The Stripe Play for AI Companion Apps (Collect the $5M Compliance Toll)
New York and California mandated crisis detection for AI companions. 337 apps need compliance infrastructure by January. None want to build it themselves.
Behavior Shift
Startup opportunities born from changing habits, lifestyles, or consumer behavior. Covers new spending patterns, digital adoption, and post-pandemic trends reshaping demand across industries.
From 30-Day Challenges to Seven-Figure Platform
Creators are duct-taping 30-day challenges with Docs + drips. The wedge: “Seasons”—an advent-calendar format for transformation (daily unlocks, spoiler-proof sharing, finite finish line). 100 creators × $50K/yr = $5M GMV; a 10–15% take = $500K–$750K.
Blue Collar "Moneyball" Recruiting
Gen Z wants trades, contractors need workers, but matching infrastructure is prehistoric—measurement layer wins, not another job board.
Agent-Ready Infra for Local Business (Don't Do AIO)
AI assistants are shifting from ranking links to selecting winners. Multi-location businesses will pay six figures annually to become the trusted source agents call first.
Blue-Collar Cred Empire
Fashion distributed workwear as identity. High-income professionals want the competence to match—and they'll pay premium retreat prices to earn it.
The Indie Drops Club
Main Street collapsed from missing infrastructure, not missing demand. Weekly verified drops with pickup networks create the ritual that turns local preference into $100K+ MRR.
The "Grandma-as-a-Service" Marketplace
When AI floods every category with free how-tos, human verification becomes the scarce resource worth paying for.
The $20 TikTok Launch Lab
A repeatable system for identifying, validating, and scaling visually demonstrable products through creator-native distribution and structured experimentation.
TikTok-to-SKU for Micro-Trends
Enterprise pays $50K+ for trend detection. Microbrands need execution speed. The gap is infrastructure that delivers shippable SKU packs instead of dashboards.
Offline Ritual Kits (aka the House Phone Comeback)
A Stanford grad's $280K handset launch proved people pay for phone boundaries—but the durable business is owning offline ritual formats, not selling another cute gadget.
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.
B2B Human-Verified Content Engine
AI content abundance collapses trust while regulators demand proof-of-human. A productized agency selling verified founder media becomes the compliance layer, then the standard.
Ghost Job Detection Infrastructure
Job boards sell hope without proof. Regulators want disclosure. Build the hiring internet's "nutrition label" for jobs. Start as a ghost-job detector. Finish as the verification standard.
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.
TikTok Food Trend Monetization
A century-old German cheese is selling out because a high school English teacher in Georgia found the laziest lunch in America. Viral recipes consistently cause grocery sellouts. The rails for shoppable content exist—but no one owns the trend-to-cart attribution layer yet.
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.
Gen-Alpha Cart
Gen Alpha drives $101B spending and influences 42% of household purchases. Discovery happens on TikTok. Conversion requires parent approval. The infrastructure gap is permanent.
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.
Defensible Agent Workspace
Agentic browsers are spreading faster than compliance can contain them. Regulated firms need attestable execution with defensible logs, not magic.
Creator Operations Platform for Home Improvement
Major retailers launched first-party creator programs. The infrastructure for managing multiple affiliate relationships across platforms doesn't exist yet.
Identity Commerce Platform for Menswear
Quarter-zip phenomenon proves men buy identities, not clothes. $130B+ menswear market shifting from disposable microtrends to stackable, nameable uniforms with built-in community.
Professional Identity Defense Platform
AI deepfakes impersonate real doctors at scale to sell supplements. Platform economics favor fraud. Build monitoring and takedown operations for high-trust professionals.