BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

DoorDash for Goods Marketplaces 🚚 

Deals on wheels

Available Domain: Listingshipping.com

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: While it seems that Facebook is dying a slow death, Facebook Marketplace is popping off right now. And husbands across the land couldn’t be happier about it.

But Facebook Marketplace, and other similar buy and sell marketplaces, have a big logistics problem. People often live large distances away and meeting up to exchange goods can be extremely challenging. So let’s build a business to solve this exact issue.

Market Size: The US recommerce market was worth around $189bn in 2023

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A platform to deliver goods which are sold on online marketplaces from sellers to buyers

How it Works:

• Once two users have agreed to a sale of goods on a platform like Facebook Marketplace they go to this platform to arrange delivery

• They enter in details about the goods that need to be shipped, such as the size, weight, and the where it’s being delivered from and to

• The seller is then presented with various options for delivery. Delivery could be completed by gig workers, like Uber drivers or van owners, to earn extra cash or by trucks owned by the business which commute between large towns or cities regularly where goods are stored then delivered

• The seller is given an estimate for the cost to ship the goods and can pay it or send the bill to the buyer for them to pay the shipping costs

Go-to-market: Start by working with buy and sell platforms and adopt an asset light model to prove out the unit economics, then vertically integrate from there

Business Model: Charge a fee for each delivery

Startup Costs: If you opt for an asset light model you won’t need to spend big in the early days, but if you want to own the infrastructure you’ll need serious cash to play with

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Sell to a large player in the logistics space, like DHL or a logistics software provider like Shippo

Exit Multiple: Major food delivery services like DoorDash and Instacart, which are a decent proxy here, are valued around 3x - 4x revenue right now in the public markets

TOGETHER WITH OMNISEND

+100,000 E-commerce Founders Supercharge Their Growth with Omnisend

Listen...we don't take promotions lightly. In fact, we've refused several sponsors because they didn’t fit with our brand.

The same can't be said for Omnisend.

+100,000 e-commerce businesses use Omnisend's SMS and marketing tools to boost their sales. Think about it, that's a customer base 3x the population of Monaco…

Omnisend offers affordable and scalable pricing that grows with your business. And ultimately, we're proud to have them as a partner.

DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Human Tears Drink

We’ve all seen the memes about people “drinking the tears of their enemies.“ Which clearly shows us that there’s huge demand out there for human tears.

Well now you can buy bottled human tears wherever you do your shopping.

We can’t however guarantee they’re the tears of your enemy.

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Doomsday Prepping

Given the current news cycle it kinda feels like the world is on fire right now. So it’s no surprise that doomsday prepping is having a moment. In fact researchers say that the number of preppers has doubled in size to about 20 million people since 2017.

Business Ideas

• Prepping Consultancy for High Net Worths: A service which works with rich people to create a detailed prepping plan and acquire what they need for this.

• Prepper Expos: Organize local meetups, workshops, and expos where preppers can network, learn, and purchase supplies.

THE MONEYSHOT

Rejecting a $23bn Takeover After 4 Years in Business

Google was on the verge of its biggest takeover ever, looking to shell out $23bn to acquire their target.

But these 4 lifelong friends turned down the tech giant emphatically.

This is their story.

Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costiva, and Roy Reznik go way back. They originally met as teenagers back in 2001 when they served together in the Israeli army. And this is a bond that has lasted throughout their entrepreneurial endeavours too.

In 2012, the foursome created Adallom, a service which secures enterprise SaaS application usage. But Adallom wasn’t an overnight success story. It took years for this market to develop, catching up to what the founding team had recognized as an opportunity.

The market did eventually catch up, and Microsoft bought the company in 2015 for a reported $320m. The foursome joined the tech giant to lead their cloud security division. They were moving up in the world.

But despite this incredible opportunity the team was getting restless.

Why? Because they had a new idea.

The team envisioned building a security solution that would work across multiple cloud providers, what they described as the “Switzerland” of cloud security. This idea was too big for the team to ignore.

So after 4 years at Microsoft these 4 friends left to start a new business in 2020.

They founded Wiz.

In December 2020, Wiz emerged from stealth by raising $100 million from some of Silicon Valley’s top investors. No surprise given the founder’s previous successes.

With Wiz the goal was to become the fastest growing and most dominant company in cloud cybersecurity. And they did exactly this.

In 2022, after just 18 months of trading, the company hit $100m in annual recurring revenue and earlier this year reported ARR of $500m.

In May 2024, Wiz raised $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation. And this incredible growth caught the attention of Google, who tried to acquire Wiz for $23bn earlier this year. But Wiz said no.

Why? Mainly because they didn’t think the deal could get done. Lina Khan and the FTC don’t take kindly to big tech acquisitions, so they couldn’t see this deal getting done.

So instead their plan is to reach $1bn in revenue and to go public as soon as possible. Not a bad backup plan.

The scale of this team’s ambition should inspire us all. And they advice is clear.

Find some of your best friends and go and start a company. It could change all of your lives forever.

INFLUENCER IDEAS

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