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:
Sponsors:
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.