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The Startup Ideas Podcast

6 Scalable Startup Ideas (You Can Start Tomorrow)

12 Jan 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 19.551 Greg Isenberg

You're a side hustle could turn into a real company and a real company can change your life.

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Chapter 2: What startup idea revolves around Facebook Marketplace?

19.591 - 49.728 Greg Isenberg

So in this episode, it's all about ideas that could generate cash flow that can turn into real businesses anywhere between a few hundred thousand dollars a year to $50 million a year businesses. Enjoy the episode. Welcoming my brother from another mother, Chris Kerner, on the show, Startup Ideas Podcast. He's back, I think, for the third time.

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49.808 - 53.813 Greg Isenberg

Chris, by the end of this episode, what are people going to learn?

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Chapter 3: How can a DTC product studio leverage short-form video and AI?

54.734 - 64.386 Chris Koerner

They are going to learn that they should not stay seated in their seat. This episode is successful if they hit pause and go out and do something and then come back days later and finish it.

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64.827 - 70.774 Greg Isenberg

And will you give people specific ideas and sauce to get them out of their seats?

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71.227 - 77.942 Chris Koerner

Greg, my name is Christopher Sauce Kerner. Like that's the whole brand. What are we talking about here? Of course.

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78.544 - 86.081 Greg Isenberg

Okay. So as long as you could commit to the sauce and that, I mean, people do need to move their own legs, but at least, right?

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86.803 - 87.003 Chris Koerner

Yeah.

Chapter 4: What business model is proposed for bike washing and maintenance subscriptions?

87.524 - 89.168 Greg Isenberg

But you're going to get them pretty close.

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89.232 - 97.126 Chris Koerner

This will be saucy. There's going to be like four linguine noodles in there, and it's just going to be drowning in arrabbiata sauce.

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97.386 - 101.293 Greg Isenberg

And before we get in, what type of categories of ideas are we talking about?

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101.794 - 114.292 Chris Koerner

So we're going to go approachable, low startup cost, low friction to start, affordable. But like... I, in my opinion, everything is scalable, right?

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Chapter 5: How do anti-drink-spike stickers provide a unique business opportunity?

114.592 - 132.199 Chris Koerner

So the question, I just hate it when people say like, is that even scalable? Like, yes, it's scalable. The right question is, how hard would it be to scale that to whatever number? Because for some, $100,000 a year is scale. To some, $100 million, right? So these are all scalable.

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132.23 - 140.461 Greg Isenberg

So these are ideas that can be anywhere from $10,000 a month all the way up to... Shoot, I mean, eight figures a year.

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Chapter 6: What is the concept behind shiny rock vending machines at trailheads?

140.481 - 145.167 Chris Koerner

$10 million a year in revenue with double-digit profit margins.

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145.187 - 147.169 Greg Isenberg

Okay, you have my attention.

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147.49 - 150.494 Chris Koerner

Okay, I'm going to read some stats to you. You ready?

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151.074 - 151.275 Greg Isenberg

Yeah.

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Chapter 7: How does the Kabuto King strategy influence collectible card grading?

152.076 - 178.302 Chris Koerner

Facebook Marketplace. We talked about Facebook last year, or maybe the last time I was on this. Facebook Marketplace. Facebook has over 3 billion monthly active users. 16% of those are monthly active users for Facebook Marketplace. Half a billion people use Facebook Marketplace. 16% of active users log into Facebook for the sole purpose of shopping on Facebook Marketplace.

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178.282 - 198.349 Chris Koerner

And Facebook knew what they were doing. They saw that the wall wasn't very popular anymore. So they started adding groups and Mark, like they know what they're doing. They're smart, right? That's why we invest in Mark Zuckerberg. 51% of all recent social media purchases. So like not Amazon, social media purposes all happened on Facebook marketplace. Okay.

