This $50M/Yr Side Hustle Is On Track To Make $1 Billion By 2030

Craig Fuller's field of dreams (00:00:00)

• Craig Fuller, the owner of FreightWaves, has acquired 44 magazines and is on track to generate $50 million in revenue this year with an 18% profit margin.
• Fuller's business model involves acquiring old magazines centered around expensive hobbies, using them to attract customers, and then creating and selling commerce products to the audience.
• His goal is to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2030 with a 30% profit margin.
• Fuller's company, Fir Crown, operates separately from FreightWaves and focuses on topics such as private flight, boating, sailing, fishing, yachting, wakeboarding, classic toy trains, garden railways, and astronomy.
• He acquires magazines at a range of 3 to 5 times their earnings.

50M side hustle (00:05:12)

• Preston Holland, CEO of Flying Magazine, has a lucrative side business that generates $50 million annually.
• His business model leverages media to attract customers for more profitable ventures, such as real estate and jet sales.
• Holland also facilitates jet brokerage and educates on the financial aspects of purchasing small aircraft, including tax advantages and flight costs.
• Holland's success stems from his ability to identify and capitalize on opportunities that others consider risky.
• The speaker highlights the importance of copywriting as a vital skill in business and has compiled their best copywriting tips, resources, frameworks, and templates from over 500 podcasts into a comprehensive document.
• This document is easily accessible through the provided link and offers valuable insights and strategies for effective copywriting.

We call to find out EXACTLY how he did it (00:09:16)

• Preston and Craig founded Fire Crown in 2021 as a side project that unexpectedly grew into a successful company.
• Fire Crown's unique content-driven approach to commercial decisions has contributed to its rapid growth.
• The company purchased 1,500 acres of land for $1,500 per acre to build an airport and air park, with $25 million already received in pre-deposits.
• Fire Crown transforms print magazines with websites into digital-first media sites, treating digital as a separate product with its own profit and loss.
• Despite initial plans to discontinue print, they discovered that having a print product enhanced the perception of longevity and legitimacy, attracting advertisers and readers.
• As a marketing strategy, they place unsolicited copies of their magazines in private charter planes, leading to unexpected collaborations and partnerships.

The New York Times is a gaming company (00:19:02)

• The New York Times has successfully transformed its crossword and cooking sections into standalone gaming products, leading to significant revenue growth.
• In Q4 of 2023, the company's digital-only subscribers reached 289 million, primarily driven by the popularity of its gaming products.
• Gaming revenue has surpassed $1 billion annually, with games now accounting for over 50% of the time spent in the New York Times bundle.
• The New York Times' gaming strategy involves digitizing decades of old crossword puzzles and cooking recipes, making them accessible through a user-friendly app.
• This transformation has resulted in substantial growth and over 1.3 million paying subscribers for its gaming products in 2020.
• On average, individuals spend over $40 annually on these games and cooking products, with games being the primary driver of revenue.

Idea: Third party LinkedIn games developer (00:23:27)

• LinkedIn has introduced three games on its platform, including a Wordle variant and a trivia game.
• The games leverage LinkedIn's existing social graph, allowing users to compete with their connections.
• There is potential for a third-party LinkedIn games app to capitalize on this opportunity.
• By building a game on top of LinkedIn, developers can tap into a large user base and benefit from LinkedIn's established social network.
• LinkedIn may be open to acquiring a successful third-party LinkedIn games app.
• Netflix has also entered the gaming market, offering a trivia game within its platform and publishing numerous mobile game titles.
• The connection between Netflix's core business and its gaming initiatives is unclear.

How rich people spend money (00:27:00)

• There is no one-size-fits-all approach to becoming wealthy or spending money once wealthy.
• Rich people are willing to reveal a lot of personal financial information, including income, expenses, and portfolio details.
• The more money people have, the more intentional they need to be with their spending.
• Some wealthy individuals choose not to spend their money and accumulate vast sums of wealth.

The myth of the second home (00:29:00)

• Owning multiple homes can be a hassle and a burden rather than a dream come true.
• Rich people often regret having multiple homes due to the maintenance and upkeep involved.
• Chartering a private jet is considered a worthwhile expense for convenience and time-saving.

MoneyWise podcast (00:29:00)

• The MoneyWise podcast discusses personal finance for high net worth individuals.
• Key elements for a successful podcast include great production, great delivery, and a unique perspective.
• The creator of the podcast believes they have found a gap in the market by focusing on great production.

Ai cameras (00:30:57)

• Veo, an AI-based camera system, revolutionizes sports videography by tracking the ball and players, uploading footage to the cloud, live streaming games, and generating highlights.
• Veo's success has attracted over $100 million in funding, with multiple European competitors also experiencing significant growth.
• The widespread adoption of Veo cameras in youth soccer fields indicates a potential market saturation.
• The future of sports videography will likely be dominated by AI-powered camera systems like Veo, transforming how games are recorded, streamed, and analyzed.
• The most popular version of the product costs a one-time expense of $1,000 and then a monthly fee of around $100.
• Every sports venue is predicted to have this product, as it provides value to players, coaches, friends, and family.

Prediction: A camera on every field, every court (00:36:31)

• The idea of installing cameras or using computer vision to track sports statistics has been around for a while.
• In NBA stadiums, there's an enterprise version of this called Second Spectrum that tracks players and motion for advanced stats.
• Synergy Sports also uses cameras to track stats for official competitions like state championships.
• Flow Sports live streams niche sports like Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling competitions, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue.
• The speaker's roommate in college paid for a service that filmed and uploaded his sister's basketball games.
• The speaker understands the emotional value of being able to watch family members' sports games, even if the footage is of low quality.
• People are willing to pay a Netflix-like subscription fee for access to such footage.

How to find the next wave: What's the next menus on the internet? (00:38:31)

• The speaker compares the current AI wave to the early days of the internet when the first obvious startup idea was to put restaurant menus online.
• Just as restaurant menus were the "menus on the internet" of the early internet, there are similar opportunities with AI today.

AI tutoring group (00:38:31)

• The speaker describes their AI tutoring group, which started as a way for them to hang out with interesting people in the AI space.
• The group consists of the speaker, Matt Maio, and Luke.
• They meet to discuss AI, share ideas, and learn from each other.

Sam Altman's quote on AI (00:38:31)

• Sam Altman recently said that AI is going to change the world more than anything in the last 100 years.
• The speaker agrees with this statement and believes that AI has the potential to revolutionize many industries.

How to avoid product obsolescence (00:40:41)

• OpenAI's new models pose a threat to companies that rely on human workers for tasks like transcription and translation.
• Companies that embed AI into their products and cater to specific workflows are less vulnerable to obsolescence.
• Companies that focus on proprietary AI models may struggle to compete with OpenAI's rapidly improving technology.

Measure twice. Cut once (00:44:09)

• Investing in AI startups is currently challenging due to high prices, low traction, and the risk of obsolescence. A safer investment strategy is to buy stocks of established companies like Nvidia and Facebook that will benefit from AI.
• Marketing technology is predicted to be the biggest sector to use AI for growth.
• Successful people often join or create groups of like-minded individuals to learn, collaborate, and network in a specific field of interest, gaining insights, building valuable networks, and fostering mutually beneficial relationships.
• The speaker is discussing a $50 million per year side hustle that is projected to reach $1 billion by 2030.