Stop making million dollar decisions alone. Hampton gives you a personal board of eight vetted founders in your city who meet monthly to tackle your hardest problems. Find your group: joinhampton.com

Donald Spann built a multi-million dollar call center from scratch — with no outside capital, no technical background, and no safety net. Even crazier? He sold it for $12M to the first person who ever signed up.

Here’s what we talk about:

• Dropping out of college because he knew he’d never work for anyone else
• Building a cleaning business off a Reddit thread… then using it to launch something way bigger
• Accidentally going viral and getting 65,000 applications on a mom blog 
• Why he’s never raised a dollar of capital — and never plans to
• His $12M exit from a bootstrapped call center (and how the buyer was his first-ever customer)
• Breaking down his finances: no real estate, no advisor, just stocks and angel bets
• Growing up Black in a private school bubble and how that shaped everything
• Living on $10K/month in Mexico and self-funding a new mezcal brand

Cool Links:

• Hampton https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Lower Street https://www.lowerstreet.co/

Sponsors:

• Tam your taxes today at https://olarry.com/moneywise 
• Achieve your dream body with https://www.dailybodycoach.com/moneywise
• Protect your upside and get your time back at https://www.cressetcapital.com/moneywise

Chapters:

• (1:26) Donald’s Net Worth & Current Ventures
• (3:57) Early Life, Education, and First Lessons
• (7:40) First Businesses & Getting Into Y Combinator
• (10:49) Building and Selling the Cleaning Business
• (14:02) The Successful Exit of Vicki Virtual
• (18:54) Personality, Confidence, and Entrepreneurial Edge
• (22:41) Meritocracy, Hard Work, and the Role of Luck
• (25:40) Reflections on Success & Personal Growth
• (29:02) Race, Identity, and the Entrepreneurial Journey

This podcast is a ridiculous concept: high-net-worth people reveal their personal finances. Inspired by real conversations happening in the Hampton community.

Your Host: Harry Morton

• Founder of Lower Street, a podcast production company helping brands launch and grow top-tier podcasts.
• Co-parents a cow named Eliza.