
Go try Agent Opus and start making your own videos today! Get 600 free credits using our link: https://agent.opus.pro/home?special_credit=SOHK RJ Jain is the founder of Price.com (http://Price.com), an AI-powered shopping platform valued at around $...
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James
Mr. R.J. jain, you grew up where
R.J. Jain
I grew up in India.
James
You are the founder of Price.com, which recently hit a valuation of. If you want to share it, it's like 200 million. $200 million. And you sold your last company to Google for nine figures.
R.J. Jain
Yes, that's correct. I'm not sure you guys remember the Game Farm, though. Yes, that was my first job after college.
Jack
That was massive.
R.J. Jain
That was my mom, dad, basically, where we have a stable job. It was very risky. It was a very traditional Indian family. Anyone in my family basically ever started a company before. So I was like the first one to do this.
James
Where is GTA6 use prize.com for a
Josh
young startup founder out there right now who's trying to make it, what do you think is like the biggest challenge early on for startup founders?
R.J. Jain
I think that's rj.
James
If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation watching this right now, what would that be? What's going on, everyone? Welcome back to the School of Hard Knocks podcast. I'm James. I'm here with Jack and Josh, and we have another incredible guest for you. All right now. Okay. We are out in Los Angeles with Mr. R.J. jain. You grew up where?
R.J. Jain
I grew up in India.
James
India.
R.J. Jain
So I was. I grew up in a city called Kanpur, which is close to New Delhi.
James
Yeah.
R.J. Jain
And then I moved to Michigan for my college. I did my undergrad from University of Michigan. Computer science.
James
And for the people that don't know, you are the founder of Price.com which recently hit a valuation of. If you want to share it.
R.J. Jain
Yeah, it's like 200 million right now.
James
$200 million. And you sold your last company to Google for nine figures.
R.J. Jain
Yes, that's correct.
James
First of all, congratulations, man.
R.J. Jain
Thank you so much.
James
I'm proud of you. You know, I want to say that did the younger you living in India have any idea that you were going to come to America and build two multi, you know, $100 million companies? Did you have any idea?
R.J. Jain
I had no idea. Never. The mindset.
Josh
Yeah.
James
So tell us, what was the mindset then? You know, because when did you move to the States?
R.J. Jain
Actually, I moved when I. For my college. So I was like 18. 19.
James
Yeah. And what did you come to study?
R.J. Jain
I came here to study computer science.
James
Computer science. What did your parents think about you transitioning, coming to America? Was it something that they encouraged or tell? Talk to us about your upbringing growing up. You know, was it a very traditional Indian family Or what was it like?
R.J. Jain
Yeah, it was a very traditional Indian family. And none of my. Anyone in my family basically ever started a company before. So I was just like the first one to do this.
James
And what was your exposure to entrepreneurship?
R.J. Jain
I think it was stem from like problem solving. And I was like 12 years old. I had a very interesting story, by the way. I was like, building, like, build a Flash game for my sister. Like, she was pregnant and so she was having like, I want to make a Flash game showing like how she would look like if she has having a one kid or how she would look like when she's having like a twin or like three and so forth. And that brought. I showed it to my family. I think Flash was really big at that time. So I showed to my family. And then when you say Flash gaming,
James
what does that mean exactly?
R.J. Jain
Basically, Flash gaming was big. So I wanted to. It brought so much joy in the family, and that was really exciting. And then I started, like, I just continued building from there. So I started building out games, websites, video games, Flash things. And so then I built something from my school and was very much recognized by my school as well. I got awarded. And then I realized, oh, wow, you can build something that can bring so much joy in people's life and also it can be rewarding. And it opened so many doors for me. So that was really the starting point. And then I went to Michigan. I had a similar story as well. I. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan. University of Michigan, Arbor.
James
Yeah.
R.J. Jain
So I was going to a career fair, and I was like, basically like, I was trying to go to the career fair. But no, I was having a hard time finding the right companies for my degree basically. And I was struggling to find the right company. So I built a tool that makes it really easy to find the right companies for my specific, like, degree and my work. And so that made it super easy. And I thought I did. I solved it for myself. Then I thought, okay, wow, this could be same thing, could actually be used by other people as well. And that's basically, I thought, I can build it for some. For the entire college. And the college adopted my. My stool as well. So it all. I think the thread across everything I built so far started with me like, facing a problem myself. And I think, like, I can use. I can actually help out other people too in the same process.
Jack
That's how I love that. And because I also am a big believer in oftentimes the best founders and the best companies that are built are oftentimes forged from Like a personal pain and that someone solves the issue for themselves and then they realize that I'm not the only one that's dealing with
R.J. Jain
someone has the same exact problem as well. Yeah, I think seeing the same problem.
James
So we were just talking about it with one of our business partners in some commercial real estate. He talks about that every business that he starts is the byproduct of like a pain that he's currently dealing with in his.
Josh
And the best part is that the, the founders, the he's. That he or she's the best advocate for the company. You're the best salesperson.
R.J. Jain
Exactly.
Josh
So yeah, I'm curious for you. You started with a gaming company and while you, when you know, you were younger and then while you were at school, for you, what was like that, you know, you ended up going from that to, you know, selling a company to Google. What was that? When did, when did that happen in your career timeline and kind of break down for everybody what, what that company was?
R.J. Jain
Yeah, so I, I was working at Zynga, the gaming company. I'm not sure you guys remember the game FarmVille. That was my first job after college.
Jack
So that was massive.
