Co-Star's Playbook for Founders
How "decision hygiene" became a $3B category — and why timing tools are the next founder productivity unlock
$5K – $20K MRR
Profitable lifestyle business ideas making $5K–$20K per month. Ideal for founders seeking sustainable income, automation, and freedom through recurring revenue.
The Shopify Moment for AI Labor: Owning Worklines on MuleRun
MuleRun hit 600K users offering promotional economics to fill their marketplace. Workline owners capture value; single-agent builders get commoditized.
Review Gardening Agents: Build the Revenue Layer for Google Business Profile
Turn every Google review into repeat visits. Shops hit 90% response rates and capture 10-30 VIP contacts monthly from reviews alone.
Return Prediction Agents: The “KeepScore” Heist In Shopify
Retailers face $850B in returns annually, yet no Shopify-native tool scores risk pre-fulfillment. Build the underwriting layer merchants desperately need.
AdWords for Main Street (Powered by Creators)
Creator-driven foot traffic is already a $15B market. What's missing: performance attribution infrastructure that small businesses trust and pay for.
Build the AI Music Passport Agencies Will Pay $999/Month For
Universal and Warner legitimized licensed AI music while Spotify mandated disclosures. Agencies deploying tracks commercially need compliance documentation that doesn't exist yet.
The Living Room Franchise
Silent reading events surged 223% while commercial real estate bleeds off-peak. The format scales, the membership model is missing.
The Missing macOS Layer for Dasung's $2,000 E-Ink Monitors
E-ink monitor displaying crisp text, macOS menu bar, eye strain relief icon, Dasung company logo, VS Code editor interface
Governance AI for Self-Managed HOAs
373,000 volunteer-run associations managing $120B annually with amateur controls and predictable fraud patterns, creating structural demand for purpose-built governance infrastructure.
The 5:30 Club: "Early Dinner" Category Play
Early dining bookings now exceed late-night slots. The opportunity is building recurring social infrastructure, not another deal marketplace.
The Ring Doorbell For The Sky
Remote ID broadcasts create a receipt layer for overhead drones. Consumer detection hardware doesn't exist. Neighborhood network effects make shared airspace truth defensible.
Morning Triage for Niches
Google and OpenAI are training users to expect AI-run mornings. The free briefing normalizes the habit. The paid opportunity is vertical execution.
"Small Brand Hollywood" for TikTok Shop
Video drives 58% of TikTok Shop's $33B GMV. The creative bottleneck creates infrastructure opportunity in the protocol layer above commodity UGC.
Org-level Link Hygiene Engine
Organizations accidentally export tracking metadata through pasted links. A focused DLP layer could claim the URL hygiene category before incumbents notice.
The Creami OS Heist
Viral kitchen appliances are training millions in process engineering. The software layer for troubleshooting complex workflows doesn't exist yet.
Vibe Coaching
Video verification is becoming mandatory across dating and professional platforms. Identity proves you're real—camera presence proves you're trustworthy.
Weekly Template Drop Platform
CapCut templates hit 50,000+ uses each. Meta just launched a competitor. The formats people copy are becoming infrastructure.
Knowledge Curation for Creators
Animoca just validated curated knowledge collections with institutional money. The boring SaaS version could capture recurring revenue without blockchain complexity.
Plant Tissue Culture Kits & Clone Lab Infrastructure
A YouTuber democratized tissue culture and crashed rare plant prices. The real money moved upstream to kits, skills, and infrastructure.
Trust Layer for TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop users regret 23% of purchases. Build the trust layer that captures post-viral buyers seeking quality over hype.
Telepresence Robot Staffing OS
DAWN proved telepresence robots work in hospitality. Someone needs to build the staffing infrastructure layer beneath it at scale.
Ambient Presence Layer for Work
Airbuds and Locket proved homescreen social works—5M users, $10M raised, 91M installs. Nobody's built the ambient layer for work and money yet.
IRL Dating Event Infrastructure
Dating apps hit $6B while 78% of users burn out. Singles run clubs sell out instantly. Infrastructure demand is emerging.
Leadership Practice Simulator
Leadership development hits $82B annually while 60% of new managers fail. PwC validated VR training works—nobody owns the simulation layer yet.