In the side projects thread, we learned that WSO is comprised mainly of gambling fiends, e-commerce hustlers, and a few tech-buzzword bros. No surprising results here, but now I ask a different question: what truly big entrepreneurial / investment ideas does anyone have? Feel free to give only a description if you're not at liberty to tell (like this guy).
Is real estate a good idea, and how does it vary geographically? What does the hedge fund space look like for small players? Do you know of anyone who started their own consulting practice? Or perhaps you know a website owner who struck gold and is now a millionaire? Millions is what we're talking about - let's leave the "extra $50k" discussions for the Wanda Jianlin's of the world.
"Buy Real Estate A.J, because God ain't making anymore of it"
-Tony Soprano
I now put 90% of my money into crypto currencies. I'm in BTC, LTC, ETH, OMG, XRM, and NAV. Hoping to quit my job.
What kind of research / analysis have you done to back those decisions? And your tag is green, which means I have to ask the unfortunate question of whether "all your cash" is comparable to a certain user's $11,000...
My liquidity is around $20k, made some easy money this Summer lol! The rest is my car, Rolex and securities.
Any thoughts on the upcoming Astronaut ICO from Piccolo research? https://astronaut.capital/
Seems like a great entry point for people not sure what to pick, their research thus far is pretty solid.
Have you seen Visa Shift?
https://www.shiftpayments.com/
I ordered mine this week. You can cash out at the ATM or charge straight from cryptocurrencies on the Visa card.
I use coinbase - it pulls from there.
Not sure how long these Crypto's will be around for but I have had some decent returns so far in BTC (86%) and ETH (20%). Didn't invest any large sums in them since they are purely speculative though.
I started and sold my startup as mentioned previously. Made a sum in the seven figures.
Then I met @Angel Molester" and he talked me into his pitch about why SEX DUNGEONS are the NEXT BIGGEST THING and how they're going to DISRUPT and CHANGE the WORLD. I fell for it and lost my savings.
"#herebeforeangelmolester
Some fintech I'm working on with a couple of people goes live late October/Early November.
I pray to god it doesn't bust and I wasted these last 6 months of programming my life away.
Niche industry, first of its kind product. Not sure how it hasn't been made yet, to be honest.
Start naming, we can help pump and dump (you got employee shares right?)
Spaghetti and meatball shakes. Not like ice cream flavored but like spaghetti and meatballs in a blender. I can finally go for a run without worrying about getting hungry while I'm out.
Whoa there buddy, I thought of Spaghetti and Meatball shakes first! Patent pending.
Lowkey want to write for SeekingAlpha. Duval has provided the perfect short thesis for GS.
Hahaha. That's good.
A sliver of sense for once on real estate. Too many people know "that friend" who killed it in RE. Often that friend didn't factor in interest costs, maintenance and taxes in calculating their return.
It can be a great investment. But it involves tying up a lot in one undiversified asset. There is definitely down side risk.
Of the three people I know who made it the most in pwm -
One made it in real estate but was super leveraged (10x).
One made it in stocks with great picks, had some industry concentrations but overall was well diversified. This guy had a six figure income but parlayed it into 9 figures of networth.
The third was an entrepreneur who made commercial shelving. Low R&D, cornered a huge market for 50 years.
What "great picks" can take you from an (assuming) 500k/year income into minimum $100mm of networth?
Cheap Tech Ventures To Undertake? (Originally Posted: 06/18/2011)
So, after a quarter of a century, I finally know what I want to do with my life. I want to own (and run) businesses. I'm driven to be an entrepreneur for the freedom and challenge, just as much as the (potential) financial upside. And, because I am driven by the freedom and autonomy, it's very important for me to own as close to 100% of the company as possible. Therefore, I'm interested in building companies that are relatively cheap, as I don't want to be forced to sell over half the company because I need millions upon millions of dollars to hit the next level. It seems to me that tech companies are generally expensive to start/scale. It seems that just about every successful tech company had venture capital funding at some point. So, I come here asking you guys for counterexamples? Which tech companies were cheap to start, and scaled via the profits generated by the business? What potential tech ventures are relatively cheap to pursue (both in the short and long term)?
RE is a good bet - easy to get leverage. Buy as owner occupied every 1-3 years, move in, rent rooms out (or not), and then repeat. Never sell, rent each place after you move out. Even if the rentals are cash flow neutral, you benefit from the principle you're paying and any appreciation. Shouldn't distract you from your day job, and by buying consistently every few years you're essentially dollar cost averaging into RE which is better than trying to time the market. Once you have some equity built up, you can do more exciting things like 1031 into commercial deals, get HELOC loans and use the money towards flips, etc.
Uh... Kushner has had a ton of great deals go well for him too but even so, him needing to fill a spec Manhattan skyscraper is very different than you finding a single guy or family to move into your old condo / house. If you liked it enough to buy it and move in, other people should too. Assuming your rent expectation isn't totally out of line, you should be fine. You could also hire a RE agent to place a tenant for you.
But you're right dude, stay away from real estate.
"Even Jared Kushner got fked hard in real estate. He bought a skyscraper in Manhattan and didn't put up enough equity. Demand fell and he got screwed in a slump and on the interest."
No one is dumb enough to pay a billion for a tall skyscraper in Manhattan except Kushner Cos. Harvard takes dumb kids after their dad pays a 7 seven figure donation. Every university does. That's the route I'm considering to get into Stanford GSB.
