My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Build profitable businesses by structuring public government data into useful consumer tools
Entrepreneurs looking for defensible business ideas, developers comfortable with data processing, anyone seeking government data arbitrage opportunities
6-18 months to launch, 2-5 years to build defensibilityWhat Success Looks Like
A profitable business generating millions in revenue by making public data accessible and useful to specific customer segments, with strong brand recognition and customer loyalty despite low structural barriers
Steps to Execute
Identify a personal frustration with finding information that should be publicly available
Research what government databases contain relevant data
Map data access methods (APIs, FOIA requests, bulk downloads, web scraping)
Build data processing pipeline to clean and structure raw government data
Create user-friendly interface that solves specific customer problems
Add value through search, filtering, analytics, or visualization features
Build brand recognition through content marketing and customer service
Layer on network effects like reviews, ratings, or user-generated content
Checklist
Inputs Needed
- Technical skills for data processing and web development
- Understanding of relevant government data sources
- Customer development skills to validate demand
- Marketing budget for initial customer acquisition
Outputs
- Structured database of previously hard-to-access public information
- Web interface or API for customers to access data
- Customer base willing to pay for convenience and structure
Example
“Import Genius takes public shipping manifest data that's available but hard to access, structures it into a searchable database, and sells subscriptions to businesses wanting to research suppliers and competitors. Revenue comes from making public information convenient and searchable.”
Related Knowledge
Six Stakeholder Business Evaluation Framework
A method for evaluating any company by scoring how well it serves six core stakeholder groups: customers, vendors, employees, investors, regulators, and communities where it operates.
Charlie Munger's Worldly Wisdom Learning Framework
A systematic approach to gaining broad competence by learning the 2-3 most important ideas from each major discipline, creating a toolkit of mental models that can be applied across different domains.
phone_booth_mismanagement
Agency and Permission Mindset
Most barriers to action are psychological rather than structural.
Adventure should be a core life value for young people
Take calculated risks and seek difficult experiences before starting businesses to build character and capability
the key to success is dumb competition
Choose markets where you compete against less intelligent or capable competitors rather than against other highly skille