20 years of juicy startup & life knowledge in 1159 words

1. Everything is a drug. Coffee is a drug. Food is a drug. Business is a drug. Use accordingly.

2. Google is a $2T biz walking around with their pants on fire because of AI. There's no guarantees in life

(keep reading) 3. Jargon almost never helps your case. The simplest sentences make things happen

4. Avoid “trust me” people. Constantly the most untrustworthy people

5. Why most products fail: not opinionated enough, wrong opinions, wrong community, distribution never figured out, giving up

My biggest flex is I bought a 3500 square foot house in the mountains outside Montreal, on a lake, with 20% down payment and these are the details

And yes, those numbers are Canadian dollars ($1 USD = $1.36 CAD)

I bought the house in 2020, when everything was shut down.

I figured if the world was ending, I'd want to be in nature, with fresh water, rivers and lakes.

This is outside my spot.

The anti-smartphone movement will be one of the biggest movements of our time. It's just getting started...





the future:

- phone free zones
- dopamine rehab centers
- more IRL fun without screens
- no screens turns into a status symbol
- apps that only work during certain hours

All of these UNBELIEVABLE videos were created using Sora, the new AI model from OpenAI

Watch each one and see how it makes you feel...

I don't think it's crazy for me to say this going to shift Hollywood, social apps and media forever

Video #1
Prompt: The camera directly faces colorful buildings in burano italy.

An adorable dalmation looks through a window on a building on the ground floor.

Many people are walking and cycling along the canal streets in front of the buildings.

My take:

This dog looks freakishly real. I want to pet him. Video #2

Prompt: A movie trailer featuring the adventures of the 30 year old space man wearing a red wool knitted motorcycle helmet, blue sky, salt desert, cinematic style, shot on 35mm film, vivid colors.

My take:

This could easily be Interstellar #2

Where's Matt Damon?

What would happen if I prompted with a celebrity on Sora?

No one talks about this but you can use Loom as a "lead magnet" in 10 minutes or less:

1) Record a Loom jam packed with value
2) Request email to view loom
3) Share Loom link on social or paid ads
4) Get thousands of emails
5) You now know there's demand for your product More Loom tips:

You can add a call-to-action button with a URL within looms

I always add and it's generated many free organic sign ups to my newsletter

Free newsletter sign ups. gregisenberg.com

The VC startup market is starting to crack.

I had 2 VCs cold email me today saying their companies are looking for an exit ASAP. I took calls with both.

One raised $30M from top tier investors. Another is burning $1M/month.

Both companies raised money on Notion 1 pagers in 2021.

Both VCs were eager to sell them for pennies on the dollar.

It's a good time to be in the buying companies business. I'm no longer doing minority investments. I completely shifted to majority investments.

I can't justify putting $25k into a business to own a 0.025% of a seed company with liquidity in 10 years unless to support a friend or cause I care about.

There are about to be some dream businesses up for sale at dream prices.

I figured out a playbook to make products grow REALLY fast in 2024 (especially SaaS)

It's the same playbook that Alex Hormozi is using and why he wrote the BIGGEST check of his LIFE last week into a startup called Skool

Silicon Valley is sleeping on this

My 3 realizations: #1 - Attach the RIGHT creator

This is obvious. It’s happening.

But not all creator partnerships are created equal.

Hormozi & Skool are perfect for each other because of WHO his audience is and WHAT the product does.

I’ll call it what it is…his audience is mostly people trying to get rich.

So, if he can find a product that enables them to do what they want. That’s the sweet spot.

Skool allows anyone to start a community + membership.

So, his audience can hop on, charge a monthly fee and spread via social.

This is the important part.

It helps get his audience where they are trying to get to.

The right creator partnership isn't the biggest creator.

It's the creator partner that if ONLY they used your product... they'd accomplish their goals way quicker.

This creates the top of the funnel.

Let’s continue.

I came across Facebook's beautiful employee handbook by Ben Barry for the first time today.

And I think every employee and founder needs to see it.

Even Zuckerberg-haters will probably be impressed.