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200.371 - 226.934 Chris Koerner

My point, Facebook Marketplace is massive. It's huge. There are countless people that solely rely on Facebook Marketplace for their living. And I've got a bunch of ideas around this. A lot of them kind of like hands-on, dirty, sweaty. But the first one is... Why is no one building third-party apps for Facebook Marketplace? Apps that scan items for you. Apps that give you price alerts.

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227.115 - 246.443 Chris Koerner

Apps where you can use the API in a compliant way to scrape and to find alpha and to see, oh, this dresser over here is listed for this, but it's actually worth this on eBay, like arbitrage apps. I've already looked into it. Don't tell me the API permissions don't allow for it, because they do. People are not building apps on top of Facebook Marketplace, and I don't know why.

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246.794 - 248.12 Greg Isenberg

That's crazy, dude.

248.803 - 250.149 Chris Koerner

Half a billion users.

250.55 - 256.838 Greg Isenberg

I was almost 100% convinced that it just was impossible. Right.

256.953 - 275.734 Chris Koerner

Like I vibe coded one that like scanned items. It would reach out to people like I'm not an expert. I don't even know how to code. I vibe coded it and it worked for my use case. I didn't like scale it. I didn't sell it, but like it is possible. The API allows for it. People would pay for it. They make their living from Facebook marketplace. If they can have an edge, they would pay for it.

275.754 - 285.205 Chris Koerner

No one's doing it. eBay has thousands of apps built on top of it, right? Some of those apps got acquired by eBay for hundreds of millions of dollars. Like there's something here.

Chapter 8: How can listeners take actionable steps from this episode's ideas?

1129.795 - 1162.587 Greg Isenberg

For cyclists, you can actually cycle for 130 kilometers on this bike path. And every maybe 15 kilometers, there's a little station where people could hang out, have a coffee, have a bite to eat. Yeah, exactly, fix a flat. And the cities operate that. The towns operate it. So I would do a deal with them and be like, let's split the revenue on this. This just makes your bike path just more...

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1162.803 - 1182.887 Chris Koerner

like a better experience so you're happy you're also getting some more revenue and then you have distribution there oh i love that sell them you sell a dozen of them to a city and just like charge an ongoing maintenance fee and instead of trying to make a thousand bucks in a day you might make 50 bucks a day but a lot more passively a lot more passively yeah i like that a lot

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1183.61 - 1194.261 Greg Isenberg

Yeah, the other thing that comes to mind is like, but how do you actually go and, okay, like let's say this is a good idea. How do I actually go and build this? Like how do I manufacture this? Like what are the next steps?

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1194.443 - 1213.674 Chris Koerner

I don't think you need to manufacture anything. I think you start with a rented trailer, a $200 pressure washer, and very manually you cleaning bikes in areas where there are dirty bikes right then and there. And then you go from there. You save your money and you buy one of these when you can afford it. I don't think you have to start with that.

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1214.535 - 1220.062 Greg Isenberg

Okay. So you just basically prove it out with like... you know, you just prove it out first.

1220.383 - 1229.631 Chris Koerner

Yeah. And you don't even need to buy it. Like those box trailers are like 10 grand. You don't even need to buy one. You can rent one from home Depot or whatever. Have you, uh, are you a cyclist? Have you washed a bike?

1231.248 - 1232.49 Greg Isenberg

No, I've never washed a bike.

1232.51 - 1254.26 Chris Koerner

Dude, it's the worst. I'm like, I have a road bike and a mountain bike. And I'm not technically inclined. I'm not a handy guy. And these things are always breaking the gears. I just wish someone could just ensure that my bike was clean and maintained. On a regular basis. And I don't ever have to think about it because half the time when I go to ride, like something's broke, something's dirty.

1254.66 - 1273.945 Chris Koerner

Like that could be a whole other business on like a bike maintenance plan or whatever. There's a company called VeloFix that does like mobile bike repair. They come to you. That's a pretty big business, actually. I think they sell franchise territories, but something like that. But for ongoing maintenance or you can have like a bike washing subscription with with this idea.

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