BUSINESS IDEA | CASH FLOW BUSINESS

Startup Opportunity Spotting Agency 🕵️‍♂️  

A scout’s honor

Available Domain: Intelaccel.com

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: Investors and accelerators are constantly on the lookout for startup ideas and investment opportunities. Which is why many VCs run scout programs, where select individuals can put small checks into early-stage companies on behalf of the fund. But now, instead of getting people to invest in companies, VCs like Tom Blomfield (YC Partner) are looking for problems to solve…

Which got us thinking, why not turn this into a service which VCs and accelerators can pay for? Scouting for problems which startups can solve. Here’s what we have in mind.

Market Size: There are around 3,000 startup accelerators globally and a few thousand VC firms too, all of which could be potential customers

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A service which gathers problems from working professionals in antiquated industries for startups in accelerators to pursue

How it Works:

• You build connections with a network of professionals across antiquated industries like the ones listed above (banking, insurance, law etc.)

• You study their workflows and identify startup opportunities in their fields, paying the experts you speak with for their time (in cash or in equity if the idea gets picked up by a team).

• The accelerator or VC then gets access to the ideas in written reports that capture the idea, market size and other details of the opportunity.

• VCs, investors and startups can also elect to talk to these experts in these fields, again in return for payment

Go-to-market: Start by finding people in these industries, create some reports, then try to sell them to accelerators/VCs to find your pricing point in the market

Business Model: Charge VCs per report

Startup Costs: The main cost here will be time and you’ll potentially need some upfront cash to pay experts for their time, which you can arbitrage against your sales

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Hold: This could be a great agency play

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DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Sparkling Milk

• Tired of boring old flat milk? What happens when your milk decides to live a little?

• Introducing Milk Pop®, the world’s first carbonated milk beverage brand.

• Sure, regular milk builds strong bones, but Milk Pop® builds strong bones with some added pizzazz (a word I’ve never seen written down before in my life until right now)

• Get all the calcium and protein your body loves, now with a side of sparkle. Raw milk variety coming soon…

Vote

• ✅ I legit need this in my life

• ❌ It’s a no from me dawg

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Tinnitus

• Tinnitus, a condition where people hear ringing, buzzing or other sounds in their ears even in complete silence, is on the rise.

• It can be caused by a wide variety of factors, predominantly exposure to loud noise, and studies show that as we age cases of tinnitus become far more prevalent.

• So in a world with an aging population and a generation who have spent thousands of hours blasting music into our eardrums, it’s no wonder that tinnitus cases are on the rise.

• We need some innovations in this field to help ease the pain of those suffering with this problem.

Business Ideas

• Tinnitus-Relief Sleep Earbuds: Design earbuds specifically for people with tinnitus, playing soothing frequencies that help mask ringing noises.

• Tinnitus Support Groups: Create support groups of people suffering with tinnitus to communicate with each other and share tips and tricks they use to manage it.

THE MONEYSHOT

The Founder Who Sold Two Businesses for +$50m

Some people like to say that lightning never strikes twice.

But it does if you’re this founder who managed to sell two companies in the same industry for more than $50m each.

This is his story.

Chris Bakke is the definition of a serial entrepreneur.

His education background is incredible, listing a “45 minute campus tour” at Stanford and “getting an information brochure to apply to Yale”, among his education milestones. Don’t believe me? Just check out his LinkedIn.

With such amazing credentials behind him in 2010 Chris joined Rentjuice, where he served as Director of Business Development for 2 years, after which the business was acquired by Zillow for $40m.

He then became the Chief Operating Officer at 42Floors, a company raised $17.5 million from investors such as Y Combinator and Thrive Capital. The company went on to get acquired by Knotel. By his mid twenties Chris had already experienced two exits, but now he wanted to build something for himself.

So in 2015 he teamed up with Daniel O'Shea and Darren Nix and the trio founded a platform which enabled companies to assess candidates through real-world skill demonstrations. After going through Y Combinator the startup secured $2 million in funding from investors including SV Angel, Workday Ventures, and FundersClub.

They had founded Interviewed.

Over the next two years they built the business to $2m in ARR through sheer force of will. In fact one major sales driver was in person sales where the team would walk around San Francisco and sell their product to businesses door to door.

In 2017, after just two years, Indeed.com wanted to acquire the business, doing so for $52m. Chris was 27 at the time and walked away with $8m in cash after the acquisition. He went on to work for Indeed for 2 years, during which time he earned another $8m in his earn-out (as he explained on Sam Parr’s Moneywise podcast).

So with his earn-out completed and $14m to his name, what did Chris decide to do next? Well in 2021 he basically decided to do the exact same thing again.

Chris teamed up once again with Daniel and the pair decided to start another business in the recruitment space called Laskie, which streamlined the hiring process by connecting companies with qualified candidates through innovative matching algorithms.

Chris hired the original engineering team from Interviewed, raised $6m from the same investors and began building. The outcome? Basically the exact same thing again…

In 2023, when Elon bought Twitter, he had plans to compete directly with LinkedIn (maybe he still does, who knows). So to support these efforts Twitter acquired Laskie for $50m, just two years after it was founded. A great example of history fully repeating itself.

All of which goes to show that once you find a winning playbook in business you can keep repeating it to win multiple times.

The key is to get that first win under your belt, because once you do that, the sky’s the limit.

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