R.J. Jain
That was massive. I was playing a lot of like video games at that time. I was playing like Mafia wars and all those games. And so I was like, oh my God, I'm gonna work for the game like gaming company. And I can play games and I can like have so much fun. And so that's how it started. And so I joined Zynga, the gaming company. And initially I joined farmville and then I was start, I joined a team that was helping out all game studio Zyngavite. And that's basically when I realized, oh, wow, I'm building out these game features. But the QA team was taking a long time to get back to me and I was like, I'm like, I want my things to go live as soon as possible. So I wanted to automate the QA process. So I left Zynga with two other peers of mine to start a mobile testing company. And the idea was very simple. Like if you're building an app, you want to make sure your app does not crash in the app store, because if your app crashes in the app Store, that's really bad for you. So that idea was to automate the testing process so you can upload your SDK build and we can go through different scenarios and make sure your app is working on different kinds of app devices especially. It's very challenging to build something on Android because Android had so many different variations of devices. I mean, iPhones also has many. But Android is like so. And there was not like a single company, like doing it in a way that's like automated like that. So we started building out this tech and then Google. So it started with two other co founders and it was eventually sold to Google.
James
We're going to talk about that acquisition, about how that all happened. Before this podcast goes any further, I want to take a quick step back to talk about how we got here. Meeting you sitting down right there. Me and you were in Beverly Hills at the Maybourne Hotel and you came up to me and you said, james, I'm a big fan of your stuff. I love your channel. I'm the founder of Price.com. thank you. There's such a lesson there in itself for all the people watching right now, which is that you can't be afraid to go up and have a conversation with somebody. And just in this conversation, I want to give you your flowers. You got a great energy about you. Somebody you know you want to be around. A person like you did you always kind of have those social skills? Did you improve them over time? You know, because I think that's one of the most underrated aspects for any young entrepreneur, anybody aspiring to be successful in businesses. You got to be a likable person. You know, you have to be not afraid, but confident to go up to people. So I just want to kind of talk to you about your perspective on that.
R.J. Jain
So I feel like every. I feel like you have to be open minded. I think every conversation is a shortcut, by the way. You can learn years of experience in minutes if you're paying attention. And so you have to be a curious person, by the way. So I feel like that's what happened. Like, I'm like, I get energized when I go out and meet people and I like to talk to everyone. Like people say, like, RJ is doing his rounds. So I like to any event I
James
go to, rj, you would love coming to Saudi Arabia with us.
R.J. Jain
Oh my God, I would love to go with you guys.
James
The reason why I say that is
R.J. Jain
because looks like we all good at that, by the way.
James
So the reason why I say that is because. So, you know, we recently went out on a business delegation out to Saudi Arabia and we were networking for 12 hours a day.
Josh
I'm not kidding. From the time you got up, you put a suit on, like the blue suit that you got on there. I'm not kidding. I literally Had a blue suit like that.
Jack
I had to buy three suits just
Josh
for the chance you got up and you're already jet lagged like crazy. So you get up, you know, you're putting like toothpicks in between your eyes to keep them open. And you are talking to people from all over the world for 14, 15, 16 hours a day. Oh my God. And you know what the best part was?
James
Yes.
Josh
Is that like you have to answer the same question over and over again. So what brings you to Saudi Arabia?
R.J. Jain
I'm sure if we all go out together, we would pretty much kill it. By the way, we'll be so good
Josh
at this, it'd be a lot of fun.
James
But yeah, you talked about that curiosity you had. Was it something that you think can be developed? Right. Because you love the fact that you mentioned this idea that every conversation there's a shortcut. We love to say that mentorship is like wisdom without the wisdom wounds. Because you can have one conversation with somebody in your business, maybe in a different business and you can learn like it's like collapsing time. Right. Decades of their experience, hardships that they had to go through to build their company. Ultimately. What is the secret to that though? Because you can tell somebody to be curious. Is it all about asking the right questions? Because how do you get the most out of those conversations with people?
R.J. Jain
Yeah, I feel like paying attention to these conversations and also I feel like I. I'll tell you a story. So I have like 100 investors in my company by the way, but a lot of people I out and about. I also am super excited to share with you guys. But I brought Aston Hall. He's the most viral creator on the Internet right now and on across in the world. Every videos. I think some of these videos has most of videos average around like 70 million views.
Jack
And you're bringing him on to price.com
R.J. Jain
so yeah, I'm first time announcing this by the way, but he's joining as a global brand ambassador. He's also invested in my company as well. I met him outside just like out and about and I was like talking to about my startup, about my life journey as well. And he got really excited and we hung out for the whole week and then he was just like rj, let's do this. And that's how it all happened. So you never know. By the way, I think it should be like always be open minded and not have too many filters and talk to everyone and maybe some of these won't lead to anything or some will lead to something. Amazing.
Jack
I feel like if there's one thing I'm learning, we just got to let this guy walk outside. The company's just going to grow.
James
Why is it that you're embracing, you know, a content creator per se? Like, like I wanted to get your perspective on the value in that that you saw. Is it. Are you really focused on the distribution that kind of Ashton presents with the millions of followers that he has across all platforms or talk to us about that?
R.J. Jain
Yeah, I feel like distribution is something that is a challenging for us. It's something that we have been. We have. I'm not sure how much I would love to tell you more about price.com as well.
James
Yeah, for all the viewers, if we could, even before proceeding, go a little bit further on first of all, how you even started this company, what exactly you're doing.
