GENIUS 7 profitable startup ideas

Credit: Greg Isenberg & Cody Schneider

This is a perfect first company for anybody to start. So, it's Google Ads for XYZ, and then you create an agency around that specific thing. It's going to be like shooting fish in a barrel. All of these companies or people are searching for Google Ads for XYZ. If you go to the front page of Google, what's ranking for the majority of the pages at the top is a snack pack of three YouTube videos. So, if you just name the video "Google Ads for Apartments" and walk through literally how to set up Google Ads for an apartment complex, and you go deep on the strategy, tactics, and philosophy, a lot of people are going to look at this and think, "Oh my God, I don't want to do this; it looks mind-numbing." So, they will buy the service from a person. Basically, you get 30 clients, and that's a million-dollar-a-year business. I'm obsessed with this right now, using YouTube as the top of the funnel for service businesses. Some kid who's 24 can do this tomorrow, and I guarantee you if you did a video a day for the next 200 days, you could easily be at $30,000 a month doing this.

Dude, what is this? A week later? So, we recorded the most viewed and most downloaded podcast since the beginning. I've had everyone from Alexis Ohanian on here, Jason Calacanis, David Friedberg, Morgan Housel, Bloom—you name it. But there's something about you; you're an idea machine that people couldn't get enough of. I love it, man. I'm stoked to be back. We've got a lot more. I think I've got eight in the chamber: two are software, one's a creator business, and the others are all service companies. Anyways, I totally juiced the numbers by running Twitter ads. I just wanted the top spot on the Greg YouTube channel. And you did it; it worked. So thank you.

Let's start with service businesses because they're easy to start. I want you to bang through all these service business ideas because some of them are really good.

Cool. Should I start with the creator one or go to the service one?

Whatever you want. You can start with whatever you want. But what's important to me is that for every idea you talk about, give people the tactics around it: here's the idea and this is how I'd actually go about starting it.

Exactly.

Cool. Yeah, I'm down. Alright, let's rip.

Alright, so idea one: I want to start with this local-only marketing agency for XYZ rich person service category. Let's break that down. I did some consulting years ago for a CrossFit gym. Their customer lifetime value was like $1,700 if I remember right, and we could get people in the door for like 50 bucks. For them, it was basically just like a money printer. All we were doing was Instagram ads targeting people with a CrossFit interest in that area with a certain income bracket. On Facebook, you can actually target people who are the top 1% of income earners within a geographical area and combine that with audience interest targeting for CrossFit. But this same idea could be applied to any type of business servicing these types of people: think CrossFit, estheticians, tattoo removal.

My whole strategy to build this list would be to scrape all these people's email addresses from their websites using a service like Hunter.io. The whole strategy is to scrape Google Maps. Go to Fiverr right now and search "Google Maps scraping," and you'll find someone who has built out a whole proxy server network that you can pay $100 to scrape 100,000 listings for you on Google Maps. You give them a target keyword phrase, and they'll find every one of these companies. So say you're doing it for CrossFit gyms. Once you figure out the marketing strategy to grow that business, you can use that exact same stack to get people in the door.

For them, we had an ebook download like "How to Gain Muscle Fast" or something similar. We'd send them to this free ebook download that would put them in an email nurture campaign. We grew their Instagram account by doing Instagram ads with a call to action to follow that account for more fitness tips or something similar. Once you have that whole marketing stack, you can repeat it over and over again. This is how you create a great product-high service company focusing on a specific vertical.

To walk through the whole acquisition of new customers: scrape all of Google Maps for these companies; their emails will be public because most of them put them on their website. Hunter.io will find those emails. You can also use a tool called Phantom Buster to scrape entire websites and extract any publicly visible email addresses. Validate those emails using an email validation tool like ZeroBounce. Once validated, start doing cold email campaigns using about 20 different domains (two inboxes per domain). Use software like Instantly and Microsoft 365 to create all the inboxes—40 inboxes in total—allowing you to send 32,000 cold emails per month.

For example, with CrossFit gyms (and again, this data is from a few years ago), there were about 25,000 gyms with contact information available. You could hit all of them within a quarter. If you can't sell that many of them, that's your problem. When scaled up, marketing agencies focusing on specific verticals can be very successful.

There's this company called Suds Creative that does marketing for car washes across the United States using the same stack of strategies: coupons and subscriptions turning into recurring revenue.

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If you look on ZoomInfo, it says Suds Creative does about $12 million a year; from insider information, it's actually about five times that amount. All they do is marketing for car washes using exactly what I just talked about.

I think this is a huge play; it's an operations game at its core. With AI tools now available, you could build this whole stack out with automations—onboarding clients from zero to one with Google Ads, Facebook Ads, PDF ebook downloads—all standardized into a process. Previously done with offshore team members, now it could be done with one person using these tools behind them—just needing account reps with some digital marketing knowledge or an army of offshore talent focusing on each vertical (Google Ads specialists, Facebook Ads specialists).

I don't know if this is the one I'm most excited about; we'll get to that in a second. But yeah, just wanted to lay that out there for people.

What I like about this one is it's local-focused. A lot of people think software or services should go everywhere; focusing locally can be very effective.

I heard about a marketing agency for car dealerships in Quebec making $20 million a year with websites looking like they're from 1997—terrible design but retaining clients because they provide value.

CrossFit for specific geographies doesn't always have to be in the United States; there are other markets out there.

I think people don't realize there's a learning effect when you get many clients in the same category—you're not competing with sophisticated players locally.

For example, optimizing a Google My Business listing can get it into the snack pack within 72 hours with simple SEO tactics (keywords in descriptions, completed profiles with photos). Local competition is often unsophisticated—random WordPress developers upselling services without real expertise.

