Digital Social Hour
How I Built 12 Companies Without Investor Money | Cameron Johnson DSH #1076
Wed, 08 Jan 2025
How I Built 12 Companies Without Investor Money 🚀 Cameron Johnson shares his incredible journey from 9-year-old entrepreneur to multi-millionaire! 💰 Discover the secrets of building successful businesses without outside funding in this eye-opening conversation. Cameron reveals: • His first $50k/year business at age 12 📈 • Why he turned down $10 million in VC funding 🤔 • His predictions for the future of car ownership and self-driving tech 🚗 • Insights on investing in AI companies and hedging bets 💡 Plus, hear Cameron's thoughts on risk-taking, the changing landscape of entrepreneurship, and why he's always excited about his next venture! Don't miss out on this packed episode of Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly. Tune in now for valuable insights from a serial entrepreneur who's done it all without investor money. 🎙️ Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets from the world's top entrepreneurs and innovators. Hit that subscribe button and join the conversation! 🔔 #DigitalSocialHour #SeanKelly #CameronJohnson #Entrepreneurship #StartupAdvice #BusinessTips #leanstartup #startupplaybook #raisingcapital #startupfunding #startupinsights CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:35 - Cameron Johnson Biography 04:58 - Prolon Overview 06:38 - Waymo Technology Insights 07:54 - AI Trends and Innovations 08:38 - Media Investment Strategies 09:18 - Podcast Recommendations 09:38 - Future Plans for Cameron 09:58 - Maintaining Drive and Ambition 10:28 - How to Connect with Cameron APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected] GUEST: Cameron Johnson https://x.com/cameronjohnson https://www.cameronjohnson.com/ https://www.facebook.com/cameronjohnsoninc https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronjohnson/ SPONSORS: Prolon: http://prolonlife.com/DSH LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/
Chapter 1: What inspired Cameron Johnson to become an entrepreneur?
And so I think ultimately, you know, you can see a lot more shared ownership.
All right, guys. Cameron Johnson here.
Our first AmFest together. We were just talking about how fun it's been. It's been great. Great turnout, huge event, lots of speakers. Everybody's having a good time. Yeah. And you're not a beginner to entrepreneurship. Your first company at nine years old. Started my first business when I was nine years old. It was a small business, a printing company, printing greeting cards and stationery.
Chapter 2: How did Cameron make his first $50k at age 12?
And it was when I was 12, I started selling beanie babies over the internet. You remember the craze, or you might not have even been born. I caught the tail end. I heard of them. I never had them. Okay, well, it was right in my childhood. And so when I was 12, I started selling Beanie Babies over the internet. I was making 50 grand a year. Crazy. And back then, that's decent money.
It was a lot of money. It's still a lot of money, but I'd probably be almost six figures right now. Right, exactly. With inflation these days. Yeah, inflation's nuts. So those kind of fell off though, right? Beanie Babies. Yeah, fortunately, I migrated into some internet companies that were a lot larger.
But I actually got out of the Beanie Baby business only because I was heading into middle school and I didn't want to be teased or known as the Beanie Baby kid. So that's why I got out of the business.
But I started an online advertising company called SurfingPrizes.com and we had 200,000 customers in 60 countries when I was in middle school, when I was 14 and we were doing 100,000 a week in revenue. Holy crap. Yeah. And so why don't you just drop out at that point? Well, I wanted to graduate high school.
I did not plan to go to college because I always told my parents, Michael Dell didn't graduate college. You know, go down the list. Richard Branson didn't graduate high school. I would always cite all of these successful entrepreneurs. My parents wanted me to go to college. I went to Virginia Tech for one semester. I raised $10 million for a company I started, and then I dropped out.
Once you got the money. Once, yeah, then dropped out. Yeah. Similar to me. I wasn't at those numbers, but once I had some revenue in my business, I think they're more receptive to dropping out. Yeah, exactly. I had a plan at that point. It wasn't like a one-hit wonder. Yeah. How tough was it raising that money? So this would have been 1999. And so the dot-com craze was still going on.
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Chapter 3: Why did Cameron turn down $10 million in VC funding?
Chapter 4: What are Cameron's thoughts on the future of car ownership?
I think what's going to be more interesting is whether or not people actually own cars. Because right now, 95% of cars are not used on a daily, you use your car 5% of the time a day. And so you've got all of this expensive, if you call it a car real estate, you've got these expensive car real estate. They're just sitting in parking garages or sitting in a driveway or a garage at home all day.
And so I think ultimately, you know, you can see a lot more shared ownership.
All right, guys. Cameron Johnson here.
