Podcast Guide
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#861: 4-Hour Workweek Success Story Brian Dean — From Dad’s Basement to Selling Two Companies

The Tim Ferriss Show

Published
April 16, 2026
Duration
1h 2m
Summary source
description
Last updated
Apr 17, 2026

Discusses business, entrepreneurship.

Summary

Brian Dean is the founder of Backlinko and Exploding Topics, both acquired by Semrush, which itself was recently acquired by Adobe for $1.9 billion. Brian's story starts exactly where a lot of great stories start: broke, directionless, and eating canned beef stew in his dad's basement during the 2008 financial crisis. He picked up a copy of The 4-Hour Wor…

Show notes

Brian Dean is the founder of Backlinko and Exploding Topics, both acquired by Semrush, which itself was recently acquired by Adobe for $1.9 billion. Brian's story starts exactly where a lot of great stories start: broke, directionless, and eating canned beef stew in his dad's basement during the 2008 financial crisis. He picked up a copy of The 4-Hour Workweek and took action. As is nearly always the case, his path wasn’t a straight line, but a series of winding turns, all fed by experiments. Hi

Themes

  • business
  • entrepreneurship