The Hustle - 💡 The big business of mini appliances

Happy Trends Tuesday!

Today we’ve got:

• 1 trend alert
• 1 piece of operator wisdom 
• 1 startup you should know about

Let's get to it.

🚨 TREND ALERT

The average size of a newly built studio apartment in the US decreased ~14% from 600 sq. ft. in 2009 to 514 sq. ft.  in 2018…

… and mini living spaces are driving demand for mini appliances. Case in point:

Relative global Google search interest, six-month rolling average (Source: Google Trends)

Sellers on Amazon are already making bank, according to Jungle Scout data. For example: 

• This minifridge with a freezer (a trend we first wrote about months ago) generates ~$2.6m in revenue every month
  
• Mini countertop oven: ~$330k/mo.
  
• Portable countertop dishwasher: ~$130k/mo.
  
• Mini waffle maker: ~$90k/mo.
  
• Foldable mini washing machine: ~$50k/mo.
  
• Mini countertop wine cooler: ~$46k/mo.
  

There is still room for entrepreneurs to compete. One idea? Target groups like digital nomads and snowbirds with a bundled product offering that is easy to pack up and go when the next destination calls.

🧠 OPERATOR WISDOM

By day, Jordan DiPietro leads HubSpot’s media team (Trends, The Hustle, our podcast network, creator program, etc.)...

… by night, he runs a niche site that earns him $120k/yr. He didn’t even build it (he bought it!).

Want to do the same? The key is avoiding junk assets. During due diligence, get access to their Google Analytics, search console, and maybe Ahrefs (if they have it), and look for:

1. Returning vs. New Visitors: Focus on niches that are growing fast, and aim for a site with >70% new visitors
2. Organic Keywords: The number of keywords the site ranks for should be growing over time
3. Core Web Vitals: Try to minimize the number of URLs that are “poor” or “need improvement.” Poor URLs are the top priority, and your goal is to eliminate them entirely
4. Domain Rating: Don’t buy anything with a DR <40
5. Organic Traffic: Should be >70% of all traffic

Read the whole thread and follow Jordan on Twitter. 

🆓 FREE TEMPLATE

🔥 STARTUP YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

If you’ve ever been in the middle of a Zoom and realized you shifted in your seat just enough to reveal a mountain of laundry behind you — you might need Kevin Shen.

In 2020, Shen founded Dream Studio Course, a six-week cohort program that promises to “make your home video setup look like Hollywood,” and touches on everything from technical gear to interior design.

Read the full story on The Hustle blog to find out what your video setup says about you. 

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