$12M/yr selling kid suitcases, $368K WhatsApp plugin + COVID businesses are still surging

Hey starters - happy Thursday!

This week, we're featuring 4 inspiring stories + 50 ways to make money on the side.

Starter Quote of The Week:

❝ Perfect is the enemy of progress. In order to succeed, you need to get started and stop trying to come up with the perfect business plan or perfect idea.

- Patrick Curtis, founder of Wall Street Oasis ($140k/month)

(tweet this)

#1: Rob makes $12M/year selling suitcases for kids:

Rob Law launched Trunki - the first-ever ride-on suitcase for kids.

After getting completely humiliated on Dragon's Den, Rob thought it was game over for his business. 

Instead, the episode went viral and resulted in a complete sell-out overnight - they've now sold over 4 million suitcases in 100+ countries. 

His secret? Amazon Ads - they've gained over 10,000 5-star reviews which has been the biggest source of ROI for their business.

Check out Rob's story here.

EDITORS NOTE: Interested in learning about how to rank better on Amazon? Founder, Cory Stout gives us all his tips here.

#2: Two friends built a $368K/year Whatsapp plugin for Shopify:

Last week, we caught up with Preetam and Sankalp with SuperLemon - a simple plugin for Shopify stores to chat with customers via WhatsApp.

In just two weeks, they built an MVP and validated their product with 10 paying users overnight

• $368K/year with zero employees
• Gross margin: 70%
• 20K merchants and 1700+ paying customers
• 100% of customers come organically from the app store​

Check out their full interview here - you won't want to miss this one!

EDITORS NOTE: Want to learn more on designing and building an MVP? We wrote a step by step guide for you here.

#2: COVID grew Kent's RV business to $1.5M/year

Kent Wilson launched Origen - a profitable, family-run RV accessories business.

Due to the massive surge in the RV industry (caused by COVID), they're entering a phase of hyper-growth and expect to 10x their revenue within the next 24 months.

His secret? Youtube micro-influencers - he's partnered with dozens of passionate RV'ers which has led to major insights about their true audience and industry.

Read Kent's full story here.

#4: This two-man team launched a $100K/year customizable bong:

Gordon launched Vitaeglass, a modular smoking accessories company. 

In one year, they've built a global brand to $100K/year with zero employees. 

Their secret? SEO - through blogging and word of mouth, they average 7,000-8,000 monthly visitors with 100% of their sales coming from their website.

Be sure to check out Gordon's full story here!

EDITORS NOTE: Want to learn more about how to grow your business through SEO? We put a guide together here.

#5: 50 lucrative ways to make money on the side:

Looking to start a business, but not quite ready to go all-in?

We've put together a list of 50 lucrative side hustle ideas to help get the wheels turning for you.

Check out the full guide here.

#6: Are you ready to boost your revenue?

I want to give a shoutout to our long-time sponsor Klaviyo.

Using Klaviyo will open up a massive, untapped sales channel and bring you closer to your customers!

I'm a huge fan of the product (I use it for Starter Story and love the segmentation/drip features). I've also been able to collect so many emails using their website form integration - my list growing over 3k/month now 😲

Here are just some of the impressive businesses we've interviewed that use Klaviyo for email marketing and are raving about the product - all great interviews you should check out as well!

• Brumate ($1.1M/mo at 23 years old)
• Sheets & Giggles ($76k/mo in just 6 months)
• Beardbrand ($100k+/mo - 1.5M YouTube subscribers)
• Abs Protein Pancakes ($25k/mo passive income business)
• Xero Shoes ($460k/mo - featured on Shark Tank)
• The Longhairs ($30k/mo)
• Framed Tweets ($25k/mo)

Level up your email marketing with 👉 Klaviyo!

(And thank you for your support 🙏)

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Thanks for reading! See you next week.

- Pat Walls, Founder @ Starter Story

feedback? please hit reply on this email :)