
How Ryan Scaled Amazon Online Arbitrage to $1.8M at 23 (Full Playbook)
From Clear the Shelf with Chris & Chris by Chris Grant & Chris Racic
May 21, 2026 · 1h 29m
About this episode
Ryan shares his journey of scaling his Amazon online arbitrage business to $1.8 million at just 23 years old.
Apply to work with me one-on-one: https://www.cleartheshelf.com/apply Ryan set a goal of $600,000 in Amazon sales, then he tripled it. He did $1.8 million in his first full year of doing online arbitrage. He did this while graduating from college and turning down every corporate job offer. He's 23 years old, and this year he's targeting $5,000,000 in revenue. In this podcast, we learn about his journey, find out what got him started, and he shares what he's done to scale his business. Chapters: 00:00 - Video Game Currency to $1.8M on Amazon (Origin Story) 05:23 - "Burned the Boats" While Barely Profitable 07:00 - What Walmart Corporate Taught Him About 3P Selling 10:00 - Why People Quit Before the Inflection Point 14:00 - The FAFO Moment: $600K Goal, $1.8M Finish 18:52 - Turning $1 Into $400 in Sales on a Single Deal 20:04 - Order Cancellations: The Full Checklist 22:04 - Replenishables and Stalking Your Own Storefront on Keepa 26:00 - Why He Took an $85K Loan to Scale (The Math) 29:00 - Cash Conversion Cycle Explained (60-70 Days) 34:00 - Team of Five: Hiring VAs With a 3% Pass Rate 39:00 - The Trick Questions That Eliminate 97% of Applicants 42:01 - Teaching VAs to…
People in this episode
Hosts: Chris Grant, Chris Racic
Guest: Ryan
Topics covered
- Amazon sales
- online arbitrage
- business scaling
- entrepreneurship
- financial strategies
- virtual assistants
Keywords
- Amazon
- online arbitrage
- scaling business
- financial goals
- virtual assistants
- entrepreneurship
- sales strategies
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Walmart, Keepa, Claude Code
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