Steph Smith

Japan's free 'akiya' houses from its silver tsunami

Japan hit declining birth rates and aging earlier than other countries, leaving over 8 million empty homes (akiyas) that the government gives away free or very cheap as owners pass away or abandon them for status reasons.

“And there's over, there's tons of articles on this, over 8 million akiyas that are being given away by the government. Um, or again, sometimes for very cheap.”

Steal thisAcquire and renovate Japan's free akiya homes as a real-estate play on the silver tsunami.

Assisted living: $54K/yr, half of operators clear 20%+ margins

Per Numlock, the median annual price of assisted living hit $54,000 (up 31% faster than inflation from 2004-2021). Of 31,000 US facilities, 4 in 5 are for-profit, and half of operators clear 20%+ annual returns over operating cost.

“the median annual price of assisted living increased 31% faster than inflation and has hit $54,000 per year. This is the crazy stat to me. There are 31,000 assisted living facilities in the United States. 4 out of every 5 are run as for-profits, and half of all the operators in the industry are clearing annual returns of 20% or more than it costs to operate.”

A premium assisted-living brand you'd feel great about

Most assisted-living options are mediocre and parents feel guilty sending loved ones there. Steph pitches a premium tier wealthy families would pay 5x the $54K average for, because they'd actually feel good about it.

“imagine the, the premium version of assisted living where you feel really, really good about sending your grandparent, your mom, your sister, whatever it is. To one of these places, and obviously the, you know, the price would have to go way up. Um, but people are already, like, this stat is saying they're spending $54,000 per year as the average. And so, you know, for the wealthy, like, wouldn't you pay 5 times that to send your loved one to something a lot better?”

Steal thisBuild the premium assisted-living brand wealthy families feel proud to use, priced at 5x the average.

Air quality monitors are the next big home-health category

Steph argues air pollution is a leading death risk most people ignore because it's invisible; as awareness grows (people wearing masks in SF, CO2 spiking in closed bedrooms), home air-quality monitors and purifiers will take off.

“if you go to bed with your door closed and you wake up and you check that thing, it is wild, um, how high it is. And, you know, all you need to do is open a window or, you know, circulate the air in your home. But I think as the stuff, um, I guess is people are more educated on it, I think some of these devices like the air quality monitors are going to take off.”

Steal thisBuild a consumer air-quality brand that makes invisible pollution visible and scary, then sells the fix.

An Amazon air-filter listing does $40M+/month

Per Jungle Scout, four entries for an AC furnace air filter plus air-quality monitor product show monthly sales of $17M, $12M, $8M, and $8M, totaling over $40 million per month.

“they are 17 million, 12 million, 8 million, and 8 million. So what is that all total? That's like over $40 million per month. This is what Jungle Scout is saying.”

Internet Pipes: from book to 8-figure business

Steph's product Internet Pipes started as a Notion book answering 'how do you find all this cool stuff online,' teaching tool-based research, and grew into videos, a community, and databases. Sam draws out that it now does 8 figures.

“the most common question I get asked is you find all this cool stuff online, how do you find it? And so Internet Pipes was showing people how to find this information through a series of tools. And that's why it's called Pipes.”

r/contagiouslaughter: 4.5M subs, just people laughing

Steph found a top-100 subreddit, r/contagiouslaughter, with 4.5 million subscribers that is literally just a feed of people laughing, with dozens of posts daily, and rules that ban posting for the joke rather than the laughter.

“called r/contagiouslaughter. 4.5 million people subscribe to this and it's one of, I think, the top 100 subreddits out there. And it's literally just a feed of people laughing.”

2.5 billion people projected to have hearing loss by 2050

Steph cites the stat that nearly 2.5 billion people are expected to experience hearing loss by 2050, with over 700 million requiring rehabilitation — a tailwind she frames as hearing aids becoming as common as reading glasses.

“So the stat, or the digit, is that nearly 2.5 billion people by 2050 are expected to experience hearing loss, with over 700 million requiring rehabilitation.”

eVTOL is the first new aircraft category in nearly 80 years

Steph notes the FAA recently began approving electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft — the first new category of aircraft in nearly 80 years, the prior one being light sport aircraft. She also flags the FAA allowing some drones to fly beyond line of sight, unlocking drone delivery.

“Another change that the FAA made recently is they started approving these electric vertical takeoff and landing companies, the eVTOL companies. And again, that was in the news, but what wasn't covered as much was the fact that this was the first new category of aircraft in nearly 80 years.”

Waymo already taking 20% of Uber rides in Austin

Steph cites an article saying Waymo robotaxis are already capturing 20% of Uber rides in Austin — evidence that autonomy adoption can move faster than people expect.

“I just read an article the other day saying that Waymos are already taking up 20% of Uber rides in Austin. And so this stuff can like move pretty quickly.”

Sell to the edges of a megatrend, not the center

Steph's repeatable move: don't try to build the next Waymo or Airbnb — build the picks-and-shovels businesses around it (cleaning, LiDAR, ops, support). When Airbnb boomed, the opportunity was cleaning and operations companies, not another Airbnb.

