Happy Trends Tuesday!

Q: What do these things have in common? 

• The first board game cafe in Hermosillo, Mexico
• A marketing firm for alternative ingredients
• A marquee letter rental biz

A: They’re all being built by Trends readers — and there are hundreds more where that came from. 👊

We're currently streamlining how we feature all these awesome ideas, so we’d love a little more context to get the ball rolling (+ your email, as some of y'all didn't include it in the annual survey). 

So please take 30 seconds to fill this bad boy in, and I might just pop into your DMs. 👀

In today's email…

• 7+ business ideas in new parenthood
• How a water bottle business grew to $100m+ in 5 years
• What we’re surfin’, from Donald Glover AI film to running your life on Slack

 Let's dive in!

💡 GREAT IDEAS GO HERE

Strategize your next (or first) startup on this clean-cut business plan template. And don’t sweat the flops…they’re just part of the process.

🚀 WHERE TO BUILD NEXT

7 opportunities to make life easier for new moms (and make money) 

Mother’s Day came and went, but the appreciation for all moms should not end there. 

And for anyone serious about starting a business, new moms represent a $46B market simply too big to ignore.

As more Millennials (and older Gen Zers) approach this phase of life, we’ll see new products and solutions that adapt to the needs of modern moms. 

Source: Google Trends, six-month rolling average

One rising star in the maternity space is Momcozy, famous for its wearable breast pumps. Their $200 all-in-one model, M5, makes $2.6m/month on Amazon alone – not to mention direct sales on the website, and units moved in retailers like Target and Walmart.

Meanwhile, Oula, a modern full-service maternity clinic, raised $28m this year. 

There are still opportunities to give new and expectant moms the support they deserve. Let’s look at a few: 

Postpartum recovery, unbundled

In China, it’s customary for postpartum moms to go through a month-long sitting period, or “zuo yue zi”, where they receive round-the-clock care in nutrition, lactation, and everything in between. 

Despite growing interest in the US, this kind of service still has a hefty price tag. Currently, postnatal retreats and recovery centers are more of a luxury – one night could set you back $1k. 

You can unbundle a one-stop-shop into more affordable offers, such as:

🧑‍🍳 Chef: Prepare personalized, nutritious meals to new moms and their babies. Or, build a hyperlocal meal delivery service for postpartum moms (take inspiration from Chiyo, which recently raised $3m).

🏋️ Trainer: Help new moms find the best workout regime for their needs, whether it’s to lose the baby weight, increase strength, or pelvic floor exercises. 

💖 Counselor: Organize mental health retreats and community events to help women cope with postpartum depression (which affects 1 in 7 women during the perinatal period), and adjust to the new identity.

🏡 Family coach: Family plays a big role in supporting new moms, but generational differences could easily stress them out. Run a family coaching camp that helps the dads, partners, and other family members (or close friends) get on the same page, and learn how to help out without being overbearing. 

Sleep training for babies 

Exhausted parents in the 103k-strong r/SleepTrain subreddit are at their wits’ end. Google search interest in “sleep training” is high, and parents are handing over their hard-earned money to high-tech “sleep schools.” 

You could provide sleep boxes or individual sleep aid products for infants. This baby sound machine and night light, for example, brings in ~$1.1m/mo. in revenue on Amazon, per Jungle Scout. 

The secondhand market for infant sleeping tech is also huge. Parents are paying up to $1k for a secondhand Snoo Smart Sleeper Bassinet, which ships for $1.7k new. You could provide parents with an option to rent expensive sleeping tech for only the few months that they need it.

Career counseling

A lot of decisions go into the lifelong commitment of being a mom – and women need more services that reflect this long-term reality. 

Over 60% of Millennial and Gen Z moms work. You can build a counseling service for women who are considering motherhood but care deeply about their careers. 

Build a five-year plan from the moment they start trying for a baby. Help them negotiate maternity leave, better manage their time, and recover productivity after a leave. 

Sometimes preferences shift after having a baby, so you can also help them figure out career options that better fit their new realities — like starting an online course for new moms who want to become content creators by documenting their journey. 

📜 FROM THE ARCHIVES

How Dylan Jacob Scaled BrüMate to $100m+ in 5 Years

Of all the bizarre cultural moments this year (can you believe we’re almost halfway through?!), the Stanley Cup hype was definitely a big hit. 

But Stanley isn’t the only drinkware brand that’s crushing it. Meet BrüMate, another lifestyle company that’s adding major swag to the hydration game.

The founder, Dylan Jacob, grew its revenue to $100m+ within five years. 

Dylan broke down some of the keys to BrüMate’s meteoric rise for Trends in an interview three years ago. We’re pulling this gem out of our archives because it’s still jam-packed with value for anyone in the ecommerce space today. 

Their latest drop – this one’s for the girlies. Source: BrüMate

BrüMate has three key distribution channels: D2C, Amazon, and wholesale.

D2C came first. 

While Dylan had been working on a prototype of an insulated beer koozie for a few months, the company got its real start in late 2016 when he dreamed up the Winesulator — a thermos that can hold a full bottle of wine.

Rather than manufacturing the Winesulator right away, he:

• Paid a freelance designer to create Photoshop mock-ups of what the Winesulator would look like.
• Built a simple landing page to capture email addresses of people interested in buying.
• Spent $30-$40/day on Facebook ads driving people to that landing page.

After gathering ~7k+ emails, he committed to a production run, notified his list, and sold out almost immediately. Since then, their biggest challenge has been getting enough inventory to keep up with demand.

By 2019, Dylan had grown BrüMate to $20m in revenue without a single employee. 🤯

But the company was struggling as it hit the limits of what he could do on his own with agencies, contractors, and 3rd-party logistics. Meanwhile, costs for their primary advertising channels continued to rise. 

So Dylan spent the year building new systems to power their next round of growth:

• He created an org chart and began hiring
• He devoted 25% of his marketing budget to new media channels like TV, SMS, and Snapchat ads.
• He began testing sales on Amazon, despite some believing it would cannibalize his D2C business.

BrüMate’s theory is that each of their three distribution channels represents a different kind of customer.

Keep reading to find out how Dylan used trade shows to grow his wholesale channel, and how he managed cash flow through three stages of the business. 

🗂️ OPEN TABS

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