Brian Dean
Appearances
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
The beauty of it, you build the audience, the world is your oyster, as you know. Once you have the audience, the product's the easiest thing to do. I mean, even if you don't wanna create your own, just promote other people's ADHD apps. But the point is, everyone's trying to go, they go right for the product. They're going, okay, I wanna make an ADHD chair.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, for sure, man. Yeah, that company that I invested here was called Mama Food. They did that. And it definitely helped add that element of personal touch. But it's just logistically was difficult. But yeah, they did that. They would have in your, like when you ordered from, instead of going by restaurant, you go by chef. So you go for like chef number one. Oh, this lady, she's from Bangladesh.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
And this is her meal she made back in the day or her mom made for her. So it had that little bit of story element to it.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, yeah. So the other idea I have, I don't know if you'll like this one. But how many ideas do you have? You said come with some half-baked ideas, two to three. I think I have to check my notes. I have my notes written down. I wrote a bunch down.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
So the other one I have is based on a lot of trend data we're seeing, we're seeing a bunch of trends in the ADHD space, especially when it comes to products. So more and more people are getting diagnosed and self-diagnosing themselves with ADHD. And there's a lot of products around it now.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Like for example, some trends that we're seeing in that space include ADHD timers, ADHD watches, ADHD chairs, ADHD coaches, ADHD apps, And this is basically a booming market that people aren't really talking about that much. So for me, the opportunity isn't necessarily in these individual SKUs, these individual products, it's in no one's creating the brand for ADHD.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
So anyone that creates that community, that brand around ADHD, Then you can – the world is your oyster when it comes to selling these products. You can sell your own. You can sell affiliate products. You can be – you can promote other people's stuff. But I haven't seen that out there. My wife recently got diagnosed with ADHD and it's –
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
It's interesting because a lot of people who are like influencers in this space are saying you can use it as a superpower. Actually, it can be an advantage for you. And I feel like the first brand that comes out and positions ADHD as that is like we help you take this thing that could be looked at as a disadvantage and it's actually something you can use to your advantage. We'll show you how.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
And we have a community of people that will help you do it.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, that's a good idea. That's a good way to do it. That's a good brand. The person would have to be someone that's not a likeness that's copyrighted or trademarked. So it has to be from back in the day, like that.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
But that's the beauty of it. You build the audience, the world is your oyster, as you know. You can worry about the product later. It can be a suite of products. It can start with an app and then be fidget toys and then be a chair. Once you have the audience, the product's the easiest thing to do. I mean, even if you don't want to create your own, just promote other people's ADHD apps. Yeah.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
But the point is, everyone's trying to go, they go right for the product. They're going, okay, I want to make an ADHD chair. They're forgetting the most important part and the opportunity in this space is to create the brand. So when you think of, I need help with ADHD, I want to do something about it. I go to Julius and that's the brand that's associated with this growing, huge market.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, the first idea right off the bat is one that I would pay for. It's a take my money situation. It's an AI content updater. So there are a million and one tools for creating content with AI. There's content writing tools. There's tools that do outlines. There are tools that rewrite your content. There are tools that will take your long-form video and chop it up into shorts.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
And you don't see very often a huge growing market without a go-to brand. And that's what we're seeing.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Well, in meditation, like for example, I don't know if you know Dan Harris from 10%. He built a huge meditation brand where they were – meditation was seen as like a woo-woo thing that you did in your garden cross-legged and he was a newscaster who had panic attacks and he used –
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
he wrote a book called 10% happier about his journey from being a skeptic about meditation to, uh, someone that practiced it every day. And then he created an app around that and they have a whole community and a brand. So he was able to take that and turn that into a brand for a specific niche within meditation. That is this like skeptical group.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
So that's one that comes to mind as built completely from scratch in a growing space. Um, How about you? Do you have any, Greg, that you can think of?