“when Airbnb was big, the answer wasn't go create another Airbnb. It was like, go create the cleaning companies and the operations companies to run an Airbnb, right? Like, there's still, I think, a lot of opportunity on, you know, on the edges of these major trends.”

Steal thisPick a megatrend you can't lead, then build the service or supplier business that every player in it needs.

Guided psychedelics for big life decisions, not just trauma

Steph pitches reframing psychedelics away from druggie/trauma use toward low-dose, guided sessions for major life decisions — choosing a job, quitting, or deciding whether to have kids — once legalization spreads.

“Like, imagine if you had someone guiding you through a psychedelic experience specifically related to your career, specifically related to, again, like, the difficult and very meaningful decision of having kids. I think there's something interesting there.”

Steal thisBuild a guided low-dose psychedelic service positioned around specific decisions (career, kids) rather than mental illness.

Fastest-growing jobs include solar installers and wind techs

Steph notes the BLS fastest-growing jobs list mixes white-collar roles (data scientists, security analysts) with climate trades like wind turbine service technicians and solar panel installers — and that solar panels need cleaning every 6-12 months, a business in itself.

“Yeah, so there's like, of the top 5, there is data scientists, there's security analysts, but there's also wind turbine service technicians, there's solar panel installers.”

Sell AI into industries starving for talent, not flush ones

Steph's rule for AI products: target industries with a labor shortage (like accounting) where firms can't hire fast enough. It's an easy sell with no layoff fears, versus selling into liquid talent markets where AI threatens to replace existing staff.

“But in the world of accounting where, let's say, like you said, there's a firm and that firm is like, I can't hire fast enough. I literally don't have people. I have clients who want to pay me and I don't have the staff to actually facilitate that project. Well, then it's an easy sell, right?”

Steal thisAim AI tools at labor-short industries (accounting, nursing) where they fill a gap instead of displacing workers.

Scrape posted salaries to build a better Glassdoor

Steph pitches aggregating salary data now that pay-transparency laws in 12+ states force companies to post pay on job listings. Scrape those salaries across many companies to build a salary database that usurps Glassdoor's user-submitted moat.

“And so someone should just go and again, like you would need to build this up over a little bit of time, but someone should be scraping these salaries off of different website or different companies and building up this database. Completely usurping again the, like, requirement of people, uh, needing to submit their salary themselves.”

Steal thisScrape employer-posted salary ranges from job listings into one searchable database to replace Glassdoor for negotiation.

Internet Pipes now does 8 figures in revenue

Steph reveals her Internet Pipes product — a course/book/community for finding overlooked internet data — has grown to 8 figures in revenue.

“It's 8 figures now.”

Lifespan adds 2-3 years per decade and most people miss it

Steph Smith frames the 'Silver Tsunami': life expectancy has been climbing steadily, roughly 2 to 3 years added per decade, so each generation lives meaningfully longer than the last and the world isn't structured for it.

“So in the last, I think several decades, the stat is for every decade we've added 2 to 3 years to the average lifespan, which means that, you know, we are expected to grow older compared to our parents, compared to their parents, et cetera, et cetera, right?”

In 1965 the most common age of death was age 1; today it's 87

From the book Longevity Imperative (UK data): in 1965 the single most common age to die was the first year of life; today the most common age to die is 87, a near-total flip driven by collapsing child mortality and longer lives.

“he says in, in the UK in 1965, the most common age of death was the first year. Um, that's perhaps not surprising, but today the most common age to die is 87.”

Medicare spends $50B+ a year on dialysis, ~3x NASA's budget

Steph Smith cites that 0.8% of the US budget goes to kidney dialysis, roughly three times NASA's budget, with Medicare spending over $50 billion annually on dialysis and related treatments as the aging population's health needs balloon.

“it was basically that 0.8% of the US budget is spent on kidney dialysis, which was basically 3 times NASA. So all these people need dialysis. It's like, I think Medicare spends over $50 billion annually on dialysis and other related treatments, which is just wild.”

Build the 'Flo for menopause' for 6,000 women hitting it daily

Menopause brings ~34 symptoms and 6,000 US women enter it every single day, yet the space is underserved compared to fertility/pregnancy apps. Steph Smith pitches building products for menopause the way Flo (380M+ users) serves periods.

“And just due to the nature of, like, you could say TAM, 6,000 women in the US hit menopause every single day. So if you think about people who all of a sudden are facing this thing that they've never faced before, kind of like pregnancy. And interestingly, there's all these companies that are oriented around people getting pregnant and having that done successfully. There's apps like Flo.”

Steal thisBuild a symptom-tracking + coaching app for the 6,000 US women entering menopause daily, mirroring Flo's period-tracking playbook.

Japan is giving away 8M+ free/cheap 'akiya' houses

Because Japan hit its aging wave early, the government and owners are giving away over 8 million abandoned homes (akiyas), sometimes free, partly because heirs who moved up in social status don't want to claim houses in poorer neighborhoods.

