We're all about "boring" businesses here at Contrarian Thinking. But this one entranced us... If entrancing cashflow opportunities is your thing, try our premium community, where you go from 1 income stream to 12 in a year.
Like Cabe! Who took a good ole plot of dirt, cash flowed on it, then turned it around for 3x his purchase price. Wanna know how?
I just lost 30 minutes of my life watching this lady’s slime Instagram channel.
These slime videos are so bizarrely satisfying I went to go hit the buy button for my kids (side note: I have no kids). It turns out slime videos on YouTube were a whole thing back in 2016 but I guess died off. Do you know what didn’t? Demand for part of this market on the interwebs. It just may surprise you.
Now here’s the really interesting part about this whole slime business. I went to hit the buy button and the internet laughed. Because Peachybbies apparently sells out in 30 seconds every single Friday when she does a new slime drop. EVERY SINGLE FRIDAY, COMPLETE SELLOUT.
Being me I immediately pinged her to ask her how much money she makes, because that’s normal right? Anyway - she ignored me, so I had to go do some sleuthing of my own. Turns out this young lady @itsxadrea is killing it and appears to be far under 30. How much is she killing it by?
Before we get into the surprisingly lucrative world of slime, let’s have a rant, shall we?
If You’re Young This Is For You.
If you’re not... pass this on.
You are the future. You the next generation. I actually feel surprisingly good about that. You all are pushing back, buying businesses, building them, creating content and engaging in a way I never would have at 20 years old.
But I have to tell you something, it’s up to you.
Formal education is broken. We’ve traded innovation for institutions. We’ve prioritized conformity over curiosity. We’ve ranked grades higher than growth.
Formal investing institutions are broken. We’ve traded safety for access. We’ve traded debt over ownership. We’ve picked bailing out the bigger to supporting the just getting started.
That’s why we created Contrarian Thinking because it’s all about not just building and getting rich for yourself but ultimately thinking for yourself. I don’t highlight boring businesses because that makes me rich and famous. I’d be much better off minting an NFT, starting a SPAC, building another PE fund. I do it because I want to show EVERYONE that it is not only possible, it’s not rocket science.
Everywhere I turn I see the old guard pushing on that idea. They tell me - Codie you’re oversimplifying it. Codie - not everyone can be an owner. Codie - it’s not that easy most people won’t get it.
In fact, it is all possible and it’s not that hard. It is hard work, but it doesn’t take some Ivy league, former banker telling you what is possible and what’s not. I had a guy on twitter (le sigh) tell me that “Buying businesses isn’t really possible for 99% of people.” He of course had the words “SMB small business buyer” in his profile. Another one said, “I own a bunch of RV parks and they’re so much work no one really should do them.” Oddly he had in his profile that he owns a bunch of them. Hmm.
Here’s my rub - I’m not here for the giant circle jerk that is most industries. I don’t write for other people in finance or for other business buyers that don’t want more competition or that are mad that their deals didn’t work out like mine did. I write for you all. The ones in the arena doing the damn thing or trying it. Who are reaching out your hand to the next generation to lift them alongside you.
You’re who I write for. I see you. Keep going.
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There’s a sentence I thought I’d never write. Ok, according to some quick math our slime queen is making from $60k a week to $179k a week, and about $8 Million a year.
Here’s how I got there: she sells more than 40 varieties of slime, restocks each Friday. They put between 100 and 300 individual packs of each slime variety up for sale. If you do a little public math, that’s around 4k-12k containers of slime that sell on the low end for $14.99 each. I could be off here but not by an order of magnitude.
My little mitts actually started tingling. You take one look at her comments and there is a resoundingly common theme:
Can you make more?
What about a subscription box?
I gave up they’re out of stock all the time
Stop making time on TikToks and make more slimes!
She cleverly uses these responses as the overlay over her videos but it got me thinking... is she a one-off phenomenon that is fueled by fake scarcity or is there a market out there for this? After searching 5 other slime sites that all sell out weekly, I think there is a market for what is called Hand Made Slimes.
First, What are Slimes?
Best I can tell, they are like if Playdough, essential oil, and stress balls had an orgy. Or an adult version of silly putty on steroids.
They come in varieties (flavors?) like:
Unicorn Pancakes - think bubblegum pink, scented like, with two mini pancakes you squish.
Slimearoos - Cookies and frosting that looks like well - those things and smells like them too.
