How to Find Your Next Million Dollar Business Idea

Yong-Soo Chung [00:00:00]

My personal journey as an entrepreneur probably makes no sense whatsoever.

I graduated with a degree in economics.

I worked on Wall Street as a Trader at a hedge fund.

Then, I quit and moved across the entire country from New York City to San Francisco on a one-way ticket to get into startups.

After attending an intense software engineering bootcamp, I joined a hot cryptocurrency startup to work as a Software Engineer.

Then, I quit all of THAT and started my own e-commerce venture, selling... pocket knives?!

And that move was the BEST decision I made because that e-commerce venture, Urban EDC, made over $3 million dollars in sales just last year!

And the best part? I bootstrapped it all from nothing.

But, hang on a second, HOW did I land on everyday carry gear as THE niche? My academic background was economics. I'd worked first as a trader on Wall Street and then in software development. Where, how, and why did everyday carry gear fit into this equation?

Yong-Soo Chung [00:01:01]

TThe answer is simple.

First, I time-traveled to the past.

Then, I time-traveled into the future.

Don't believe me? Okay, give me 20 minutes of your time and I'll convince you.

Today's episode of First Class Founders is a SOLO flight dedicated to answering the question, "How and why did I decide to sell everyday carry gear?"

That is, I'm going to outline the decision-making framework I use to launch my companies.

And, if you are attentive enough, you might even catch a hint of the NEXT company I am thinking of launching in a few months!

Jet-setters, buckle up and put your phones on airplane mode, and get ready for take-off

Yong-Soo Chung [00:01:41]

My name is Yong-Soo Chung.

The next generation of successful founders in this digital age of entrepreneurship will leverage their audience to launch, build, and scale their brands. First Class Founders explores this golden intersection of audience-building & company-building with proven strategies to grow both your audience, which is your distribution, and your brand, which is your product.

Because those who can master both will create a category of one.

Hi, my name is Yong-Soo Chung and I'm a serial entrepreneur who bootstrapped 3 successful businesses from $0 to $20 million over 8 years.

On this podcast, you'll learn timeless lessons from world-class content creators, startup founders, and CEOs. You'll also hear tactical tips & strategies from ME, Yong-Soo Chung!

Are you ready? Then, let’s begin!

Yong-Soo Chung [00:02:46]

All right Jetsetters, before we begin, a quick reminder here that there is a hyper visual companion to this episode. That’s right, First Class Founders isn’t just an audio experience. We teamed up with HyperPods to bring to you a 3-min hyper-visual summary of this episode visually showing the decision-making framework I use to launch my companies.

You can grab the hyper-visual summary for this week’s episode for free at firstclassfounders.com/hypervisuals.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:03:14]

Let's dive right in.

My entrepreneurial journey can be represented as a journey dictated by two primary forces: Micro-forces and Macro-forces.

Now, hold on… before you think I’m going off on a crazy tangent in Economics, let me simplify this for you.

Micro-forces are internal motivations that add up over time and space to give you direction. Macro forces, on the other hand, are beyond your control and determine how much momentum your idea will have when you launch it.

In other words, if your venture was an airplane, the internal engines would be the micro-forces and the cross-winds, traffic patterns, and the unpredictable weather would be the macro-forces you'd be navigating your airplane through.

And that brings up the obvious question: What micro-forces exist in your life? And more importantly, which of them can you leverage to the extent where they can be used to POWER your life?

Believe it or not, the answer is simple.

The trick is to think of micro-forces as your personal compass.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:04:16]

Ask yourself what drives you - literally. What are your hobbies, your interests? What do you like doing in your free time? What do you enjoy spending time reading about or discussing with friends and people on the internet?

No, Instagram and X are not valid answers. Maybe, what you say on Instagram and X might be a valid answer, perhaps.

And if nothing comes to mind, then you need to take an urgent vacation and spend time figuring out at least ONE area of interest.

