Mark Cuban invested in my public shower device

Dear starters,

Pat Walls here, creator of Starter Story.

As you know, every Thursday I send you an email highlighting the best case studies that we've published on our platform. This is a bite-sized summary of the most interesting experiences that starters have shared with us.

I hope you enjoy it!

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Mark Cuban invested in my solution to shower in public

Showering in public? Why would Mark Cuban invest in this idea?

We just interviewed Kressa Peterson, who (to solve a personal problem) created a prototype that would allow her to shower in public.

Once she realized the thing totally worked, she launched it and had some amazing success. You have to read this story.

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My take: What I love about this story is it solves a personal problem, which is often the best way to find great business opportunities.

Want to identify problems in your life that could be turned into businesses? Here are some more inspiring case studies:

• These $5MM/year smart lock for Airbnbs
• Aidan’s custom laptop stand went from side hustle to full time job
• Michaela turned her problem into a $50k/year beverage side hustle

My solitaire side hustle now makes $10k/month

When we spoke with Holger over a year ago he was running a modest side hustle (a simple online solitaire online game). Today, he’s been able to 10x its revenue thanks to his SEO efforts.

My take: Did you know that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Apple all started as side hustles? And so did Starter Story :)

Interested in finding a side hustle? Here are 5 side hustle case studies:

• $8K/mo online community
• $2K/mo selling vacations
• $1K/mo recommending books
• $5K/mo making custom necklaces
• $5K/mo reselling sneakers

48 low cost business ideas with high profits

Poco dinero, mucho ROI. Sounds like a good combination, right?

The good news is, there are so many opportunities to become an entrepreneur and build an innovative product/service that I’ve been able to gather quite a few business ideas that match these criteria.

Test prep, personal training, catering,... If you're looking to start your own business, check this list of the most profitable business ideas you can start today.

💰 Start a profitable business now

Learn from real people sharing real stories. The struggles, the wins, the good and the bad. 

How do people get inspired and find great business opportunities? How do they get their 10 first clients? What challenges do they face at every stage and how to overcome them?

Get unlimited access to 2,000+ case studies, 3,000+ business ideas and 200+ proven growth strategies for $79/year (just $1.51/week). This is the best deal we've ever had.

​Or, get even more with our Premium Plus membership for $199/year and you will additionally gain access to the Lean SEO course (sold separately for $249) where I share how I've grown Starter Story to over 900K monthly visitors.

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Marketing stunt: Spending money on a huge billboard designed on MS Paint

Let’s talk about a creative marketing campaign. Thomas and his team came up with this glorious idea to promote their software to develop video games ($100K/mo).

Though in real life it was just seen by a couple of thousand people, hundreds of thousands saw it online when some media outlets picked it up. Genius!

Check out other founders who pulled incredible marketing stunts:

• Cory hired Kendall Jenner to promote his wooden sunglasses
• EmailOctopus published a spoof press release for April Fools 
• Kim Kardashian posted Rilee’s work with custom balloon installations
• Maury made a 9 foot tall version of his product

$1M/year helping men find love overseas

Mark met his wife in Ukraine and noticed that people were attracted by their story. Often when people repeatedly ask you about something (where do you buy your clothes, how do you find cool music) there’s probably a business opportunity.

And that’s what Mark thought too. So he went to find a way to replicate his experience for others and make a profit off it. Today he makes 1M/year.

Everything around love has the potential to become a huge business:

• Pat started a $30K/mo date coaching business (using the phone only)
• Rowena’s helps people find the perfect engagement ring ($1,5K/mo side hustle)
• Ta'Veca makes $4K/mo designing dates

Trending stories this week
 

1. I got tired of being underpaid and left to start a $4MM/year PPC & SEO growth agency

2. I make $300K/year with a team of ghostwriters that create content for brands

3. Growing our SaaS from $1M to $2.8M in the last year (and doubling users)

4. Buying the world’s first, largest online commercial sound effects library

5. We grew revenue 25% by expanding our product line

6. From investment banker to starting a $350K/year plants ecommerce

7. We used Linkedin live sessions to grow our traffic 80%

8. Starting a business at 16 and growing it to $840K/month thanks to networking

9. My property management software revenue grows 52% YoY

10. I created the simplest video editor ever & earn $2K/month

Looking for a job, or some work on the side?

Get your feet wet before you take the plunge into founder life.

Many of the companies we interview are hiring in operations, design, marketing, engineering, and more...

Check out our jobs portal for all new opportunities - new jobs are added every day!

Thanks for reading!

Pat

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