Surprisingly simple stupid businesses- that somehow work

[MitchC]

I'm actually curious how do these guys even get the word out there for this kind of businesses, because these are not the type of things people search for daily on Google. I assume they burn 5 - 7 digit figures a week on FB ads with investors' money, or throwing 5 - 7 figures a week at TikTok/IG influencers.

You run profitable direct response ads and scale profitably

Some burn through investor money but most don’t have that luxury, the ones who do run out of money eventually anyway

Read Breakthrougu Advertising, or some of the other Gary Halbert challenge books

You seem to have a mentality that the world has somehow changed and this doesn’t work anymore

It does

Read these books and you will see they were written 50 years ago and nothing has changed

It’s not suddenly changed in the last 6 months or 2 years or whenever you decided this doesn’t work anymore

It’s not about to change either

Ads need to be profitable or people wouldn’t run them, sure you can run on investor money for a short time, but it runs out

This will mean there’s always an opportunity to run a profitable ad

Doesn’t mean it’s easy though

 

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[ZackerySprague]

Here's an interesting one.
There's been a lot of drive thru coffee shops popping up all over the place with different kinds of positioning.
On one end of the spectrum are places like dunkin with their fast and cheap iced coffee.
In the middle you can have something like dutch bros.
At the end you'd have starbucks or local coffee shops pushing 7$ for a large latte.

One started popping up in my area called Seven brew. It's a drive-through only fast coffee place. It's not overpriced (hallelujah) and I noticed something interesting.
View attachment 53538

1) Drive thru only (you could walk up to the benches outside but it's sort of like a shake stand and not encouraged to hang around)
2) Everything seems to be automated and simplified- every time I go they have wall-to-wall bottles of different flavoring syrups (literally just off-the-shelf Torani's syrup). They have pop-and-go espresso machines that appear to grind beans, pour out the specified amount of coffee, and dump the espresso base into the cup. From there the employee just dumps in milk/ice/syrup and the drink is DONE, I've gotten a drink in as little as 45 seconds from order before. Every single thing on the menu is just a different combo of off-the-shelf ingredients that just need to be tossed into a cup.
3) Staff expertise is largely removed from the process, I'm not a simp for corporations using humans as flesh automatons but I've seen at least 3 sets of employees come and go in the past months. There's no brewing, no special espresso pours, no fancy customization or things that need in-depth barista secrets. Going with point #2, you just need someone who can run an ipad and take payments or put cups in front of a machine and spurt syrup into a cup.

View attachment 53539

Looking into their numbers, they at least appear to be doing 337k revenue/employee.
This is SURPRISING because they're essentially doing what I can do in my kitchen with a keurig and a bottle of Torani's but at SCALE and make $$$ off of it. The coffee is just okay but at it's price point and speed I see a bumper-to-bumper line everytime I pass that place.

Guess the biggest lesson here is in scale, simplifying, and looking for opportunities other people could blatantly look over- if you had asked me if I thought I could run an iced coffee cart using pre-made coffee and torani's syrup I probably would've made up a million excuses why that shouldn't work... but like we see in everything else in this thread, sometimes it does if you just try.

I've seen Dutch Bros, but never Seven Brew. Nice find. 184 total stands in the US. 5 accounted for in DFW.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Not sure if this is a business, but it is surprisingly simple.

FutureMe: Write a Letter to your Future Self

Write a letter to the future and read the public (but anonymous) letters from others. FutureMe has been delivering letters to the future for millions of people since 2002.

www.futureme.org

We might incorporate such a benefit @ GoalSumo.com -- some of the old public letters listed are quite hilarious.

 

[WJK]

I'm actually curious how do these guys even get the word out there for this kind of businesses, because these are not the type of things people search for daily on Google. I assume they burn 5 - 7 digit figures a week on FB ads with investors' money, or throwing 5 - 7 figures a week at TikTok/IG influencers.

No, they get up and go to work every day. In the past, they passed out cards and went to community meetings. They actually talked to real people! They still do.

This internet thing is a new concept. When I started in business, we used electric typewriters with carbon paper. Printing was done on presses. There was no word processing. When I was a kid, copy machines made the background black and the lettering white. Every copy was a big expense and a miracle. Only the library had a machine. We did math by hand or on an adding machine. Calculators were very expensive and rare when they first came out. When I took the RE exam for a salesman's license in 1976, we weren't allowed to use them for the test. Computers took a whole room and used punch cards that were manually punched on a machine. Microchips hadn't been invented.

We've come a long way, Baby!