I've got one, but since you want close to 100% then it's a non starter. Incidentally, none of the big successful tech businesses were started up by one person alone (something I'm acutely aware of).
But things to bear in mind. Start ups need cash to survive and grow, so you need something instantly cash generative or super low cost. Website are an instant idea, ones that community groups contribute to are very easy to maintain, (the idea behind youtube or failblog, where users provide the content, once the ball is rolling). WSO is a good example, its a nice niche on the supersaturated jobs advice market.
I had a few ideas for the recession that I wanted to try, but between job hunting and my current venture it's not practical.
btw, your first few tries at this will crash and burn, think of it as the same as paying for a few more months in college. An investment into yourself.
T
I'm still interested in hearing about it...
By the way, I would definitely start a company with another person. I would be totally cool with owning 50% of a company, assuming my partner/friend owned the other 50%. So, I totally understand that a lot of tech companies were started by 2+ people, and I wouldn't necessarily be against partnerships. I'm just not interested in selling off a majority share of a company I started, to some outside party who didn't help build it, and is looking to flip it in 5 years.
Good points. I totally understand that start-ups need cash to grow. I'm just willing to take my time on it. I'd rather slowly build and empire, than try to earn that quick buck, sell off a bunch of my company, and flip it quick. (I'm not saying I'd never do that, it's just not my long term strategy/goal.)
Yeah, I hear ya. Once you land a job though, then you can start tinkering on the side.
I'm well aware of that. I totally agree - that's a great mindset. Thanks for the advice.
Tech companies are not franchises you can't just copy and paste a business plan. How big are you trying to be? Do you want a billion dollar company or do you just want a few bucks in residual income? Can you code? If not I highly recommend sharing equity with someone who can. I've worked with developers on a solely contract basis and it's just not the same (although it is fine to put a prototype together to pitch to investors).
My best suggestion for you is to find a niche where people typicall pay for a membership and then replicate their product keeping your site leaner and more efficient and then derive revenue from advertising. There's a book about it but I forget the name. It's exactly what plentyoffish.com did and he was pulling down 10 million a year by himself through ad words. That is the exception though, not the rule.
Its a great idea to have cofounders but an AWFUL one to have 50/50 partners. You will have a tough time making decisions.
I started a tech venture in college with similar terms and we had to edit our contracts to take the 50/50 clause out.
As for verticals you should start investigating, look into internet marketing and setting up BDO services. I ran BDO type shop in college and made great money on minimal investment (almost none). I am actually investigating various marketing options to supplement my income and get some passive income streams going by next summer.
What's so bad about two 50/50 partners? Wouldn't you just have to be unanimous on decisions? If it was someone you respect, trust, and have a relationship with, that might not be the bad (at least that's how it seems to me).
Not really tech but a good cheap to start business is ecommerce, especially drop shipping. check out the article below.
http://www.bluehatseo.com/from-affiliate-to-e-commerce-mogul-the-real-s…
[quote=Frank Slaughtery]Not really tech but a good cheap to start business is ecommerce, especially drop shipping. check out the article below.
http://www.bluehatseo.com/from-affiliate-to-e-commerce-mogul-the-real-s…]
Thanks, I'll check that out.
Beware starting business ventures with friends/family. Things can get awwwwwwkward. I started a website with a buddy of mine last year. Nothing major, but it was a fun little project. He kind of faded away and started doing less and less. It got to about a 85%/15% work split between myself and him.
Then our Adsense revenue started to pick up. The site was making like $40 a day in revenue (with almost no work). It's not a LOT of money, but having $1,200 direct deposited into my account every month for probably all totaled 4-5 hours of collective work over the month wasn't so bad.
Well one day I get an email from my buddy (who hadn't done a THING on the site in about a month), saying basically "I want my half of the money, where is it?". He didn't do anything for weeks and weeks. All the time he'd justify not doing much work by saying "hey man it's not about the money for me, whatever we make you can keep" blah blah blah.
I mailed him the $600 all in one dollar bills. We haven't spoken in months.
^ haha that sucks but the $600 in $1's is pretty funny...nice move
The main theme in terms of tech startups being organically funded is usually a website with ad revenue/membership fee and then later coupled with a tangible application...I've tried to start a few in college which i'm still looking to do (even though I now have a good job)
But most have the intention of seeking VC and you need a website/prototype when coming to a VCF...they dont fund ideas...
I'm an intern at a e-commerce startup in New York. We launch in a couple of weeks or so.
From my experience working here - what you need the most is an idea - an idea which addresses people's needs which they haven't yet realized. For example, Gift Side Story - www.giftsidestory.com. Through tons of research, it was found that men aren't bad at getting gifts for women - the average guy just procrastinates a ton and ends up having to get something quick without a lot of thought. The virtual gifting platform essentially allows you to save a ton of time and research (imagine going though 20 pages of products on amazon.com) by answering questions that then generates a choice of three products (based on inputs and price ranges).
From the idea, you then need a great team. Honestly, aside from these two the rest doesn't matter that much. If you have a great idea and a great team, everything else just falls into place.
Econ - Look up the company 37 signals based out of Chicago. And specifically look at youtube videos on its founders.
AlexanderHamilton Can you elaborate on the website you started?
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