“And there's over, there's tons of articles on this, over 8 million akiyas that are being given away by the government. Um, or again, sometimes for very cheap.”

Half of assisted-living operators clear 20%+ returns; rent $54K/yr

From Numlock: median annual assisted-living price hit $54,000 (up 31% faster than inflation, 2004-2021). Of 31,000 US facilities, 4 in 5 are for-profit and half of operators clear annual returns of 20%+ over operating cost, with 850,000 older Americans as tenants.

“There are 31,000 assisted living facilities in the United States. 4 out of every 5 are run as for-profits, and half of all the operators in the industry are clearing annual returns of 20% or more than it costs to operate. With 850,000 older Americans living within assisted living, the rents are getting jacked up.”

Build the premium assisted living the wealthy will pay 5x for

Steph Smith argues most assisted-living options 'really suck' and you don't feel good sending loved ones there. The opportunity: a premium tier the wealthy would happily pay 5x the $54K/yr average for, because they actually feel good about it.

“imagine the, the premium version of assisted living where you feel really, really good about sending your grandparent, your mom, your sister, whatever it is to one of these places. And obviously the, you know, the price would have to go way up. Um, but people are already like, this stat is saying they're spending $54,000 per year. As the average. And so, you know, for the wealthy, like, wouldn't you pay 5 times that to send your loved one to something a lot better?”

Steal thisLaunch a premium assisted-living brand priced at ~5x the average that families feel genuinely good about, not a place you 'go to die'.

Turn assisted living into a 'revival' centenarian-decathlon facility

Drawing on Peter Attia's 'centenarian decathlon' and 109-year-old cyclist Robert Marchand, Steph Smith pitches reframing assisted living from a place you go to die into a place for fitness revival, where an 80-year-old enters with a VO2 max of 15 and leaves with 25.

“What if you go there for like a revival? Um, what if you go there with a VO2 max of 15 and all of a sudden you leave with it at 25 and you're 80? Like, that is really cool. Um, and it kind of merges some of the trends that we're seeing in like the kind of more new age fitness and longevity with this massive business around assisted living.”

Steal thisBuild an assisted-living facility centered on fitness 'revival' (VO2 max, strength) instead of decline, merging longevity science with elder care.

Skip 75 Hard, market '30 moderate': 3 miles a day changes lives

Steph Smith argues the market gap isn't another extreme program like 75 Hard but a genuinely approachable one. Moving just 3 miles (or 1-2) a day is a keystone habit the average American can sustain, and that unlocks everything else.

“I was like, how much better would a lot of people's lives be if they just moved for 3 miles a day? I know that sounds like a lot to some people. You could even break it, bring it down to 1 or 2. Um, but like, we don't need 75 hard and nothing against it, but like we need someone, someone commented, we need 30 moderate.”

Dexcom's Stello is the first OTC FDA-approved glucose monitor

Steph Smith notes Dexcom (~40% CGM market share) launched Stello in late August 2024, the first over-the-counter, FDA-approved continuous glucose monitor, opening CGMs to people without a prescription for the first time.

“Their new product, Stello, is the first over-the-counter FDA-approved CGM. This was just as of like last month, um, end of August.”

Use a $50 CGM as a loss leader into a health-coaching funnel

Steph Smith pitches giving away a ~$50 two-week CGM (like Stello) for free in exchange for the user logging food and lifestyle. The resulting metabolic data lets you upsell concierge coaching, nutrition, personal training, gym referrals, and the next CGM.

“you give them the Astello for free. Um, you. Make sure, like they have to use it for 2 weeks and jot down what they're eating and their lifestyle. And at the end of that 2 weeks, think of all of the information you have about that person's metabolic health, the way they eat, the way they exercise. And there are so many different businesses that, I mean, you mentioned some of them, like you have the health concierge that they sign up for after that.”

Steal thisGive away a 2-week CGM as a loss leader, require food/lifestyle logging, then upsell coaching, nutrition, training, and the next device off the metabolic data.

The barbell-sports frame: make a sport easier OR harder, never middle

Steph Smith's framework for new sports: pickleball won by making tennis easier and more accessible (opening the aperture), while teqball/padel win by making a sport harder and more shareable for elite show-offs. Like fashion, the extremes succeed and the middle dies.

“So I think if you take an existing sport and you make it less agile so more people can participate, that's one direction. And then tech ball is the opposite. The same way that in fashion you have fast fashion and then you have the premium brands and basically nothing in the middle succeeds, I think it's an interesting parallel where tech ball is like You actually make it way harder”

Steal thisWhen inventing or picking a niche sport, push it to an extreme: make it dead-simple for the masses or brutally hard for show-off elites. Avoid the middle.

A 30-second podcast plug made Internet Pipes six figures

Steph Smith reveals that a roughly 30-second mention of her product Internet Pipes at the end of a prior MFM episode drove 'for sure 6 figures' in revenue, a testament to the show's audience monetization power.