 

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[Kevin88660]

Like any good TFF member, I spend any possible downtime listening to talks with founders. I like hearing about people getting off the ground and getting started, and how quickly (or not) they were able to take off.
A big, painful recurring theme is that there seem to be a lot of what I call "simple, stupid businesses" that execute on something I or probably any other sane person I know wouldn't think about, or write off as being dumb... but they appear to take off anyway. I don't have the time at the moment to go back and look but Ryan Moran has a lot of people from his community stepping forward reporting how their items crossed the 1m/yr revenue mark doing simple things like selling water bottles with inspirational messages on them (I believe she told Ryan she had a 3m$ exit selling these things which are just water bottles: https://www.liveinfinitely.com/)

Another case in point: These guys at Dude wipes - About Us

You can see it in plain english in their timeline.
View attachment 51104
What I read: We were absolutely blowing out our bowels due to horrendous diets. We got hooked on using baby wipes to save our tender sphincters, liked it, and decided to white label our own for men and just sell them.

Granted, that's not the full situation and I haven't listened to anything from the founders, but I almost fell off my chair reading that and exploring their offerings. Now, I'm one of those people that follow Ryan Moran's content and see people building audiences and pull it off with surprisingly simple stupid brands like "chocolate chip cookies for late snackers" or "Matcha tea for young professionals". Having read TMF /US and then looking back and seeing people do this just makes my head spin. Some of them make marginally more sense like a tool for woodburning hobby or the guy that makes extender plates porsche spoilers- but even those required barely anything to get off the ground, just an audience (or willing to try ads) and some money to directly order or have someone fabricate the first batch of product.

I guess in the end, there's probably a broader message about executing and just seeing what works- not getting hung up on the "perfect idea" or the "lifetime value" (especially if this is your first go around with a business that seems to be running reasonably well). Just picking something you feel and can confirm a need for, and getting off to the races.

What do y'all think?

Maybe the ideas are not stupid. It is just that we don’t have the domain knowledge to know it.

Airbnb initial stage fund raising was rejected by many big shots and billionaires because no way in their minds they can fathom people will risk living in strangers house risking getting murdered/raped.

Turn out that in the end it works well. Millennials are willing to save a few hundred dollars on accommodation for a less than 0.01 percent risk of something very bad happening.

If you don’t try you don’t know that your preconceived ideas could be wrong.

 

[RicardoGrande]

Not sure if you randomly found this or if you posted it because you know but the owner of this is an Amazon guru

Login • Instagram

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

www.instagram.com

Thankfully know nothing about the owner, saw someone on twitter complaining it was "Andrew Tate in a can" and poisoning the youth or some crap like that. Anytime I run into something that seems stupid but also is selling and I have a "why didn't I think of that?" or "why didn't I bother to try that?" or "How the hell could I write that off when this guy is putting coffee and caffeine into a jug with a photoshopped dagestani muscleman onto it and making $$$" I post it in this thread to help myself and hopefully others defeat the head voice saying some things are too simple or not worth it when people are clearly making bank doing just that.

 

[Keeton]

Like any good TFF member, I spend any possible downtime listening to talks with founders. I like hearing about people getting off the ground and getting started, and how quickly (or not) they were able to take off.
A big, painful recurring theme is that there seem to be a lot of what I call "simple, stupid businesses" that execute on something I or probably any other sane person I know wouldn't think about, or write off as being dumb... but they appear to take off anyway. I don't have the time at the moment to go back and look but Ryan Moran has a lot of people from his community stepping forward reporting how their items crossed the 1m/yr revenue mark doing simple things like selling water bottles with inspirational messages on them (I believe she told Ryan she had a 3m$ exit selling these things which are just water bottles: https://www.liveinfinitely.com/)

Another case in point: These guys at Dude wipes - About Us

You can see it in plain english in their timeline.
View attachment 51104
What I read: We were absolutely blowing out our bowels due to horrendous diets. We got hooked on using baby wipes to save our tender sphincters, liked it, and decided to white label our own for men and just sell them.

Granted, that's not the full situation and I haven't listened to anything from the founders, but I almost fell off my chair reading that and exploring their offerings. Now, I'm one of those people that follow Ryan Moran's content and see people building audiences and pull it off with surprisingly simple stupid brands like "chocolate chip cookies for late snackers" or "Matcha tea for young professionals". Having read TMF /US and then looking back and seeing people do this just makes my head spin. Some of them make marginally more sense like a tool for woodburning hobby or the guy that makes extender plates porsche spoilers- but even those required barely anything to get off the ground, just an audience (or willing to try ads) and some money to directly order or have someone fabricate the first batch of product.