A sneak peek into 15 pages of the Facebook Employee Handbook: Simple, impactful.

Truthful? I don't know. I never worked there.

Hey, I'm ex-Reddit advisor and sold a community platform to WeWork.

I noticed something BIG recently if you're looking to build cash-flowing internet businesses:

There are 1.8B active users in Facebook Groups in 2024

But I've noticed 95% of paid communities are dead. RIP. There's something new taking its place.

Memberships are the new internet community.

Let me explain… grab a coffee it's worth understanding

When 2020 hit, the world moved to internet communities.

Facebook Groups skyrocketed to 1B+ active users. Discord hit $15B valuation.

Group chat was the new social network.

Now, most of these communities were free.

But naturally, people wanted to monetize these communities.

"Pay us a monthly fee and you’ll get access to a community."

Every Tom, Dick and Harry were selling paid communities.

Money was flowing. Until it wasn't.

Retention was the major issue. People just weren’t coming back and would rather spend their money on IRL things like going to Coachella or traveling to Europe.

Turns out selling a velvet rope wasn’t the right product for monetizing most of these communities.

Something has shifted over the last 18 months. The communities that are actually working aren’t communities, they’ve become memberships.

What’s the difference? Let's break it down.

A paid community is paying for access to:

1. Community

The team is usually a community manager or a founder + community manager

A membership includes things like:

1. Community
2. Paid newsletter
3. Discounts & deals
4. IRL events
5. Software
6. Job boards
7. Digital assets (templates, resources etc).
8.Etc

The team is usually founder, community manager, content team, product team.

Here's how to think of it:

A membership is a swiss army knife, a paid community is a spoon.

Sometimes a spoon is helpful, especially when you’re trying to eat a hot soup.

But try cutting a rib steak with a spoon. You’ll be there all night. Good luck!

Memberships are 10x more versatile, 10x more value, 10x more word-of-mouth and 10x better retention

The memberships that outperform have 2 things in common:

1) A strong identity (being a part of something, rallying behind a mission)

2) People who are trying to get from point A to point B (a transition needs to occur)

I’m spending a lot of my energy thinking about memberships:

Because I believe that there will be some mega businesses that might look like “silly little memberships” right now that blossom into some mega memberships in the future.

Community is the currency of the new internet and memberships is how you’ll get paid.

And make the most impact.

The future of internet communities are memberships.

You heard it here first.

Are you seeing the same thing I am?

Communities dying, memberships thriving....

Where community is A product, not the product A couple days ago, Alex Hormozi made the biggest investment of his life into a community platform called Skool.

I wonder if he sees the evolution to membership?

I wrote about it below:

https://x.com/gregisenberg/status/1745168416724455920?s=20

This is my 2024 annual planning guide for entrepreneurs, multipreneurs and creators.

I put this thread together to help you make the most of your year.

It’s 8 questions to ask yourself, with a system to hold you accountable.

Grab a coffee or drink and let’s dive in:

1. What are 2 ridiculous goals for the year?

Set 2 goals for 2024 so big it’ll make you laugh. So big at first blush it feels unrealistic.

But if you slow down, and put pen to paper, maybe it’s more realistic than you think.

Turning your big ridiculous goals into just audacious goals by outlining the mini-steps to get there.

Audacious goals are just ridiculous goals with steps to get there.

System for you:

- Prerequisite is the 2024 mentality: anything is possible. Remind yourself of that. Write it everywhere.

- Break your goals into 5-10 mini goals

- Review your 2 ridiculous goals quarterly.

- If it feels less audacious after a quarter, you’re on the right track. If it feels more audacious after a quarter, you’re off-track.

- Adjust mini goals as you learn

2. What do “style points” look like for you?

Winning your year isn’t just about hitting a dollar number, selling your company or going IPO.

It’s about how you do it.

Maybe it’s 100% creative freedom to build whatever you want.

Maybe it’s working with your brother to build a family business.

Maybe it’s working everyday in your underwear. I don’t know but writing it out helps.

