From Investment Banker to Creator: The Story of How Khe Hy Carved Out His Unconventional Entrepreneurial Path

First Class Founders: Creators | Solopreneurs | Personal HoldCo

E37: Khe Hy and I have A LOT in common. Khe is also the son of immigrant parents. And like me, Khe also decided to quit his Wall Street finance job to venture off into entrepreneurship. My conversation with Khe proved to be incredibly illuminating and I found his life to be a rich treasure trove of stories and life-lessons.
I spoke to Khe about his journey of becoming an entrepreneur: from being one of the youngest Managing Directors at the prestigious private equity firm BlackRock managing a fund of hedge-funds to starting his own newsletter, to quietly offering his services as a business coach, to becoming the founder and CEO of his own company, RadReads.
Today, Khe shares many life-lessons he learned while going down his unconventional entrepreneurial path.

***
SPONSOR:

I love using Riverside.fm to record all guest interviews like this one with Khe Hy. Try it out 100% free here and when you're ready, use the code FIRSTCLASS to get 20% off any paid plan.
***
EXCERPTS:
Why Material Success Doesn't Always Equal Happiness: "But my happiness...baseline level of happiness, didn't really change much."

— Khe Hy (5:09)
The Benefits of Not Niching Down: "I'm gonna share things that I'm interested in, and they're gonna change because I'm gonna change."
— Khe Hy (12:39)
Establishing Authority: "When you write about a certain topic over and over and over and over again, you become an authority, or people deem you an authority."
— Khe Hy (25:25)
Challenge of Converting Your Audience to Customers: "People could love your stuff, but getting them to open their wallets and, like, buy something from you is a completely different ballgame."
— Khe Hy (41:58)
***

TOPICS:
[00:03:12] Khe's Journey from Employee to Entrepreneur
[00:08:01] Accidental Newsletter Becomes Huge Success
[00:11:27] Long-Term Success Means Sticking with It
[00:25:25] Repetition Establishes Authority
[00:28:24] CEO Struggles as Creator Economy Declines
[00:46:15] How to Find your True Work, Passion and Focus
***

LINKS:
How to "CEO" During an Economic Meltdown
Khe Hy on Twitter

JOIN: First Class Founders Premium Membership
DOWNLOAD: Hyper-Visuals For Our Episodes (Free)
***
FOLLOW / REVIEW:
- Follow
- Leave 5-star review
***
CONNECT W/ YONG-SOO:
- X
- Threads
- LinkedIn
- Newsletter
***
First Class Founders is a show for indie hackers, bootstrapped founders, CEOs, solopreneurs, content creators, startup entrepreneurs, and SaaS startups covering topics like build in public, audience growth, product marketing, scaling up, side hustles, holding company, etc.
Past guests include Arvid Kahl, Tyler Denk, Noah Kagan, Clint Murphy, Jay Abraham, Andrew Gazdecki, Matt McGarry, Nick Huber, Khe Hy, and more.
Episode you might like:
Future of Newsletters with Tyler Denk, Founder & CEO at Beehiiv
From Zero to 100K Subscribers: How to Grow Your Newsletter like a Pro with Newsletter Growth Expert Matt McGarry
...