BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

Home Repair Video Consultations 🧑‍🔧 

Nailed it

Available Domain: Fixtime.io

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: Every day, millions of homeowners face little annoyances. An appliance breaks. The sink starts leaking. Something needs to be fixed. And then a decision has to be made. They can either pay a professional hundreds of dollars for what might be a simple fix, or risk making the problem worse by attempting a DIY repairs with only YouTube videos as their guide. Which doesn’t always go well…

Ideally what you want is some quick input from someone who knows what they’re doing to see if it’s a quick fix or if it requires more practiced hands. Which is exactly what this platform is designed to do. Here’s how.

Market Size: The US home repair market is worth around $400bn annually

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A mobile-first platform connecting homeowners with handymen or DIY enthusiasts for video consultations

How it Works:

• A user signs up to the platform and selects what type of help they need

• When they encounter an issue at home (like a plumbing problem, broken dishwasher etc) they select a handyman (a professional or hobbyist vetted by the platform) and can complete a quick 10 - 15 minute video consultation to diagnose the problem in exchange for a fee

• They can then instruct the person on how to repair the issue live or they can recommend hiring a handyman, which can then be hired or booked through the platform too

Go-to-market: Start in a small suburban market and grow from there

Business Model: Commission per consultation (10% - 20%) and referral fees if a handyman has to go to a house to repair the issue

Startup Costs: You could build an MVP for a few thousand dollars with the right technical co-founder

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Get acquired by a company like Thumbtack who operate in this vertical

Exit Multiple: SaaS companies in home services have sold for 6-8x revenue in the past

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All this for less than a Netflix subscription… for unlimited properties too.

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DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Dog Toothbrush

• Do you worry about your dog’s dental hygiene? Want to make sure your canine’s canines are in good health?

• Well with the Doggy Toothbrush™ you can do exactly that. Simply grab a brush, put it on your finger, grab your pooch and start brushing. We recommend doing so after they’ve eaten, partially since it’s better to brush after meals, but mostly to prevent a hungry dog from trying to eat your finger…

• Doggy toothpaste sold separately.

Vote

• ✅ Yes this actually exists

• ❌ Nope you totally made this up

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Password Managers

• Password Managers, like 1Password, have been around for years. But in recent times they’ve become more and more popular. Why?

• Well every other day in the news we hear stories of millions of passwords getting stolen. In fact it happens so often these days we barely notice these stories anymore.

• That’s where password managers come in, allowing people to easily and securely share passwords.

• And we think there are loads of opportunities in this space given it’s growing so rapidly.

Business Ideas

• Password Manager for Families: A family-focused digital vault that simplifies password management for families (from edition #284).

• Hardware-Based Password Manager: A physical device (like a smart card or encrypted USB) that securely stores passwords offline while offering biometric authentication for access.

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THE MONEYSHOT

Turning $10k into a $1bn Exit

Business isn’t just about finding product market fit, it’s about finding “founder-company” fit too. Because that can make all the difference.

Take these founders, who gave up on their multi-million dollar business which they hated, in order to start a $1bn business which they loved.

This is their story.

Most entrepreneurs show early signs of greatness. Tom Bilyeu (left) did not.

He got a 990 on his SATs (after taking it twice) and when he went off to film school even his mother quietly assumed he’d fail. And for a while…she was right.

While at film school Tom tried his hand at filmmaking, but unfortunately for him he was terrible at it. So after graduating, rather than trying to pursue his dream of becoming a filmmaker, he instead haphazardly taught filmmaking, a far cry from his Hollywood Director dreams. But teaching was the best thing that ever happened to Tom, because one day after class two ripped, well-dressed entrepreneurs walked up to him and changed his life forever.

At the time (the early 2000s) Ron Penna (middle) and Mike Osborn (right) were running Awareness Technologies, a startup which built employee monitoring software. They liked Tom and offered him a copywriting gig at the company. Why? because he couldn’t do anything else. Tom saw this as his golden ticket opportunity, and he wasn’t going to let it slip by.

So he went into grind mode. He worked around the clock, seven days a week, and rose to become the company’s Chief Marketing Officer. He was even awarded 10% of the business, becoming a millionaire on paper. But there was a problem. He was miserable.

He hated what they were doing and he hated his life. So Tom quit. He gave back his shares and bought two tickets to Greece. His plan? To live cheaply near the sea with his wife Lisa.

But like something out of a movie, just before the plane left Tom got a call from his former colleagues. “We can keep going without you, but we don’t want to. Let’s talk.” This was the beginning of a new chapter for these founders.

They all agreed that they weren’t passionate about their business, so they decided to start a business in an industry they were all passionate about…health. They put aside their business, took $10k and started testing healthy protein bar recipes in their kitchens, hand-rolling each bar and sharing them with friends and family.

It was 2010 and this was the beginning of Quest Nutrition.

Immediately the team faced a problem. Existing manufacturing equipment wasn't suited for their unique formulations. So Mike took the initiative to design and re-engineer machinery to manufacture their new protein bars.

Next they needed a factory, so Tom rented a small facility in Compton, California, a place you’ve no doubt heard of. They hired workers to work the lines, mainly from two rival clans, the Bloods and the Crips. That’s right, the first Quest protein bars were made by rival gang members.

Next they needed a marketing engine, so they leaned into influencers. They engaged with fitness influencers and communities on social media platforms, sending out free samples to creators with significant followings. In fact Tom sat down and composed 1,000 hand-written letters and mailed them to these fitness influencers to get them to promote the brand.

The result? By 2014 Quest was the second fastest-growing private company in the USA, having grown 57,347% in its first 3 years. By 2014 they were bringing in $82.6 million in revenue per year.

In May 2015, the company received its first outside capital when VMG Partners took a minority stake in the company in a deal which valued the company at a gargantuan $900 million.

From there the business showed no signs of slowing down and by 2019 revenues were  c.$345 million. Quest was the hottest brand on the market and was in the crosshairs of some big name companies. Which is why in August 2019 Quest was acquired by The Simply Good Foods Company for $1 billion. Against the odds, even against his mother’s intuition, Tom had made it.

All of which goes to prove that founders aren’t born. They’re made. Sure some people have natural entrepreneurial traits, but others don’t and that’s totally fine. Why? Because you can change.

You can develop the skills you need to become a great founder, regardless of who you are today.

You just need to want it badly enough.

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