“I'm pretty sure it's hard to tie directly, like, but for sure, 6 figures. Which is crazy. Um, so I just want to shout out to the folks and all the people who listen, who are in Internet Pipes and all that.”

Mine patent filings and expiries for business ideas

Steph Smith tracks two patent signals: filings (via the Patent Drop newsletter) to see what FAANG and companies like Nike are betting on, and expiries (via patentsexpiringtoday.com) to find IP that just became free to build on.

“So patent filings, I think, um, there's probably some databases that do this, but the newsletter that I like to read is called Patent Drop, and they'll basically break down every newsletter, three or so patents from Again, big tech firms like FAANG, um, but also companies like Nike.”

Steal thisWatch patentsexpiringtoday.com and the Patent Drop newsletter to spot IP you can legally build a product around.

Sci-fi-to-reality lag: yesterday's fiction becomes tomorrow's obvious product

Using the Technovelgy idea database, Steph notes credit cards were imagined in 1888 but built in the 1950s and live news in 1889 vs. the 1980s - so you can extrapolate that today's sci-fi ideas will follow the same path and mine the 'not yet created' list for startups.

“So for example, the credit card, was first referenced in 1888, but credit cards like Visa and MasterCard weren't actually created until the 1950s. Or live news in 1889, and then, you know, it took until the 1980s for 24-hour live news to actually be a thing.”

Steal thisBrowse old sci-fi idea databases for inventions still in the 'dreamt up but not built' column and ask which are now technically feasible.

Smart AC furnace air filters do ~$40M+/month on Amazon

Via Jungle Scout, Steph finds four AC-furnace air-filter / air-quality-monitor listings doing $17M, $12M, $8M and $8M per month - over $40M monthly combined - as proof of a growing air-quality product category.

“So I'm seeing 4 entries in Jungle Scout, and, um, they are 17 million, 12 million, 8 million, and 8 million. So what is that all total? That's like over $40 million per month.”

When a device penetrates homes, sell the accessories

Steph's reusable rule: every device that mass-penetrates homes or wallets opens an accessories market. AirPods spawned cases and keychains; scan Gadget Flow for the next device hitting millions and build the adjacent products.

“I just wanted to call out that every time there's a new device that ends up penetrating a lot of people's homes or wallets. Uh, there's almost always an opportunity for accessories.”

Steal thisSpot the next hardware device about to reach millions of homes and launch the cases, mounts, and add-ons before anyone else.

Turn dead-weekday nightclubs into yoga studios and rage rooms

Nightclubs sit empty Monday through Friday but own great real estate. Steph Smith pitches an operator who links idle club space to yoga studios, Pilates, or trending rage rooms during the week — a fractional-real-estate play as commercial vacancy spikes.

“this club has just all this real estate that's being unused. And I was just thinking about what other, I guess one, this could be applied elsewhere, right? Like in any city, someone can go contact a bunch of clubs, link them up with yoga studios, Pilates studios, et cetera.”

Steal thisLease idle nightclub space by the daytime hour and sublet it to yoga, Pilates, and rage-room operators.

26-year-old quits $115K job, makes $600K asking strangers their salary

Hannah Williams, 26, quit a $115K/year job and started man-on-the-street videos asking people what they do and how much they make. Riding new state pay-transparency laws, she hit over a million TikTok followers in a year and had made $600K by the time an article ran in January.

“she's making like $115,000 a year. And then in the last year has just been doing the kind of man, or in this case, woman on the street. And all she does is she goes up and she just asks people, hey, what do you do? How much do you make?”

85% of employment growth since 1940 came from jobs that didn't exist then

Steph Smith cites that 85% of employment growth over the past 80 years came from new job categories — roles like social media manager or UX designer that didn't exist in 1940. The point: today's AI era will spawn entirely new jobs, not just destroy old ones.

“apparently 85% of employment growth in the last 80 years came from new jobs. So AKA between 1940 and today. 85% of employment growth came from jobs that did not exist in 1940.”

A $300 sake advent calendar nets $150K from one annual drop

Steph Smith highlights Namazaki Paul, who built a printer-sized advent calendar of hand-picked Japanese sake, sells it for $300, and caps it at 500 units a year — roughly $150K from one drop on a site getting only ~2,000 visits a month. She urges the audience to build premium advent calendars beyond expired milk chocolate.

“He created this sake calendar where basically every day for the month of December, or you can use it after, you open your little advent calendar, but it's not little. It's like the size of a printer kind of thing., and you get this like special sake that he has handpicked from Japan. This is partially like his job, his existing business. Um, and he sells them for $300 and every year he sells 500 of them, which he caps and you do the math. That's like $150,000 just from that one, one drop for him.”

Steal thisCurate a premium themed advent calendar, cap the run, and sell it as a single high-margin seasonal drop.

A/B testing software for restaurant QR-code menus

Steph Smith pitches software that lets restaurants A/B test their digital QR-code menus the way internet companies test landing pages, optimizing order and design to lift average ticket size without changing the actual food.