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, yeah. I mean, some businesses start with a product and they do well that way. There's no right or wrong way. Yes, there is. Okay, well, what's the right way, I guess?
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, for sure. I'm with you 100%, especially because in this particular area, The crowded area is the product area. So if you were to create another ADHD chair, you're one of like 100 of those. And they can get knocked off really easily on Amazon. If you're a brand, then you don't need to worry about knockoffs because you'll say, we have the best ADHD chair or we have the best ADHD planner.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
And next thing you know, people are buying it.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
I need to check my notes on that. Oh yeah, this is another, I think you might sip this one as the kids say, Greg. So this is another, back to B2B, a content repurposing service. So this is another scratch my own itch thing. So
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
But what real publishers need is help updating their existing content library. So, for example, with Exploding Topics, we have... maybe like 500 blog posts, which is nothing compared to most publishers. And even that we have trouble keeping up to date.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
If you work in content marketing and SEO for bigger brands, they always, even smaller brands, they have content that's just sitting around collecting dust that was published once. It's an email newsletter. It's a video. It was a webinar. It's an article. It's a tweet. And they never repurpose that content.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
And for me, that's the greatest opportunity with content marketing right now is repurposing rather than creating original stuff from scratch because it's cheaper and it has a proven track record already. So in my case, for example, with Exploring Topics, we have... all this blog content, and we're starting to repurpose it into videos on a YouTube channel that we started.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
So it's so much easier to create those videos because we already have the building blocks of the article. We don't have to think and say, oh, what should we make a video about? Oh, what should we start with? We go, okay, here are the biggest marketing trends. We have a blog post about marketing trends that was updated last week. Let's turn that into a video.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Or the reverse, let's take the video and turn it into a bunch of shorts and an article and an email newsletter and a webinar or whatever. So for me, that's another take my money if someone emailed me and said, hey, you have all this content, let's get some more value out of it.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah. But I think, like you said, it's kind of an easy sell. Again, it's kind of like the updating idea in the sense there's a small market that will 100% get it. And most people won't. And that's fine. Because the market that will get it is huge. And they have money. And they're willing. And you're basically saying...
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
know if you're selling a dollar for a dime basically you're saying you have all this content you give me this money as a service and then we'll just get you more roi from that content you felt obviously you felt good enough to create it once so why not just distribute it eight times in eight different formats and we'll do that for you so for me it's an easy sell easy everything the hard part is the delivery like you said like you said greg where
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
We have about, uh, you know, one and a half full time people constantly updating this content and they're going in, they're saying, okay, this, that's a little bit old or this isn't really as relevant anymore. Or there's a link that's broken or there's a source that's more recent we can use. And they're doing it manually.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
It's not something I can do because it does require some ingenuity in terms of what's the best way to turn this video into a blog post, to turn this, you know, blog post into a video. However, whichever direction you're going in, because what a lot of people do is they'll say, oh, I want to. get more out of my videos. So I'll get a transcript of the video and I'll publish it as a blog post.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
they're forgetting the most important part and the opportunity in this space is to create the brand so when you think of i need help with adhd i want to do something about it i go to julius and that's the brand that's associated with this growing huge market and you don't see very often a huge growing market without a go-to brand and that's what we're seeing
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
They never do well because you need someone to turn that into, you can take that content and turn it into a blog post, but you need to filter it through the lens of like writing it as if it was a blog post for the first time. But even that is so much faster than writing from scratch. So for me, that's another idea that I would happily be shelling out money for.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Um, I would say at max, like if you create a huge agency out of it, like eight figures, like 10 million.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Oh, thanks, man. I spent some time on it. I really want, I wanted to come prepared.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah. Hey, you're welcome. Anytime, Greg.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
The best place is probably on X, Brian E. Dean. Cool.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
So if there was a tool that could go through your existing content library, find areas that need to be updated and actually go into your CMS and update it, it would be a game changer.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
I would say this would be something you'd want to go more enterprising for sure. Like it's starting at a thousand bucks a month because anyone who has a small con, if you don't publish that much or have a big library, it's not that valuable because you can do it manually. You can just use spreadsheets and have a couple of staff members do it. That's what we're doing now.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
But let's say you have 25,000 posts. You're like Tom's guide or something.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
you it's and it's insane to even think of doing that manually but you need to to keep this stuff up to date because it's about technology so i would say you're starting at like a thousand five thousand ten thousand you know that big enterprise contract level and if you were to start something like this okay so this is a great idea i see the need i actually i would pay pay definitely a few thousand dollars a month for something like this uh how would you go about
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
The first thing I would build it for myself. So I'd be my own case study to start with. And it's one of those business ideas are usually, in my opinion, the best because you're using it yourself. So you can see what needs to be added. What does it need to be done? Where does it mess up? Where is it good? Where is it bad?
