A Breakdown of Trendy New Businesses & Boring 9 Figure Businesses | My First Million #202

About this video

Sam and Shaan explore several business models that generate substantial revenue through minimal innovation and high switching costs. They discuss Jostens’ class ring business ($700M+ annually), stretching gyms and wellness trends, ephemeral tattoos, and “couch cushion businesses” like Pantone’s color matching system ($100M+) and WGSN’s trend forecasting service ($90M+), identifying how lock-in and standardization create durable, low-effort businesses.

Key takeaways

• The most profitable businesses often aren’t about innovation but about becoming the default standard that’s hard to replace—Jostens has dominated class rings for 124 years by securing school distribution, while Pantone created a universal color language that manufacturers must use.
• Accessibility and convenience drive market expansion: ephemeral tattoo startups like Inkbox and Ephemeral are growing the tattoo market by lowering commitment barriers from lifetime to one year, and stretching gyms are capitalizing on wellness trends by offering specialized services outside traditional fitness.
• Distribution partnerships with existing institutions (schools, tattoo parlors, retailers) are more valuable than owning all retail locations—Ephemeral should license their biodegradable ink to existing tattoo shops rather than opening their own studios to scale faster.
• Shaan’s content strategy shift emphasizes creating fewer, higher-quality pieces (screenplays, blog posts, rap songs) instead of chasing Twitter trends, inspired by examples like Blake Ross writing a Silicon Valley episode and Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue mastery.
• Boring, standardized products with recurring revenue models (compliance posters, color books, trend reports) often outperform innovation-focused businesses because they create unavoidable annual repurchases and network effects across industries.

Episode details: published July 21, 2021 · 18K views · 1:04:21 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The business ideas, figures and results discussed are the hosts’ and guests’ own claims, shared as brainstorming and entertainment — not verified facts and not investment advice.

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