Shaan's Backstory (#377)

TL;DR

Shaan recounts his career arc: a failed sushi restaurant modeled on Chipotle, a job working for an illiterate coal magnate in Indonesia who amassed $500M via bribery, then joining Michael Birch's startup studio (Monkey Inferno) after bombing a Stripe interview.

Key insights

• Shaan's strategy for the sushi restaurant was to clone Chipotle's playbook: they opened across the street from the original Chipotle in Denver and hired the same brokers and operators.
• The Indonesian coal magnate (Kokos) was illiterate, used four secretaries to read his email aloud, bribed local officials to acquire coal leases, fudged geological reports, and died in prison after a
• Shaan got his job at Monkey Inferno not by searching but by "hunting": he cold-emailed ideas for improving their products before the interview, which pre-sold Michael Birch.