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
So first thing would definitely be building a beta that I test out on my own site or a different property that I own to get the nuts and bolts out. And then from there, I'd probably do manual outreach and just be like, you have this massive library. I'm seeing a bunch of posts that haven't been updated in three years. We have software.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
I'll just go in, use AI and give it some updates that it needs.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, I love it. Yeah. And better expansion revenue too, because with the tier system, it's hard to get people to move up from the different tiers. You can, I mean, it's not possible, but there's friction there. You have to lock out a feature or lock out a number of seats. The person has to click a button. They have to then, you know,
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Decide on the next plan and I don't know if I really need it or should I just wait till next month. But if you just do it where, you know, it's the first 10 updates are free or five updates are free and then $1 each additional update per month, then that's actually probably better.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
No, I haven't looked like super extensively, but I haven't seen it.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
feel like you would know yeah i kind of yeah i feel like i would have come across it because i've had this idea since i started the exploding topics blog got big you know with you know we got like 650 000 visitors a month and i'm thinking how and we're hiring all these people to update i'm just like how can we automate this so i have my radar set to find this and i haven't seen anything out there for this brian this is what i'm talking about this is such a good idea
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, this is a take my money situation. And the best part about it is that it's a no-brainer offer for the right customer. If you reach out to a smaller blog and you're doing $49 a month, you're going to be in a world of pain with this product. But if you go to the bigger publishers that have at least – and it's easy to find. You're literally –
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Your leads are sites that have more than X number of pages on the site. And assuming those are, that's blog content. And you just cold outreach and say, I noticed, and I noticed you have these posts that are out of date. We just built something that can update them. Or if you want to go crazy here, you know, here's the updated versions that are software created for you.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
You know, let me know if this is something you'd like to automate.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Do you want my next idea, I guess? That's the transition. Yes, I would like. Okay. As a host, I thought you would just like ask, but no, I'll just do it. I'll host this one.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
All right. Great. So my second one is definitely not an indie hacker business. This would require some cash. So I don't know if that's against the rules, Greg.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
I think you'll like this idea, though.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
In the millions, probably.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Let me just say what it is.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yes, yes. Okay, yes.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
So do you know factor 75?
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
They're like a meal service that there are these like pre-prepared meals that you buy. They sponsor a bunch of YouTube channels and you basically say, okay, I'm vegan or I'm keto and they deliver, let's say seven meals a week and you warm them up and they're ready to go and they deliver them to your door. These are huge right now, this meal service. But the problem is,
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
they're the meals are like not the highest quality they're about 10 bucks a pop 11 bucks a pop my idea and something else i would pay for is like an uber black of meal delivery where we're talking 50 to start and it's chef prepared meals super gourmet And it's essentially like what you get with a private chef without needing to have a private chef come to your house.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Because my buddy has a private chef and I go to his house and she makes these amazing meals. And I'm always like, oh, I should hire her. But then I'm like, I'm going to have someone come into my house and cook in my kitchen. And I'm playing Fortnite with my friends. It's weird. But why would I do that?