I guess in the end, there's probably a broader message about executing and just seeing what works- not getting hung up on the "perfect idea" or the "lifetime value" (especially if this is your first go around with a business that seems to be running reasonably well). Just picking something you feel and can confirm a need for, and getting off to the races.

What do y'all think?

There's these guys I know, we talk a couple of times a month, but they run a service where they will take out, and pull back in elderly peoples trash cans for $10 a month. They target retirement communities, and older neighborhoods in general, and they're doing pretty good for themselves.

 

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[ZackerySprague]

Reading a book from a guy doing something similar to Ryan Moran who is currently standing up his own baby brand and he made a OEKO-TEK certified stroller his keystone and a diaper bag was his next targeted item.

And again, it's wild too because you'd think strollers and bags were done to death or available from China but with the right angle and brand/community you can make something work and find a blue ocean.


Thankfully know nothing about the owner, saw someone on twitter complaining it was "Andrew Tate in a can" and poisoning the youth or some crap like that. Anytime I run into something that seems stupid but also is selling and I have a "why didn't I think of that?" or "why didn't I bother to try that?" or "How the hell could I write that off when this guy is putting coffee and caffeine into a jug with a photoshopped dagestani muscleman onto it and making $$$" I post it in this thread to help myself and hopefully others defeat the head voice saying some things are too simple or not worth it when people are clearly making bank doing just that.

Ryans's course stuff has changed, and is impressive.

 

[ZackerySprague]

@RicardoGrande Check out this video though! It's kinda funny part of Ryan's material actually suggests for you to document your journey.

It's about a girl who created a company called Smart Sweets. This video was awesome! *Mind blown*

4 months to create a low-sugar candy for others, plus people can re-order the product. This was a great story.

SmartSweets - Low Sugar Gummy & Hard Candy

We’ve innovated the first delicious candy without the sugar. Our pinky promise to you is candy free from sugar alcohols, artificial sweeteners and added sugars.

smartsweets.com

Traffic stats could be more, but based on Koala Inspector 41k visits a month without retail stats.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDFv2CFL_zI&t=4s

 

[MitchC]

Remember the weird hotdog shaped beach chairs that you blew up with the wind? Was a viral dropship product back in the day, was the hit of the summer

That, but a better shape = 3.5m likes on an organic video

Easy

No idea why they made the original such a weird shape in the first place

Can anyone else remember what the viral hits back in the day of drop shipping were? I’m sure there’s more that are ready for a revival

2shoes || South Africa on Instagram: "@dailypaper X @fatboy_original chair tutorial. Available on the Daily Paper website"

3M likes, 4,184 comments - mateki2shoes on December 24, 2023: "@dailypaper X @fatboy_original chair tutorial. Available on the Daily Paper website".

www.instagram.com

 

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[Spenny]

Remember the weird hotdog shaped beach chairs that you blew up with the wind? Was a viral dropship product back in the day, was the hit of the summer

That, but a better shape = 3.5m likes on an organic video

Easy

No idea why they made the original such a weird shape in the first place

Can anyone else remember what the viral hits back in the day of drop shipping were? I’m sure there’s more that are ready for a revival

2shoes || South Africa on Instagram: "@dailypaper X @fatboy_original chair tutorial. Available on the Daily Paper website"

3M likes, 4,184 comments - mateki2shoes on December 24, 2023: "@dailypaper X @fatboy_original chair tutorial. Available on the Daily Paper website".

www.instagram.com

A quick Google search of past viral products: I'm sure some are ripe.

"TikTok Made Me Buy It": 11 Viral TikTok Product Trends - The RangeMe Blog

Where suppliers, retail buyers, and services providers can learn about CPG trends, business best practices, and how to grow your business in retail.

www.rangeme.com

12 Must Have Products Going Viral in 2017

Must Have Viral Products. . .those words bring to mind cool products, interesting items, and wacky gizmos. Sometimes, you might be tempted to spend your whole paycheck on the amazing inventions of ...

www.lifed.com

If you searched around 2019-2017 TikTok views that got over 3m views and products, I'm sure you'd come across a load.