R.J. Jain
So yeah, I think like as I said, the common thread across all the companies I've started is like me having a personal problem. And so I faced a buyer's remorse. So I bought something and I found the same thing. Slightly used, refurbished for half the price. And I kept having that experience, by the way. So I thought why not build a very simple tool which can compare side by side a new item to a slightly used item or refurbished. You can do responsible shopping, great for the environment and it can save money. It's a very, very hard computer science problem because you're matching an item from let's say Nordstrom to an item on Porsche Mark or render Runway. You're matching based on text and which uses like NLP and all that stuff. So that's why I started building out this engine and I thought it can use to solve a much bigger consumer problem to buy the best prices on the Internet. So Price.com is an AI powered platform to make your shopping smarter and automated. The way it makes shopping smarter is we combining all different ways to save in one platform. Cashback coupons, comparison shopping, both online and in store. We have over 100,000 stores right now that you can save on. But we can save on flights, hotels, medicine, restaurants, consumer goods, fashion, and then how we make the shopping automated. It's something that we've been working for the last two years. I think AI agents is really taking the whole space right now. I feel like millions of transactions will be done by AI agents moving forward. And so we have designed this multi agent workflow that we're working on. Some AI agents can go and literally find the best product for you. One AI agent can find the best price, one agent can Find a working coupon code. So we are doing a multi agent workflow and one AI agent can actually make the purchase on your behalf. So that's the future of shopping. Automated by the way. You don't have to do anything right now. We ourselves sometimes we want to like call our assistant. By the way, hey, can you just go and find me this item? The best product to buy for my mom, basically. So imagine an AI literally going and doing it for you and then the AI can also find you the best place to buy it from and cash back and coupons and make the purchase on your behalf. So you don't have to go and enter your shipping details or credit card details. It can make the purchase on your behalf.
Josh
I feel like a lot of the companies that you've started and your entrepreneurial ventures started from like a personal pain point or a problem that you had. For price.com? what was that pain point or problem that you saw that you were just like, hey, like we can really make a big difference in the market here.
R.J. Jain
Yeah. So I told the buyer's remorse problem that I had. So I was, I bought something and I kept getting slightly used stuff for half the price. So I thought like, if I can do sustainable choices I can make, I can do responsible shopping, great for the environment and I can save money. And actually at that time I was also working on a documentary by the way, about soil. It's called Kiss the Ground and I read the book as well. And I'm not sure you guys remember the time when all the Napa was in fire, Malibu was in fire. It was really hard for so many people. I used to go to a place, it burned down as well. So the idea was this Kiss the Ground was to regenerate soil, by the way, rebuilding the soil health. And so I was doing a lot of work on sustainability. So I thought like, wow, okay, I can start something around sustainable. I want to give back. And that's how it happened. Yeah.
James
When did you start the company?
R.J. Jain
So I launched it three years back. 2022.
James
Three years ago? Yes.
R.J. Jain
So just three years. It took me a few years to build it, but launched in 2022.
James
But you already hit a multi nine figure evaluation.
R.J. Jain
Yeah. So it's been exciting. By the way, what was the secret
James
to that growth and that scale out to $100 million valuation that quickly?
Jack
One thing I just want to add on to that. Was there some sort of like network effect that once you hit a certain amount of users to where it just started to expand on Its own or what did that kind of look like?
R.J. Jain
I think we still having the. We still trying to gain a lot more users by the way. So users has been challenging. We have to spend a lot more money on paid ads and paid ads is expensive. That's why I'm trying to bring on Aston hall and we brought on Tim Tebow as well and someone I really respect too and everyone. But he's also helping us on getting more and more users right now. But I think like the biggest thing is right now distribution for us. We're also looking for partners who can help distribute Price.com, so we actually on the Erewhon app. I'm not sure you guys know about the Erewhon the grocery store in Los Angeles. We are part of a company called Sweatcoin. It's number one health and fitness app. And then also like Deal the famous like a payroll provider as well. So we also expanding more and more and trying to distribute price.com much more quickly because these paid marketing is effective and it's really great. You can really measure things more properly with paid marketing. But it's kind of like you have to spend a lot more money to get the skill that you. That I'm looking for.
James
I love that. Are your parents proud of you?
R.J. Jain
They are. I think I'm the, I think the only one who has like built and sold a company. So. But all my. My mom is a housewife. My dad is basically a businessman too, but not like a VC backed startup. He has like day to day. Yes, he's retired now as well.
James
When you went off and did you your own thing though and decided to start your own business after coming out of school, was there a little kind of pushback from your parents saying that hey rj, I don't know if you should do this. I think that you should kind of continue to, you know, just keep your job or were they in support of you ultimately going the entrepreneur route?
R.J. Jain
I feel like the biggest thing as an entrepreneur, you have to take a risk by the way. That's the most important thing. And I feel like otherwise if you are staying in your comfort zone, everything you get is a predictable outcome. If you're looking for sizable outcomes, you have to take risk by the way. So my mom, dad, basically you have a stable job. Everything is so fine. Why you have to leave us stable job like this? And it was very risky. But I think like I feel like that's how you do something. You truly make meaningful changes in people's life, make something impactful and also get rewarded as well in a sizable way.
James
RJ, the name of your company is Price.com, right?
R.J. Jain
Yes.
James
How in the world did you get that domain?
R.J. Jain
Yeah. So again, I was like, that is an insane domain.
James
I mean, like, when you think about. I mean, that's an incredible domain to add, right?
R.J. Jain
And it's another similar story. I was out and about. I told someone about my company, my vision, by the way. And I met him at an event and he had it, by the way. And I also called my company as Price Technologies Inc. By the way. And so it was pretty amazing to get this domain, by the way. And it worked out amazing because it opened so many doors for us. It's so hard these days to build a startup because there's so much noise. And so you have to have a good domain, good brand. Otherwise it's so hard to build. Like, everything is so expensive. Like paid marketing, expensive talking to any partner. If you go, say like, I'm like, xyz, they will like not take your meetings. If I say price.com, they take my meetings, by the way.
