411: 'The Hustle' acquisition, $2M Apple watch biz, & one tip from Jeff Bezos

Dear starters,

Pat Walls here, creator of Starter Story. 

I’m hitting your inbox to share with you a few ideas and interesting things I’ve seen over the last week.

P.S. I'm also offering a limited-time deal on Starter Story premium for just $1.71/week (see bottom of the email).

1 Acquisition

#1: 'The Hustle' acquired for $27M

The Hustle, a daily newsletter and media company about business and tech, was acquired by Hubspot for $27M.

This is a huge moment for (1) bootstrapped companies and (2) media companies.

I believe that we will keep seeing big companies (Hubspot is a $24B public company) buying up smaller media properties.

A few other examples:

- Robinhood acquired MarketSnacks
- Spotify acquired Joe Rogan for $100M
- Stripe acquired Indie Hackers

To put this in context: the cost of a 1 minute Super Bowl ad is $10M. Instead of buying an ad that everyone forgets in 24 hours, a big company can buy an entire small media property. In that context, $27M sounds reasonable.

Never before have there been so many smaller media properties, newsletters, personal brands, and more. I think we will see a lot more acquisitions like this.

4 Business Ideas

Business ideas I found interesting:

#1: Build a business off the backs of Apple, Google, Facebook, etc

We just caught up with 24-year-old Braxton who is making $200k/month with Apple Watch bands. He started the business with only $20.

What I think is interesting here is that they built a $2M/year business with one accessory from one product of Apple.

I think there are tons of opportunities to build a business off the backs of the big tech companies.

Why does this work? Because the market is already proven. These companies have billions of customers. All you need to do is find a product to sell to them.

Here are some more examples: 

(1) A designer makes $100k in six days selling icons for iOS 14
(2) $500k/month selling iPhone charging power banks
(3) $25k/month Zoom fitness workouts
(4) $200k/month Gmail mail merge tool
(5) $250k/month Facebook/LinkedIn automation business

#2: Portfolio of apps company

We just interviewed Alex from Gikken. They are making $18K/month from a varied set of apps and plugins.

Their flagship product is a translation app, but they’ve built a bunch of other smaller things too.

I like this business model because:

(1) It allows lets you try many different things, which is less risky and more fun
(2) It prevents you from building things that are too “big” and complex.
(3) Usually, good businesses come from a really small idea

Here are some more examples: 

- Syed’s WordPress plugins company powers 8M websites
- Laura’s WordPress plugin makes $11k/month

#3: Bicycles & E-bikes

Bicycles are poised to go big in 2021. 

We just interviewed Mehdi who’s doing $12M/year with a bicycle brand.

In 2020, many people migrated away from the office to work from home. No more commutes! With the pandemic coming to an end, we’ll see less demand for cars more demand for bikes!

Personally, I’ll be buying an e-bike in 2021. If you have any recommendations, let me know!

Here are some more bike stories:

- $1M/year bike lock business
- $250k/mo DTC bicycle business
- 16 Unique Outdoor Business Ideas To Start In 2021

#4: Help people build their personal brands

Most people on the internet want to build or improve their personal brand. They want more followers, likes, engagement, etc. 

Why? Because this often leads to more money in their pocket. And everyone wants more money.

We just interviewed Zoltan who’s making $5K/month on a side project helping “cartoonify” people’s social media avatars.

Here are some more businesses that help people build their personal brands:

- How I made $210,822 selling a pdf and a video on the internet
- $5k/month improving online dating profiles

1 Tip

Something I found interesting:

#1: More writing, less PowerPoints

Jeff Bezos banned PowerPoints from internal Amazon meetings.

Instead of using presentations, everyone must write their ideas in documents, in narrative form.

When they finally have a meeting, everyone goes to a room and silently reads the document, marking it up with questions and comments.

I think this is brilliant. Why? Because writing is thinking. 

Overall, this policy promotes thoughtfulness in all the employees of a company. It leads to more preparation and more detail. It means less useless meetings. And a focus on execution.

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