While I was cleaning out my Google Drive, I discovered an old Google Doc of mine from 2014 called “Business Ideas.” The doc contained some business idea brainstorming I had in note form. Most of the ideas were too generic and likely wouldn’t have gone anywhere. However, I did seem to identify a few trends that would continue to grow – too bad I didn’t find a better way to capitalize on them!

Here are two screenshots from the doc:

The trends I think I got right were the continued growth in YouTube & live streaming (ex. Twitch, gamers). Patreon is probably the biggest software that has been created to support streamers. In hindsight, there were many ways to capitalize on the growth of YouTubers and streamers. GOOGL (owns YouTube) was trading around $550/share at the time my doc was created and has more than doubled to about $1,200. I’m not sure what public companies are most tied to some of the equipment that streamers use but Sony and Best Buy come to mind – SNE has gone from around $18 to $46 and BBY from $22 to $74 (although a big reason for BBY’s success is Geek Squad). For comparison, the S&P 500 went from about $1,900 to $2,800 and the Nasdaq from $4,200 to $7,900 during the same timeframe. Even with the recent pullbacks Sony and Best Buy have experienced they both drastically outperformed the S&P and Nasdaq.

I think it’s time to start another Google Doc and put a little capital behind any new trends I feel
strongly about.