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
And I don't want to order a meal that's like 10 bucks, their margins, you know, how much does it cost them to make? They're using like the lowest quality ingredients possible. I'll pay 50 because it's what I would pay for a nice meal out. For a chef prepared meal, it's not made to order.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Like that's the thing about Factor 75, but you can tailor it to your dietary restrictions, gluten-free or what have you. So for me, that would be another take my money situation.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, the same. That's what I'm saying. So I would pay 50 even if it was the same meal. I'm a sucker. I just don't want to think you're getting – I don't want to think I'm eating something that costs them a buck to make. I might as well get a Hungry Man meal for that. So why not get a nice – so it would be high-end and it would come at like – with Uber Eats –
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
It's like some guy gives it to you in a paper bag. Here you go. This would be presented almost like an Apple product. You open it up and it would be like beautifully presented. It would be this whole like culinary experience at home. Because even during COVID, I remember a lot of really nice Michelin star restaurants started doing Uber Eats because they were closed.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
And they were figuring out ways to do this. So it's not totally unprecedented to pay this much for essentially a delivery meal. But you have to order from Uber Eats. This would replace those sort of pre-prepared meals that come and you put them in the fridge and then warm them up when you want. But they're going to be like 50 to 75 bucks a pop.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
And it's going to be like lobster and free range chicken and grass fed beef and stuff like that.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, or the microwave.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
No, no. Oh, for this thing? No, no, dude. Come on.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
You're right. I am, I guess, because I thought about it. I must be.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, maybe not. I just, usually it's more than you think. So I usually go up. So whatever number first pops into my head, I usually double it. So that's where I came up with that number. I thought it cost like 500K. So probably double that because of all the stuff, you know, that doesn't come to your, to your head.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Yeah, it's more of an intimate episode. We're just going right into it. It's already the best episode. It's only like 20 seconds in. So all the pressure is off now.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
You could do it yourself. I mean, you could do it in your house. I invested in a company that went out of business that did that here in Lisbon, where I spend most of my time. They started at-home Uber Eats, basically, home-cooked Uber Eats.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
And they partnered with different home cooked chefs and they would make a meal for you on demand at their house instead of at a restaurant and they would ship it to you. So I have some experience in this world and I know that the challenge with that business is the delivery on demand element where you need to make it now. Someone sends an order, you need to be like at the ready, ready to go.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
And if you're not a restaurant or a ghost kitchen, it doesn't make sense. That's why I like these prepared meals because you can do them at a massive scale and just ship them out.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
No. If you just – New York, San Francisco, Austin, a couple of those tech cities where people have more money than cents like me who will just pay $50 for a meal that someone made that's – you're picturing them in a white – like with white gloves. Yeah, suckers. The sucker market really. Yeah. That they'll pay for it because I'm at the point where I like cooking.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
But I'm a little bit like I don't want to have to cook every night. And the challenge is Uber Eats is like a mixed bag. I don't really enjoy the whole experience of like ordering, waiting for it. So these meals sound like a great thing. But again, 10 bucks, it's not as bad as a hot dog, but it's the same idea.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
I'm not judging.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
If it was like a dollar, man, come on. But anyway, the idea is that the reason that I like it is that in most markets, there's an option for a higher tier, whether it's cars, software, gyms. There's usually a market for this higher end version of that thing, but I haven't seen it in this space yet.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
handwritten notes or just stories you know people especially suckers suckers love stories they do they can't get enough of them but you're right i can imagine opening it and you get a little note from the chef like i hope you enjoy it doesn't have to be for every meal because you're sending these in bulk right like a week or 7 10 20 30 meals at a time so one note from the chef that says hey uh i hope you enjoyed these meals we made for you this week
The Startup Ideas Podcast
4 profitable startups from the founder of exploding topics
Greg, you know Chef Greg. I think that would go a long way, forgetting those suckers to share it on social media.