How you earn your money (style points) is just as if not more important than earning your money.

I’m pretty surprised how little attention people give to style points.

Well, that changes today. Let's get it.

System for you:

- At the end of every month, rate your month on style points from 1-10 (no sevens, because that’s a cop out answer).

- If you’re 6 or below, what can you do to make it a 8 or above?

- Write out 2-3 ways.

- By regularly assessing and adjusting how you approach your work, you can change course pretty easily.

3. What are the “uncool” opportunities that everyone is ignoring?

The uncool opportunities are often the most interesting ones.

In 2021, everyone was focused on crypto, very little on AI. Today, the opposite is true.

In 2021, everyone was focused on VC-backed businesses, very little on cash-flowing businesses. Today, the opposite is true.

A steady stream of uncool opportunities coming your way is critical.

Be an opportunity miner in 2024. I call these opportunities "silent giants"

System for you:

- Use software spy tools like GummySearch, Etsyhunt, Jungle Scout etc to find up and coming opportunities

- Twitter DM one new interesting person every week in your industry or adjacent industry. You learn something when you're not a silo.

- Refine your content diet. Listen to podcasts that give you an edge. Listen to them while you workout (health + wealth). Remove content creators that don’t add to your edge. Unfollow old people, follow new people. Spend 10-15 minutes a month refining.

More 2024 questions continued in the next tweet (you got this): 4. What are 4 areas you need to get stronger at?

This is the time of the 2024 planning session where you need to be extra honest with yourself. Think about your 2023 your experiences and challenges.

Where do you feel you struggled? Where could you have performed better? Basically, what areas can you get stronger at?

You know your goals. So write out what needs to succeed in order to get hit your audacious goals. Maybe it's:

- Sell $1M worth of product --> so you need to get stronger at building internet audiences

- Raise $5M of VC --> so you need to get stronger at pitching VCs

- Build an AI startup --> so you need to get stronger at understanding LLMs
- etc etc

This is where you invest in yourself. I think of it like you're in continuing-education, building your real-world MBA that'll actually pay you back in spades.

System for you:

- Pick 1 main thing to learn in 2024, and 1 new thing to learn each quarter

- 30+ minutes of learning everyday for main, 10+ minutes for your quarterly learning goal

5. What business can I buy?

So this might not be for everyone, but it's a worthwhile prompt for your new year

Three truths:

#1 - It’s easier to buy a business than to build a business.

#2 - It’s never been easiest buy a business with platforms like Acquire and QuietLight​

#3 - You don't need $1M to buy a business. It's less than you think

You can get creative with financing with seller financing, roll over equity (ie: giving equity in your new entity) etc.

But first, finding an exceptional asset in 2024 that drives lots of income is the goal.

System for you:

- New 2024 mindset: you can buy a business even if you have $5000 in your bank account

- Make a target list of business you want to buy in 2024 and why

- Develop relationships with 2-3 founders per month and let them know you buy businesses

- Start small. You can always do bigger deals once your training wheels are off

- Aim to buy 1 business in 2024

Ok you're doing great and have 3 more questions to answer

Next question in the next tweet (keep going):

My 2023 year in review building an 8 figure holding company

Including a net worth update, big wins, productivity unlocks, big losses etc

Read the full thread:

Big wins of 2023:

1. Got married. Had a small wedding with only our immediate families for a small ceremony and dinner at a cute little french restaurant. Highly recommend a small wedding like that over a whole big wedding.

2. We bought 50% of a business which became @boringmarketer. Our first real acquisition. That business will do conservatively ~$2M-$3M of free cash flow next year. Reminds me that you only need a couple good ideas to have a wonderful career (and life).

3. Nice cash flow for the @latecheckoutplz holdco! We continued to grow several cash-flowing businesses at Late Checkout. If this isn’t product/market fit, I don’t know what is…

4. Had someone offer Late Checkout $30M of PE capital. Didn’t take it. Felt good though.

5. My newsletter became a habit! I wrote weekly in 2023 for the first time ever. And I hope you got value out of it. It helps me clarify my ideas. Highly recommend to you. (link in bio to join)

6. Stayed true to myself. Didn’t get very distracted from competition or other founders. Maybe the biggest professional win of all?