Me? I was always interested in everyday carry gear. I used to spend all my free time lurking in EDC forums discussing different kinds of EDC gear with other forum members. Over the past 10 years, I’ve probably spent more than $30,000 on all kinds of EDC gear - pocket knives, flashlights, fancy bottle openers, pens, fidget toys, the list goes on...

Oh yeah, EDC can be quite an expensive hobby!

And, guess what, THAT is actually the secret to finding the micro-forces of YOUR life! Look at your expenses!

No, seriously, pull out your last three, six, or maybe TWELVE credit card statements and look at the line-items on each of them. Cross out the essential expenses - groceries, utilities, and such. Cross out the medical expenses.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:05:28]

Cross out the medical expenses. Crossout any one-off expenses that you are unlikely to repeat in the future.

What's left? What did you spend the rest of your money on?

What, in other words, were your, quote-unquote, "guilty-spends"?

Because, what you BUY is often a pretty good indicator of what might make a good entrepreneurial venture for YOU. For example, you might be someone who enjoys board games. And you enjoy them to the extent that it not only turns up consistently on your credit card statements but it is also something you like DISCUSSING with others.

Because that is the OTHER thing you need to think about - where you spend ALL your free time?

Money and time are the two resources that determine literally everything about our lives.

So, ask yourself, "what do I spend my free time doing?"

Chances are, the answer to this question will intersect a lot with your credit card statement. As in, if you are spending regularly on board games, you probably ALSO spend your free time checking out board game forums, talking strategy, reading reviews, and offering opinions and suggestions...

What I am about to say is probably obvious at this point but I still want to say it out loud.

You are spending money on your hobbies. You are interacting with others-like-you on a dedicated forum. Therefore, it is a safe bet that the people interacting with you are also somewhat like you - that is, they too spend money on the same hobbies which basically means, there are customers who are willing to pay for this hobby.

In other words, there is clearly a MARKET for this hobby!

This is basically the story of how I figured out everyday carry as my niche, by the way. I used to spend a LOT of time and money on everyday carry gear.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:07:07]

 I would frequently stalk forums, instagram accounts, and online marketplaces looking for my next grail EDC item to add to my collection. My monthly credit card statements had at least one line-item that was EDC or EDC-related. Every week, I would catch up on the latest gear-drops and plan my future EDC purchases.

Starting an e-commerce venture around EDC was basically a no-brainer after a point, for me.

So, does this mean YOU should immediately start an e-commerce venture that sells board-games to enthusiasts?

Absolutely... NOT.

Before you start making plans to launch an ecommerce site selling board games, there is still the OTHER factor you need to take into account, remember?

The MACRO-forces.

If the micro-forces gave you an insight about the quality of your community, the macro-forces will help you correctly gauge the QUANTITY, or the SIZE of your community.

Or, in other words, the SIZE of your MARKET.

And I have found an unbelievably easy way to figure out the macro-forces that will dictate your entrepreneurial venture!

But before I share that with you, I'd like to take a quick minute to give a shoutout to my sponsor CastMagic.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:08:24]

Jetsetters, as you may know, I hand-pick all my sponsors from companies I truly believe in.

That's why when Ramon from Castmagic wanted to sponsor First Class Founders, it was a no-brainer.

This isn't just any tool. This is the tool that gives me back 20+ precious hours every single week.

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With Castmagic, you'll harness the power to amplify the value of any audio file tenfold. It's not just about tools—it's about shaping the future of content creation.

I can’t recommend it enough.

Dive into the Castmagic experience now by using code FOUNDERS30 to grab 30% off the first 3 months of your subscription.

Okay, let’s get back to today’s episode about micro and macro-forces…

Before the break I told you I'd found an unbelievably easy way to figure out the macro-forces that dictate your entrepreneurial venture.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:09:49]

It is a two-step process.

First, you envision your product. And then you look at the prevailing market trends for that product.

