E21: Jake Paul and Joey Levy of Betr on How to Build a $100 Billion Company

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: Jake Paul and Better co-founder Joey Levy discuss how Paul’s ambition, discipline, marketing persona, and media reach complement Levy’s sports-gaming experience. They argue Better can attract casual fans with simpler products, using original content to reduce customer-acquisition costs. Levy describes early traction and responsible-gaming choices while both founders target a major, potentially $10B-plus business.

Main Topics: Jake Paul’s ambition, discipline, and boxing: Paul attributes his rapid boxing progress to self-belief, intensive training, strong collaborators, and setting ambitious goals. He says becoming a world champion matters more than celebrating individual wins. Founder partnership and shared incentives: Levy says he chose Paul for his marketing ability, discipline, audience, and complementary skills. Levy advocated an equal 50-50 co-founder split, arguing both founders need comparable incentives and commitment. Better’s product and underserved audience: Levy argues established sportsbooks primarily serve experienced bettors and present intimidating interfaces. Better aims to make sports gaming more intuitive for casual fans through products such as Better Picks, with a sportsbook planned for the following year. Media-led marketing and customer acquisition: The founders describe Better Media and original short-form content as ways to build brand awareness and affinity, support paid advertising, and acquire customers more efficiently than competitors that rely heavily on marketing spend. Early traction, scale, and growth ambitions: Levy reports rapid early growth for Better Picks and says the company may reach a revenue run rate above $100 million. The founders see room to expand into more gaming products and state ambitions for a $10 billion or larger company. Responsible gaming and psychedelics: Levy cites Better’s credit-card deposit ban and monthly deposit limits for customers aged 21–25 as responsible-gaming measures. Paul also credits psychedelic experiences with helping his self-understanding, leadership, and creativity.

Key Arguments: Better’s opportunity is to serve casual sports fans who find traditional sportsbook odds and interfaces confusing; the founders argue that simpler, more entertaining products can expand the category rather than merely take customers from incumbents. The founders say original media can reduce reliance on expensive conventional advertising by creating familiarity and brand affinity, which can improve both organic conversion and paid-ad performance. Levy argues equal founder ownership aligns effort and opportunity costs: he would prefer 50% of a much larger company to 60% of a small one. The company’s expansion case depends on reusing investments in product, technology, operations, regulation, and media to add new gaming products with limited incremental cost; this is a founder thesis, not a demonstrated long-term outcome. Paul presents intense focus, self-belief, and deliberately provocative marketing as mutually reinforcing tools for pursuing goals in boxing and business. Levy frames responsible-gaming safeguards as part of Better’s operating approach, including not accepting credit cards for deposits and limiting deposits for younger adult customers.

Data Points: Paul’s age during Silicon Valley visit: 17 years old - Paul says the visit helped inspire his interest in startups and ambitious company-building. Paul’s claimed daily work and training effort: 16 hours a day - He associates extreme dedication and focus with his progress; the transcript does not clarify whether this refers to work, training, or both in every instance. Founders’ proposed ownership split: 50-50 - Levy says he wanted equal co-founder equity; the host says Paul had initially offered a 60-40 split in Levy’s favor. Incumbent monthly active users: About 5 million combined - Levy’s estimate for FanDuel and DraftKings, contrasted with the much larger potential audience. Potential sports-gaming audience: About 100 million gambling-age sports fans currently, nearly 200 million as more jurisdictions open - Levy’s estimate of the audience Better believes the industry could reach. Better Picks launch and reported traction: Launched September 5; nearly six-figure active paying users about two months later - Levy describes the launch as occurring two days before the NFL season and gives the user count as an approximate milestone. Better Picks revenue run rate: High eight figures; potentially above $100 million by year-end - Levy’s ballpark estimate during the interview; he says the company may not need incremental capital to reach profitability. Better’s claimed customer-acquisition efficiency: An order of magnitude more efficient than the average blended CPA of other operators - Levy’s characterization of Better’s acquisition efficiency; no underlying CPA figures are disclosed. Incumbent company valuations: FanDuel about $20 billion; DraftKings about $15 billion - Figures cited by Levy to illustrate the perceived market opportunity. Young-customer deposit restriction: A monthly deposit limit for ages 21–25 - Levy describes this as a Better responsible-gaming policy; the transcript does not state the limit amount.

Pivotal Quotes: "Anything less than a $10 billion publicly traded outcome for better would basically be considered a failure, I think, from our perspective." — Joey Levy: He describes the founders’ shared ambition for Better. "Nobody's really built the Robinhood of Gambling from a UI UX perspective." — Joey Levy: He summarizes Better’s product thesis: make sports gaming simple and intuitive for a broader audience. "This is do or die." — Jake Paul: Paul describes the founders’ intensity and commitment to Better’s success.

Implications: If Better can make sports gaming accessible to casual fans and sustain efficient acquisition through media, it could expand the market and challenge established operators. Its growth projections and efficiency claims remain founder-reported, while responsible-gaming safeguards will be important to its credibility.