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How Sam Corcos Grew Levels into a $300 Million Startup

How Sam Corcos Grew Levels into a $300 Million Startup

And helped turn his co-founder into a big influencer

Michael Houck
October 17, 2024

Hey y’all — if you had a million dollars, could you get a million followers?

Today I’m sharing my convo with Sam Corcos, the co-founder and CEO of Levels, a health startup that’s raised $67 million (including from a16z) and used a portion of it to turn his co-founder Casey into a well-known influencer with nearly a million followers after appearances on Joe Rogan, Andrew Huberman, Tucker Carlson, and many more podcasts.

Sam was candid about all of their growth strategies — not only for Casey’s accounts but for the business as well.

Listen now on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or your podcast platform of choice.

As a reminder, each Thursday I’ll interview a world-class founder about their unique paths to uncover tactical insights they've learned about how to fundraise, grow, validate, hire, scale, and lead teams.

Also, after each conversation I write up my candid takeaways. Become a member and grab them ✨ here ✨ along with lifetime access to my private founder community and more.

A big thanks to our partner for this episode, Athena.

Everyone knows that, at a startup, everything takes longer than you expect.

But the best way to minimize that is by having an (affordable, well-trained) assistant. At this point delegation probably saves me around 20 hours every week.

Highly recommend chatting with the Athena team — and you’ll get $1,500 off for signing up at athena.com/houck

In my chat with Sam we discuss:

Sam’s Startup Journey

(01:24) — How Sam almost didn't become an entrepreneur
(05:46) — Sam's companies before Levels
(09:45) — Early entrepreneurial lessons learned

Customer Insights

(17:19) — Importance of understanding customers
(21:12) — Customers are directionally correct
(22:48) — Engaging with customers

PR & Community

(11:59) — Power of PR for startups
(27:20) — Building community at Levels
(29:16) — Community as a growth strategy

Content & SEO

(30:37) — Levels' SEO strategy
(33:25) — Focusing content efforts
(35:18) — Content as a hiring tool
(41:24) — Measuring influencer ROI
(58:14) — Creator partnerships insights
(59:13) — Increasing content breakthroughs
(1:02:38) — Pursuing a viral content strategy
(1:04:25) — Value of follower count

Market Positioning & Growth

(53:42) — Carving a niche in a crowded market
(56:11) — Sustaining growth over time
(1:06:04) — Selling before launching
(1:08:25) — Finding product-market fit

Networking & Efficiency

(1:11:13) — Building a broader network
(1:14:28) — Network theory for investors
(1:16:20) — Creating systems & delegation
(1:01:15) — Time management in growth

Rapid Fire

(1:18:15) — Who's an investor you'd recommend?
(1:18:48) — One thing you'd change about startups?
(1:20:17) — Advice for first-time founders?
(1:20:28) — Something you believe that most disagree with?

Here’s where to find Sam and Levels:

Listen now on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or your podcast platform of choice.

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