Pat Flynn

Pat Flynn is a San Diego entrepreneur, author and creator who founded Smart Passive Income (SPI), one of the longest-running brands teaching people to build online businesses. He started it in 2008 after being laid off from his architecture job, when a study site he had built to help people pass the LEED green building exam turned into his first successful online business.

SPI began as a blog documenting what worked and what did not, and became known for unusual transparency, including years of publicly shared monthly income reports. The Smart Passive Income Podcast, launched in 2010, has passed 80 million downloads, and SPI grew into a full education company with courses such as Power-Up Podcasting, a membership community and newsletters serving more than 50,000 students.

Flynn has written several books on building an online business, including Let Go, Will It Fly? on validating business ideas, Superfans on building a loyal audience, and Lean Learning on learning less but acting more. He also co-invented the SwitchPod camera tripod and in 2020 began building Pokémon-focused media, including the Deep Pocket Monster YouTube channel and the collector event Card Party.

In April 2026 he and longtime business partner Matt Gartland sold SPI Media and SPI Labs to entrepreneur Liz Wilcox, with the deal announced publicly that September. Flynn remains an advisor and occasional podcast guest while focusing on his family and Pokémon media ventures and new storytelling projects.