8 Stupid Frat-Boy Business Ideas
See, when I was in college, I would walk by the Quad and see a poster for some new book-exchange service literally every week. “SCREW THE BOOKSTORE!!!” it would say. “TRADE YOUR USED BOOKS WITH THIS NEW SERVICE!” The idea is that bookstores charge too much, so why not give the power back to the students and let them trade books at the end of the quarter?Perhaps one reason could be that this is one of the worst business ideas on Earth–yet it persists in thousands of colleges with many students pursuing the same dismal goal. Why?
Because it’s a stupid frat-boy business idea.
- Book exchanges.
- T-shirt companies.
- Coffee shops / restaurants.
- Anything that is “the Netflix of ___,” “Flickr + ___,” or “MySpace + ___.”
- Ideas that compete on price.
- Discount cards.
- Yet another social network.
- Anything where you plan to make your money exclusively from ads.
Photo by Paradox Blue.













Nathan Waters on May 22nd, 2006 5:01 pm
Find the right niche, and all of those ideas are still quite viable… especially when you add in a little international arbitrage :D
The reason college students fail at those ideas is because they just go about it the wrong way and since they’re in the pursuit of just money, and in a saturated market (esp in the US)… it doesn’t turn out.
cheers
nathan
jean on June 1st, 2006 11:00 am
Anyone that puts a limit on anything or discourages a biz idea or call it stupid will likely not success himself/herself , so I wouldn’t listen.
You said “Anything where you plan to make your money exclusively from ads. ” is stupid?
So this site isn’t making any money?
Oh..by the way..how about google? (not yahoo though) ..and yes ..google “makes money exclusively Ads” my friend. so, google was a bad idea?
So just give us an idea will you?
jean on June 1st, 2006 11:04 am
You said “Anything where you plan to make your money exclusively from ads. � is stupid?
How about magazines, TVs / Radio stations, Outdoor ads.. who make your money exclusively from ads? They are bad ideas? Tell that to the owner of the Turner Broadcasting Network /CNN and
clear channel.
Leave a Reply