When you come in with focused digital marketing expertise and layer all these things together with learning effects from servicing many clients in the same industry—you create a moat for yourself.

In industries where everyone knows each other (e.g., gym owners), referrals become natural—at one point I had four gyms as clients just through referrals without big marketing efforts.

The challenge is operations—clients want FaceTime (weekly 30-minute calls). Supplementing that with Loom videos or Slack channels/community interactions can help scale beyond yourself.

A couple of quick tips: if targeting non-English-speaking countries—don't do cold emails in English; use Loom videos instead of just text emails (converts better).

For example: show growth graphs (e.g., building new agencies)—sending sequences of graphs up and to the right asking if they want to take a call works well.

Video content is becoming crucial—Founders creating one-to-many sales through videos (e.g., Alex Hormozi switching from short-form content to long-form content).

Long-form content builds deep trust—Neil Patel's data shows long-form content produces 10x more revenue than short-form content in B2B/service businesses.

This leads into another business idea: Google Ads for XYZ—creating YouTube videos around specific long-tail keywords (e.g., Google Ads for apartments).

Ranking YouTube videos on Google's front page for high-value keywords—monetizing through ad revenue and affiliate commissions (e.g., Supermetrics).

Building an agency around unlimited Google Ads services—charging clients $3k/month—getting 30 clients equals a million-dollar-a-year business.

Framework: create daily videos in your niche—sign up for affiliate offers (20-40% commissions)—subsidize customer acquisition costs—use negative CAC situation to reinvest in ads—build expertise through video content.

This strategy can be applied across various platforms (e.g., Facebook Ads)—targeting specific industries (e.g., churches, e-commerce).

Another idea: TikTok SEO as a service for fine dining/cocktail bars—Gen Z using social media for local searches instead of Google.

Creating UGC content ranking for local keywords—selling services to local businesses (e.g., cocktail bars)—building media presence through Instagram Reels/YouTube Shorts—using paid ads to grow accounts—leveraging tools like Lelo for SMS/Instagram/email marketing.

Final idea: music industry growth strategy—buying percentages of artists' back catalogs—growing streams through social media ads/content—selling artists' catalogs to labels once they reach certain thresholds (e.g., 300k monthly listeners).

Using capital injections (e.g., $1k/month) to grow artists' streams—creating venture portfolio-like returns—building relationships with labels/management companies—turning music into long-term revenue streams.

These ideas showcase various ways to leverage digital marketing strategies across different industries—creating scalable businesses with high growth potential.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY:

Leverage YouTube and niche-focused strategies to rapidly grow profitable service businesses and invest in creative talents for long-term returns.

IDEAS:

- Google Ads for specific industries can be a lucrative niche for agencies.

- YouTube as a top funnel strategy for service businesses is highly effective.

- Scraping Google Maps for client acquisition in niche markets shows promise.

- High-ticket service categories like CrossFit gyms offer great ROI for targeted ads.

- Utilizing cold email campaigns can significantly scale customer outreach.

- Specialized marketing agencies for industries like car washes can be very profitable.

- Boring Marketing.com uses AI for SEO to outrank competition effectively.

- Influencer marketing as a service for B2B software companies is a growing trend.

- Creating content that teaches and builds trust scales software product adoption.

- Leveraging YouTube for educational content can drive significant business leads.

- Service businesses focused on local markets have untapped potential for growth.

- QuickBooks integration for niche software presents a unique software opportunity.

- TikTok SEO for local businesses taps into Gen Z's search habits effectively.

- Investing in musicians' streaming growth offers a new model for the music industry.

- Acquiring and consolidating newsletters could capitalize on undervalued assets.

- Leveraging media as a top-of-funnel strategy can transform customer acquisition costs.

- Building a portfolio of startups from zero to one is a unique skill set.

- Digital media creation creates leverage and recognition in competitive industries.

- Podcast growth services can significantly increase newsletter subscribers monthly.

INSIGHTS:

- Niche-focused agencies leveraging YouTube can quickly become industry leaders.

- Cold email and scraping techniques are underutilized tools for rapid business growth.

- The convergence of AI and SEO is reshaping how businesses achieve online visibility.

- Influencer marketing's evolution towards performance-based models benefits startups.

- Local SEO and social media strategies are crucial for reaching younger demographics.

- The music industry's streaming economics mirror digital product growth strategies.

- Newsletter acquisitions offer strategic opportunities for businesses with high LTV customers.

- Media creation as a foundational business strategy enhances brand and product visibility.

- The rise of service businesses around digital marketing tools reflects evolving market needs.

- Investing in creative talents like musicians with a business model can yield long-term returns.

- Leveraging YouTube for niche service businesses creates a powerful top-of-funnel strategy, attracting high-intent clients.

- Specializing in local-only marketing for affluent services can unlock lucrative, low-competition opportunities.

- Scraping and cold emailing, combined with strategic content, can rapidly scale service businesses with precision targeting.

- Creating standardized marketing stacks for specific industries allows for scalable, repeatable success in service businesses.

- Utilizing AI and automation tools can streamline operations, making one-person agencies viable and profitable.

- Influencer marketing as a service for B2B software can leverage YouTube's reach for trust-building and product education.

- Building a niche agency around Google Ads for specific sectors offers a clear path to a million-dollar business.

- QuickBooks integration development represents an untapped market with significant demand and low competition.

- TikTok SEO for local businesses taps into Gen Z's search habits, offering a fresh avenue for local business visibility.

- Investing in musicians' streaming growth presents a unique venture model with long-term revenue potential through back catalog ownership.

- Consolidating niche newsletters under a single brand could create a powerful media entity with significant influence and reach.

- Every business transitioning into a media company can leverage content to build brand recognition and open new revenue streams.