IDEA #1 | VENTURE STARTUP

Robinhood for T-Bills 💲

Less stonks, more bonds

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

Financials markets are fascinating.

The highs and lows of stock markets and wild fluctuations in crypto sentiment make for compelling content, such as the Gamestop saga from 2021.

In comparison more steady investing channels, such as fixed income bond investing, doesn’t get as much love.

But interestingly the fixed income market is worth $130 trillion, which is 3x the size of the equity market.

Most investors have a meaningful portion of their wealth in bonds since they’re comparatively safer than equities or crypto.

The rule of thumb is the percentage of your portfolio in bonds should equal your age.

But today, with interest rates at their highest since 2007 more and more people are opting to lock in 4% - 5% returns in bond markets.

But here’s the problem..no-one’s built a Robinhood like platform for bonds.

So someone should.

2. Solution ✅

Here’s the idea…create a Robinhood like platform which makes it easy to buy, manage and sell US Treasury Bills.

The platform would be similar to a typical investment platform where users would add funds to it and could then buy different duration T-Bills.

Based on current interest rates the users could earn up to 5.3% per year.

Any interest earned would be exempt from state taxes too, unlike in a savings account.

There would also be an opportunity here to build an enterprise solution, where large corporations have a huge amount of cash on hand sitting in bank accounts that could be earning more interest.

Finvest which launched recently is , but there’s no clear market leader in this space.

3. Business Model 🏦

Go-to-market: work with a company like Atomic Vest to get the required functionality embedded into your product and start by targeting subreddits and online communities filled with investors to get your early customers.

Monetisation: Charge a % fee per month of the user’s holdings

Startup Costs: you’d need to do a raise here both to build the platform and give time to work around the different regulations to get yourself set up

4. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

The play here is to exit to a large fintech company, such as Robinhood. Private company fintech valuation multiples range from 5x - 7.5x currently.

IDEA #2 | CASH FLOW BUSINESS

Digital Detoxing for Dudes 📵

Disconnecting = reconnecting

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

7 hours 4 minutes per day.

That’s the average screen time of a person in the USA. Most people spend far more time on screens than they do sleeping.

The truth is we’re addicted to technology, to our phones, laptops, tablets…if it has a screen on it we’re addicted to it.

So in recent years more and more digital detoxing experiences have emerged, but there’s a problem.

They all look something like this.

They tend to be weekend long yoga retreats centred around reconnecting with yourself, healing and rejuvenation.

I’m sure this sounds great for some but to us that sounds…boring.

So why not create a digital detox experience which is a bit more exciting.

Say…surviving a zombie apocalypse?

2. Solution ✅

Here’s the idea…create a digital detox retreat designed (primarily) for dudes, but anyone is welcome to participate of course.

The course would take place over a weekend where teams would have to try and survive a zombie apocalypse simulation in the middle of nowhere. They would be given basic supplies, as well as a beeper to get help in case of an emergency, but apart from that they would have nothing else.

Everybody has their own plan as to how they would survive a zombie apocalypse, this would put that to the test.

Teams would be given weapons or could find them within the fields in play which they could then use to “kill” different zombies, laser tag style.

You could test other formats too, not just the zombie apocalypse, but the idea is to create exciting experiences which completely reinvent the digital detox experience.

3. Business Model 🏦

Go-to-market: marketing here will be key, but you can have a lot of fun with it. Focus on some cool, viral video campaigns focussed on younger male demographics to get your early customers

Monetisation: people pay for the experience

Startup Costs: you’d need a little capital to get this going to get access to some fields (ideally with some buildings) and other materials for the retreats, as well as insurance and all that other fun stuff

4. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

This could be a franchisable, cash flow business throwing off great earnings every year

JUST THE TIP

$800m for Clean Water 💧

700m people across the world don’t have clean water to drink.

But what if I told you that one of the people on the frontlines of the fight to get clean water to people around the world is this guy…

This is Scott. After leaving home at 18 from Scott became a nightclub promoter. He spent a decade indulging his darkest vices, getting drunk every night and doing every drug under the sun (short of heroin). After a decade of debauchery though Scott had enough.

He declared moral, spiritual and emotional bankruptcy and decided to completely reinvent himself by asking himself 1 simple question “what would the opposite of my life look like right now?”

He left his job and spent two years on a hospital ship off the coast of Liberia, where he saw the devastating impact that dirty water had and decided to do something about it.

So he started charity: water. Since it was founded in 2006 charity: water has raised $800m for water projects getting clean water to over 17 million people.

It’s an incredible story, one we can’t do justice here, but this is the main lesson.