BUSINESS IDEA | VENTURE STARTUP

Empty Leg Flight Platform 🖥️

Jet set for life

Available Domain: Skypool.io

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: Private jets are the ultimate status symbol. They’re opulent, damaging to the environment and are reserved for the ultra wealthy. Which is why celebrities, particularly Taylor Swift, get such a hard time for using private jets so frequently.

But interestingly around 30-40% of all private jet flights are so-called “empty legs”. These are flights with no passengers on them, where the jet needs to fly to a new destination but is completely empty. Which got us thinking. Could you try to fill up those flights for private jet operators and get travellers the option to experience private jet flight at an affordable price? We think so. Here’s how.

Market Size: The private aviation market was valued at approximately $26 billion in 2023

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A platform that connects private jet operators with empty leg flight inventory to multiple passengers willing to share the cost

How it Works:

• Private jet operators sign up to the platform and share what empty leg inventory they have available over the coming weeks

• Passengers, whether privately or through their company, sign up and put in the trips they need to complete in the coming weeks

• Passengers who are looking to go to the same destination are then matched with an empty leg flight that suits all the passengers and they can share the cost of the flight, which would be approximately 90% less than chartering the entire jet

Go-to-market: Start by working with some private jet operators in a specific geo, say the US, then expand form there

Business Model: Commission per booking (10% - 15% of the total flight cost)

Startup Costs: There will be some complexity here due to how complex the software build here will be, so you may need to do a raise here

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: The goal here would be to exit to a travel technology company, like, Expedia, or to a private equity company in a few years

Exit Multiple: Expected exit multiple would be 6-8x revenue

TOGETHER WITH GAMMA

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DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Condom Keychain

Discreet. Lightweight. Functional. And most importantly, self-explanatory.

Just be careful for in case a key punctures a hole…

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Skin Microbiome

Your skin is the largest organ in your body and it’s teeming with trillions of microorganisms, like bacteria, fungi, and viruses. These invisible life-forms are known as the skin microbiome and people are starting to wake up to how important your skin microbiome is to your health. So why not build a business off this trend?

Business Ideas

• Skin Microbiome Testing Kits: Create custom skin microbiome testing kits for at-home use which large skincare brands can sell

• AI-powered Product Recommendations: Combine skincare testing with AI analysis to give product and skincare recommendations to users

TOGETHER WITH RYSE

Amazon Bets Big on Smart Homes, You Can Too

VCs know how difficult it is to spot promising early investment opportunities. Even the Sharks from Shark Tank declined the offer to buy 10% of Ring for $700,000 - a decision they would regret when Amazon acquired Ring, turning the $700,000 into $10M!

RYSE is the smart-home brand poised to follow a similar trajectory. The founder pitched on Canada’s version of Shark Tank, Dragons’ Den and received two offers - it seems the Dragons’ learned from the Sharks’ mistakes. Don’t make the same mistake the sharks did.

Invest now.

THE MONEYSHOT

Turning $150k of Credit Card Debt into a $2bn Business

You gotta risk it to get the biscuit. And nowhere is this more true than in entrepreneurship.

Take this founder who turned multiple failures and $150k of credit card debt into a $2bn business.

This is his story.

Abhi Ramesh is the side hustle king.

As a child his parents moved with him and his brotherfrom India to the USA to build a better life for themselves. And like a true hustler from a young age Abhi spent his time figuring out ways to make money.

In high school Abhi started his first business, buying his classmates old textbooks for $10 or $20, then selling them on Amazon for $80 - $100. Nice margins. He then went on to start an SAT tutoring company during high school too, which he shut down.

In 2010 Abhi decided to go to college, studying finance at Wharton, but 2 years into his degree the desire to start a company was too great. So Abhi decided to move to San Francisco (where else) and was hellbent on starting a successful business. so he went for it.

His first effort was a men’s shopping platform called TrendBent, which he shut down since it would be too hard to scale. He then started Storetok, a social media shopping app, but he was too early to that industry. Nothing seemed to be working.

Abhi decided he needed some real world experience so he decided to go and work for the private equity firm Apollo. Once again though the entrepreneurial urge became too much, so after 10 months Abhi left to start the Horizons School of Technology, a coding bootcamp. Around 700 students went through the program, but Abhi struggled to scale the business and knew he would need to wind it down.

But finally, after years of trial and error, Abhi had his breakthrough moment. One day on a trip to Philadelphia he went apple picking with his girlfriend. He noticed that many apples were lying on the ground and asked the farmer what happened with that produce? The farmer explained that these misshapen fruits would not be sent to supermarkets, so they would usually be discarded. Abhi wondered if he could do something with the apples himself?

So in 2018 he moved back to Philadelphia and spoke to around 50 farmers to get them to sell their misshapen produce to him really cheaply. He thought he could sell the fruit cheaply in boxes to customers, but wanted to validate the idea first. So he spent around $150 on a logo and a landing page on Shopify to collect email addresses for potential customers.

He had founded Misfits Market.

Abhi started sending paid traffic to his landing page by taking out 5 credit cards and maxing them all out. He spent around $150k on ads to collect email addresses from potential customers to prove the demand for this product existed.

But after accumulating all of this debt Abhi needed a lifeline. Which is when an old friend from Apollo, Edward Lando, came into the picture. Edward went on to become a VC and he angel invested in the business, allowing Abhi to pay off his debts and invest in inventory for the business.

By the end of 2018 Misfits was shipping out around 200 boxes per week and Green Oaks Capital, Edward’s VC firm, was interested in investing. So in 2019 Misfits raised $2m to get the business off the ground.

From there the company raised large venture capital rounds in quick succession. A $16.5 million Series A in 2019 led by Greenoaks Capital again, an $85 million Series B in 2020, a $200 million Series C in 2021, and a $225 million Series C-1 just a few months later in 2021 in a round that valued the business at a $2 billion valuation. After trying again and again Abhi finally had his breakout hit.

Abhi’s story reminds me of the famous saying that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Which begs the question, what trash can you find that’s someone else’s treasure?

That could be the key to finding your perfect business idea.

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