Our first AmFest together. We were just talking about how fun it's been. It's been great. Great turnout, huge event, lots of speakers. Everybody's having a good time. Yeah. And you're not a beginner to entrepreneurship. Your first company at nine years old. Started my first business when I was nine years old. It was a small business, a printing company, printing greeting cards and stationery.
And it was when I was 12, I started selling beanie babies over the internet. You remember the craze, or you might not have even been born. I caught the tail end. I heard of them. I never had them. Okay, well, it was right in my childhood. And so when I was 12, I started selling Beanie Babies over the internet. I was making 50 grand a year. Crazy. And back then, that's decent money.
It was a lot of money. It's still a lot of money, but I'd probably be almost six figures right now. Right, exactly. With inflation these days. Yeah, inflation's nuts. So those kind of fell off though, right? Beanie Babies. Yeah, fortunately, I migrated into some internet companies that were a lot larger.
But I actually got out of the Beanie Baby business only because I was heading into middle school and I didn't want to be teased or known as the Beanie Baby kid. So that's why I got out of the business.
But I started an online advertising company called SurfingPrizes.com and we had 200,000 customers in 60 countries when I was in middle school, when I was 14 and we were doing 100,000 a week in revenue. Holy crap. Yeah. And so why don't you just drop out at that point? Well, I wanted to graduate high school.
I did not plan to go to college because I always told my parents, Michael Dell didn't graduate college. You know, go down the list. Richard Branson didn't graduate high school. I would always cite all of these successful entrepreneurs. My parents wanted me to go to college. I went to Virginia Tech for one semester. I raised $10 million for a company I started, and then I dropped out.
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Chapter 5: How does Cameron maintain drive and ambition?
Once you got the money. Once, yeah, then dropped out. Yeah. Similar to me. I wasn't at those numbers, but once I had some revenue in my business, I think they're more receptive to dropping out. Yeah, exactly. I had a plan at that point. It wasn't like a one-hit wonder. Yeah. How tough was it raising that money? So this would have been 1999. And so the dot-com craze was still going on.
They would say 2000 was really the bust. Yeah. So, I mean, I actually went out to raise $5 million and my partner and I ended up being offered $10 million. Yeah. We ended up turning down the venture capital though, because what we're good at is being entrepreneurs and sort of being CEOs. And if we had taken on the money, we would have been minority shareholders.
And we saw that as, oh, well now we're just an employee. So sure, it sounds like a lot of money, but it's not going to us. It's to fuel growth. And we thought that we wouldn't be calling the shots anymore that the investors would. So we actually turned it down. That makes sense. I'm too young to remember the internet bust. I was four years old in 2000. Talk to us about what happened then.
Chapter 6: What is Cameron's approach to investing in startups?
Did you see that coming at all? So I didn't necessarily see the internet bust coming. But the bust was mainly companies that had no revenue. And so it was, you know, a pets.com back in the day and all of these different dot com one hit wonders that were raising a ton of money, but they had no revenue. And so that was really what the bust was primarily. My businesses were always profitable.
Chapter 7: How did Cameron build his businesses without investor money?
Chapter 8: What lessons has Cameron learned about entrepreneurship?
And we saw that as, oh, well now we're just an employee. So sure, it sounds like a lot of money, but it's not going to us. It's to fuel growth. And we thought that we wouldn't be calling the shots anymore that the investors would. So we actually turned it down. That makes sense. I'm too young to remember the internet bust. I was four years old in 2000. Talk to us about what happened then.
Did you see that coming at all? So I didn't necessarily see the internet bust coming. But the bust was mainly companies that had no revenue. And so it was, you know, a pets.com back in the day and all of these different dot com one hit wonders that were raising a ton of money, but they had no revenue. And so that was really what the bust was primarily. My businesses were always profitable.
I had 12 before I was 21, millionaire before out of high school. They were all profitable, but that's because our expenses were always low. I didn't go out and you see all these companies at the time that were getting these really expensive, huge office buildings. We didn't do any of that. We were teenagers starting a company virtually.
My partners, my two partners in serving prizes, we had never even met in person when we started the company. So we built a multi-million dollar company when we were 14 and we never even met in person. That's nuts. I think operating lean is good.
I was never a fan of companies raising pre-revenue unless they absolutely needed the money.
Right, right. You need to be in some specialized industry, healthcare or something else that's unique to be able to raise money pre-revenue. It just doesn't make sense.
But just the psychology of using someone else's money is different than how you're going to use your own.
Totally. And I always, you know, you respect your own money because you worked hard to earn it. And so that's why I've never, still to this day, never taken outside investor money.
You never raised money even to this day, which is impressive because you're running some huge companies. Exactly. How many companies do you have right now?
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