“And something that I think of every single time as an internet marketer is why they are not A/B testing their menus. And so I think someone needs to go and create A/B testing software that restaurants can ingest super easily.”

Steal thisBuild menu A/B testing software that hooks into restaurant QR codes and proves a lift in average ticket size.

Evidence over confidence

Steph's principle for standing out in an age where anyone can look like an expert: don't tell people you're a business expert, show the businesses you built and how. Evidence (proof of skill, like a stunning portfolio) beats confident self-description.

“So evidence over confidence. And what do I mean by evidence? It's like, don't tell me you're this business expert. Show me the businesses that you've built and how successful they are and how you built them. Or let me see how you built them instead of you telling me how you built them.”

Steal thisReplace credential claims with demonstrated proof of work that lets the audience judge your skill directly.

Use the FSA Store as a D2C acquisition channel for boring health products

Steph Smith points to fsastore.com — where millions of high-intent shoppers rush to spend expiring pre-tax FSA money — as an acquisition house for reinvented versions of boring health products like Welly Band-Aids.

“And so what I found interesting about this is there's all these other kind of product lanes that you can just like walk down and CVS or something like that and be like, oh, that's boring. That's boring. I haven't seen that reinvented. And actually one of, um, people have probably heard of Eric Ryan. He's the founder of Welly, but he's also done Ollie Gummies, which people are probably familiar with, and Method Soap. So he's basically doing this, but I think there's a lot more room for other people to do the exact same thing and use the FSA Store as almost this like really interesting acquisition house for your store.”

Steal thisPick a boring health-aisle category, build a beautiful D2C brand around it, and acquire customers through fsastore.com's expiring-money rush.

Use Google Trends geo-pockets to start a hard kombucha brand early

Steph notes hard kombucha shows hockey-stick search growth concentrated in California and Colorado on Google Trends; she argues someone in an untapped state like Wyoming should start a brand now and ride the spread.

“And if you actually just go onto Google Trends, you search hard kombucha. One, you can see the search volume trending up. It's a, it's a hockey stick. But interestingly enough, Google Trends shows you the pockets. It shows you where search volume is happening. It's only in California, it's only in Colorado, it's only in these kind of— right, in the expected places that you, you would find hard kombucha. And I think it's just— it's going to take off. And so someone in like Wyoming, go, go start a hard kombucha brand. I think you're going to kill it in the next 3 to 5 years.”

Steal thisUse Google Trends geo-pockets to spot a product taking off in one region, then launch it in an untapped region before the trend arrives.

~$20 billion in FSA-style money is time-capped every year

Steph estimates from ~20 million HSAs at a ~$1,000 average contribution that roughly $20 billion in time-capped, use-it-or-lose-it money is waiting to be spent every year.

“I think there was 20 million HSAs and they're similar vehicles. So imagine that the average contribution is $1,000, right? You can put up to $2,700. Let's imagine the average is $1,000. That would mean that there's $20 billion in time-capped money every single year waiting to be spent.”

SwagUp: $5K first month to a $55M run rate, founder age 26

Steph cites SwagUp (founded 2017) as proof the better-swag model works: $5K in its first month, $3.3M in its first year, on track for $55M in sales, run by a 26-year-old founder.

“But this company SwagUp, they started in 2017. Uh, they did $5K their first month, $3.3 million in their first year, and today they're on track to do $55 million in sales. And the founder is 26 years old.”

The Chief Automation Officer: a role that pays for itself immediately

Steph proposes companies create a role (a Chief Automation Officer, or just someone with that sole mandate) who shadows employees, finds tasks that should be automated or delegated, and fixes them — arguing the ROI is immediate.

“but someone whose sole responsibility is to go find things that can be automated or delegated within a company that should be, and then their responsibility, maybe they have a team of automation experts or maybe they just do it themselves if it's a small company and they just do that. And I think you could, I think you would see the ROI on this role immediately, right? So, so they would easily pay for themselves and more.”

Steal thisGive one person the sole mandate to shadow staff, find automatable/delegatable tasks, and fix them — the ROI shows up fast.

BevTry: free booze drops to build an audience before any product exists

Steph recounts discovering BevTry at a friend's fridge full of single random drinks — the company texts users surprise free alcohol drops (often gotten free from brands launching products), building a huge referral-laddered list with zero product to sell yet.

“The reason I find this one especially interesting is because one, I think they actually get the alcohol for free. That's why it's all like disjointed. You're not getting a 6-pack, you're getting one of this new drink that some brand is launching. Um, but I also think it's really interesting because they have zero product today, as in they as a company, BevTry, so far are not selling anything, but you can kind of see little glimpses of it in the app.”

The bicycle framework: eliminate, then automate, then delegate

Steph's 'Doing Time Right' course teaches a sequential bicycle framework: lay out your map (strategy/goals), eliminate unnecessary detours, automate with a machine (the e-bike), then delegate to a human — instead of just asking how to pedal faster.

