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Business Ideas #285: Air Fryer Meal Kits, Nasal Strips...

Plus How Three Childhood Friends Built a $15bn Restaurant Empire

Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up business ideas so good the new US sovereign wealth fund will be investing in them šŸ¤‘ 

Hereā€™s what weā€™ve got for you today:

  1. Business IdeašŸ’”: Building out a niche in the meal kit market

  2. Drunk Business Idea šŸ»: Turning ATMs into arcade machines

  3. Just The Tip šŸ“ˆ: The trend thatā€™s emerged from an insult

  4. The Moneyshot šŸ¤‘: How three childhood friends built a $15bn restaurant empire

P.S: If you want to read any previous editions of Half Baked you can on our website and if you were forwarded this email you can subscribe here.

P.P.S: Half Baked is free. Half Baked will always be free. Thatā€™s thanks to the support of our sponsors. Weā€™d love if you could take a moment to check them out.

Letā€™s get into it.

BUSINESS IDEA | VENTURE STARTUP

Air Fryer Meal Kits šŸ“¦ļø  

Squair meals

Available Domain: Airfeasts.com

šŸ’” TLDR: A meal delivery platform that delivers pre-portioned, ready-to-cook meals specifically designed for air fryers

1. Problem/Opportunityā“

The Problem/Opportunity: Air fryers have become a cultural phenomenon in America, finding their way into 60% of households around the country. While some view these appliances as status symbols and others see them as a sign of ageing, they actually represent a significant shift in what modern generations truly care aboutā€¦

The initial enthusiasm for air fryers is striking - 40% of owners use them daily during the first month. However, this usage dramatically declines to just 13% by the third month. The primary reason? Recipe fatigue. Many owners simply run out of ideas for what to cook. So why not jump on a trend thatā€™s been around for years, the meal kit business, and apply it to the air fryer market? Hereā€™s what we have in mind.

Market Size: The meal kit delivery market was valued at approximately $15.2bn globally in 2023

2. Solution āœ…

The Idea: A meal delivery platform that delivers pre-portioned, ready-to-cook meals specifically designed for air fryers

How it Works:

  • A user goes to the website and signs up for a plan to receive a certain number of meal kits weekly or monthly

  • At the specified cadence the user receives pre-portioned, pre-seasoned ingredients for recipes which can be made using just the air fryer. The meals come in specialized perishable packaging that fits directly in the air fryer basket and the packaging can be recycled

  • Over time more and more recipes are added which cater to specific dietary needs and users can customize their orders to include or remove specific ingredients

  • You could also expand into other single appliance meal kits, like kits for slow cookers etc.

Go-to-market: Launch in urban markets with high air fryer ownership

Business Model: Subscription-based weekly/monthly meal plan deliveries

Startup Costs: Youā€™d likely need to do a small raise here to procure ingredients, test recipes, set up the website and complete deliveries

3. How Youā€™ll Get Rich šŸ’°

Exit Strategy: Acquisition by major meal kit company like HelloFresh or Blue Apron

Exit Multiple: Based on comparable exits in the meal kit and food tech space youā€™d be looking at a 4x - 8x revenue multiple here

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DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

ATM Leaderboard

  • Are you super rich? Tired of keeping your wealth a secret?

  • Meet the ATM that treats your bank account like a high score at the arcade. It features a real-time leaderboard of the ATM's richest users, because what's the point of having money if you can't rub it in strangers' faces right?

  • Watch in real-time as "Crypto Chad" battles "TrustFund Tracy" for the top spot, while "Ramen Noodle Rob" quietly dreams of making it on the leaderboard someday

  • But the real question isā€¦is this a real product or something we made up? Vote below to find out!

Vote

JUST THE TIP

Trend šŸ“ˆ: Nasal Strips

  • If thereā€™s was one thing all humans should be good atā€¦itā€™s breathingā€¦but it turns out thatā€™s not the case.

  • 61% of Americans identify themselves as ā€œmouth breathersā€, which isnā€™t just a hurtful insult, itā€™s a practice that leads to all kinds of well-documented problems in humans including long face syndrome, dental malocclusion, snoring, sleep apneaā€¦the list goes on.

  • This is why products like mouth tape and nasal strips have emerged in recent years to promote nasal breathing, particularly during sleep.

  • Nasal strips specifically are adhesive strips designed to help open up your nasal passages and improve airflow. They stick to the outside of your nose and use a spring-like mechanism to gently lift the sides of the nostrils, reducing nasal congestion and making breathing easier. Theyā€™re also the thing that Alex Hormozi always wears in case you were curiousā€¦

Business Ideas

  • Reusable Nose Strip Brand: Create a reusable nasal strip product offering an eco-friendly, cost-effective alternative to disposable strips.

  • Kid-Friendly Nasal Strips: Design fun, gentle strips for children with cartoon characters or fun designs to make breathing relief more appealing for kids.

THE MONEYSHOT

How Three Childhood Friends Built a $15bn Restaurant Empire

An incredible method for generating business ideas is something we call ā€œgeoarbitrageā€ - taking something that works in one country and bringing it to another.

Thatā€™s exactly what these three childhood friends did and went on to build a $15bn restaurant empire.

This is their story.

Ike Grigoropoulos, Dimitri Moshovitis, and Ted Xenohristos (three names I can definitely pronounce perfectly I swear) have been friends for decades.

And these three first-generation Greek Americans have always been proud of their heritage. So much so that back in 2006 they decided to bring mezze-style dining from the Mediterranean to Washington D.C.

So that year the trio launched their restaurant Cava Mezze restaurant in Rockville, Maryland. It traded well and in 2008, building on their early success, the friends partnered with Geoff Maites and Kenny Maites to launch a line of Greek dips and spreads, which quickly grew to be sold in over 200 stores including Whole Foods Market.

But the true lightbulb moment for the team came a few years later in 2011 when, inspired by the success of fast casual dining options like Chipotle, they decided to launch a build-your-own-bowl Mediterranean eatery in Maryland, Washington D.C.

This new format and direction for the business was backed by over $2 million in investment from friends and family. Talk about having supportive friends and family!

This was the first CAVA location.

From there the brand scaled slowly. They started with three locations in the Washington D.C. area in 2011-2012, carefully choosing different trade areas to test their concept. By 2015, they had expanded to eight stores and were preparing to expand to the West Coastā€¦which they needed more capital to do.

So in September 2015 they raised a $45m Series A and used these funds to open new stores and invest heavily in technology, spending millions to optimize user experience and collect valuable customer data through their app.

In 2017 they raised a further $30m in their Series B to further fuel their expansion, until 2018 when there was a step change in the business.

In 2018 they acquired ZoĆ«s Kitchen, another Mediterranean-inspired chain, to accelerate its national growth, raising $465m that year to help fund the purchase. This significantly increased their footprint from 66 to 327 locations overnight.

Their last monster private round was the Series F in 2021 where they raised $190 million in a deal that reportedly valued the company at $1.3 billion.

From there the business kept growing and in 2023 CAVA went public on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $318 million in the process.

By 2023 CAVA's revenue reached an incredible $717 million and today the business operates 352 locations across the United States, sitting pretty at a $15bn valuation. Turns out Greek food is as profitable as it is delicious.

Which just goes to show the incredible power of geoarbitrage. If something works well in one market thereā€™s a great chance it will work well in another market.

So whenever youā€™re travelling keep your eyes peeled for products, experiences or apps which are popular. Because bringing them to your home market could be your ticket to success.

1 - 1 FOUNDER FEEDBACK

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