Fascinatingly they also have an entire language such as:
bubble pops - when the slime pops
cloud texture - soft and holdable texture
drizzly - when the slime spreads and drizzles
So now you know about that, which seems important.
A couple of fascinating items, this business has done zero ad spend, zero partnerships, and simply uses organic social to grow.
“My business would not exist if it wasn’t for social media marketing. We haven’t spent a penny on paid ads, which is very unusual in the e-commerce world. It’s not that we’re against it, but for now we’d rather spend our money on expanding our content creation!” - Andrea from Tubebuddy interview.
She started out on YouTube... where she does over 100 million views per month. Monthly view and subscriber data from Gospel Stats.
Now she grows almost entirely with TikTok and IG. Here’s her YouTube today. You can see it’s all just rehashed IG reels and TikToks. The trend is moving too.
How I’d play this game?
Well, first of all, the moat around this business is that these are called Hand Made Slimes as opposed to mass-manufactured versions. And yet, given we’ve figured out how to manufacture genes, and grow organs in Petri dishes, I feel fairly confident we can figure out how to recreate handmade slime at scale.
Play #1: Andrea if you’re reading I’d like to invest in you and bring on some other players.
What I’d do is immediately bring on a manufacturing co-packing expert to figure out machinery at a larger scale and increase production by 10x. I’d still probably do unique one-time-only weekly drops and specialty slimes, but I’d give people more chances to buy. I’d also figure out a way to get this into subscription boxes for special super-premium versions that only subscription box holders can get on a monthly (or for the super fancy) weekly basis.
Play #2: Buy a competitor.
If anyone runs one of the other slime manufacturers out there also hit up your girl. I’d be interested in buying or investing in another company. Then increase your marketing and video presence, to snap up some of the real estate for those who want to buy these types of products. It’d be pretty easy to go into a DM strategy for all the followers of these accounts and bring them over to another brand.
Play #3: Start your own version.
That seems self-explanatory. If you need help with creating some collateral for your brand, go to a place like 99Designs to help you out.
But there are so many ways to play this space.
Edible slime - You could create edible versions like these here and partner with cool influencers to pimp them out. These are gorgeous and I want to eat them.
Create a world with slime - None of these slime makers have characters or things to fall in love with. Create a My Little Pony new cast of characters so kids want to “collect” all the slimes for their ponies, or princesses.
Organic all natural slime - How about a slime version for all the vegan healthy hipster moms out there, I’d be into that.
Content sponsorships - I actually just really like watching the videos too. How about partnering with brands, etc. to do sponsored content aka a Princess Ella slime where Disney pays you to create it and sell it but also to promote their new video release. I think this is what she did with this buccaneer's version.
DIY kits - For the ever industrious, she could sell little kits of all the ingredients so she didn’t have to do the production for some of the evergreen versions and let the moms make them herself. Apparently, Saks Fifth Avenue has one of these.
TLDR: You really can make money doing anything it turns out.
So get after it. And if you play in slime send me some, my kids really want it.
Codie
***PSS THIS IS A NEW SECTION WE'RE DOING WEEKLY OF COOL SH*T***
The Not-So-Boring Section
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In a Comfy Deal 🛌 Ryan Cohen just bought 10% of Bed Bath & Beyond. This billionaire makes moves. I’d keep an eye here.
$3mil On a Laundromat?
From $0-$3mil in revenue in 12 months? Ok, I'm intrigued, so of course, I invested.
Introducing...the Folde Laundry. Bringing in now $3mil and on track to do (what founder Mark says) $50mil, we broke it down for you.
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Disclaimer – This is the “Be an adult” section. Everything mentioned above isn’t advice, just a recount of what I did. That said: This article is presented for informational purposes only. The opinions stated here are not intended to recommend any investment or provide tax advice. Neither are they an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase an interest in any current or future investment vehicle managed or sponsored by Codie Ventures, LLC or its affiliates. All material presented in this newsletter is not to be regarded as investment advice, but for general informational purposes only. Day trading and investing do involve risk, so caution must always be utilized. We cannot guarantee profits or freedom from loss. You assume the entire cost and risk. You are solely responsible for making your own investment decisions. We recommend consulting with a registered investment advisor, broker-dealer, and/or financial advisor. If you choose to invest with or without seeking advice from such an advisor or entity, then any consequences resulting from your investments are your sole responsibility. By reading/sharing this newsletter or consuming our content on our other channels, you are indicating your consent and agreement to our disclaimer.
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