“The third is automation, which means basically getting an electric bike. How much easier is a cross-country journey if you have something, a machine working on your side to get you— you still have to hop on the bike, you still gotta pedal, but it's just gonna be a lot easier to get there. Delegation is kind of like the more badass version of automation. It's like taking things that, again, you don't want to be doing, and in addition to automating it with a machine, now you have a human, right, who's even more contextual.”

Steal thisBefore optimizing speed, run tasks through eliminate → automate → delegate in that order.

Fidelity now lets 13-to-17-year-olds open trading accounts

Steph flags a rule change: Fidelity launched trading accounts for teens aged 13 to 17 (opened with a parent), unlocking a new cohort of young investors who can deposit and buy ETFs — and the opening to build a financial-education game for them.

“So Fidelity recently launched trading accounts for 13 to 17-year-olds. So before. I'm not sure if they just didn't have them or if it was illegal. I'm not sure. You've talked about how rule changes are game changers and they unlock innovation. So, um, basically now teens can open accounts.”

Treat proven performers like 'made men'

Sam's hiring/management heuristic: once someone proves they're a hit-maker, you go all-in and give them full latitude — they become a 'made man.' When a made person pitches an idea it's 'yes, what do you need?'; when an unproven person pitches, it's 'show me a small MVP first.'

“I also think that once you find the winners, then you go all in on them. So Trung is what I call— he's a made man. Steph, a made woman. Whenever Steph wants to do something, cool, sounds good. What do you need? When other people come to me with an idea—”

Steal thisGive proven hit-makers a blank check on ideas; make unproven hires prove it with a small MVP first.

Sell remote-work perks: cover maids, internet, and Upwork stipends

Steph Smith pitches building a benefits platform for remote companies that funds the things an office used to cover — maids, utilities, internet — plus stipends for services like Upwork so employees offload work they hate.

“I've heard of people buying their employees wine or beer subscriptions, anything from companies actually starting to pay— Maids. Yeah, maids pay for their internet, their utilities. It's like, what are all the things that you would normally pay for? In an office, you're paying for utilities, you're paying for a maid, you're paying for these things to make your employees' lives easier, better.”

Steal thisList every cost an office used to absorb (cleaning, utilities, snacks) and turn each into a remote stipend product.

Pieter Levels runs ~$1M/yr off one PHP script

Steph holds up Pieter Levels as the archetypal indie hacker: Nomad List and Remote OK each do roughly half a million a year, run almost entirely by him, with the whole stack famously powered by one PHP script.

“And Nomad List has grown a ton. Now, it does probably, I think, half a million a year. Then he expanded that to Remote OK, which also does around half a million a year, and it's all done through him. And then I think he contracts out his servers to one guy that he pays like $2,000 a month for or something.”

Compliance-as-a-service: HIPAA today, the next law tomorrow

Steph notes Zoom was effectively the only HIPAA-compliant video tool, so most apps silently can't sell to healthcare. The play: a service that makes apps compliant — and that front-runs each new law (PPP, etc.) to sell the playbook first.

“you basically hire a couple lawyers, you track what legislation is coming to fruition in the next like 3 months, 6 months, whatever, and then you are the first mover and you basically say, hey, I know exactly what you're— like, you know, PPP recently, I know exactly what you need to do with PPP.”

Steal thisFront-run new legislation: hire lawyers, package the compliance checklist, and be the first mover selling it to affected companies.

Use subreddit mind-maps to understand who your user really is

Steph describes a tool that maps any subreddit into related niche communities, useful not just for idea discovery but for profiling a user: a 'longevity' fan turns out to also follow nootropics, transhumanism, and singularity.

“You're trying to understand like, who is this person that I'm trying to attract? And then you try, you get like a wider view of like your type of individual, your users, not just this like niche thing, like they're interested in longevity. You're like, oh, they're actually, you know, probably super technical and, you know, interested in things like Singularity and they're probably developers and they care about their health”

Steal thisMap your niche's adjacent subreddits to build a fuller psychographic profile of your customer.

Insider-trade smart-alert: you always know why someone buys

Steph pitches a configurable alert system on top of mandatory insider-trade filings. The framing from analyst Ethan: you never know why an insider sells, but you always know why they buy — because they think the price will go up.

“you don't know exactly why someone sells, but you always know why someone buys. And if someone buys, it's because they think the price is going to go up. And if they're an insider, you know, it's not foolproof. This is definitely not financial advice, but it's a signal”

Steal thisBuild a per-stock/per-industry text-alert system off public insider-buy filings.

Hire Gen Z creators to make corporate training that doesn't suck

Steph pitches paying Gen Z creators (like the viral nuclear-energy TikToker) ~$10K to turn boring corporate training into game-like, captivating content that employees actually want to consume.

“And so I think these companies should go hire this girl, Isabel, other people, go hire them, say, I'm gonna pay you like $10K to go like make a couple of videos about, you know, whatever they're trying to train their employees on. And I think it would kill it.”

Steal thisPay native short-form creators to remake dull corporate training into game-like, watchable content.