In my case, for example, I decided on everyday carry gear as MY niche because I was well-versed with the products. I had my finger on the pulse of the EDC community. I had observed the consumer behaviors enough to spot when an item could potentially trigger a buying frenzy.

At this point, I had several options for what I could offer to customers.

I could do content marketing - that is, write posts about EDC gear and get sponsors or insert affiliate links. But that would mean I would always be at the mercy of whichever affiliate program I relied on. I could offer my expertise for a price - either by way of an exclusive EDC club or by way of educating people about EDC.

I didn't know back then but I was actually running through the five options of Joe Casabona's S.M.A.S.H. framework. That is, S for Sponsorships, M for Memberships, A for Affiliates, the second S for Selling Merch, and H for Helping others.

S for Selling Merch. I decided I would sell EDC gear myself.

And, honestly, it seemed like the easiest option.

But how would I sell it? At a brick-and-mortar store? ON Amazon? Or should I create a niche store? But that would be competing with Amazon? Could I even compete with Amazon?

I could see clearly that there was a demand for an e-commerce venture just catered towards the everyday carry community. And I was clearly well-positioned to occupy that niche.

But, at the same time, I also knew that ordering a HUGE shipment of EDC wasn't the way to go about things.

As Jim Collins would put it, I had to fire bullets before I could fire cannonballs.

And fire bullets I did - by buying items from Amazon then reselling them at no profit.

Yeah, I said no profit.

Because, my motivation at that point was not to make a profit but to VALIDATE my idea. My motivation was to ensure that the market I had spotted wasn't a figment of my imagination, that it really existed.

I wanted to confirm my hypothesis that if I did build it, they would come.

So, I considered signing up as a seller on Amazon and enroll myself in their FBA - that is, Fulfillment By Amazon - program.

FBA is basically when you procure the inventory but Amazon pretty much takes care of everything else - from finding customers for your products to shipping your products to them. All I had to do was keep an eye on my inventory and set the right prices.

But, if you've ever checked out UrbanEDC - and I strongly urge you to - you will notice that UrbanEDC is completely independent of Amazon. That's because I created the whole thing using the no-code tool, Shopify.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:12:28]

And it was all due to me spotting a critical market trend well in time.

See, although FBA makes the whole process of selling incredibly easy and hassle-free, it also means that your business is very tightly-coupled with Amazon. Your customers are Amazon customers. Your warehouse is the Amazon warehouse.

If I were to have my EDC store on Amazon, my customers would NEVER be my own - they would be Amazon customers. I would simply be 'renting' them from Amazon. So, if anything, I would be doing Amazon a favor by helping THEIR customers. And, what's worse, I would practically be PAYING Amazon for the privilege!

That's why I decided to sell directly to my own customers using Shopify.

Sure, using Shopify meant that I would probably have to pay a bit more to maintain it entirely by myself but I figured it was definitely worth the cost!

Because, setting up my store on Shopify meant that *I* was in control of everything - my brand, my inventory, my customer list, my search rankings, my promotions, my marketing - my entire store, if you will. And that is still the case to this day! We procure our products ourselves. We maintain inventory by ourselves. Heck, even our logistics pipeline and the 3PL we use to ship our products - GrowthJet is fully homegrown!

Put simply, I identified "owned" e-commerce as the next big wave in entrepreneurship and jumped on it.

Now, let me be perfectly honest, there was an element of fortune in me spotting this 'Shopify wave'. And, I hate to disappoint you but there isn't an exact mathematical formula for spotting a 'big wave' like this.

But there are signs. And indications. And hints. And subtle shifts in consumer behavior. Over time, you learn to identify the ones that matter to you, your community, and your business. And, over time, you learn to focus on only those and shift your strategies to make the most of the opportunities afforded by these macro-forces.

Over the years, through careful trial and error, I have identified three key ingredients that act as incredibly accurate bellwethers for keeping a close watch on the ever-shifting macro-forces...

