Speaker 2
My guest today is Mike Selgero. Mike is the founder of ButcherBox. He's also the CEO where he's grown the company in the last seven years from zero to $550 million. But what impressed me so much about Mike and this conversation wasn't just the revenue that he's hit, but also how he's building a more conscious world using his company. I had an incredible time with this and I think you're gonna really enjoy this conversation with Mike Selgero. This episode is brought to you by my first million. My first million is one of my favorite podcasts. It's one I recommend all the time and I recommend to you even if they weren't paying me to say this and that's because it's two creators and two entrepreneurs who have sold their companies and they talk about the latest in business and technology. It always keeps me well informed and there's such interesting, funny, thought-provoking people that Sam and Sean are. So check out that podcast, My First Million, wherever you listen on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcast, wherever you could check them out, My First Million. Enjoy this conversation with Mike Selgero. Mike, thank you for coming on the podcast, really inspired by your story, been listening to you in my years for the past, I don't know, week straight, non-stop. It's been all great stuff, so thank you for coming here.
Speaker 3
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2
So I'd love to start with selling peanuts. And what did that experience teach you and how did that experience with sales impact you and your journey?
Speaker 1
So I was a walking vendor at Fenway Park and so what you need to do first and foremost is have a good cheer. So mine was peanut. And the way it worked is you basically chose your product, based on seniority, you got to choose your product every day. So I didn't always have peanuts, sometimes I had like Diet Coke, sometimes I had water, sometimes I had hot dogs. And I think one of the, I'm a big believer in sales. Sales being a really important thing for people to do at some point in their life. Because with sales, you get to realize that hustle equals dollars. And unlike a lot of other professions where you could work super hard, but you don't really make any more money in sales if you're working harder, you're making more. And so when I was at Fenway Park, if I was running around acting like a fool, I made a lot more money. And I did that, I did it at Fenway Park, also worked at the Boston Garden, also worked at Gillette Stadium. So really got around the Boston area, hawking stuff at games.
Speaker 2
What inspired you to do that?
Speaker 1
I mean, honestly, I got to Boston in 1999, and I was at Boston University. And I pretty quickly was like, this is not gonna be very hard. Like academically, I didn't feel like it was gonna be very hard for me. And I didn't really care about school that much. So I decided I was gonna make the city my education and just start getting jobs and working. And I ended up by my freshman winter, I was working full time between all the different gigs and jobs I had. And there was a friend that I met who was a security guard there. And at the Boston Garden, I tried to go work as a security guard. And they were like, you can't be a security guard, but you can be a walking vendor. And I was like, oh, cool. So that's how I ended up, I did that there. I used to sell chipwitches. And I could throw a chipwitch like from the floor up into the 300 level, like way up, which was amazing. So I could hug those chipwitches, which was a ton of fun. And then we had to have a tennis ball and you cut a hole in it and you can throw the tennis ball up and they stick the money in the tennis ball and then throw it back to you. But yeah, just being innovative around selling chipwitches and hustling. Definitely a big part of my college career.
Speaker 2
It's hilarious because
Speaker 3
did you know at that point in your
Speaker 2
life that you were going to be an entrepreneur?
Speaker 1
I think so. When I was growing up, so I had a paper route when I was 10 years old. I was always interested in hustling for money. And when I got to school, when I got to college, I definitely was looking for ways to do my own thing. I very much, I grew up the youngest of four with no dad, just a single mom. And I very much did not really listen to rules or like things I felt like things didn't apply to me. And so I definitely, I think entrepreneurship helps people who might not fit in or don't play by the rules. It helps them to build a career. When I got to college, I started in the business school at BU, and I remember like freshman year, they were like, if you don't have an internship at an investment bank this summer, like you're not gonna make it. And I actually ended up leaving the business school over that remark because I was like, I don't want to work at an investment bank. I want to do my own thing. So really it started really jelling in college that I was gonna be out of my own.