James
Do you think it's critical for entrepreneurs in today's world to be able to own the domain for the name of their brand and their business? You think that that's a necessity, in a sense.
R.J. Jain
I won't say about the B2B businesses because you don't need that. You should not spend money, anything to buy a domain because ultimately you can sell a B2B software by being on a phone call. That's how to do in my previous company. But I think to build a B2C because you have to acquire users and paid marketing, I mean, say that's working great, by the way. It's really scales really quickly. But I feel like that's. I think you have to figure out a better strategy. Otherwise you're really dependent on investors. You have to keep raising money, keep raising money, and that's how it goes. And then they are the one taking shots.
Jack
So what's the business behind Price.com do people pay a subscription to become a user and that's how you make money? Or is it you get a difference between the user in, like when they're making a purchase. Like, how does that kind of work?
R.J. Jain
Yes. So basically, price.com, the business model is that you go from Price, let's say, to. Let's say Nike, for example. Nike gives us 12% commission. We give you 6%. We keep 6%, by the way, so we get a cut on every transaction. Same thing. You go to a restaurant, for example, and you buy, let's say whatever your bill is, we keep 5%, we give you 5%, by the way. So the more you go and use price, the users save money. We make money from that every transaction. So it's like a win win situation, by the way. And businesses, they actually get customers because all these businesses right now, they want customers, they want more sales, by the way. So it's like a win win across the board, by the way. Amazing business model.
Jack
It's almost like affiliate marketing at the highest level.
R.J. Jain
Yes, that's what it is, affiliate marketing. Basically. We also have a Pro subscription, by the way, so people can pay 9.9 in a month or 99.9 a year and they get more savings. We also just recently launched Buy with AI concept. The idea is these AI agents who can go and make the purchase on your behalf and basically can fill out your shipping details, credit card details, so you don't have to go in. It's like a one click checkout outside Amazon. And so that's available too for the pro members as well.
James
Buy with AI. Where do you see the future of AI heading in the next one to two years?
R.J. Jain
I feel like AI is changing everything, I think, like it's just you have to use AI everywhere.
James
We're using it heavily in coffee right now. There's kind of a company that we've been using. Have you heard of Opus Clip?
R.J. Jain
Yes, yes.
James
You know Opus Clip?
R.J. Jain
Yeah.
James
So pretty much especially for content creators. I mean, we'll preface it by saying I feel like it's probably one of the greatest gifts to content creators in the world. They launched what's called Agent Opus.
R.J. Jain
Okay.
James
And essentially what it is is you need to take an audio from a conversation like this or a meeting that you have, or even a script that you create, and it will literally create a short form video for you that you're able to post and publish to promote your brand or your product. So it's like I like, I haven't seen anything like Agent Opus.
R.J. Jain
It's amazing.
James
Guys, we're gonna be right back to the podcast with RJJ very shortly. But I want to talk about something that RJ's making very clear throughout the entire episode. He's talking about how AI is one of the greatest opportunities in our entire lifetime. And what we were talking to him about as content creators is that one of the most valuable tools for anybody trying to leverage AI to build their brand, to promote their business, to create content in today's world is Agent Opus, which is what Opus Clip just launched. And what this does is it makes your content production incredibly more efficient. You don't have to have this crazy team or pay all these different editors to ultimately create your content for you. You could take an audio from a conversation just like this or even a simple script that you create and it can literally create a short form video for you that you're able to post on social media. And the craziest thing is it does not look like this AI generated content that you see and you immediately scroll once you see it. It looks like actual engaging content that is going to stop your viewers scroll. Guys, trust me, okay? We grew the school of hard knocks to a channel with now 22 million followers. And I can tell you one thing. One of the biggest bottlenecks that people have when it comes to creating content, whether for themselves, for their brand or for their business that they're affiliated with, is the amount of time that it takes, the amount of money that it takes. Well, that's exactly what Agent Opus from Opus Clip allows you to do. It can take one idea that you have and turn it into content that is ready to publish right now. So guys, waste no more time. Go down and click the link in the description of this video to start using Agent Opus today in your business and watch your content and your business change forever. With that being said, let's get back to the interview.
R.J. Jain
I'm using Cursor a lot for my recording and everything. And my team uses it. They love it by the way. I think they use it for everything. It makes it so much faster. I think the gap is shrinking between idea and execution, by the way, because of AI. And that's what is happening. Because it's so much faster to execute. It's so much faster. It's so much cheaper to build things. And that's what is happening a lot right now with AI.
Josh
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you worked as a like an entrepreneur in residence for like a venture venture capital firm.
R.J. Jain
Yes.
Josh
What you know obviously from your time there and just as you as an entrepreneur, what are you seeing for like different companies and startups that are looking for investors? Like from the investor point of view, like what are the types of companies and the types of founders that you're looking to invest in?
R.J. Jain
I invested like 10 companies. That was like a few years back, but I joined a VC firm too. I wanted to understand what goes behind the scenes. That's why I joined the VC fund. I was also trying to figure out because they were the investors in my previous company.
James
And what did you learn behind the scenes from being with like a big VC firm?
R.J. Jain
I think like the biggest thing I learned the process, like how the partner meeting happens. Like what goes in the partner meeting, by the way? And that's like, I was so curious by the way, because these guys are. We always heard about these partner meeting. Like word really goes in that partner meeting. So I was like learning that and everything. And also I think the. The biggest thing is, I think like the what VCs are looking for is like these days is also like every company, they say they are AI company right now. So how to cut through the noise? And that's the number one thing. The second thing is, do you think
James
there's a lot of bullshit there, right? A lot of.
R.J. Jain
I feel like there's a lot of bullshit there for sure. By the way, like, you can L AI for like if you use one API call, you can say, I'm an AI company, by the way.
