BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

Patreon for Sports Teams ⚽️ 

Playing it forward

Available Domain: Fanflo.io

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: Sports teams are drowning in money these days, which is why they’re willing to shell out huge contracts to get the best players in the world. Although it’s fair to say that not all athletes are built the same.

But here’s the thing. At grassroots level, there’s nowhere near as much money at play. For smaller teams getting by can be a struggle. So why not create a platform which helps fans to support their favorite sports teams, similar to Patreon’s model? And let’s be honest the bigger teams would never say no to adding a new revenue stream to their revenue. Here’s the pitch…

Market Size: We conservatively estimate the market here at $2-3 billion per year

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A subscription-based platform where sports teams can receive monthly financial support from fans in exchange for bonuses and perks

How it Works:

• Fans sign up to the platform and search for their team of choice

• They then choose an amount to donate monthly to the team who offer different “tiers” of benefits based on how much a fan donates monthly

• Benefits can include discounts on merchandise, meet and greets with the team, game day experiences, stadium tours, access to training sessions and much more

• The teams can then use these earnings to fund their operations

Go-to-market: Start working with local sports teams in your area who need the funds, then expand from there

Business Model: Take a platform fee of 5% of all subscriptions

Startup Costs: This isn’t the most complex software build out there so you could get it started for a few thousand dollars if you outsource development or very little if you find a technical co-founder

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: The goal here is to get acquired by a large sports media company like TGI Sport

Exit Multiple: Your exit here would likely be for 6x - 10x revenue

TOGETHER WITH RYSE

Meet the Smart Home Company That’s Changing the Game ($10 Million in Revenue, 200% Growth)

Smart homes are the future, and RYSE is leading the charge in one category being ignored by the competition. With 10 granted patents and products already earning rave reviews on Amazon and Best Buy, RYSE has achieved over $10 million in total revenue and grew at an astonishing 200% month-over-month.

RYSE make it easy to automate window coverings, helping homeowners upgrade to smart living in minutes. And with partnerships with major retailers like Home Depot, Lowe’s, and BestBuy, RYSE is rapidly expanding its footprint in a market growing 23% annually.

At just $1.75 per share, you can invest in this game-changing company before their next wave of growth.

Last chance to invest before their share price change.

DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Baby Sleeping Pills

If you’re a parent with a young child then you’ll know that your sleep schedule is all over the place, mainly because your child’s is.

Well fear no longer, because these baby sleeping pills will ensure that your child has a great night sleep. Sure trying untested, highly experimental, non-FDA approved sleep medication on your little bundle of joy might seem extreme, but remember how good it felt to get a full night’s sleep?

These pills will help your baby (and you) sleep like…well…a baby.

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Water Bottles

The water bottle market has seen a huge amount of innovation of late. And given the size of the market here it’s no wonder why. Stanley. Airup. Owala. All of these companies have come in with their own fresh takes on what a water bottle should and could be. So what other innovations can we bring to this market?

Business Ideas

• Dual Compartment Water Bottle: Design and sell dual compartment water bottles with two separate compartments for specific use cases e.g. a gym bottle which holds water and water mixed with BCAAs

• Assassin’s Water Bottle: Create a cheaper, mass market version of the viral assassin’s water bottle

TOGETHER WITH THE RUNDOWN AI

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THE MONEYSHOT

From $0 to $8bn in 3 Years

Not all business ideas are created equal. Some lead to modest outcomes, while others can grow unfathomably quickly.

Take these founders who took their business idea from $0 to an $8bn valuation in just 3 years.

This is their story.

Eric Glyman (middle) is no stranger to risk.

He grew up in Las Vegas, the risk capital of the world, and went on to graduate from Harvard in 2012 with a degree in Economics and East Asian studies.

During his early 20s it wasn’t obvious to Eric that he would become an entrepreneur. In fact, he pretty much fell into it.

After college Eric was working as a financial analyst in Millstein & Co when he encountered a problem. Eric (like all of us) had an experience where he got ripped off by an airline. He bought flights only to see a day later that the price fell by $100. So Eric fought the airline and got a rebate on his purchase, citing the fine print in their terms and conditions (that’s right, he actually read them). This got Eric thinking…could you use software to automate this process?

He reached out to a friend from Harvard, Karim Atiyeh (left), who studied computer science and they set about building a solution.

It was 2014 and the pair had accidentally started their first business, Paribus. The software automatically secured rebates for customers when the price of a good or service had dropped after they bought it.

The pair were accepted in YC in 2015 and in October 2015 Paribus announced that they had raised $2.1 million in seed funding. The pair were ready to scale the business, but just a year later in October 2016, it was announced that Paribus had been acquired by Capital One. They got their first big win (although we don’t know how much Capital One paid for the business).

Eric and Karim spent another two and a half years post-acquisition continuing to scale Paribus, which was then merged into Capital One Rewards. By 2019 their work was done and both Eric and Karim decided to leave Capital One and create something new.

They didn’t know exactly what to start, but they began with one simple question: “What if your credit card could help your business spend less money?”

They spoke to about 100 entrepreneurs and finance experts and found that while they wanted to save money, more founders cared more about saving time. There were all sorts of inefficiencies in how companies were compiling receipts and logging expenses that required different tools and software. So they set out to create the world’s best credit card and expense management platform.

They also brought in their long-time friend Gene Lee (right) as a third cofounder and set up their business.

They founded Ramp.

In August 2019 the Ramp team, based on their track record, were able to raise $8 million in funding. They used this funding to build out the platform and build their team. But Ramp built their team in a very specific way.

Early on in the business Ramp insisted on hiring former founders to run different teams. In fact one in three of the first 60 employees was a former founder.

Clearly the strategy worked because over the next few years Ramp had one of the best run-ups in Silicon Valley history. Hold on to your hat.

In 2020 Ramp raised $15 million in February 2020 and $30m in December 2020. They quickly shot past $5m and $10m of ARR and across 3 rounds in 2021 the firm raised $415m of equity financing and $150m of debt financing. For a 2 year old company that’s a crazy achievement.

And it wasn’t all smoke and mirrors, Ramp was raising all of this money but revenue was skyrocketing too. By 2022, just 3 years after it was founded, Ramp reached $100 million in annualized revenue and raised a further $200m that year. That year the company’s valuation hit $8bn. Like I said, quite the run-up.

And since then the company hasn’t even paused to take a breath.

In 2023 they raised their series D of $300m and blew past $200m of ARR. In April 2024 they secured a further $150 million in Series D-2 funding at a valuation of $7.65 billion and earlier this year hit $300 million in annualized revenue. Ramp is a juggernaut and still is one of the fastest growing startups in Silicon Valley today.

All of which goes to show that success doesn’t have to take decades, it can occur over much shorter time horizons. Will any of us go out and scale a company from $0 to billions of dollars in a few years? Probably not. But the point still stands. You can achieve a lot in a short period of time with the right idea and the right team behind you.

So stop being patient.

Get after it.

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