 

[RicardoGrande]

ARE YOU F***ING KIDDING ME

 

[humthesongg]

Putting water in a can seems like a dumb idea you'd think wouldn't work but the people over at liquid death executed the idea brilliantly! I would recommend watching this video to see how they cleverly executed their marketing strategy. Reminds me when MJ mentioned in Millionaire fast lane how you can have a pretty crappy idea but if the execution is done correctly it could be worth millions. lmk what you guys think!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXjhNZlqexs

 

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[RicardoGrande]

Putting water in a can seems like a dumb idea you'd think wouldn't work but the people over at liquid death executed the idea brilliantly! I would recommend watching this video to see how they cleverly executed their marketing strategy. Reminds me when MJ mentioned in Millionaire fast lane how you can have a pretty crappy idea but if the execution is done correctly it could be worth millions. lmk what you guys think!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXjhNZlqexs

They had an interview with startup CPG awhile back, pretty good episode where they explained exactly where they started and what they tried to do to get going. Unfortunately they already had a lot of experience in the advertising/marketing products space, it wasn't like a normal joe schmoe stumbling on an idea and accidentally creating a millions/yr biz.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN3f-727o0k

 

[Serito]

I think this thread should be at least "notable".

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I think this thread should be at least "notable".

View attachment 53631

Done!

 

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[uptop]

Nice post Ricardo.

It's really easy to get stuck looking for the perfect idea that "follows" everything we need, and then we see these kind of products. Good to have it refreshed on mind that people buy the value skew.

 

[Bearcorp]

This $25M+ business was validated in 3 hours for $5: Problem: You’re stuck in NYC with all your bags, but no hotel Solution: Bag storage as a service. How the founder validates: 1. DOES NOT write a single line of code 2. Creates a BASIC landing page w/ Typeform (see image) 3.…Pat Walls (@thepatwalls) on Xx.com

Cool story about this company.

 

[ZackerySprague]

This $25M+ business was validated in 3 hours for $5: Problem: You’re stuck in NYC with all your bags, but no hotel Solution: Bag storage as a service. How the founder validates: 1. DOES NOT write a single line of code 2. Creates a BASIC landing page w/ Typeform (see image) 3.…Pat Walls (@thepatwalls) on Xx.com

Cool story about this company.

Thanks for sharing!

 

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[Bearcorp]

Thanks for sharing!

Pat Walls is good one to follow on X for more stories like this one.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Pat Walls is good one to follow on X for more stories like this one.

Just did

 

[Bearcorp]

https://x.com/mhp_guy/status/1752831641532137634?s=46&t=ZkVal8I0jkqyWWzuF2m7FA

Another one from X

 

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[RicardoGrande]

Here's a treat: Thursday Boots.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsoaAy3QWPg


Two friends: "Hey, boots are either stupid expensive or really suck... can we do something about it?"
So they went down to Guatemala with a design in mind and had some cobblers make just 20 pairs, aiming for an affordable price point while paying fair rates for labor.
They then put them up on Etsy and they sold like hotcakes to great reviews.

Now? In 2023 they did 145 MILLION in revenue.
This is from a 250,000$ gamble on a business loan they were barely qualified for with a factory they had to start on their own down in Leon, Mexico from just 20 boots they validated a market need for from etsy. They're also known for paying more than any of the other shoe factories in Mexico, including common name brands like nike.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Here's a treat: Thursday Boots.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsoaAy3QWPg


Two friends: "Hey, boots are either stupid expensive or really suck... can we do something about it?"
So they went down to Guatemala with a design in mind and had some cobblers make just 20 pairs, aiming for an affordable price point while paying fair rates for labor.
They then put them up on Etsy and they sold like hotcakes to great reviews.

Now? In 2023 they did 145 MILLION in revenue.
This is from a 250,000$ gamble on a business loan they were barely qualified for with a factory they had to start on their own down in Leon, Mexico from just 20 boots they validated a market need for from etsy. They're also known for paying more than any of the other shoe factories in Mexico, including common name brands like nike.

Funny! I have a friend who bought some this week!

 

[RicardoGrande]

Another case in point: These guys at Dude wipes - About Us

You can see it in plain english in their timeline.
View attachment 51104

Update: These guys are in Costco now

 

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[WilliamSherman]

The stories behind those simple products like motivational water bottles, Dude Wipes, and snacks for late-night cravings really hit home a big point for me. What really matters is how you bring that idea to life, making sure it fits what people want and need. It's all about getting out there and giving it a go, even if the idea might seem a bit silly or too simple at first.
I've seen a lot of folks get stuck because they're waiting for that one big, earth-shattering idea or they're trying to get everything absolutely perfect before they even start. But looking at these businesses, it's clear that you can find an audience for almost anything. Often, it's the simplest ideas that people really connect with.
So, in my view, the big lesson here is to just start. If you see a small problem you can solve or something you can make a bit better for people, go for it.