Jack
Okay. Did you hear about the shoe company?
R.J. Jain
No, no, I haven't heard that much.
Jack
Okay. There was a failing shoe company that just swapped. Did you hear about this? It was like yesterday or two days ago.
James
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jack
It was a shoe company that was failing. And then they were like, we're gonna
Josh
go into like AI Alberts.
R.J. Jain
I met the founder ones, by the way.
Josh
Yeah, Albert. They. They're fully pivoting away from shoes and they're to going all into AI.
R.J. Jain
This is so crazy. Skyrocketed.
James
It went nuts.
R.J. Jain
Oh my God. That's crazy.
Jack
And it's like, how the hell did a clothing company just turn into an AI company? And then overnight just wow.
Josh
I know we were asking, but I want to kind of go back to. I know you were. You've invested into a couple of different companies and you got to kind of see the behind the scenes from the VC and you got to cut through the noise from the AI stuff. But like when it comes to like, I guess like a different, you know, we've talked to tons of investors and they've always said we typically invest in the founder. Like, like that's one of the things that they look for. Like it's just like, hey, like does the founder have that it factor or not for you? What. What are those sort of things that you look for when you're looking to invest into somebody?
R.J. Jain
Yeah, I feel like, I think a resilience. I think sometimes you can sell a lot basically if someone is how they will do or how they will when things are going all like south, like how would they able to come back from it? Or things like. That's very important to you. And I feel like second thing is someone who's willing to take risk, have taken risk in their life and what kind of risk they have taken. Because you have to take risk all the time as a founder, by the way. And so if you keep doing the things which everybody else is doing, you're never innovating. So I think that's two things. And also the speed, like someone who is how fast they can exit. Because as the AI is making things faster to execute, you have to be adapting quickly. You have to be like going in like really moving in a very fast speed and execution. So I feel like it's a combination of resilience, speed as well as someone who is taking risk, who is taking big risks.
James
You mentioned that you've taken on investors for.
R.J. Jain
Yes.
James
You mentioned that you've taken money from 100 investors for price.
R.J. Jain
Yes.
James
You've had 100 people that are invested in, in the price. Why that many people?
R.J. Jain
It was very challenging because I was like, I was building out this company and people say like, oh, how would you beat Amazon on competitors and shopping? And one of the things that I learned, by the way, that's the biggest lesson I learned by the. From running this startup. Because it took me a long time to build a startup. The, the completion at that time there was not like too much AI the thing that we have right now in the last two years. So I have to build everything from ground up. And I. So my as I said to you, Price.com is an AI platform that makes shopping smarter and automated. So if I talk about shopping smarter, that's how I started the company in the first place. So I was trying to build a cashback coupons, comparison shopping. I started comparison shopping. It's the hardest thing to build. So it took me many years to start getting meaningful revenues. And so then a lot of the investors right now, they lose patience or they feel like, oh, what gonna happen? And, and it's been such a long time, they're not making money right now. So it was challenging to raise money. I kept raising for multiple investors, small checks, whatever it takes. I don't want to give up on this. And then we added the big piece of cashback business and that was a big moment by the way. Our venue started growing and everything. So you have to do whatever it takes to survive. So that's what I was doing by the way. I was thinking $25,000 check, $5,000 check. Whatever it takes, give me the money.
James
So is this a pretty capital intensive business?
R.J. Jain
It's very capital intensive because you have to. I think building a consumer startup is a very capital intensive because you have to have all the partners and also the user experience matters so much. By the way, you cannot just go out these days because I'm so used to really amazing like ChatGPT application, which works all the time. You go there, everything is so fast and amazing. People are used to that. Uber Eats Instacart. They want these amazing experiences. Everything is slow, bad experience. They won't use it. People have very high bar right now, the shoppers and the users these days. So I think like B2B, I feel like I can call my any company and say, like, use it. I'll tell you how to do it and they will do it. B2C is really hard.
Jack
You talked a lot about like partnerships and building them. Because I feel like if you can get integrated into, let's just say credit card companies or like, you know, financial platforms who, you know, want to promote them saving money and their users saving money. Like there's no better platform than a platform like yours. Getting off the ground. How did you go about building those early partnerships and was there a partnership in particular that kind of just changed the entire trajectory of the business?
R.J. Jain
Very great question. I think obviously I would say the partnership of getting the domain price.com that really helped me because it opened so many doors for me. That's the biggest partnership basically that happened. But I would say, like initially, like it was a chicken and egg problem for us. A lot of like retailers like Walmart and Target and all these guys, it's like why we should work with you guys. You're not even live yet. You don't have a working product. By the way, why we should even give you our feed. So it's like, if you don't give us a feed, how would we build this product out? Basically, so we had this challenge, we had this thing, we had to have this kind of conversation with almost every brand. So we have to do whatever it takes to get the initial brand start building out. We did some niche, like we did watches in the beginning. And then I was initially, as I said to you, we were trying to match a new item to a slightly used item. So that was. We build out like a browser toolbar and then that's how we started that. But then we build a website, price.com and then we build the iOS and Android app. That's been a journey, by the way. But I think some of the partnerships have been amazing for us. Like we just did the partnership with Kayak. Now you can actually, you can compare flights and hotels and we also are able to offer cash back on that too. So that's pretty exciting, by the way. So it's partnership and we're seeing really good conversion rate. We need to grow more traffic on the website. But we are talking with the head of partnerships at Kayak and they've been working. We're working very closely with them. So that's how it's been, by the way, these partnerships. Yeah.