See next tweet for big losses Big losses of 2023

1. We listened to some bad advice for our innovation agency Late Checkout Agency. “Keep your team lean, a recession is coming, your Fortune 500 clients will cut innovation budgets”. We listened and that unnecessarily capped revenue.

The reality is, these big companies need new products that drive revenue and community more than ever during a rough market.

And we’ve been a pretty full utilization of our team the entire year.

We lost out on $3M+ by just not listening to this advice. Damn.

2. Hire one to hire 10. I wish I did more of this in 2023. These are the hires that multiply the business. Focused too much on hiring mid-level.

3. I didn’t do enough 2-3 day IRL masterminds. Did a bunch off-sites with my team, but need to do more industry specific mastermind stuff.

I’ve got some plans for 2024 here. I think quarterly is a good cadence for that dope of inspiration.

4. Didn't buy a company in 2023. 2 deals fell through. Silver lining is now have a better process and thesis for M&A.

See next tweet to learn about my "ah-ha moments of 2023", some epiphanies I'll be doubling down on in 2024

Today, OpenAI announced they are releasing the ChatGPT Store, an App Store for ChatGPT

Shopify Apps: 33,000 apps, $561M of revenue
App Store: 1.8M apps, $910B of revenue
ChatGPT Store: 0 "agents", $0 revenue

Probably millions of agents, billions revenue soon

I wish I had created an app for Apple App Store in 2009 when App Store came out

I wish I created an app for Shopify App Store in 2009

Tons of opportunity to be building for ChatGPT right now. I wouldn't want to miss it.

These paradigm shifting moments happen once every 15 years

--

Follow me @gregisenberg to follow along me building businesses for different communities.
The average time it takes to create a:

Shopify App: 4 months
Apple App Store App: 6 months
ChatGPT store Agent: 16 minutes (so quick!)

That's a big deal.

No one ever tells you that...

1. There is no middle class anymore. You are either rich or trying to stay afloat

2. The best businesses are low status that turn high status later. When everyone zigs, zag

3. Having your phone on Do Not Disturb is the only sane way to live today. 4. Talking slowly will make you sentences sound smarter not dumber.

5. You’ll be a lot less happy (and wealthy) if you do what other people expect of you.

6. You probably won’t get wealthy starting a venture-backed startup or working for one.

The news JUST broke that WeWork is filing for BANKRUPTCY next week

The same WeWork that was valued at $48 billion is now worth ~$48 million

I sold my company to them in 2019. And was briefly the head of Product Strategy of WeWork.

Here's what went wrong and what we can learn:

#1 People can turn on you on a dime

In the WeWork corporate halls, I witnessed folks singing praises of Adam Neumann, almost to the point of worship.

Adam could do no wrong, Adam knew all the answers, Adam could fix this.

But as soon as they realized their stock was tanking, they turned on him.

It happened overnight. Literally.

This taught me a lot about human nature.

Trust can be broken in seconds.

#2 Doing too much in business never works

WeWork was working on like 100 businesses at once, but never really figured out the economics of the core business.

Seems obvious, but get your house in order first, before you go and decide to venture out.

I’m a big believer in the multipreneur movement, owning a portfolio of businesses that cash-flow, not a bunch of businesses that drain cash aka WeWork.

#3 The valuation of your venture-backed business really doesn't mean a whole lot.

I met people at WeWork in summer 2019 that told me they were excited for the IPO so they could buy their house.

They were already house shopping.

"Yeah, I'll probably put $600k into renovations too. I know a good contractor if you need one."

I cringed.

Pretty delusional.

Never count on your stock options.

Consider it gravy.

(Thankfully I had very little stock.)

#4 The community piece was actually on-point.

This one is kinda a hot take.

Probably because the community-adjusted IPO was pretty made fun of.

But that's not what I'm talking about.

The idea of WeWork being a community is a valuable one.

