Video · 2026-08-06 · 56m · 6 moments

We accidentally dropped 9 genius business ideas while drunk

✦ AI generated

timeline · colored by role

Claim◆

Reverse vacations — taking a week off your normal routine not to relax but to lock in and be extremely productive in a professional penitentiary-like setting with a mission, cold showers, and slop — is a compelling business idea that's overdue because there's no extreme way to opt into being super productive at work the way there is in fitness.

Sean pitches 'reverse vacations': a lock-in camp where you take a week off to grind on a goal rather than relax, with cold showers, jumpsuits, and a mission. Sam loves it, noting that fitness has extreme challenges (Iron Man, marathons) but work does not.

transcript

Sean: Now Sam, when you want to be way more productive for a week, if you want to kick ass for a week, if you want to truly lock in, what do we call that? Is there a word for that? I think not. And so I am going to pitch you my first drunk idea, which is reverse vacations. It's basically a lock-in camp. You take a week off of your normal routine, but you're not going to relax. You're not going to sit sit in a cabana at the beach. You're going to lock in.

extends · 1

Anecdote

A calisthenics competition that looks exactly like a rap battle meets a UFC fight — where stripped-down athletes do battles of pull-ups, burpees and dips inside a cordoned circle with nicknames, walkout characters and betting — is a spectacle that could become a national phenomenon and is essentially made for content.

Sean describes 'Last Man Standing,' a calisthenics battle scene where athletes with nicknames like 'Extra Money' face off in a crowded circle doing pull-ups, burpees and muscle-ups. Sam thinks it's made for content and draws parallels to the XFL's nickname culture.

transcript

Sean: It's exactly like a rap battle meets a UFC fight. And so basically there's looks like there's a hundred people in a room and they are all crowded around a very small circle where there's a pull-up bar... And then there's a a final battle and it's like I think it's like 70 pull-ups... 100 burpees, 50 muscleups, 75 dips, and then 75 squats with a 65 lb dumbbell. ...this entire community of people who are into this... And they are jacked to the gills... this guy Abu I think that's his name. He turned it into a competition. I don't even think it has a name, but 100% this could become a thing and be all over the country.

gives example · 1

Claim

Scaling up the claw-machine / children's casino concept into a giant Mr. Beast-style 'claw machine with huge prizes' (a PS5 as the smallest prize, even a golf cart or family bicycle) would create a spectacle worth lining up for, and spectacle itself can be manufactured by faking lines.

Ari pitches the children's claw-machine casino (Gacha Arcades). Sam adds the twist of a giant Mr. Beast-style claw machine with huge prizes like a PS5 or golf cart, arguing the wow factor and the psychology of lines and spectacle would make it work — citing a New York shop owner who faked a line for two months and then sustained it for two years.

transcript

Sean: don't you ever go shopping like in your downtown and you're like, how is this store open? ... how could you possibly pay the rent? So, we find one of those and we just replace the building with a giant claw machine. So, it's a claw game, but the claw is huge and the prizes are huger... it's like a claw machine, but the thing you get out is like, you know, a PS5 is the smallest prize you could get... And I just think that would be a spectacle.

Mechanism

Changing the form factor of a product is a massively underrated innovation lever — as demonstrated by sunscreen-in-a-whipped-cream-can, liquid vitamins, gummies, and a viral butter-in-a-deodorant-stick video (2.8M likes) — and roll-on butter is a killer innovation in a stale butter aisle.

Sean shows a butter-in-a-deodorant-stick video with 2.8M likes and argues, via the 'happy path' concept and the success of Vacation whipped-cream sunscreen and liquid vitamin brands like Mary Ruth's and Rowe, that form-factor changes are underrated — making roll-on butter a strong butter-aisle innovation.

transcript

Sean: I just would like to draw your attention to the numbers in the corner. 2.8 million people have liked this video... It's a very attention-getting product... They have a new form factor for sunscreen where they do it in a whipped cream bottle. This thing's taken off. Goes viral every time on social media... So, form factor changes underrated. Butter and a deodorant stick. Make the butter that way. Make the butter a roll on butter. And I think you have a a pretty killer innovation in the butter aisle.

gives example · 1

Claim◆

Kids' beepers — a clip-on device that works like old pagers so kids can buzz each other and parents can reach them — combined with the rising 'free-range kids' countertrend toward more independence but still reachable, is a genuinely good, buildable business idea.

Ari and Sam riff on the TinCan kids landline into a kids'-beeper idea where kids can buzz each other and parents can reach them without a full smartphone, riding an emerging backlash toward 'free-range kids' and more independence while remaining reachable. Sam calls it genuinely good and picks it as a winner.

transcript

Sam: No, it's like Okay, so now just riffing off of the tin can if your friend can only reach you. It's like it works the exact same way a beeper used to work... if her friend had one of these and she had one of these and she could send little secret messages basically... I think I'm going to make this idea... I think there's going to be a trend later where like free range kids, more more independence, unreachable, but still reachable.

Claim

People smart and hardworking people never find 'their thing' for lack of exposure to career options — there's no food court for your career — so a 'Take Your Roommate to Work Day' (or Airbnb-style experiences for different jobs) would broaden what people even see as possible and help them discover their path.

Sean argues that many smart, hardworking people never find their thing purely through luck, and there's no good way to sample career paths. His 'Take Your Roommate to Work Day' idea would broaden exposure and raise standards. Sam agrees and longs for Airbnb experiences for different jobs, echoing Dirty Jobs.

transcript

Sean: there are smart, hardworking people that just never find their thing... you'll never get to your 100% of what you can do... There's no food courts for your career. There's not great ways to go even find out what are my options, what's on the menu, what's possible. And so I kind of think if the world had a take your roommate to work day where you could kind of go see what life is like at somebody else's job for the day, it would just broaden the exposure of what you even see.

extends · 1

Highlight slides

Reverse Vacations: A Lock-In Camp for Productivity✦ from: Reverse vacations — taking a week off your normal routine not to relax but to lock in and be extremely productive in a professional penitentiary-like setting with a mission, cold showers, and slop — is a compelling business idea that's overdue because there's no extreme way to opt into being super productive at work the way there is in fitness.Work Lacks the Extreme Options Fitness Has✦ from: Reverse vacations — taking a week off your normal routine not to relax but to lock in and be extremely productive in a professional penitentiary-like setting with a mission, cold showers, and slop — is a compelling business idea that's overdue because there's no extreme way to opt into being super productive at work the way there is in fitness.The kids' beeper: a real, buildable business✦ from: Kids' beepers — a clip-on device that works like old pagers so kids can buzz each other and parents can reach them — combined with the rising 'free-range kids' countertrend toward more independence but still reachable, is a genuinely good, buildable business idea.

Related episodes

Video · a16z Podcast

The New Rule for Picking AI Winners | The a16z Show

→

Video · 20VC

Uber President on Travis, China & Self-Driving | Why Autonomy Is Existential | How to Beat DoorDash

→

Video · Lenny's Podcast

OpenAI’s Head of Design: This is the best time in history to be a designer | Ian Silber

→