigger than that.

This podcast is made by Hampton, a community for founders doing on average $25 million a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "What the heck, let's make it public." If you're a founder, apply here: joinhampton.com/mw

Craig founded Craigslist off a mailing list in 1995. He turned down that $11 billion offer, and since then has given away $570 million through his foundation, aiming for a billion before he dies. He funds NYPD bomb squad gear, an NYU cardiologist's AI research, Wikipedia, journalism schools, and pigeon rescue. He's 73, hasn't owned a car in ten years, and just upgraded from $50 Skechers to $80 Skechers.

This one gets into what happens once a founder's number stops being the problem, the Sunday school lesson behind his moral compass, why his own headline net worth is wrong, the two causes eating most of his giving budget, and his plan to train an LLM to keep making his philanthropic decisions after he's gone. It closes on Take Nine, his campaign for the nine-second pause that stops most scams.

Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

Subscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcast
Follow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberk
Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

He had $15 in the bank and a $1M judgment against him. Eight years later, Nestlé bought his company for $1.5B — then shut it down.

Also, this podcast is made by Hampton, which is a community for founders doing on average $20 million a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "What the heck, let's make it public." If you are a founder, apply here: http://joinhampton.com/mw

Michael Wystrach built Freshly out of the wreckage of a failing restaurant, with $15 in the bank and a personally-guaranteed lease that left him with a $1M judgment against him. Six years later he sold the company to Nestlé for $1.5B — then watched it get shut down. He never took time off. He started a veterinary platform with his sister, raised a $75M venture fund, and put almost his entire payout back to work.

This episode gets into what really happens to your bank account after a nine-figure exit — secondary sales, earn-out math, his actual living costs, his real estate philosophy at 2% interest rates, and what it felt like to lose the company he built after selling it. He also shares why he believes the first $10M matters more than the hundredth, and why he plans to keep building for the rest of his life.

Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

Subscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcast
Follow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberk
Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

We did something nuts: we got 50+ founders to reveal their net worth, portfolios, income, expenses. Its free and right here: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wr

Why this podcast exists:

• Hampton is a community for founders. Members do an ave of $20m/year in revenue.
• Tons of the convos within the community are about money: how to invest, how to spend, how much to pay yourself...all this stuff you can't Google.
• We thought "Let’s just make these convos public". And thus, this podcast Moneywise came to be.

We publish weekly. Click the subscribe button and the goodness will be delivered. 

Also...we've done 100+ episodes. If you want the aggregate info of all the numbers, meaning the net worth, spending, income of 50+ founders ranging from $10m to $1 billion: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wr

Ok, so let's talk David Royce, today's guest:

He built the same pest control company four times — $13M, $30M, $135M, $1.5B — and says the first exit was the most life-changing.

David Royce sold four pest control companies — Moxie, Eco First, Altera, and Aptiv — each bigger than the last, culminating in a $1.5B sale of Aptiv when it was doing $508M in annual revenue. He kept 100% equity through the first three, gave 25% of the last one to his employees, and personally walked away with hundreds of millions across the run. He's now on an indefinite sabbatical, investing through Iconic (the firm that manages Zuckerberg's and Dorsey's money), with half his net worth in S&P 500 and the rest in private equity, direct deals, and alternatives — including multiple Anthropic investments.

This episode covers the exact mechanics of each asset-sale exit, why David kept restarting instead of holding, his full portfolio framework (including the 4-year cash buffer strategy), the "the answer is just a little more" moment that hit every entrepreneur in the room, and the story of flying his dying father on a private jet from a New Orleans hospital to Cedars-Sinai at 2am — made possible only by one call to a CEO WhatsApp chain.