Because when you build a community, you have trust and attention.

And when you have trust and attention, you can build products to support their rituals.

So, here's what would have made WeWork more successful:

I think if WeWork built vertical-specific co-working, that would have worked better.

WeWork for designers, WeWork for artists, etc.

With the ultimate goal of building a portfolio of vertical SaaS.

I think there is a tremendous opportunity to:

Step 1) Build community
Step 2) Build vertical SaaS on top of it

(I'll link an interesting graph on the state of verical SaaS in the next tweet)

If WeWork would have had a smaller portfolio of niche co-working spaces, say in NYC, London, and LA only... and built their enterprise value via vertical software...

Now that could have been not just a $47 billion startup, but a $470 billion business.

What do you think about this whole WeWork bankruptcy?

--

If you want more stories like this, reply to this tweet so I know you liked it.

Follow me at @gregisenberg if you enjoyed, and link in bio for deeper stuff like this. It'll take a few seconds

I don't share stuff that ChatGPT wrote, but real raw stories of my unedited thoughts.

Have a beautiful day!
The state of vertical SaaS

If only WeWork went this route....

Someone is going to make $100M in 2024 with a TikTok Shop. They'll probably have no inventory, no VCs and be 24 years old.

This stat is crazy.

1 out of every 10 Americans are going to buy something on a TikTok shop this year.

I don't know how to say this any other way, but every entrepreneur should be thinking about selling their product or service on a TikTok shop.

Not because it's a new product, but because TikTok wants to see TikTok shops succeed. They're pushing it big time.

So, it's a ton of tailwind for you.

I'd use ads, lives, or affiliate sellers to drive traffic. I'd partner with creators to leverage their distribution.

You are more likely to become a millionaire building a TikTok shop than a being a founder or early at a VC-backed startup.
Got a few messages saying:

"Early adopters have reported low volumes. What's changed?

2 main things:

1) Real estate

Shop has now been added to the main nav. That's a ton of traffic.

2) Discounts

TikTok is offering 30% coupons for first time buyers. Pretty enticing.

I had a realization yesterday over coffee with a friend.

Product vs. distribution in a startup - what’s more important? It's the classic debate.

I realized there's a seismic shift in the startup playbook that many aren't noticing.

Every top 0.01% CEO, PM, designer know this… I described to him the two classic schools of thought:

1) Product First, Audience Second:

This is the Apple way.

Build something so beautiful, so powerful, that people will crawl through glass to get it.

Then you just have to tell 'em it exists.

Japan is giving me 1000+ business ideas to start…





1/1000 - Take something mundane and make it feel like a video game

So much of Japan kinda feels like you're running around Super Mario Brothers

The sounds, the mascots, the design aesthetic...

What is yet to be gamified but can be?

hi im greg

Read this if you want to know why you should start a cash-flowing internet empire

(and learn about a new product to to get you there)

How many of you watched The Social Network movie and were inspired af?

I watched it in 2010 and wanted to run through a wall. It felt like I had found my life purpose.

Zuckerberg despite being a bit of an oddball seemed like a winner. He’s in a night club with Sean Parker and the world is his oyster.

I watched that movie and took pretty much the first flight out of cold Quebec to Silicon Valley to mimic Zuckerberg.

My 20s was squarely focused on building social networking and community apps.

I ended up selling 3 by the age 30.

1 to a PE firm.

1 to StumbleUpon (bigger than Twitter at one point).

1 to WeWork. I advised TikTok and Reddit too.

On paper I was successful. But my returns for investors weren’t home runs and my heartbeat was higher than an Avicii song .

So I learned a few uncomfortable lessons:

1. VC backed startups are stressful and probably not going to make you $
2. VC-backed startups are fake freedom. You can be fired from your VC-backed startup. I saw it happened to a couple friends. No one can fire you from your bootstrapped business

This might not make me popular to say but I think people need to know that.

But the good news is I learned a lot around how to use community as an engine for startup ideas and distribution.

I found out how to tap for endless profitable startup ideas.

