BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

Newsletter Landing Page Platform 🗞️ 

Stick the landing

Available Domain: Letterlander.io

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: Startup ideas can come from a variety of different places. But a lot of the time they come from us looking for solutions to our own problems. Today is one of those days.

We have a problem. Our landing page (that you subscribed through) is pretty poor. We know this. Moreover we can’t A/B test different landing pages on our current newsletter platform, which means we’re losing out on hundreds or even thousands of subscribers since our landing page isn’t optimized. We need someone to create a platform which solves this exact problem for us. Not only that but if you can build it we will work with you directly to build it and become your first customer. Deal?

Market Size: The newsletter industry is valued at $50bn globally with an estimated 50,000 paid newsletter operators around the world

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A platform for newsletter operators to build and A/B test different landing pages to optimize subscriber conversion

How it Works:

• The user signs up to the platform and connects up to their email service provider through their API for capturing email addresses

• Users can then create multiple different landing pages through a drag-and-drop interface, no code required, starting from scratch or using templates on the platform

• Using their landing page(s) users can conduct A/B testing on headlines, copy, images, call-to-action buttons and so on, tracking conversion metrics in real-time

• Users also have access a template marketplace which offers high converting pre-built landing pages for customers to use

Go-to-market: Create a list of email service providers which don’t provide landing page A/B testing and outbound those customers

Business Model: Subscription fees (primary) plus you could monetize the template marketplace too

Startup Costs: You’ll need a great developer to make this work, but if you can find one you should be able to get this going pretty cheaply

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Exit to a large email platform like beehiiv or Kit

Exit Multiple: You could likely sell this for 5-8x ARR

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DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Grand Theft Lego

Ever thought there needs to be a more “child-friendly” version of GTA?

Well now there is with Grand Theft Lego. We think kids (and their parents) will love this idea.

That’s right, we got Grand Theft Lego before we got GTA 6.

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Shampoo Tablets

Shampoo tablets (also called solid shampoo concentrates) have been taking off over the last few years. They are a waterless, concentrated form of shampoo that comes as a small tablet or pill which you simply add to water and you can use it as regular shampoo. They’re better for the environment, practical and much easier to travel with compared to normal shampoo. Yet no-one’s become the clear market leader in this market. What gives?

Business Ideas

• Shampoo Tablets Travel Brand: Create an eco-friendly travel brand which sells shampoo and bodywash tablets designed for those who travel regularly

• Custom Shampoo Tablet Brand: Create shampoo tablets tailored to specific hair types (curly, straight, oily, dry)

TOGETHER WITH NOTION

Free Notion and Unlimited AI

Thousands of startups use Notion as a connected workspace to create and share docs, take notes, manage projects, and organize knowledge—all in one place. We’re offering 3 months of new Plus plans + unlimited AI (worth up to $3,000)! To redeem the Notion for Startups offer:

1. Submit an application using our custom link and select Beehiiv on the partner list.

2. Include our partner key, STARTUP4110P67801.

Learn More

THE MONEYSHOT

Turning Book Summaries into a $200m Exit

Great businesses aren’t always about breaking new ground. Sometimes they can be built from repackaging what’s already out there.

Take these founders who, by summarizing books, landed a $200m exit.

This is their story.

College friend groups can be an incredible hub of entrepreneurial activity.

Take this group of four friends consisting of Holger Seim (right), Niklas Jansen (left), Tobias Balling (middle) and Sebastian Klein (who must have been sick on picture day). They all became friends at The Philipps University of Marburg in Germany and like many groups of college friends they dreamed of starting a business together. Which is exactly what they did.

The friend group had many shared interests and passions, but one of their biggest ones was reading. But after graduating from college they found that they didn’t have enough time to read all the books they wanted to. They felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of books available and the limited time they had to read them. Which got them thinking. Could you distill the key insights from non-fiction books into short, digestible summaries? At the very least they would solve their own problem, and best case scenario it could be a great business.

So in 2012 they began working on their idea and after several months of hard work and development in a co-working space in Berlin, they had built the first version of their app.

They founded Blinkist.

The premise was simple. Time-poor bookworms could sign up and consume 15 minute summaries of non-fiction books called "Blinks," hence the name.

They were super excited about the launch but there was a problem…they were the only ones excited for it. In fact it took the team three months to achieve just 100 downloads. However, the founders were committed to the cause and despite the slow traction they managed to secure some early funding, which allowed them to enhance the app and grow their team.

By 2014, 2 years into the business, Blinkist had reached a user base of 1,000 customers. Hardly a rocketship. But bit-by-bit the business grew. They adopted a freemium model which hooked in early users who they could then convert to paid customers. The model worked extremely well and in 2016, Blinkist raised €4 million in Series A funding. The app boasted a library of over 1,500 titles at the time and the app hit one million users that year. An overnight success 4 years in the making.

From there the company took off and in order to support its growth in 2018 the company raised $18.8 million at a $160 million valuation in funding led by Insight Ventures, a top-tier VC firm. With this additional funding Blinkist managed to grow their user base to a whopping 6 million users. A pretty big step up from the early days of the product.

By 2023, Blinkist reported over 23 million downloads and the app had become a prime acquisition target. So it was no surprise when in May 2023 it was announced that Go1, an Australian content company focused on corporate learning solutions, had acquired Blinkist for an undisclosed amount. We don’t know how much it was acquired for, but that was "significantly bigger" than its last valuation which was $160 million. We’re guessing the figure was around $200m, but that’s pure speculation on our part.

This acquisition marked a new chapter (solid book pun) for Blinkist as it transitioned from a consumer-focused app to a platform that also serves business clients looking for engaging learning resources for their employees. Today, the app is still thriving under Go1’s umbrella. I may even download it myself to check it out.

But the key takeaway here is that great businesses don’t always rely on brand new innovations. They can be built simply from repackaging information that’s already available. Which begs the question…

What could you repurpose to turn into a huge business? Some food for thought.

1-1 FOUNDER FEEDBACK

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