8 Stupid Frat-Boy Business Ideas

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May 22, 2006 by Dane Carlson | 3 Comments

Ramit Sethi:

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.