Sell competitor hiring intel scraped from job listings

Steph argues companies will pay to monitor rivals' job postings because new roles leak strategy (a Web3 engineer signals a crypto push, enterprise sales signals going upmarket). A subscription competitive-intelligence feed of who's hiring for what.

“I also think that companies would pay for this, right? As in like companies that have competitors want to know what their competitors are doing.”

Steal thisTurn rivals' public job postings into a paid competitive-intelligence subscription.

BuiltWith charges up to $10,000/year and is run by one guy

BuiltWith, which detects the tech stack and plugins behind any website, sells tiered plans: $3,000/year basic, $5,000 pro, $10,000 team. It's effectively built by one guy in Australia.

“Yeah, they charge. So their basic plan is $3,000 a year. Their pro is $5,000. Their team is $10,000.”

Carrd: $1M ARR solo, 2.5M sites built

Carrd, a single-page website builder run essentially by one guy (AJ), does about $1 million ARR as a subscription business, with 2.5 million sites built on it. He raised money in 2021 to go bigger.

“it's kind of crazy, 2.5 million sites have been built on Carrd. And yeah, I think he said like a million ARR.”

A Mischief-style recruiting agency that runs viral challenges

Steph pitches a recruiting agency that lures top talent with public puzzles and competitions (like SpaceX bounties or Mischief stunts) instead of cold LinkedIn DMs, then funnels the winners to client companies.

“And so my question is, why isn't there like a really like mischief-style recruiting agency that puts out these challenges that the smartest people on the internet are like stoked to solve just out of like sheer pride that they then can funnel potentially into these companies?”

Steal thisRecruit elite talent by publishing hard public challenges and hiring whoever solves them.

Mischief-style recruiting agency that runs viral puzzle challenges

Steph riffs on Mischief's $50-entry standardized-test stunt and proposes a recruiting agency that posts creative challenges the smartest people on the internet solve for pride, then funnels them to hiring companies.

“but it reminded me of something you guys talk about on the pod or have talked about on the pod, which is, you know, the power of like crowdsourcing things like SpaceX. If they want to develop some new technology, they put out some competition and that tends to attract more interesting people than, you know, if they hire a bunch of recruiters to go, you know, find the people in theory they're looking for.”

Steal thisRecruit top talent by publishing hard public challenges instead of cold LinkedIn DMs.

Sivers: execution turns a $20 idea into $20 million

Steph Smith cites Derek Sivers' framework that ideas are worth almost nothing and execution is everything — great execution can take a brilliant idea from being worth $20 to $20 million, which is why Trends is building for operators, not just idea generators.

“In fact, if you've ever heard of Derek Sivers' framework, ideas are worth almost nothing and execution is everything. Great execution can take a brilliant idea from being worth $20 to $20 million.”

Turn a retail cost center into a profit center, like Nuuly rentals

Steph explains how Urban Outfitters' Nuuly flips clothing (normally drained by costly returns) into a profitable monthly rental, and challenges founders to find other cost centers that can become profit centers the way Amazon turned compute into AWS.

“And I just like, I wonder how this can be applied to other businesses. So like, what are those cost centers that could actually be turned into a profit center?”

Steal thisFind a money-losing operational function and rebuild it into a standalone profit center.

Cicada 3301 puzzles were rumored NSA/CIA recruitment tools

Steph describes Cicada 3301, a series of elaborate encrypted online puzzles; two were solved and the third never was, and many believed they were a recruiting mechanism for the NSA or CIA.

“have you guys heard of like Cicada 3301? No, no, no, it's— they covered it in the documentary, but basically it was like the epitome of these like crazy online puzzles. I think there's been 3 of them. The first 2 were solved, the third one still has not been solved.”

Make top talent feel chosen: 'you're in the top 0.001%'

Steph argues that a LinkedIn DM gets ignored, but telling someone they solved a game only the top 0.001% could crack is far more compelling as a recruiting hook because it appeals to pride.

“But if you played a game and at the end of that game, it's like you are part of the like 0.001% that solved this game. Like, I feel like that would be so much more compelling.”

Aggregator that tells you how to monetize your real estate

Steph pitches a site that matches your property's attributes (roof sunlight, height, location, square footage) to income opportunities like solar leases, steeple antennas, or backyard Surfline cams.

“I feel like there should be a site that says like, oh, you've got a house in this area, you have a roof that gets this much sunlight, or it's this tall, or it's this much square footage.”

Steal thisBuild a quiz that maps any property's specs to every passive-income use available to it.

Aggregator that tells you how to monetize your real estate

Steph pitches a site that matches your property's attributes (roof sunlight, height, location, square footage) to income opportunities like solar leases, steeple antennas, or backyard Surfline cams.

“I feel like there should be a site that says like, oh, you've got a house in this area, you have a roof that gets this much sunlight, or it's this tall, or it's this much square footage.”

Steal thisBuild a quiz that maps any property's specs to every passive-income use available to it.

