IDEA #1 | VENTURE STARTUP

Lego Investment Platform 🧱

Investing is awesomeeee, investing is cool when you’re part of a team 🎵 

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

When people think about investing a few different asset classes come to mind.

Stocks. Bonds. Gold. Bitcoin. Maybe even modern art if you have more money than sense.

But what if I told you that from an investment return standpoint that all of these were beaten by those humble bricks that we’ve all played with in our time…Lego.

That’s right. Research on a sample of 2,322 Lego sets between 1987 and 2015 found that the annual return from Lego investing was 11%, which was a better rate of return over the same period than gold, stocks, bonds, stamps and wine.

And Lego investing is super popular today. Lego fans go out and buy sets they think will be valuable in the future, hold on to them them sell them in the future.

But what about investors who want exposure to the asset class but don’t want to go out and source, buy and store Lego sets in search of a great return?

We got you.

2. Solution ✅

Here’s the idea. Create a platform which allows Lego enthusiasts to fractionally invest in Lego.

The model is similar to Masterworks (not sponsored but if anyone from Masterworks is ready hit us up, we’d love to have a few hot dinners this month for a change).

Here’s how it works. The business goes out and researches what Lego sets to buy which they believe will be more valuable in the future. Once these sets are purchased they are securitized through filing an offering circular with the SEC , allowing anyone to buy shares in the Lego assets on the platform. The Lego sets are held for 5 - 10 years and once they are sold the proceeds are distributed pro rata to whoever has invested in the different sets.

In the interim investors have the option to sell their shares on the marketplace to other investors where they could also make money, should the value of the shares increase.

3. Business Model 🏦

Go-to-market: Start by gauging interest amongst Lego enthusiasts for this product, buy a few sets and get going form there

Monetisation: Charge a management fee on any assets under management (AUM)

Startup Costs: Given you need to acquire sets and there will be legal costs involved too you’ll need to do a raise here to get going

4. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

The ultimate path here is to exit to another investment platform and become part of their offering, be it Robinhood, Acorns or any other investment platform

IDEA #2 | STARTUP

Acquired Founder’s Community 💰

An open door after an exit

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

All founders dream of the moment they exit their startup.

Contracts are signed. Hands are shaken. Millions get wired to your account. Years and years of effort are condensed into mere minutes of reward and excitement. The years of long hours and sleepless nights were worth it. You’ve made it.

But now what? For most founders this surge in dopamine quickly dissipates, fading into a sense of lacking. A lack of direction. Of purpose.

Against this backdrop it’s extremely difficult to navigate your emotional state and what you should do next. Friends and family will say you’re the luckiest person in the world, but it’s not that simple.

In times like these it’s best to have a community of people who have been through this before around you.

So let’s create this community.

2. Solution ✅

Here’s the idea…create a private membership community for founders who have just exited their business to figure out their next move.

Here’s how it works. Founders who have had a recent exit over a certain size, say $3m, can apply to join the community. All member applications are vetted to make sure no-one slips through the cracks.

Once a member joins they then get access to the member’s benefits. These include core groups of 6 - 8 founder who meet regularly (in person) where they can share advice and critical feedback to help each other navigate the path ahead. There will also be wider member dinners, retreats and adventures to help everyone in the community to bond and get to know each other better.

There will also be a digital aspect to the community which everyone joins where people can share anything interesting they’re reading or watching. Guest speakers will host workshops from which members can learn.

Finally members will have access to exclusive perks such as discounts on software tooling and other activities. Who doesn’t love a good perk?

3. Business Model 🏦

Go-to-market: Partner with a founder who has exited their startup and work with a tiny group of exited founders to test the product

Monetisation: charge a monthly subscription fee for access to the community, $5k - $10k per month. Recently exited founders have deep pockets

Startup Costs: Minimal, the hardest part here will be to generate the credibility to work with these founders

4. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

This feels like a business you would never want to sell. Having access to this audience forever would be invaluable in any other business ventures you wanted to explore

NO BRAINER IDEA

Ex-avoider

Everyone has an ex who, for whatever reason, they don’t want to see ever again. But any time you leave the house you run the risk of running into them.

Not anymore. Introducing the ex-avoider. This app lets you know where your ex is so you can avoid them.

A truly brilliant innovation that doesn’t break any data privacy laws or would have no other unintended consequences. Easily a $1bn+ idea.

BIG DECK ENERGY

Vori’s $10m Series A Deck

Year: 2022

Stage: Series A

Amount: $10m

Vori is a B2B operating system for the grocery industry, streamlining operations and democratizing food supply access. Vori raised $10M in 2022 with this deck.

THE MONEYSHOT

The $5m+ Newsletter Business with 0 Employees

$5+ million per year. 1 newsletter. 0 employees.

Dan Ni is the founder of the TLDR newsletter empire, but before its recent expansion Dan was the sole employee of TLDR, a business easily doing $5m+ per year. how do we know this? Well TLDR’s media kit rate card from Q1 2023 shows how lucrative newsletter ads can be for big newsletters.

Assuming they sold all their primary sponsorships and no other ad units TLDR would have earned $4.7m in revenue per year. The newsletter had c.900k subscribers at the time, so today the brand can charge even higher rates with the increased audience they have.

At the time Dan was the only full time employee in the business and according to him it only took 30 minutes for him to pull together the newsletter everyday.

In recent months Dan has built out the TLDR team, hiring employees and expanding the number of newsletters they ship from just 1 to 15, hiring more people in the process.

If you want a more detailed breakdown of the economics of TLDR you can read about it here. It’s from a year ago but the principles still apply.