The playbook for building internet businesses in 2023:

1. Find an underserved niche
2. Find out what they love
3. Find out what they hate
4. Create content they’ll share with each other
5. Create an identity to foster community (ie: )
6. Create a low cost product they’ll pay high costs for
7. Hire when it hurts
8.Don’t raise venture capital
9.Repeat

(bookmark/share this so you don't lose it)

If the Social Network movie was the golden era for social networks, this is the golden era for profitable community empires.

Distribution might be king, but community is the kingdom.

---

AND I’VE GOT NEWS

I’m giving away all my playbooks on how to build your own community empire.

You’ll also get the support & tools.

Its the program to get you to make your own community empire

But only a few people will get access.

Reply to this tweet and if this blows up I'll share how...

Bonus points for sharing a photo/video...
[VIDEO] My story and why I'm launching community empire

You'll recognize a few familiar faces in this video I think...

The world needs more community-based startups not less

Less stress, more cash-flow

Maybe you'll take the plunge with us.

I experimented with links in X video with this pod I did with @sweatystartup

If you hover over this video, you can see a call-to-action (click it and subscribe)

That link doesn't need to go to YouTu*e. It could go to any URL

This feature is going to make a lot X creators rich How to do it:

Go to and upload your video

Example:

H/t @cortexfutura for the tip studio.x.com

Free $12M startup idea:

Everyone is talking about Netflix's "Blue Zones" documentary on how to live to 100+ years old

People are becoming obsessed with living longer, but they don't know how

There's a multi-million/year profitable business to be built to help people get there

Powered by community...

Step 1:

Register a domain that's highly shareable and relates to the mission

Bluezonechallenge dot com (yeah that domain is up for grabs)

Domains aren’t just URLs; they’re battle flags

And because it’s a challenge, that promotes retention.

You embed rituals into the challenge

People don’t want to lose the challenge, they want to prevail.

Step 2:

Set up a paid membership, call members blue heads, limit to drive scarcity and word-of-mouth

Low ticket: $49/month (education, community )

High ticket: $249/month (education, community, group coaching)

Tip: Launch family, team and friends packs.

Social circles = amplified impact.

Step 3:

Rope in top-tier nutritionists for weekly sessions.

And here’s the kicker: Host a yearly BlueZoneChallenge Summit.

If TED talks and Comic-Con had a health-focused baby, this would be it.

Step 4:

This isn’t about sporadic epiphanies but sustained progress

Regular peer accountability sessions are key (and proven).

Think of it as AA for longevity.

Step 5:

Hire yourself out of CEO role, and find an operator. You can always advise, but can go on to build another challenge business if you wanted.

Move from solopreneur --> @MultipreneurGuy

Less stress, more leverage

Why this startup idea would work:

95% of community-based products fail. But what do the ones that are succesful have in common?

They bridge the gap between ambition and action.

It's not just about 'wanting' to live longer, but having a roadmap, mission and a group to journey with.

Your challenge becomes a way of life

How to spot a community-based opportunity like this:

I’ve always believed that the greatest ventures often intersect with profound cultural shifts.

The beauty is these businesses usually take $12 to start and can reach $12M+

Not crazy to find 2000 people to pay you on average $150/month

That's $300k/month or $3.6M/year

At 80% margins (not crazy for a biz like this), that's ~2.88M/year profit

4x EBITDA (not crazy, being conservative), that's a $12M year enterprise value business

AND most importantly, you're doing good. You can even donate all the profits to cancer research or longevity efforts.

Alright, who's launching Bluezonechallenge? I might just sign up....
--

If you want more of these breakdowns, you can follow me here @gregisenberg but the real good stuff is in my link-in-bio tbh. And I have some big news to announce there in September...

Hope you enjoyed! How I would grow this idea:

1. Build trust through organic social using my Trust Map

2. Use AI-assisted SEO to rank like a hero

Use @boringmarketer

My retirement plan:

Pick niche. Build community. Create product. Dominate niche. Hire operators. Don't raise venture capital.

Repeat. 401communities > 401k