🦻 The $20B hearing aid market needs OTC innovation

Happy Trends Tuesday!

I love the idea of “building in public" for two reasons:

• It keeps us accountable
• It gets us out of our own heads

Real talk, rebuilding Trends in front of y’all can feel like throwing spaghetti at the wall sometimes. But it’s rewarding as hell when something sticks.

Besides, your feedback is super valuable to us. Some of you wanted to revisit older signals we’ve covered, so that’s what we’re serving up today. 🍝

— Cyan

In today's email...

• Signal refresh: three ideas to cash in on the growing need of over-the-counter hearing aids

• Are influencers the next-gen food and beverage titans? 

• What we're surfin' this week, from peach fuzz to AI legal tech

Dig in!

🚀 WHERE TO BUILD NEXT

Happy new ear: opportunities in OTC hearing aids

One trend that we’ve covered before is still going strong: Over-the-counter hearing aids.

Jabra, the audio equipment maker, offers hearing aids for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. Source: Google Trends, six-month rolling average. 

Hearing loss affects over 1.5B people worldwide, but it takes the average person ~10 years from suspecting it to getting hearing aids. 

The slow adoption rate is mainly due to:

🤨 Stigma: Wearing them makes people feel “disabled” or old.

💸 Cost: An average pair costs ~$4.6k, but it could go up to $12k through an audiologist after service fees. 

After the FDA greenlit the distribution of OTC hearing aids last year, big brands like Walmart, Best Buy, and Walgreens started offering products at a lower price point (under $1k). 

But, for an industry poised to reach $19.5B by 2030, there’s still plenty of room to improve and innovate. We’ve got a few ideas: 

1. Cater to a younger market

Up to 1.35B teens and young adults worldwide may be at risk of hearing loss from exposure to unsafe decibel levels. 

Business builders could produce next-gen devices to meet their needs. With help from AI, you can create one-of-a-kind designs for a traditionally clunky and “unsexy” device. 

Or, make a hearing aid design kit so they can DIY at home.

Cool AF hearing aids from a nifty mom. Source: BoredPanda 

You don’t even need your own manufacturing – many smaller brands use contract manufacturers in places like Thailand and Taiwan.

Alternatively, you can niche down to a different demographic, like serving the  22m Americans who are exposed to dangerous noise levels in their workplaces.

2. The info angle 

While there’s momentum to destigmatize hearing aids, we’re still a long way from fully embracing them. 

You can build products that help people: 

• Understand hearing loss
• Choose the best hearing aids
• Maintain or repair their devices

For example, create a newsletter that dispels myths around hearing loss, and teach people to self-examine at home to determine if they need aids. 

Or, hire reviewers with hearing loss to test out OTC aids made for different severity levels, and build a site featuring their feedback. Partner with brands so reviewers could get discounts on devices they tested and liked. 

3. Improve the customer experience 

Consumers currently seeking OTC hearing aids are reporting less-than-ideal retail experiences.

In the near future, hearing aids will be the new glasses. So brands should take a page out of Warby Parker’s playbook and craft more responsive and compelling experiences — especially for nontraditional or first-time buyers.

🥾 BOOTSTRAPPING 101

🔎 OUR LATEST OBSESSION

Influencers are the new food and bev founders

I'm writing this while sipping coffee made by Emma Chamberlain's French press. The 22-year-old YouTuber is not only Gen Z’s favorite influencer, but also a big-time entrepreneur. 

Her coffee brand, launched in 2020, took off among young coffee lovers (and even tempted me, a not-so-young coffee lover). 

It got me thinking: Has food and beverage become the new playground for creators and influencers? 

So I looked into a few players:

Source: Company websites

Turns out they’re doing pretty well – some even minting billions. 

• Prime, Logan Paul’s energy drink, is primed to exceed $1.2B in annual sales
• Feastables raked in $10m in chocolate bar sales within a few months
• Chamberlain Coffee makes ~$6m annually, and recently raised $7m 
• The D’Amelio family raised $5m to foray into snacks

Why food and bev?

For starters, it’s lucrative. Food and beverage accounts for over 30% of the $2T consumer packaged goods industry. Plus, the entry barrier is relatively low. 

And creators and influencers are well positioned to take a slice of the pie:

💰They’re already the winning formula for CPG brand marketing. These brands spend ~$40B per year in ads, a big chunk of which goes to creator partnerships. 

❤️ Their content often fits well with daily refreshments like snacks and coffee, and their relatable nature inspires trust among young consumers. 

📉 Loyalty for legacy brands is waning, and there’s space for influencers to get in. With a built-in brand and audience, it’s easier to gain traction for their products – especially if they play up the health angle. 

It takes a village

Since these entrepreneurs aren’t usually experts in the goods they sell, white-labeling is a popular way to get a product to market. 

Influencers partner with third-party manufacturers and add on their own branding and marketing. This way, they quickly gain market share without high upfront investments: 

• Chamberlain Coffee is powered by Bixby Roasting Coffee
• Prime energy drink is actually made by Congo Brands
• Midnight Mini Cookies are based on a refined recipe by Creation Foods

And, to add a trusted edge, food industry veterans are often chosen to helm these companies, like Feastable’s Jim Murray and Myna Snack’s Darcey Macken. 

Hardly a candyland

Not every influencer-founded refreshment can magically make it. As more products flock to the space – and with A-list celebrities in the mix – it’ll be even harder to stand out.

Plus, it’s easy for influencers to lose favor with consumers: Pokimane got into a beef with her fans over pricing for her cookies; Prime drinks are getting pulled from shelves with pending FDA probe; and Chamberlain’s latest RTD collection is being dubbed “farts in a can.” 💨 

OPEN TABS

💵 Money moves: VCs are betting big on social media creators

🎯 From X: 5 killer tactics to design your 2024 vision

🍑 Peach fuzz: How Pantone turns colors into cold hard cash

▶️ Watch: How this AI legal tech startup scored a $650m exit

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