James
And let me ask you this. I want to go back to the company that you had exited to Google, because I feel like we jumped right into price, which is great. But the process of selling that business, what is that actually like for somebody that aspires to one day sell a company? Was it you seeking a buyer? Was it them coming to you because they discovered you or talk to us about that process and how the acquisition came about?
R.J. Jain
Right. So I think like the company was acquired. So basically my co founders worked on that deal, by the way. So they were the business people and they made the deal happen. So I think like, basically it was like, I think we had multiple buyers that time and it worked out great.
James
And the buyers reached out to you?
R.J. Jain
I think we were trying to solve this problem. For example, I think, as I said to you, mobile testing was really hard to do on Android devices and everybody was saying it was really hard to test on Android. And so Google I O was happening. And so that's basically like, oh my God, this is like we have to do this thing and get the word out and all. So that's basically, yeah, the big driver of that too. So I think. But I think it's just like a thing that we're trying to solve and that was a clear fit for a company. And that's what happens, by the way. You build something that they think like, oh, wow, clear synergies. We need this. This is gonna solve the pain point. They will buy you 100%.
James
And how many co founders did you have in that company?
R.J. Jain
I had three co founders with price, I had. I'm just by myself. You're by yourself, solo founder. Yes.
James
So what is the biggest difference kind of doing it by yourself now as opposed to having multiple founders? Did you not enjoy having other co founders in the previous business or tell us your thought process on that?
R.J. Jain
Yeah, so I feel like it's been. I think it's like, a lot of pros and cons, by the way. I would say, like, especially it's very lonely if you're being a solo founder. A lot of times I'm like, oh, my God, it's so overwhelming. I cannot sleep, by the way. It's happened so many times. I was like. I had a situation where I was like, oh, my God. I only have a few months of Runway, by the way. I need to figure this thing out.
James
Are you still having those days today, or are you kind of past that now?
R.J. Jain
I think, like, I would say, like, still sometimes, like, it's like, a phase of the company, by the way. It happens. It goes away, by the way. But I think the beauty is, like, you have to keep resilience. It's like, you have to keep, like, at it, by the way, and go back to whatever it takes to not die and not survive. Yeah, I think we obviously, like, as a co founder, I felt like there's a lot of, like, like, conflicts happens when you're co founders and things, and I just felt like I don't want need that in my life right now. And so I just went for it. And initially, I thought, I'm gonna bring more people to. I just continue, like, just kept raising money, kept building the team, and I just kept building it out. I didn't plan anything, by the way. It just happens to want to solve this problem. I just went for it. I took some small checks, kept building it out, kept building the team, and then I just continue going in that direction. Basically where I didn't need the founder. I didn't. There was never the plan that I don't want a co founder, by the way. It just happens to be like that.
James
How old are you now?
R.J. Jain
I'm in my late 30s.
James
In your late 30s. So you moved to America about 20 years ago?
R.J. Jain
Yes.
James
What were some of the biggest cultural differences that you noticed between America and then being living in India for the first half of your life?
R.J. Jain
Yeah, the biggest thing, basically, I think when I came down, obviously, like, I had, like, a much more stronger, like, the accent, by the way. I think maybe it's a little bit less. What do you guys think? Am I sounding right? Am I sounding good by them?
Josh
Yeah, I mean, it's still there in the background, but. But. But we. Yeah, yeah, it's good.
R.J. Jain
Okay. Sounds good. Okay. But I was also very shy as well, because I was like, oh, my God. Like, I'm like, I. I was like. It was, like, tough, you know? I mean, when you move to A different country. And I was like, I had like a accent, was a really hard time understanding people and everything as well. So that's why it was challenging in the beginning and. But I think like I felt like that it was very welcoming everyone and I felt great by the way. And so that's how it happened, by the way. So it was just like. And I was just like building. I built a software too in Michigan, the career fair, which was adopted by my college. So a lot of college students were using it. They became friends of mine in that process, by the way. Like, oh my God, your tool is so helpful and everything. So I was like, kind of like became like a star. Like I was walking around like, you don't want to like, like come and say me hello by the way for that. So that's amazing.
James
Do you still, I mean do you partake in any business ventures out in India OR Are you 100% primarily focused? Because I know that, I know they got some billionaires out in India.
R.J. Jain
Yeah. So I think like I'm like so much focused on Price right now. And that's pretty much my. Because I'm a solo founder too. Every day is like non stop. It's like a roller coaster. Right. By the way, it never stops.
James
And your users, are they all in America? Are you looking outside of the country as well?
R.J. Jain
So price.com is supported in 35 countries right now, including India, Israel, UK, Australia, Canada, all these places by the way, and Europe as well. So. But we are not spending money right now on marketing those places. But we have done lot of sales in those countries as well. And that's why I think Aston hall would be great as well because he has a global presence and something he can help me get the word out in other countries as well. So I'm really excited to have him on board.
Jack
Why? Why not directly market and target to those customers, especially in the different countries? Is it because I would imagine the most expensive place to acquire a customer is probably a place like the United States.
R.J. Jain
Yes.
Jack
So why not go out and target people in those different countries?
R.J. Jain
I mean, see like I can, I can say like basically that it's also the lifetime value in those countries is much less compared to us. So I think you, you. It's cheap, it's more expensive to acquire, but the lifetime value is also in the same proportion as well. So if you acquire someone in India, the lifetime value is much less. So there. So I, I think like, I want.
Jack
What do you think that is first of all, like why, why is Is it just because America is there a
James
lot more brand loyalty, consumer America bad?
