When thinking of business ideas I often find myself saying “no that won’t work.” But then I run into Origin and I it challenges my assumptions.

The Orijin Design Company launched three successful Kickstarter campaigns selling small eggs made from different materials…

They are marketed as something that you can hold and focus on to calm down. Something to remind you to take a moment. Kind of like a classy fidget spinner.

Now, if someone would have come to me and asked me to back a business making egg shaped rocks I would have been hard pressed to invest. But here are the results (in Canadian dollars):

Campaign 1: $188K with 4,485 backers

Campaign 2: $580k with 7,481 backers

Campaign 3: $391k with 3,141 backers

They also mention in the Kickstarter description (now deleted) that they sold over 150,000 items, which would mean over $2 million in revenue since they started.

They even expanded the offering and make a 100% natural plant-based sponge infused with minerals and solid perfumes (taking water out of products is a trend)!

Now this isn’t a giant success like Moonpig’s £120 million exit or when Ankur Nagpal sold Teachable.com for $250 million, but it does show you that a simple unique idea can still work. So don’t be afraid to start something!

Business ideas that you could start like this?

• You could create similar products, but make them spheres and market them as a pair to swirl in your hand, there used to be these musical metal balls that people used to swirl to relax

• Element cubes marketed as something to focus on for mindfulness

• Element bracelet’s marketed for mindfulness

• Elemental dice

Business Ideas of the Week

• “Faceless” YouTube channel using AI (link)

• Mini portable printers are a trend (link)

• Etsy side hustle using AI to blend portraits into images (link)

• I think you could productize this business that is charging $950 to have a google review removed (link)

Business Success Stories of the Week

• Mark Zhang has grown Manta Sleep (sleep masks) to an eight figure brand (link)

• Harvest hosts, which lets RV owners stay in unique locations, has grown to 250,000 members, which is $25 million in annual recurring revenue at their cheapest package (link)

• Fount has a brilliant marketing bundle where they sell their pro level package that includes supplements, a weekly coach and quarterly bloodwork for $2,500 a month (link)

• An app that tracks Nancy Pelosi trades got mentioned on the My First Million pod and reached $250k in ARR (link)

• Financials for a tree care company in their 2nd full month of operation (link)

Interesting Finds of the Week

• Dr. Nicole Paulk captivated the audience at the All-In Summit with her talk on gene therapy (link)

• Interesting biz stat: Global chocolate market is $142 billion/year ruled by 3-4 companies for the past 100+ years (source: Peel podcast with Nick Saltarelli)