Honey

Chrome extensions: ride along on a habit users already have

Julian's favorite low-friction wedge is the Chrome extension (like Honey): a two-click install with no signup, credit card, or email needed. Because users already open Chrome daily, the extension tags along on an existing habit and only asks for an account once it can deliver a big payoff.

“Chrome extensions are maybe my favorite example, because if we think of Honey, right, which gives you— it's a Chrome extension that as you browse the web, it surfaces discounts on whatever you're browsing, right? Right. You're looking at a chair, it'll say you didn't know this, but you can get 20% off. So that's brilliant because the Chrome extension is like a 2-click process from being part of your internet browsing experience for— until the rest of time, until you delete the extension, right? It's so low friction. You don't have to sign up, you don't have to add a credit card, you don't have to give any of your data”

Steal thisDeliver value through a 2-click Chrome extension first; only ask for signup later, right before a big payoff so the user is already bought in.

A Chrome extension that pays you for your foot traffic

Shaan pitches a Chrome extension that pays users to visit websites: brands buy traffic, the money goes into the user's browser 'piggy bank.' The extension scores each user's value by their spending and sites visited (PageRank for users), then doubles as a micropayments rail for publisher paywalls.

“A Chrome extension that pays you for the sites you go to. Okay, let's start there. Why would a Chrome extension pay you to go to a website? Well, websites want traffic, right? That's what most ads are.”

Steal thisLet users opt in to monetize their browsing: brands bid to send them to sites, payouts pool into a piggy bank that funds micropayment paywalls.

Honey sold to PayPal for ~$4B with 17M users

Shaan cites Honey — a coupon-finding Chrome extension that auto-surfaces discounts at checkout — as having around 17 million users when PayPal acquired it for roughly $4 billion.

“so the two famous ones that everybody kind of has heard about is Honey, because Honey sold to PayPal for several billion, $4 billion. So Honey had, I think, 17 million users when they sold.”

How MrBeast bootstrapped: give away the sponsor's money to grow

Reed recounts how MrBeast bootstrapped his channel by taking sponsorship money from Quidd and Honey and giving it all away on camera, keeping only the AdSense upside. Each bigger giveaway video drove more views and bigger sponsorships, escalating from a $10,000 homeless donation to giving away an island.

“give us $10,000, we're going to give it all away. The video is going to do well. And then the AdSense is just all upside for me. And so that's really how the company was bootstrapped in the beginning is like we're making all this sponsorship money, we're giving it all away to create bigger and bigger videos.”

Steal thisReinvest sponsor dollars directly into the content spectacle and keep the ad revenue as your margin.

Honey-style Chrome extension that pays you to review websites

Shaan pitches a browser extension (like Honey) for the supply side of user testing: when you land on a site with the pixel installed, it flashes an offer (e.g. $3) to give quick webcam feedback in under two minutes, paid out as micropayments to build a tester network.

“So you could do it on the other side too. If you did a Chrome extension like Honey, but it's for people who want to get paid like a couple bucks just to give their quick feedback on a website. So you go, and if the, if the website has the pixel installed, it'll flash like $3 for you to give this feedback right now. It's going to take less than 2 minutes.”

Steal thisRecruit testers passively with a browser extension that flashes micropayment offers while people browse sites that have your pixel.

Browser extensions birthed Honey and Grammarly, both multibillion-dollar companies

Rahul Vohra notes that what looked like hobby browser-extension projects have become real businesses, citing Honey (a multibillion-dollar company) and Grammarly (another multibillion-dollar extension company).

“It was the thing I built for myself. It was a hobby project, and then I realized that a browser extension could be a real company. And today we have outcomes like Honey multibillion-dollar company. Grammarly, another multibillion-dollar extension company. People are building real businesses on these platforms.”

Loot: Honey for SaaS — a Chrome extension that finds software discounts

Shaan champions Sean McClellan's idea, Loot, a Honey-style Chrome extension that surfaces discounts and credits on the software tools you already use (AWS, Slack, HubSpot), pitched as saving $10,000/year.

“So he's calling it Loot and it's Honey for buying software and it helps you find discounts or credits on top of all the popular software tools you use like AWS, Slack, HubSpot and more. And his pitch was like, instantly save $10,000 a year on software tools. Stop overpaying. Loot will find you discounts on the stuff you already use.”

Steal thisBuild a browser extension that auto-applies affiliate deals and coupons on SaaS checkout pages and keeps a cut.

Luster.ai: a curation Chrome extension that recommends the best product and best price

Shaan describes his friend Stuart's pivot from Slant (a crowdsourced Wirecutter-style SEO site) to Luster.ai, a Chrome extension that overlays sites like Amazon to recommend the single best product worth buying and where to find it cheapest — a Honey-meets-Wirecutter curation layer.

“he similarly threw the whole thing away, pivoted to a Chrome extension that works on top of several sites. Like I use it on top of Amazon, for example, and it'll just say like, hey, you know, I'm looking for a TV. It'll be like, by the way, here's the best TV worth buying and here's where you can find it at the best price across other sites. So it's kind of Honey-esque, but it's really about the recommendation”

Chrome plugins are the stickiest delivery mechanism

Sam argues that 'dumb' formats like Chrome plugins, Shopify apps and WordPress plugins are dismissed but are really just services delivered through a particular mechanism. He says the Chrome plugin his company owns is the stickiest delivery mechanism for a product he has ever seen, pointing to Honey's acquisition as proof.

“And I'll tell you firsthand, we own a Chrome plugin. And I was showing Sean the stats before this. The Chrome plugin is the stickiest delivery mechanism of a service or product that I've ever seen in my life.”

Steal thisTreat a Chrome extension as a distribution channel, not a toy; build a daily-use service around it.