Episode
Fyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
1:13:33
Published: Thu Dec 22 2022
Description
Episode 399: Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) talk to Billy McFarland talks about the failures of Fyre Festival, lessons learned, and his latest business venture, PYRT. ----- Links: * PYRT * Bounty Hunter World * Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. * Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter. ------ Show Notes: (05:20) - Why he's doing interviews (08:25) - Billy's background (Magnises and Fyre) (27:20) - Fyre festival failure (36:00) - PYRT (42:00) - Time in prison and solitary confinement (51:30) - Other business ideas (01:00:35) - Lessons learned in prison ----- Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto * #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Chapters
The podcast features a conversation with Billy McFarlane, the infamous founder of the fraudulent Fyre Festival, who despite his charming and charismatic persona, was convicted of $25 to $30 million worth of fraud.
00:00 - 01:04 (01:04)
Summary
The podcast features a conversation with Billy McFarlane, the infamous founder of the fraudulent Fyre Festival, who despite his charming and charismatic persona, was convicted of $25 to $30 million worth of fraud.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The speaker discusses the consequences of financial misconduct, referencing a high school athlete doing "bad shit off the field" despite having everything they need to succeed.
01:04 - 04:27 (03:23)
Summary
The speaker discusses the consequences of financial misconduct, referencing a high school athlete doing "bad shit off the field" despite having everything they need to succeed. They note that the speaker must pay back over 20 million dollars in restitution to creditors and investors.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The co-founder of several web hosting companies and basic social networks reflects on the early days of the internet and the challenges of entrepreneurship, offering advice to those struggling to find success.
04:27 - 10:23 (05:55)
Summary
The co-founder of several web hosting companies and basic social networks reflects on the early days of the internet and the challenges of entrepreneurship, offering advice to those struggling to find success.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The speaker recounts his journey of becoming an entrepreneur and how he switched from making hobbyist websites to exploring the world of business ventures after attending college parties and nightclubs.
10:23 - 18:25 (08:02)
Summary
The speaker recounts his journey of becoming an entrepreneur and how he switched from making hobbyist websites to exploring the world of business ventures after attending college parties and nightclubs.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
In this podcast, an entrepreneur discusses the importance of conducting business legitimately in order to maximize profits and avoid the legal repercussions of black hat or gray hat tactics.
18:25 - 23:19 (04:54)
Summary
In this podcast, an entrepreneur discusses the importance of conducting business legitimately in order to maximize profits and avoid the legal repercussions of black hat or gray hat tactics. He also highlights the risks and complications associated with fraudulent scams such as fake ticket sales for popular events like Hamilton.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The Fyre Festival was initially launched as an idea for a Coachella-like event on a remote island.
23:19 - 28:11 (04:51)
Summary
The Fyre Festival was initially launched as an idea for a Coachella-like event on a remote island. However, the marketing for the event caused the initial idea of the festival to be overshadowed, and the Fyre App became a secondary thought during that period of time.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
Experience a once in a lifetime adventure with A-list talent, movie-scripted local characters and crazy pilots in the beautiful Atlantic Ocean.
28:11 - 32:10 (03:59)
Summary
Experience a once in a lifetime adventure with A-list talent, movie-scripted local characters and crazy pilots in the beautiful Atlantic Ocean. With toys to play on and grilled cheese sandwiches for all, it's a wild weekend you won't forget.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The speaker discusses the financial losses incurred from a festival that was cancelled, including an account that was frozen with $700,000.
32:10 - 34:51 (02:40)
Summary
The speaker discusses the financial losses incurred from a festival that was cancelled, including an account that was frozen with $700,000.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The speaker has a business idea centered around creating virtual reality technology that allows people to watch and interact with events in real-time.
34:51 - 38:11 (03:20)
Summary
The speaker has a business idea centered around creating virtual reality technology that allows people to watch and interact with events in real-time. The idea came from a place of confidence in their own capabilities.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The speaker shares creative ideas on how to turn a music company into a multi-million dollar business, such as buying artists drinks and impacting the creative process in a fun way, and focusing on creating viral videos that will grab the attention of millions of people.
38:11 - 41:44 (03:32)
Summary
The speaker shares creative ideas on how to turn a music company into a multi-million dollar business, such as buying artists drinks and impacting the creative process in a fun way, and focusing on creating viral videos that will grab the attention of millions of people.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The speaker reflects on the possibility of getting a long prison sentence, such as El Chapo's, for violating the rules and how his own punishment for a clear violation was excessively long.
41:44 - 46:20 (04:36)
Summary
The speaker reflects on the possibility of getting a long prison sentence, such as El Chapo's, for violating the rules and how his own punishment for a clear violation was excessively long. He also finds it counterproductive in terms of reform and does not think it will have a long-lasting negative impact on his life.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The speaker reflects on the importance of positioning oneself to receive help, and shares a personal anecdote about a friend who brutally told him the truth.
46:20 - 49:03 (02:42)
Summary
The speaker reflects on the importance of positioning oneself to receive help, and shares a personal anecdote about a friend who brutally told him the truth.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The speaker shares their experience of reaching out to several venture funds for investment in GPT-3 development, and the varied responses they received.
49:03 - 55:11 (06:08)
Summary
The speaker shares their experience of reaching out to several venture funds for investment in GPT-3 development, and the varied responses they received. He then discusses the possibility of becoming a GPT-3 expert and offering consultancy services to brands.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The speaker suggests that businesses can benefit from a virtual CFO inbox that collects and organizes leads from different social media platforms and email addresses, simplifying the lead qualification process.
55:11 - 59:26 (04:14)
Summary
The speaker suggests that businesses can benefit from a virtual CFO inbox that collects and organizes leads from different social media platforms and email addresses, simplifying the lead qualification process. They argue that business success does not come from difficulty, and having a tool that streamlines processes can be helpful.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
A former Puerto Rican professional boxer teaches the speaker how to box in prison, while the speaker spends time secretly watching Khan Academy videos to learn about calculus.
59:26 - 1:02:53 (03:27)
Summary
A former Puerto Rican professional boxer teaches the speaker how to box in prison, while the speaker spends time secretly watching Khan Academy videos to learn about calculus.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
An AI system that recommends a sentence in addition to human judges during salary negotiations could be an interesting idea, but overcoming racial biases may be a challenge.
1:02:53 - 1:07:34 (04:41)
Summary
An AI system that recommends a sentence in addition to human judges during salary negotiations could be an interesting idea, but overcoming racial biases may be a challenge.
EpisodeFyre Festival's Billy McFarland Tells Us His Next Move, Lessons Learned In Jail, and More
PodcastMy First Million
The speaker reflects on Billy McFarland's ability to turn his negative situation into a positive one and questions whether his actions are truly admirable, considering his past crimes.
1:07:34 - 1:11:03 (03:28)
Summary
The speaker reflects on Billy McFarland's ability to turn his negative situation into a positive one and questions whether his actions are truly admirable, considering his past crimes.