And I'm gonna tell you what those three ingredients are in just a minute. But first, since I already mentioned it to you earlier, I want to tell you more about a service that will be critical in your e-commerce infrastructure - my very own 3PL venture GrowthJet.

E-commerce fulfillment is a pain. One time, one of my customers emailed me asking me why we had shipped them an empty box. It turns out the 3PL had stolen the $1,000 product and shipped an empty box to my customer. Yeah, that was not fun.

So, I launched GrowthJet, a Climate-Neutral Certified third-party logistics company for e-commerce brands.

We can pick, pack, and ship your orders from our warehouse in Brisbane, California While having direct access to our team on-site, we take great pride in our customer experience. Just ask our current partners. They absolutely love us.

GrowthJet is the 3PL that I wish I had when I launched my own brand, Urban EDC.
If you have an e-commerce shop, check out GrowthJet and hit me up!

Okay, let's get back to our episode about the micro and macro-forces that can help you decide what business to launch.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:16:04]

Just before we went into the break, I promised I'd tell you about the 3 ingredients that have served as a bellwether for me for each one of my businesses.

And I've already spoken about one of them a LOT in this episode - the pulse of your community. The other two are careful validation and manufactured luck.

Yeah, you heard me right. I said manufactured luck. I did an entire episode in the early days of this podcast on how to create your own luck. It was episode 10 and it was titled "The Science of Luck: How to Create Your Own Luck" - queue it in your podcast player next.

Anyway, I'll talk more about manufactured luck in a bit but let's first talk about the first ingredient - your community.

I realized that my passion for EDC made the community feel like home. I actually enjoyed having conversations with them as people and not just customers. And that made customer service an absolute joy for both parties in the transaction. I loved serving them and they loved the care and attention I brought to the table.

That's why being embedded in the community that you are serving is so important. The community will give you clear indication of what is working and what isn't. And since you are operating in a specific niche, the signal-to-noise ratio is going to be much higher than a broader e-commerce store like, say, Amazon.

So, yeah, whichever niche you choose to start your venture in, make sure you are embedded deep within its community. Because, when you do that, you can learn the exact language your customers use to describe their problems. And, as our recent guest Parker Worth pointed out in the previous episode:

Ep. 60 - PARKER WORTH
(Parker: As you know, my friend, like the basics of a product or a good business is just solving a problem or providing a pleasure.)

The second ingredient is validation.

Like I mentioned earlier in the episode, I validated my idea for UrbanEDC by buying items from Amazon then reselling them at no profit. In doing so, I wasn't looking to make money. I was looking to figure out whether there was truly an opportunity or if I had imagined it.

Validating your ideas helps you save money in the long run because it answers the all-important question, "Will your community put their money where their mouth is?"

And you can -and probably should- run validation experiments regularly and constantly.

And finally, the third ingredient - manufactured luck.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:18:24]

The easiest way to explain what I mean by manufactured luck is for me to tell you the story of my second venture - Spotted By Humphrey. Spotted By Humphrey began as an Instagram account about my French bulldog Humphrey. It basically grew from nothing to a 100k followers in the span of two years. And a major reason for this rise was Instagram's push for video posts.

You see, back in 2017, Instagram was still a platform for sharing beautifully edited photos. If you were on Instagram back then, you know how important your grid aesthetic was on your profile. But around this time, Instagram really started pushing videos on their platform. And guess what? There weren’t a lot of creators focusing on video on Instagram, yet.

So you had this perfect storm of low supply of video posts due to the lack of video content being shared with high demand thanks to Instagram’s new algorithm pushing for more videos.

Over the next 2 years or so, Humphrey's growth sky-rocketed. I mean, short videos of a cute French bulldog doing French bulldog things? Who DOESN'T love that, right?!

But, here's the REAL reason why Humphrey's Instagram videos were such a hit.

