BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

Google for Apps📱 

App-racadabra

Available Domain: thereisanappforthat.io

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: You see it everywhere online. “I wish there was as app that X” or “can someone build an app which does Y”. Although unfortunately apps can’t solve all of our problems.

But here’s the thing. As of 2024, there are over 5 million apps available across various app stores. So the app someone is looking for has probably already been built. It’s just difficult to find the app you want since that space isn’t inherently searchable. So let’s make it searchable.

Market Size: The global mobile app market was valued at $207bn in 2022

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A search engine which helps users to find apps they want or need by describing the functionality they require

How it Works:

• A user enters a description of the functionality they need, e.g., "track my daily water intake" or "edit photos with vintage filters" and the system processes the user's input to identify key features and requirements

• The platform maintains a comprehensive database of apps, including detailed information about their features and functionalities

• The platform matches the user input with the most relevant apps in the database and presents a list of apps that best match the user's needs, along with brief descriptions and links to download (get that affiliate revenue)

• Over time this could evolve into more of a “Perplexity for apps” rather than “Google for apps”, which would be sick

Go-to-market: Once you’ve compiled the database of apps you start scraping social media for people posting about apps they want on social media and respond with the answer. Guerrilla marketing at its finest.

Business Model: Advertising, where apps can pay to appear higher in search results and affiliate marketing for linking to apps

Startup Costs: You’ll need to be technically sophisticated to build this and will likely need some funding to get this off the ground given the complexity of the buils

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Hold: Rather than an exit here we think the path to riches would be to license this tech to app stores or apply it to other domains, rather than going for an exit

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DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Google Maps for Flat Earthers

A 2018 YouGov survey found that approximately 2% of Americans firmly believe the Earth is flat. That’s around 6.7m people in the USA who can’t rely on traditional, incorrect mapping applications like Google Maps or Apple Maps (although who relies on Apple Maps really).

Which is why we’ve created “Google Flats”, a navigation app for all the flat earthers out there.

We’re confident that flat earthers will use the app all aROUND the world.

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Aviation accounts for 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions, which is why sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a cleaner way to power aircrafts, is really taking off (see what we did there). It’s the fuel of the future and many companies have done huge raises in his space recently to fuel (we did it again) their efforts. Keep an eye out for business opportunities in this space.

Recent Raises

• Twelve, who create jet fuel made from air with up to 90% lower emissions than conventional fuel, raises a $200m in their Series C

• Air Company, a carbon conversion technology company, raises $69m in a Series B funding round

• Aether Fuel, who create sustainable fuels for the aviation and ocean shipping industries, raises $34m in a Series A round

THE MONEYSHOT

The Side Project that Sold for $500m

Photography. Videography. Graphic design. A business ideas newsletter (cough cough).

Many of us have side hustles we do along side our 9 - 5 jobs. But this founder managed to create a side hustle which he sold for $500m.

This is his story.

Mike Lee was a computer whiz growing up. He started learning to program at just 10 years old, a skill which would serve him many years later. But despite his programming prowess Mike went to Princeton to study economics. And no, he’s not a college dropout like many of the founders we discuss…

Fast forward a few years and Mike and his bride-to-be were preparing for their beach wedding. Like any couple before their wedding both of them wanted to look their very best on their wedding day. They both wanted to lose a little weight so the pair went to see a personal trainer to get some advice. All they were given was a workout plan and told to track their calories. How? By using a book listing the nutritional values of around 3,000 foods and a small pad of paper to use for tracking our calories.

Understandably Mike wasn’t too excited about this idea. So he decided to build a tool for tracking the calories in different foods for himself. It was a website where you could enter how much of a particular food you ate and it would count the calories and other macros automatically.

Pretty soon his friends and family were looking to use his website too. Mike had unknowingly started a business.

He had founded MyFitnessPal.

It was 2005 and mike was working a full-time job alongside MyFitnessPal. However over time he realised the workload was too much and, to use a metaphor the “youngins” will understand, his side chick became his main chick.

In early 2009 he brought his brother Albert into the company to head up development and redesign, and that same year they launched MyFitnessPal on the App store. This was a pivotal moment for the business, where the launch of the iPhone application in 2009 that helped them to reach their first million users. The app allowed users to scan the barcodes of different foods to count their calories which was a revolution at the time.

For the next few years the business was growing, profitable and bootstrapped, everything you could ask for in a business. But over time Mike and Albert’s laundry list of features they wanted to build and things they wanted to do with the business grew longer and longer. So in August 2013, when MyFitnessPal already had more than 40 million registered users, the pair raised $18 million in funding to help to supercharge its growth.

This funding propelled MyFitnessPal’s number of users to 80m, which is when some of the giants in the sports market started sniffing around the brand. In early 2015 Under Armour made an offer to buy MyFitnessPal for $500m, an offer too good for Mike and Albert to turn down. The transaction closed on 15th February, 2015.

They had done it. A successful exit. All from a simple website to help a man and his future bride to shed some pre-wedding pounds.

Which proves that you shouldn’t be afraid of starting small in business. If you can solve a problem for one person, you can solve a problem for 1,000,000 people.

You just have to start.

INFLUENCER IDEAS

#HalfBakedBizIdea

Dilip Kumar’s looking to sell inspiration as a service. What would that look like? No idea. Would we buy it? Absolutely.

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