BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

Learning-based Allowance Platform

Common Cents

Available Domain: Learnloot.ai

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: As a kid getting an allowance (or pocket money as it’s also known) hit different. It may have only been a few bucks but you felt like a millionaire when your parents gave it to you. If you were lucky to get anything that is…

Traditionally kids earn their allowance for doing chores…taking out the trash, doing the dishes, cleaning their rooms. But while doing these chores is helpful, kids aren’t really learning anything from doing them. And these days, between social media, TikTok and ChatGPT doing the work for you, encouraging kids to learn anything is getting harder and harder. But what if getting an allowance, something already a part of millions of family routines, became a tool for building brainpower instead? Here’s what we have in mind.

Market Size: There are around 10m dual-income households across the US/UK/Canada/Australia with kids aged 7–14. That’s your target market.

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: An AI-powered, gamified learning platform where kids earn their allowance (or other privileges) through learning

How it Works:

• Kids log what they’ve read, watched, or learned through YouTube, books or any other medium

• The platform then uses AI to generate a quiz or creative task based on the content the child says they have learned

• The child then completes the quiz to prove that they actually learned from what they read or watched.

• Parents then review the results and approve the reward which could be money, screen time, or anything else the parent chooses

Go-to-market: Partner with mom/dad influencers and family YouTubers to show the product in action

Business Model: Freemium model with a free tier with limits on activities/rewards and a premium option too

Startup Costs: You’ll likely need a few thousand dollars to get this off the ground and a strong technical co-founder

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Get acquired by a FinTech working on kid-focussed products like GoHenry or Greenlight

Exit Multiple: If you can build out recurring revenue here then you should hit 4–8x ARR on an exit

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DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

The Snack Vault

• Are your coworkers getting a little too comfortable raiding your snacks? Is Todd from accounting "just borrowing" your chips again?

• Put an end to these workplace snack heists with The Snack Vault™, the world’s best snack protection device. The bulletproof encasing (you can never be too careful) coupled with the fingerprint scanner makes this the Fort Knox of delicious treat protection

• Why the transparent design you ask? Well isn’t it all the more satisfying knowing your co-workers know exactly what they’re missing out on?

• And before you ask yes, it fits beers. And no, we won’t judge.

Vote

• ✅ Shut up and take my money

• ❌ It’s a no from me dawg

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Third Places

• In his 1989 book The Great Good Place sociologist Ray Oldenburg argued that “third places” (a term he coined) are essential to a healthy society.

• These are social environments outside of home and work where people gather, connect, and build community. First place = home. Second place = work. Third place = Where you hang out, relax, meet friends etc. Think gyms, churches, cafés, libraries etc.

• In a post-COVID, remote-work-heavy world, “third places” are more important (and monetizable) than ever before.

Business Ideas

• Skill Swap Cafés: A physical space where people teach and learn from each other. No money exchanged.

• Soho House for Parents: A members-only community space where members can eat, work, relax, and socialize while kids are looked after

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THE MONEYSHOT

Building a $500m Business in 4 Years

Some founder stories are legitimately incredible.

Take this founder who started a business while pregnant and went on to sell it for $500m just 4 years later.

This is her story.

Brynn Putnam is basically superwoman. And you’re about to find out why…

Back in the early 2000s Brynn was pursuing a degree in Russian Literature and Culture at Harvard. Oh and at the same time she was dancing professionally with the New York City Ballet. Like I said, superwoman…

Then around 2010, after retiring from ballet, Brynn wanted to stay in the fitness space. So she opened her own boutique fitness studio emphasizing high-intensity, functional training. Operating on a tight budget, she initially couldn't afford mirrors for the studio. But when she eventually installed them, she noticed a significant improvement in clients' engagement and form. Which is when an idea started to form in the back of her head.

A few years later, in 2016, Brynn ran into a problem. She was pregnant at the time and experiencing severe morning sickness, making attending fitness classes almost impossible. She realized the need for a convenient, at-home workout solution that still offered the immersive experience of a boutique fitness class. Which is when she thought back to her observation about mirrors. Could a mirror become a smart, at-home fitness product?

So without any technical experience, Brynn built a prototype of her product using a Raspberry Pi, a two-way mirror, and a cheap Android tablet.

She went out to raise some money for the idea (while she was 8 months pregnant), raising $13m for the idea. In fact she secured some of the funding on the very day her son was born.

Finally by September 2018 the product was ready to go live.

MIRROR officially launched. (Stylized this way, my caps lock isn’t stuck FYI).

The product was a smart, interactive fitness mirror that streamed live and on-demand fitness classes to its customers. Think Peloton, but a mirror instead of a bike. It was priced like a Peloton too, starting at $1,495, with a $39 monthly subscription for access to different fitness classes.

Early demand was strong and in 2019 the business raised around $70m across two funding rounds from investors like Lululemon and Karlie Kloss.

The product was a viral sensation, so much so that just 2 years after launching, Lululemon acquired MIRROR for $500 million in June 2020, integrating it into their suite of wellness offerings and hoping that COVID would see a boom in sales of the product.

Lululemon had great plans for the device, forecasting $150m in annual revenue post-acquisition. However by September 2023, Lululemon decided to discontinue selling MIRROR devices, opting instead to partner with Peloton as its exclusive digital fitness content provider. The product had its moment in the sun, but eventually faded into obscurity. Sad times.

But that doesn’t take away from Brynn’s incredible story and character. Through her grit and determination she managed to start a family and build a business at the same time, a truly incredible feat.

If Brynn’s capable of this, maybe it’s time for us to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves what we’re capable of too.

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