BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

Recipe App for Couples 🥘  

Fork yeah

Available Domain: Deuxdinner.com

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: Being in a relationship is great. You’ve got a built-in best friend, a default plus-one to weddings, and someone to validate your hate for Janice in accounting. But let’s be honest…90% of being in a relationship is asking one another what you want to eat, which isn’t always an easy conversation…

But the recent explosion of cooking shows, foodie TikToks, and meal kit companies shows a hunger (pun intended) for some better at-home culinary experiences. But most cooking apps treat you like a solo chef or a line cook for a family of fifty. So why build an app that helps couples discover meals, plan date-night dinners, and make cooking together feel like a collaboration, not a chore. Here’s what we have in mind.

Market Size: The global meal kit market is estimated to be valued at c.$25bn as of 2025

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A personalized recipe app for couples that helps them plan, cook, and bond over meals together

How it Works:

• Users sign up as a pair, syncing dietary preferences, allergies, skill levels, and weekly goals (e.g., 3 home-cooked dinners/week).

• Couples are then presented with curated recipes based on their combined tastes, seasonal ideas and romantic themes which they can save to their profile

• When they decide to cook a recipe an ingredient list is generated automatically so they know what ingredients they need to purchase and in what quantities

• While cooking, couples are given step-by-step instructions for each of them to follow e.g. one person chops the veg while the other prepares the chicken

• Specific cooking nights can be planned in calendars or for special occasions

Go-to-market: Focus on influencer partnerships with couple content creators with mid-size audiences (50k–300k)

Business Model: Free tier includes basic features, premium unlocks full recipe library, step-by-step instructions etc.

Startup Costs: You could get a basic version of this off the ground very cheaply

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Exit to a meal prep company like HelloFresh or Blue Apron

Exit Multiple: Consumer apps in lifestyle/food with strong engagement and brand exit at 4–8x revenue, sometimes more if there’s strong data/IP

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DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Toaster Bathbomb

• Tired of using boring old bathbombs whenever you get into the tub? Want to make a real splash?

• Meet the Toaster Bathbomb™, the delightfully dangerous-looking bath-time accessory. Lovingly crafted to resemble a classic toaster, this mischievous little bomb dissolves in water, releasing soothing scents like lavender and eucalyptus.

• It’s self-care with just enough chaos to keep your therapist employed.

• The Toaster Bathbomb™ - a bath bomb to die for.

Vote

• ✅ Yes this actually exists

• ❌ Nope you totally made this up

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: The Porn Addiction Problem

• Porn addiction is a very real problem facing society today.

• Globally, it's estimated that 13% of the population is affected by porn addiction and the number of people watching porn has doubled since 2019, with some addiction treatment centers reporting a tenfold increase in clients seeking help.

• Excessive porn consumption has been linked to mental health issues like depression, as well as relationship problems, such as decreased intimacy and trust.

• This is a very real problem that needs to be solved.

Business Ideas

• Porn Quitting Accountability-as-a-Service: A subscription service where you get paired with a real human accountability coach via daily text check-ins.

• Partner Support Platform: A resource and community for partners of people dealing with porn addiction.

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THE MONEYSHOT

Turning $800 into a $1bn Business

You don’t need a “small loan of $1m” to become a billionaire (I’m looking at you DJT).

Take this guy who turned an $800 blog into a billion-dollar business.

This is his story.

Tim Chen is a winner. But back in late 2008 Tim didn’t feel like a winner.

With the world in the depths of a financial crisis, Tim unfortunately got laid off from his job as a hedge fund analyst. But while this was tough for him around the same time his sister asked him a deceptively simple question that changed his life forever. She asked him: “What’s the best credit card for me?”

He went online to help her compare options, and was shocked to find that most of the information was either biased, confusing, or buried in marketing jargon. So, he built a simple Excel spreadsheet comparing the top credit cards based on rewards, fees, and interest rates for her. What a good brother.

This exercise made Tim realise that there was a massive gap in the market for transparent, unbiased personal finance advice. Tim wondered if he should turn his spreadsheet into a website.

So he invested $800 of his savings and got his blog online where he compared credit cards, student loans, and savings accounts. He recruited his friend Jacob Gibson (a former classmate from Stanford) to help him run the business.

They founded NerdWallet.

To attract early users, the founders aggressively focused on content and search engine optimization. Thanks to these scrappy tactics and useful content, NerdWallet started to gain a small but growing user base, though revenue remained minimal. In fact Tim only made $100 in revenue in the first year of the business.

But over time their SEO strategy paid off and users started flooding to the site. Tim struck up affiliate deals with banks and insurance companies, only earning revenue when users signed up for financial products through referral links.

As the site grew, he started building more comparison tools and hired subject-matter experts like CPAs, CFPs and financial journalists to ensure that their information was as up-to-date as possible.

Then, after six years of bootstrapping, in 2015 NerdWallet raised its first institutional funding. In May of that year, the company secured a $64 million Series A along with a $33 million credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank, giving it over $100m in cash to fuel growth. By this time NerdWallet was profitable and earning tens of millions in revenue.

From there the brand kept growing and growing. By 2016 the brand was valued at over $500m and by 2019 the company was generating over $200m in revenue per year. Turns out the finance niche is a lucrative one…who knew?

Finally in November 2021 NerdWallet IPO’d at a $1.2bn valuation, raising $120m in the process. Today the business brings in over $650m in revenue per year. Not bad for something that started as an Excel spreadsheet.

Who knows, maybe you have a spreadsheet sitting on your computer that’s worth millions too. You just need to share it with the world.

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