Headlime: built in months, sold for 7 figures in 8 months

Danny built Headlime — a GPT-3-powered tool that generates landing page headlines and copy — in a couple of months, and sold it for seven figures within about eight months. A simple AI wrapper on an existing problem.

“So Headlime is a super, super simple app, but Danny, the guy who built it, built it in like a couple months and within a year he sold it for 7 figures. So all it was is it was using AI to generate kind of like landing page headlines or copy.”

Solve an existing niche problem, not an invented one

Steph's recurring pattern across these solo wins: each one solves a real, already-existing problem (need a one-page site, nice t-shirts, landing-page copy) rather than inventing a new behavior. The common mistake is building for things that don't really exist yet.

“I think the thing that a lot of people do wrong when they're trying to like do their like own little startup is they look for things that like don't really exist. But these are like perfect examples where it's like, oh, of course people need sites to like house their work. Of course people need like nice t-shirts and productivity stuff. Of course people need like landing page copy.”

Steal thisPick a problem people already obviously have, then make it easier — don't bet on inventing new demand.

Spring Loading: a paid community tracking executive stock grants

Steph describes Connor's paid community Spring Loading, which scrapes insider filings but vets specifically for big executive performance stock grants, then shares grant details, price targets, and a 1-5 conviction rating for each as a bullish signal.

“And what he does is he started a scraper that looks for all the insider trades, but then specifically vets them for this particular aspect. Like, is the company granting a buttload of stock to a group of executives? And he just, he basically shares these.”

Steal thisFilter insider-trade data for large executive performance grants and sell the signal as a community.

Nugget Comfort did $4M+ in a month with zero ad spend

Nugget Comfort makes modular kids' play-cushions (pillows you build forts with). Despite being only about a year old, they did over $4 million in sales in a single month with zero ad spend.

“But they made over $4 million in sales in a month with zero ad spend.”

Pokémon, Hello Kitty, Winnie the Pooh each topped $80B in merch alone

Steph notes the big franchises make their real money on merchandise, not the shows. Pokémon, Hello Kitty, and Winnie the Pooh have each done over $80 billion in merch sales — which is why public-domain copyright expirations could be a real opportunity.

“But the crazy thing about a lot of these big franchises, Pokémon, Hello Kitty, Winnie the Pooh, they've all done over $80 billion of sales in merch alone.”

'Healthiest cereal' gets 50,000 searches a month

Steph cites the surprising search volume behind health-food queries: 'healthiest cereal' draws ~50,000 searches/month, 'healthiest bread' ~30,000, and 'healthiest cheese' ~20,000 — evidence people want to eat healthy but feel unable to.

“something like healthiest cereal, which we all know like cereal's not good for you. 50,000 searches per month, healthiest bread, 30,000 searches a month, healthiest cheese 20,000.”

Your listicle is my opportunity

Steph's named rule ('your listicle is my opportunity'): when a high-volume query returns only listicles, that's an opening to build a structured, filterable tool that gives the answer directly. Nomad List did this for travel; Rich Barton's Expedia did it earlier.

“And there's so many sites that have basically found things with a lot of search volume and made it easier. Like that's what Nomad List does. He's like, you know what, there's all these like variables and you can play with them yourself. I'm going to collect this data. So that instead of getting a bunch of listicles when you look up like hot place in June to go traveling, he's like giving you that information so you can access it yourself, right?”

Steal thisFind a high-volume query that returns only listicles, then build a structured database/tool that answers it directly.

Mine 'healthiest X' keywords in Ahrefs — low difficulty, high volume

Steph's concrete play: enter 'healthiest food' in Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, hit Matching Terms, and you get hundreds of seeded queries (healthiest taco, healthiest Starbucks, etc.) with surprisingly low keyword difficulty despite real search volume.

“go to Ahrefs, go to the Keywords Explorer, enter healthiest food. And then if you go to matching terms, it'll basically give you this like list of terms that are similar.”

Steal thisUse Ahrefs Matching Terms on a seed phrase to surface hundreds of low-difficulty long-tail keywords.

Athletes get paid; they rarely build equity

Steph contrasts most celebrities and athletes — who optimize for getting paid in the moment — with the rare few who build real equity in a brand or product. Chess champ Magnus Carlsen is her example of an athlete who actually built an empire he owns.

“So what a lot of celebrities or athletes do is they focus on like getting paid at the time, but then they really, really struggle to build up any sort of equity in like a product or a brand that they're building, which as most people know, the way that you, you know, actually accrue wealth is through equity.”

Play Magnus: ~$20M revenue run-rate, Carlsen owns the upside

Magnus Carlsen's chess company is publicly traded with 250 employees and 4M registered users. Last quarter's revenue was $5M (a ~$20M annual run-rate, up from $8M total in 2020), showing an athlete who built and largely owns a real business.

“So it looks like revenue, um, last quarter was $5 million. So it's doing around $20 million. Actually, it's grown a lot recently. So it was only started, looks like in 2019, 2020 had total revenue of $20, or sorry, $8 million. But it's, you know, last quarter was $5. So it's trending towards $20 million.”