 

[RicardoGrande]

Just posted this in another thread but it should go here:

On Starting A Side Project Selling Custom Printed Candy Hearts - Starter Story

My name is Sarah Hannington. I work (part-time now) in a full-time marketing role for a large company and started MyCustomCandy as a side project 5 years ago. We custom print candy hearts and mints for large brands, celebrities, and influencers. MyCustomCandy started as a side project a...

www.starterstory.com

- "Hey, those cruddy little candy hearts with messages, but like, funny and rude ones would be awesome, but no one makes them?"
- "Hey, I found a company that I can contract to make my hearts!"
- "Hey, I can make a website, make some videos to get the word out, and rank my site with SEO!"
- "Hey, I'm making over 100,000$ a year from this thing I set up in just a few weeks!"

Again, and this is the point of the thread, some of these things seem so blunderingly simple in hindsight and I just want to facepalm my self- this is just like the chocolate cocks to-your-door guy.

 

[RicardoGrande]

Guys I can't stop finding these and hating myself for overthinking product ideas


This is one I ran into from the startup CPG group- Unbooze:



So- it's another rehash of "hangover prevention supplements" but they seem to be blowing up.
It's a small handfull of supplements (napkin math shows it's about 60 cents worth of pills assuming retail) you can take as you drink. They're selling them DtC for a whopping 35$ for 10 packets. More napkin math and I'm assuming they're hitting around 15-20$ in margin.
They've also been really playing the social media game across instagram and tiktok and they've started putting vending machines in bars in Austin and... Scottsdale, maybe someone here's seen them in person

I couldn't find any revenue information yet but they're putting out the vending machines, running an influencer/partner program and are getting ready to launch more products, so I'm assuming they're getting close to 1M in revenue.

Still astounded because I've seen at least 8 different brands and takes on "stop hangovers/prevent hangovers" over the years but I don't think any got to this level or didn't die out within a year or two. Reached out to their COO to see if I can hear more of their story.

 

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[ZackerySprague]

Guys I can't stop finding these and hating myself for overthinking product ideas


This is one I ran into from the startup CPG group- Unbooze:

View attachment 55445

So- it's another rehash of "hangover prevention supplements" but they seem to be blowing up.
It's a small handfull of supplements (napkin math shows it's about 60 cents worth of pills assuming retail) you can take as you drink. They're selling them DtC for a whopping 35$ for 10 packets. More napkin math and I'm assuming they're hitting around 15-20$ in margin.
They've also been really playing the social media game across instagram and tiktok and they've started putting vending machines in bars in Austin and... Scottsdale, maybe someone here's seen them in person

I couldn't find any revenue information yet but they're putting out the vending machines, running an influencer/partner program and are getting ready to launch more products, so I'm assuming they're getting close to 1M in revenue.

Still astounded because I've seen at least 8 different brands and takes on "stop hangovers/prevent hangovers" over the years but I don't think any got to this level or didn't die out within a year or two. Reached out to their COO to see if I can hear more of their story.

Maybe things are really just that simple. Haha.

 

[RicardoGrande]

Everytime I come here with one of these, I feel like I just walked out of a boxing match with Mike Tyson
What's on the table this week?
So, everyone nowadays is a bit of a health nut, I see a lot of ads and discussion on twitter, one thing that popped up a lot were people discussing the health benefits of... baking soda. Even my friends are talking about it, and one of my buddies ordered a specific brand and was hyping up the baking soda and waiting for the delivery all week.
Ok, no problem, baking soda is like what, 3$ for a pound or two from the store?

NO
You see, not all baking soda is equal, according to gurus on the internet.
What they're recommending, is either aluminum free, or naturally mined baking soda.
Ok, let's take a look at one of the more recommended brands:


Huh, so this is a natural health brand selling aluminum/gluten-free [] baking soda for baking, cleaning, or supplementation.
13$ for a tub Though? Surely this company can't be doing too much in business right n-

Millions of dollars per year, from slinging baking soda at a 400% markup on amazon by posting tiktok/instagram videos.

I see a lot of people march onto TFF asking how to start a million dollar businesses and agonizing why no ideas are good, why not just take a page from these guys and sling some white powder

(Disclaimer: they do sell other things on the store, but it's all bulk and I'm betting bought from a co-manufacturer or bulk-distributor and repacked- either way they're doing nothing anyone else here couldn't do, they just started.)