Because Instagram was so focused on growing its new video platform, several of Humphrey’s videos went viral. Actually, one of the most viral videos which got millions of views was me cradling Humphrey like a baby. So, in a way, I guess you could say… that my torso also went viral! (Haha!)

By the way, if you want to follow Humphrey, his handle is @SpottedHumphrey - I’ll put a link to his Instagram and TikTok accounts in the show notes… he’s hilarious, so definitely check him out!

In all seriousness, it wasn’t that difficult to go viral on Instagram at that time. Most of the videos that went viral were Humphrey just doing silly French bulldog things.

Do you see now, how Humphrey's success was basically ASSURED at this point? Do you also see how it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't capitalized on Instagram pushing their video platform?

Instagram pushing for videos at this time when Humphrey was a cute puppy was a macro-force that I didn’t control, but opened a window of opportunity for me. I was quick enough to spot it and figured out the most effective way to capitalize on it.

In other words, I was lucky to have brought home Humphrey, my amazing French bulldog, but I also manufactured my own luck by capitalizing on Instagram pushing videos for his account - does that make sense?

In fact, if you are smart enough, you can even reverse-engineer a potential venture by carefully analyzing a particular "window of opportunity" that you have spotted ahead of time.

Here, let me give you an example.

I believe that a "window of opportunity" is here right now for high quality podcasting. I believe that podcasting has the potential to become the preferred platform for educational content. Audio has always been a great medium for self-help content. And in my opinion, we’ve just scratched the surface on the true potential of podcasting.

That's why I'm betting on well-produced audio-podcasts - like this one.

That's why I hired an amazing producer for THIS podcast. He works his magic by writing, editing, and designing these episodes. You know all those awesome sound effects he adds… like this one? (ADD SOUND FX) Yeah, that’s all him.

By the way, my wonderful producer also happens to be looking to add new clients to his roster, so if you want an intro, DM me @YongSooChung on X or message me on LinkedIn!

But now, let’s back to our episode on micro and macro-forces and the all-important “window of opportunity”. As I was just saying, you can even reverse-engineer a potential venture by carefully analyzing a particular "window of opportunity" that you have spotted ahead of time.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:22:15]

Basically, it involves evaluating the second and third-order effects of the window of opportunity and figuring out how it affects a community that you are involved in.

I've actually provided a brief tactical breakdown of this with examples in a bonus segment for this episode. Yeah, I craft bonus segments every week for my premium members, in which I provide frameworks, mental models, and tactical strategies. Become a member of the First Class Founders community by going to firstclassfounders.com/join - I'll leave a link in the show notes.

Oh, did I mention it's ad-free? Yeah, it's ad-free.

Here's a sneak preview of this week's bonus segment:

"Ask yourself, what are the 'mosquitoes' on my feed? I'll tell you what the 'mosquitoes' on my feed are - the science of "longevity", AI mashups with different areas of life, and new social platforms to rival the old ones."

Yong-Soo Chung [00:23:08]

So, yeah, these "windows of opportunity" keep opening up everywhere - you have to be incredibly alert and aware to be able to spot them.

By the way, if you enjoyed listening to this episode, I suggest you line up episode 25 next. It is titled, "How To Turn Your Side Hustle Into a Million Dollar Business as a Creator" and it will give you a step-by-step outline of how to take your side-hustle from something you enjoy doing to something that makes you money while you enjoy doing it!

Just one more thing before I sign off here - we’re taking a break for the holidays next week. But, we’re not leaving you hanging either. Next week, I’m dropping a special episode that I recorded in-person with Brandon White. Brandon was kind enough to invite me to his house in Half Moon Bay and we recorded a lengthy episode which dove into my own entrepreneurial journey along with a deep dive on Personal HoldCos. So enjoy next week’s special episode with Brandon White!

And that's all for this week, my name is Yong-Soo Chung and I'll see you on the next episode of First Class Founders!