BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

AI Prospecting for Job Hunting 🔍

Prospecting for job prospects

Available Domain: Workbound.ai

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: Many people, even those who are extremely qualified, are struggling to find jobs at the moment. Which is particularly tough given these two guys are totally under-qualified for the job they’re applying for.

But here’s the problem. When looking for jobs most people are reactive, applying for job listings as they come up, when in truth they should be proactively reaching out to companies looking for roles. So let’s build a tool to do exactly that.

Market Size: The global online recruitment market was worth an estimated $34bn in 2023

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: AI tooling to help jobseekers outbound companies to secure a role

How it Works:

• Jobseekers sign up to the platform and upload their CV. They also give details of the type of role they want and what type of company they want to work for

• The tool, similar to outbounding tools used in sales teams, searches for leads in suitable companies who can be outbounded on LinkedIn or through email

• The tool composes personalized messages which are then sent to these targets and can be edited by the user before sending

Go-to-market: Look into jobseekers forums and groups to find your early customers

Business Model: Monthly subscription model

Startup Costs: If you can find a technical cofounder here this shouldn’t be too costly to get up and running

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Exit to a jobs platform, like Ziprecruiter, who would be happy to take this on

Exit Multiple: You’re probably exiting this business for 10x - 15x EBITDA in a few years time all going well

TOGETHER WITH HUBSPOT

Unlock the full potential of your workday with cutting-edge AI strategies and actionable insights, empowering you to achieve unparalleled excellence in the future of work. Download the free guide today!

DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Umbrella Drones

It’s peak summer right now. Yet somehow in Ireland (where we’re based) it’s still raining, meaning we all have to carry around umbrellas wherever we go.

Until now.

Our new umbrella drones will follow you around and keep you dry, in even the harshest conditions. And all those reports about people getting injured using this product were totally overblown. Well…a little overblown.

Stay safe out there.

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Dumb Phones

Smartphones are incredible, but they’re also a drain on our time. They’ve almost become too smart. Which is why many people are turning to buying “dumb phones” to take their time back.

Business Ideas

• Dumb Phone Converter: an app that turns your smartphone into a dumb phone with limited access to certain apps

• Dumb Phone Brand: create a dedicated, distraction-free phone brand which only offers select apps that are necessary. No social media apps etc.

• Reinventing Walkie-talkies: a new form of walkie-talkie which only allows users to speak to each other at long distance, no other features

THE MONEYSHOT

From Getting Expelled to Starting a $100m+ Brand

Dylan Jacob had a pretty sheltered upbringing. He was brought up in an extremely religious household and homeschooled, which led to troubles when he entered public school in his later years.

Dylan was expelled twice (for fighting and drug dealing) and even spent 2 months in juvenile detention when he was 12. This was the turning point in his life when Dylan decided to turn his life around.

And boy did he.

Dylan started working in his Grandfather’s TV repair shop after his stint in juvie where he spent his time repairing broken iPhones. He quickly noticed during repairs that replacement screens were often very poor quality, so he found a better supplier of high quality screens. He then sold these screens to other repair shops and by his senior year he was working with over 100 repair shops and did $100k in profit.

Things were going well but the stress of going to college and running the business was too much, so he sold the business for $100k.

After selling Dylan tried a few more ventures, including refurbishing a house (which was a disaster) and a tile shop business, until he had his big idea in 2016.

The idea for BruMate came when Dylan turned 21 and was at his local brewery. The brewery only sold 16 oz. beer cans, and Dylan hated that by the last quarter of his drink, his beer was warm. He looked online and couldn’t find a koozie that would fit 16 oz. cans.

Within a week of coming up with the idea, he found a couple of manufacturers overseas and went ahead with launching the business.

After a failed Indiegogo launch Dylan relaunched but in a much less risky way. He set up a landing page about the product, pushed traffic to the site using Facebook ads and collected emails from people who were interested in buying it. This got him the validation he needed.

He took out a home equity line of credit on his renovated house and got his first products manufactured. He was in business.

Using pre-orders to fund cash flow (and debt later on), Dylan was able to fund the growth of the business. The business hit $1m in sales for the year in 2017 and ballooned to $20m in revenue in 2018. By 2020 the company was doing over $100M in sales.

Quite the turnaround from an incredible founder.

PS - if you want a much more detailed breakdown of his story this one is really good.

INFLUENCER IDEAS

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