Timestamps:
00:01:39 — David's full intro: four companies, four exits, what actually happened with the money
01:55 — First company (Moxie): nearly went bankrupt the first year, how a cash flow crisis taught him "cash was king"
03:14 — The asset-sale strategy: selling customers and technicians to Terminix while keeping the sales operation
04:57 — "Pretty close" — David confirms Forbes' reported $13M and $30M exit figures
05:37 — Why he gave 25% of Aptiv to employees and stepped back as chairman
06:23 — Aptiv was doing $508M in revenue; Daniel and David settle on $1.5B as the sale range
07:13 — What he actually took home: cap gains, California taxes, "hundreds of millions"
08:37 — Net worth today: "do the math backwards and figure it out"
09:09 — Portfolio breakdown: 4-year cash buffer in fixed income, S&P 500 with tax-loss harvesting, alternatives
11:31 — "I just invested in Anthropic — three different times in the last year and a half" via Iconic
14:35 — "The one that was life-changing was the first one" — $13M from nothing hits differently than $1.5B
17:46 — Why pest control? A starving college student, a friend who made $25K in a summer, and zero sales for five days straight
21:16 — His boss's question that changed everything: "What on earth would you go work for somebody else?"
27:31 — Fifth grade through eleventh grade: watching his family nearly lose the house, the fear that built everything
36:35 — Flying his dying father on a private jet from New Orleans to Cedars-Sinai at 2am
39:36 — What he wants to be remembered for: "The sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have, but how many leaders you create"

Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

Subscribe to Moneywise: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneywisepodcast
Follow Daniel on X: https://x.com/danielcberk
Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts: [search "Moneywise Hampton"]

She sold for $88M, almost bought a lake house she didn't want, and spent $340K on Knicks playoff tickets — then gave two away because it felt better.

We're still surprised people did this but... 50+ founders worth $10M to $4B reveal their personal finances. Here it is: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wr

Why do we do this? Because if you're an aspirational person or someone who runs a business and is making money, it's incredibly challenging to figure out what to do. Information is impossible to find — and that's what we put together: the net worth reveal and why we do this podcast, Moneywise.

Also, this podcast is made by Hampton, which is a community for founders doing on average $20M a year in revenue. We saw a lot of these money conversations happening privately behind closed doors and we thought, "Why not, let's make it public." If you are a founder, apply here: https://joinhampton.com/mw

Anne Mahlum built Solid Core from $175,000 of her own savings into an $88M exit. Two years later, her net worth is $115–120M, with $65M in public equities and $15M in a single stock alone. But the numbers are the least interesting thing that's happened since.

After the sale, she secretly launched a second fitness company, had panic attacks she's never talked publicly about, shut the whole thing down, and spent two years in legal fallout. Then she had a baby, pulled an accepted lake house offer the morning after making it, and started forcing herself to spend $200K a month just to stop the money from piling up.

This episode covers the full portfolio breakdown two years post-exit, why she's done with private investments, the Ambition story she's never told, what a baby did to how she thinks about money and time, and what she actually wants to be remembered for — which has nothing to do with net worth.

Sponsors: Daily Body Coach - achieve your dream body with https://moneywise.dailybodycoach.com

JOIN HAMPTON:
These episodes often come directly out of conversations happening inside Hampton, a private community for founders and CEOs with $3M+ in revenue or $10M+ exits. Members range from $5M net worth to billions. They wrestle with these same questions off the record. Apply at http://joinhampton.com/mw.

HOW FOUNDERS ARE BUILDING WEALTH:
How much do founders actually make, spend, invest, work, and keep in net worth? Hampton surveyed founders directly and put the answers into one report. Download it for free here: https://joinhampton.com/mw-wr

EPISODE DETAILS:
Most founders spend years learning how to make money. Almost none of them prepare for what their brain does once they have it.

Henrik Cronqvist is a behavioral finance professor who trained under Nobel laureate Richard Thaler and has spent 25 years studying exactly that. His research has been cited over 7,000 times. He has studied 38,000 people to answer one uncomfortable question: how much of the way you save, spend, and invest is actually hardwired into your DNA?

The answer will change how you think about every financial decision you make after an exit.

This episode covers the science behind why the traits that made you a great founder may work against you as an investor, what actually happens in your brain the day the wire hits, and the one thing Henrik says every founder should do before making a single investment.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 — The traits that made you a great founder will make you a bad investor 
01:45 — What is behavioral finance and why should founders care 
04:35 — How Henrik got into this research (the Stockholm subway story) 
06:39 — The 38,000 twin study: how much of your money behavior is genetic 
10:56 — The first thing to do when the wire hits your account 
12:49 — Loss aversion, performance chasing, and home bias explained 
20:35 — Your personal mortgage predicts how you'll run your company's finances 
30:08 — Why your brokerage app is designed to work against you 
37:07 — Why founders feel depressed after selling (the science behind post-exit emotions) 
47:14 — "I think I'm the exception" — and what the data actually says about that