R.J. Jain
Because that true result. Plus I think it's more expensive everything here compared to like in India. So I think like that's another reason as well. So I think like that's why I think like if you were spending money in a restaurant, for example, here in Beverly Hills, it costs like $200. I feel like in India it might cost like 20 bucks by the way. So I'm making the less on that transaction. So that's how the lifetime value is less as well. But I think like the biggest thing I'm trying to do right now is to spend more paid ad in those places, more paid marketing. I'm trying to grow globally. If you look at the stats right now for YouTube, like 500 million people using it in you in India and 200 million people using in US. So I think the market is much bigger. Same thing happening with ChatGPT, by the way. So I think I have to capture that audience and I'm gonna go in full force this year or so or maybe next year and I'll try to Capture and make Price.com a global. How so lame. I feel like two things will never change. People will always shop. People will always look for ways to save money. If you look like 100 years in the past and if you look 100 years forward, I think those two things hasn't changed, by the way. So I think like people will look for deals and they feel rewarded and they feel great after saving money.
Josh
You had mentioned that, you know, especially for consumer brands like B2C brands, you have to spend money on paid ads. What do you say, what do you think about from an organic content perspective for like, hey, if you're a B2C founder, what do you, what do you kind of see from an organic content? Posting organic content on social platforms, what do you see the value in that?
R.J. Jain
No, I see a lot of value. I think some brands has seen a lot of value. Like if I talk about Alo Yoga, I see how good the organic thing they have, they have done by the way and everything. And I feel like for price we have a tougher place because we're not like having like a specific product by the way. Or maybe you haven't figured that thing out yet. But I'm, I'm like, I think that's something. I'm still improving basically the social media content and it's been challenging for me. I worked with different agencies but haven't figured that thing out yet. We're doing a lot of work on SEO and I feel like if you can search like, hey, let's say you search for like, Nike Cashback, and we could be on the first page of Google Search. That could be really amazing for us. And in the future, I feel like I don't have to spend any money on paid marketing. I don't have to raise any money from investors and let the company grow itself by having this SEO working and sending us free traffic. And I see that's the future, but I'm not there yet. And I'm improving my SEO on a daily basis. We also brought on Tim Tebow and Aston hall right now to help us on making it more like helping us create viral content which can go viral. I think some of their pieces has gone viral, so I'm really betting on that. And then I'm doing paid ads, which I spend money on Facebook, I spend Google, I spend on Snapchat, TikTok, I'm spending on all these platforms. And we are seeing really good cost per downloads right now. But we need a lot of money to spend to get the scale that we're looking for. Millions of app downloads. So we have to spend. It costs us $2 cost per download right now. So it's like $2 million just to get 1 million, but we're looking for 10 million, 50 million users.
James
Yeah. Is there a paid advertising strategy that you've been able to leverage that's worked very well maybe for entrepreneurs to kind of learn from, you know, I mean, I want to get your thoughts on paid advertising.
R.J. Jain
I think there's a thing that you have to always make sure Facebook has a thing called as Facebook Match Quality Score. So like on the, on the dashboard, it tells you like, how good the signals you're sending back to Facebook. So make sure that stays like, not like, on the scale of one to two, it has to be like eight or nine. I think that makes your cost of acquisition much cheaper. Don't spend money until you'd really feel great about the product. Otherwise you will lose money. Cost of acquisition will be much higher. Investors will see it, oh, wow, you're spending all this money on marketing and your revenues are not growing. What's happening, by the way? So, like, wait until you feel like, don't feel pressured or forced to spend money on paid ads. Don't have wasteful marketing spent.
Jack
So for someone out there who maybe doesn't have as much experience or capital, how would you recommend them going about proving, hey, this is a product that people actually want and Pretty much kind of trying to find that product market fit within the marketplace before they go all in on trying to sell it to the masses.
R.J. Jain
Yeah, I feel like I talk to. I'm obsessed with talking with my users, by the way. I talk to them all the time. I have like a. I send multiple texts like, hey, we launched this and you didn't give me feedback. But I love to hop on a call. So I'm like, I do it all the time, basically. I think friends and family. Everyone uses price in my family, by the way. They cannot shop at anything otherwise if they don't use price. So I call my family all the time as well. So I literally, like, I'm calling people all the time. Like, anytime I'm driving around in my car, I'm like calling my friends, hey, can you give me feedback on this thing? I just launched it. So I'm constantly doing that. And I think that's a great way seeing, like, getting feedback from the friends and family nearby.
Jack
So what you're saying is you have to talk to the customer.
R.J. Jain
You have to talk to customers. You have to be customer obsessed, by the way. I think that's how you build great
Josh
products for, you know, a young startup founder out there right now who's trying to make it. They got that resiliency trait for you. What do you think is like the biggest challenge early on for startup founders that, like, hey, if they could get over this one thing, like, they would be. They would be golden?
James
Yeah, like, go through those nights.
Josh
That's what I'm trying.
James
Cold sweats, rj, come on.
R.J. Jain
Yeah, yeah. I mean, so I'm still having those cold sweats either way, so it hasn't changed a lot.
Josh
By the way, I'm curious about that because, like, you'd already had an exit before and now you're playing the game again. And so, like, like, you know, most people after they've had an exit like that, they would get comfortable and they wouldn't want to, you know, go in on another venture for you, what kind of keeps you, like, hungry to actually, like, dive in on another company?
R.J. Jain
I mean, so my previous company was more like B2B.
James
Yep.
R.J. Jain
B2C is much harder, by the way. I feel like. I think so. But I'm sure B2B guys will say the other way around, basically. But. But I think, like, I feel like for me, the biggest thing is AI is changing everything, so you have to adapt. AI. A lot of people say, like, hey, what's happening now? Is AI going to lose jobs? I Think like AI won't take the jobs by the way. It's someone who's using AI will take the jobs by the way. So that's how I feel like. So you have to be so agile, you have to be adapting AI and it's all about the speed. You have to be like, move quickly. Like every day is changing by the way. So you have to make constantly executing all the time.
