The big business of pranking

Updated: April 23rd, 2022

This is an archive of the Starter Story newsletter, which is read by 208K people every week.

In each issue, we share the biggest business ideas that are working today, along with case studies of founders who are making millions every month. Sign up today ➜


Million-dollar business from your kitchen table?

The "kitchen table" is an expression that can be taken figuratively, but it can also be taken literally...

Check out these multi-million dollar businesses that started from their kitchen table:

article

This week we spoke to Suzie who also started her $36M/year healthy snacks brand this way. She decide that the lack of resources wasn't going to stop her because (1) she thought it was important to provide customers with healthier options and (2) spotted an opportunity in the market.

Our take:

Don't wait for the perfect equipment or setup to start working on your idea. The only thing you need is a vision and the drive to make it come true.

Some numbers for you:

  • 69%-> of businesses start from home
  • $120M -> Suzie's business sales
  • 50 -> her age when started the business

Your pain is a potential money-making business

Our day-to-day is full of inefficiencies. Tasks and processes that could be improved. Sometimes we forget that millions of people around the world also experience the exact pain as us.

That's why designing a solution for your own problems is one that may be helpful enough to build an entire business around.

And that's what Jaime did, the founder of Virtual Latinos. Instead of suffering the problems of hiring virtual assistants, he didn't settle and started his own business: now he makes $4.2M/year.

Our take:

Keep your eyes open to the inefficiencies around you every day. Do you know how Dropbox was born? The founder forgot his USB stick.

Some numbers for you:

  • $245.91B -> size of the outsourcing industry
  • $4.2M -> Virtual Latinos yearly revenue
  • 50,000 -> applicants want to work with them

Join Starter Story

Starting a profitable business can be learned, do it from others who have already done it.

Access our unique database of 2,700+ founders of successful businesses sharing the exact timeline of building their business to thousands of customers.

Get real answers to key questions like:

  • How do people find great business opportunities?
  • What did they do to get their 10 first clients?
  • What challenges do they face at every stage and how to overcome them?

Join Starter Story Premium for $2.58/week, and get instant access to our thousands of case studies, business ideas and marketing strategies, for less than the cost of the top 10 business books. A no brainer investment for your business.

The wild & crazy million-dollar prank industry

I love businesses that sell novelty products. Glitter bombssinging cards that never shut off, or framed Kanye tweets, there is a small but growing niche in the prank and joke space.

And that brings me to our next interview: Adam is a solo founder with 3 employees doing $1.5M in revenue per year - and what do they sell? Chocolate 'junk'.

Our take:

How can a seemingly dumb joke become a business that's worth millions? Their products can go viral. 

A prank makes for great content. When someone gets a chocolate dong in the mail, they're likely to share it on their social media and tell everyone about it via word of mouth. Or get covered by tons of press outlets:

article

Some numbers for you:

Read Adam's update on how he grew his business to over $1.5M/year.

What's your hobby? Might be a huge business

What do you know more about than most people? Likely, it's that weird and obscure hobby you have.

So why not try to and see if there is a viable business around it.

That's what Jon did.

At 17, Jon started a website about movie mistakes (!) and he has had the consistency to keep it current and working on it for the past 25 years.

His reward? Making a living at it. He even was invited as a regular expert guest on TV:

article

Our take:

Any hobby has the potential to become a full-time business or a profitable side hustle: aromatherapy ($900K/year)aquariums e-commerce ($120K/year or disc golf ($12M/year). It doesn't matter how niche or weird you think it is. 

Some numbers for you:

Thanks for reading!

--- Pat Walls, David Bustos & the rest of the Starter Story team :)

meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.