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Moneywise

How They Built a $745M Company Together and Stay Married

Moneywise

Hampton

Investing, Entrepreneurship, Business

4.7 • 701 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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: https://joinhampton.com/

Kass and Mike Lazerow built two companies together, sold one for $25M… and the next for $745M. Along the way, they went bankrupt, survived dot-com busts and Facebook booms, and figured out how to build a business without destroying their marriage. 

Here’s what we talk about:

  • What it’s actually like to sell your company for $745 million
  • The early Golf.com bankruptcy scare, and how Tiger Woods saved the business
  • Why their co-founder relationship works (and where it almost blew up entirely)
  • Mixing work and love: the brutal fights, trust, and one-liners from the delivery room
  • Full breakdown of their first splurge, and what “enough” money really means
  • Raising $50M without meaning to sell, and getting a surprise offer from Salesforce
  • The $12M flop that reminded Mike why Kass is the only co-founder he needs
  • Co-founder red flags, communication rules, and how they manage disagreements
  • Living rich vs. feeling rich: the moment they finally felt secure

Cool Links:


Sponsors:


Chapters:

  • (1:26) The $745M Buddy Media exit
  • (4:29) What people get wrong about working with a spouse
  • (6:22) How Kass and Mike met
  • (8:44) The Golf.com story
  • (15:33) Managing team dynamics as married co-founders
  • (23:17) Handling finances as a married couple
  • (28:18) What they did with the money after the exit
  • (32:33) Lessons learned and what they'd do differently
  • (36:58) Closing thoughts on finding the right co-founder

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.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

So many founders I know still use their personal phone number to talk to customers, which I get.

0:05.0

I did it as well, and I still get so much junk calls because I used to do it that way.

0:10.4

But at some point, you start leaking time and money.

0:13.9

We've seen this tool. It's called QO, formerly called Open Phone, pop up a bunch in the Hampton community.

0:22.6

It's basically the modern way to run your business phone. One number that lives on an app. Your entire team can use it like a shared

0:28.3

inbox, calls, texts, even voicemails. So when someone messages in, your operations person can reply,

0:34.7

your co-finder can follow up, and you don't have to be the bottleneck anymore.

0:38.6

And if you miss a call, no problem. Their AI picks up, answers questions, and even logs leads.

0:44.6

This is one of those tools where you start using it and you think, why the hell didn't I start using this sooner?

0:50.1

More than 90,000 businesses are already on QO. So head to QO.com slash moneywise.

0:57.4

That's QUO.com slash money wise.

1:01.7

And you'll get 20% off your first six months.

1:05.2

They'll even port over your current number for free.

1:08.4

Again, QO, QO.com slash moneycom slash MoneyWise. And please tell them, MoneyWise,

1:14.5

and Sam sent you. In 2004, when our second child was born, our son, I had the C-section, I get

1:22.6

wheeled in with him, and Mike's like, I hate to do this, but I got to give you the laptop because

1:26.9

you're the only one who knows how to book ads. Don't mix work and love. Most would call that pretty sound advice. Cass and Mike Lazaro did not take that advice, and it's worked out pretty well. He said, listen, I'm going to overpay for your business. I'm going to pay almost $800 million. And that was their second exit. A co-founder can make or break a business. In fact, Mike had a separate venture with a different partner. And, well... It's probably the biggest mistake of my life. In this episode of MoneyWise, Cass and Mike are going to convince you that there is no one better to run a business with you than your spouse and explain exactly how to make it work. And even if you're not looking to start a business with your spouse, which includes me, by the way, this is for anyone in any kind of business relationship at all, because let's be honest, it's kind of one and the same. When you get married, it's basically a business transaction. I'm Harry Morton and this is Money Wise, a podcast not about how to get a start as a founder,

2:19.2

but specifically for those of us who are already in the grind. We're radically transparent

2:23.4

about the numbers, the emotions and the raw personal journey that every founder has to go through,

2:28.4

whether they expect it or not. The show's made for the community of founders just like that

2:32.4

over at Hampton. If you're one and you're doing at least $3 million in annual revenue, check it out at

2:37.1

joinhampton.com.

...

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