James
And rj, after going from selling one business with a couple co founders to now being a solo founder of this company, who are some of the most important hires that you've made so far? How big is the team? We know that you've got a bunch of investors about, you've taken some capital. Right. How big is your team of like the day to day?
R.J. Jain
So we have 30 people team. I think the biggest hires I would say I've done is my head of engineering, by the way. We work together. He came from Michigan as well and one of the smartest engineers I ever met by the way. And also my head of DevOps. I think he changed a lot of game as well. And also like my UI UX guy I think has made a lot of improvements to improve the product and he watches the retention pretty much every single day and checks like, how can we improve the product as overall, I think those are some of the key people I brought on board. But then also my board members. I'm very grateful. I have three board members right now and they're very involved. I talked to them almost every week and they gave me a lot of feedback and they have always been great partners to me. So I'm really lucky that I have these amazing board members and investors who are really involved with my startup as well.
Jack
One of the things I'm kind of curious about is you grew up and you built a Flash Player game.
R.J. Jain
Yes.
Jack
And then you went to Zynga and you were behind the scenes on one of the most profitable games of all time.
James
That's your gaming partner right there. He's got a big passion for gaming.
R.J. Jain
Oh my God. Maybe we can take this conversation offline to have our games.
Jack
And I'm just so curious because like that's.
James
Hey, where is GTA 6?
R.J. Jain
Where is it@newsprice.com by the way? Probably the best deal on that,
James
but.
R.J. Jain
And I was just like, did you
Jack
not feel enticed at all to potentially, you know, enter that sphere of some sort of like, I mean if you think about it, farmville, they built the product, they have the concept down and then it's just in app purchases. I mean, I'm sure there's money to, you know, grow the team, continue to grow, you know, the user base. But at that point, digital products are pretty much purely profit. Besides maybe the cut that the App Store takes. Did you never want to enter that sphere?
R.J. Jain
I think it changed a lot, by the way. I think when Zynga came in the market, it was primarily desktop. And then mobile took over. And then also I'm sure you guys remember when, during the time when you're playing a game, by the way, on Facebook, Facebook used to show on the feed for everyone, by the way. So if you share something, everyone needs to see it. And then the algorithm changed the Facebook, so they only allow, they only show you the feed now if you are playing the game. Basically that changed the whole game a lot. Basically. It was not easy now to have like a farmer like product because of mobile. It's harder to play games on mobile like that. And the second thing is it's not gonna go viral in the way it used to be in those times. So I feel like it's much harder. I think I have friends who have started building out games and they have built games and they have shut down the companies, by the way, because so hard to build those things to go viral. And you need a lot of luck as well. I feel like you need a lot of luck to be successful, by the way. And I think that's kind of a big part of like being successful too. Yes.
James
RJ, you're in your late 30s now. We like to end these podcasts off with two questions for our guests. I'm gonna start and Jack's gonna end it off for us. Okay? So rj, if me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation watching this right now, what would that be?
R.J. Jain
I would say like the two things I would say for the younger generation is one is like focus on building a niche skill and be exceptional at it and then it will compound over time. Second thing I would say to a younger self myself is be open minded. Talk to everyone. Every conversation is a shortcut. You can learn years of experience in minutes by just talking to people and that's how you gain wisdom and everything. And that's so important. So combining depth and, and curiosity, that's the best way to move faster in life and compared to everyone else.
Josh
And rj, looking at your legacy that you've had so far in your career and everything you're building, how do you want to be remembered?
R.J. Jain
I think for me the biggest is impact on scale. So I want to like impact. I want to make meaningful impact in not just millions of people's lives, billions of people's lives. So for me, that's what motivates me, that's what drives me every day and that's what I'm focusing on Price right now and hopefully with the next company as well.
James
I love it.
R.J. Jain
Thank you so much for having me, guys.
James
Thanks for being here, my friend, and for everybody watching right now. Guys, be sure to like and subscribe for amazing content coming every week to the School of Hard Knocks podcast. We're also going to put the link down in the description for you all to check out price.com for yourselves today and any of your social media handles. We also want to include down in the description as well. That way you all can follow along with RJ's journey. And one more thing guys, we're going to put the link down in the description to join the School of Mentors, which is the number one most powerful entrepreneur, community and network in the entire world, where every single week myself, Jack and Josh host live calls with the eight, nine and even 10 figure entrepreneurs, the billionaires that we interview on the School of Hard Knocks, where you get to ask your questions to the guests that we have on this show, the people that we interview on the School of Hard Knocks, and you ask them questions about your business, your life and your next move. So we can't wait to see you on the inside. With that being said, I'll see you in the next episode.
Guest: RJ Jain (Founder, Price.com)
Hosts: James, Jack, Josh
Date: April 23, 2026
In this episode, RJ Jain, serial entrepreneur and founder of Price.com (valued at $200 million), joins the School of Hard Knocks podcast to share his journey from growing up in Kanpur, India, to founding startups in Silicon Valley, selling his last company to Google for nine figures, and now building Price.com. Jain unpacks the formative experiences that shaped his entrepreneurial mindset, the innovations behind his companies, practical advice for founders, and his outlook on AI, consumer business, and global growth.
"I realized, oh, wow, you can build something that can bring so much joy in people's life and also it can be rewarding." – RJ ([02:44])
"You build something that they think like, 'Oh, wow, clear synergies. We need this.'" – RJ ([30:48])
"You have to do whatever it takes to survive." – RJ ([27:01])
For more on RJ Jain and Price.com, visit price.com.