BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

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1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: We all know how difficult it is to be a world class athlete The brutal training. The sacrifice. The toll it takes on your body. But until a recent interview with Eric Holt went viral, where he describes having to live with his parents and having his girlfriend pay for his meals, I had no idea how difficult it is financially to be an athlete.

In the tweet you can see a groundswell of support with people wanting to reach out and support Eric and athletes just like him. So let’s build a platform to do exactly that.

Market Size: Hard to get an exact TAM here but there are a few hundred thousand athletes around the world across different sports, so TAM shouldn’t be an issue

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A platform where users can pledge to support athletes monthly in exchange for exclusive content

How it Works:

• Athletes can sign up for the platform which they link off to via their social media platforms

• Users can then subscribe to support athletes monthly where they get access to exclusive content, can attend meetups like run clubs, get early access to tickets etc.

Go-to-market: Start with athletes in a single vertical, like athletics (particularly in the run up to the Olympics) and build out from there

Business Model: Take a transaction fee on subscriptions

Startup Costs: Pretty much $0

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Your exit strategy here is to sell to a large player in the sports brand looking to break more into tech, like Under Armour or even Patreon themselves

Exit Multiple: For businesses valued under $2 million, exit multiplez typically range from 5.0x to 7.0x. Meanwhile, for businesses valued over $2 million, the multiple can range from 7.0x to 10.0x

DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

The Money Launderette

Did you know that paper money can carry more germs than a toilet?

Well we’re here to fix that. With our new chain of money launderers you can bring us your cash and we’ll wash and clean them for you so you don’t have to worry about your money being dirty.

A great service that we’re sure will get a lot of people talking!

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Digital Detoxing

Digital detoxing is a wider trend that’s here to stay as we all look to step away form our screens. And detoxing can take on many forms. The latest is so-called “flight raw dogging”, the practice of going an entire flight with no book, podcast or any form of entertainment as a way to detox.

Business Ideas

• AA for Tech Addiction: establishing a supportive community where individuals can share their experiences, gain insights, and develop strategies to manage and reduce their technology use.

• Digital Detox Kits for Companies: Develop and sell digital detox kits to companies for their employees.

• Tech-Free Cafes: Open cafes that encourage patrons to disconnect by not offering Wi-Fi and promoting a tech-free environment.

THE MONEYSHOT

The Founders who Sold the Same Company…Twice

When we talk about the early social media wars, everyone talks about how Facebook beat out MySpace to win the market.

But there’s a third social media platform that existed at this time…and it was called Bebo.

Bebo was founded by husband-and-wife team Michael and Xochi Birch in January 2005 at their home in San Francisco.

While Bebo was founded after both MySpace and Facebook, the app became popular with younger users, particularly in the UK and Ireland.

They were able to amass over 40m users at their peak, which caught the eye of the struggling tech giant AOL.

AOL swooped in and dropped $850m in cash to buy Bebo.

But this is where things started to unravel.

AOL quickly realised they didn’t have the funds to ensure Bebo could remain competitive in this market after undergoing a large restructure to shore up their finances.

Againt these headwinds and with Bebo bleeding users, just 2 years after acquiring Bebo, AOL sold Bebo for $10m to Criterion Capital Partners, an investment consortium.

Fast forward a few years and Criterion Capital Partners filed for bankruptcy, so Bebo went back on the market again for sale. And what happened? Michael Birch came in and bought back the site for $1m.

With Michael at the helm again he decided that Bebo should pivot into a live streaming website, similar to Twitch.

A few years later, after seeing some moderate success as a streaming platform, Twitch then acquired Bebo in 2019 for $25m.

So Michael got a second exit from the same company which is hilarious.

As of 2021 Michael has claimed he has plans to relaunch Bebo yet again as a social network.

Will he be able to get a third exit out of this business? If he does surely that’s a record.

INFLUENCER IDEAS

#HalfBakedBizIdea

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