My First Million

3 Genius Business Ideas We're 'Borrowing' From Syed Balkhi

Feb 21, 2024

01:09:22

Snipd AI

Entrepreneur Syed Balkhi discusses offshore bookkeeping, white labeling, and sourcing talent. The conversation dives into Quickbooks plugins, open-source platforms, and the power of creating disproportionate value. They also touch on the true cost of luxury, compounding goodwill, and the benefits of acquiring resellers over paid marketing.

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Quick takeaways

Leveraging open source can disrupt markets and create new business opportunities.

Productized services offer growth potential and additional revenue streams with minimal investment.

Acquiring businesses can be a cost-effective alternative to high-cost PPC advertising for subscription-based companies.

Deep dives

The Power of Open Source and Ecosystems

The podcast episode explores the power of open source and how it has become one of the most influential ideas of our generation. Open source allows anyone to access and contribute to code, fostering innovation and progress. The episode discusses how open source disrupts established markets, such as operating systems and software plugins, and highlights the opportunities it presents for entrepreneurs. The conversation also delves into the concept of ecosystems, where businesses can thrive by being a part of a growing platform or service. Examples like QuickBooks and WordPress plugins are discussed as profitable business models within ecosystems.

Material Possessions Owning You

01:20

Maximizing Efficiency and Minimizing Costs in Outsourcing Accounting Services

01:27

Using Data to Understand App Popularity on E-commerce Platforms

01:08

Compounding Goodwill and Kindness

01:08

Introduction

2min

The Journey of Building a Billion-Dollar Empire

2min

Exploring Productized Services in Offshore Markets for Cost Efficiency

3min

Exploring Productized Services and Ecosystem Partnerships

17min

Exploring Personal Finance, Podcast Ads, and Open-Source Strategies

5min

WordPress Revenue Potential Compared to Shopify

6min

Exploring OSS Capital's Open-Source Investment Strategy and Disruption Potential

4min

Navigating Perception Challenges in Startups at Series A Stage

16min

Entrepreneurship Strategies and Relationship Building

14min

Episode 553: Shaan Puri (https://twitter.com/ShaanVP) and Sam Parr (https://twitter.com/theSamParr) talk to Syed Balkhi about the business ideas he would go after if he wasn’t already running WPBeginner.

Watch Syed's $0 To +$100M story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzHdrQ5pDFo

Want to see Sam and Shaan’s smiling faces? Head to the MFM YouTube Channel and subscribe - http://tinyurl.com/5n7ftsy5

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Show Notes:

(0:00) Intro

(3:30) Offshore bookkeeping

(6:00) Level it up with reseller and white label

(8:30) Sourcing your outsourced talent

(12:00) Barnacle on the Whale: Quickbooks plugins

(19:00) The most powerful idea of our generation

(22:30) X but open source (x= popular platform)

(27:30) Creating disproportionate value

(31:30) Flavors of capital funds

(39:30) Is $10-50M the perfect amount in the bank?

(45:30) First you own your things, then they own you

(47:30) The true cost of luxury

(52:30) Paid marketing vs. acquiring resellers

(58:00) Compounding goodwill is the best form of compounding

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Links:

• Syed Balkhi Twitter - https://twitter.com/syedbalkhi

• WPBeginner - https://www.wpbeginner.com/

• Appflowy - https://www.appflowy.io/

• Stability AI - https://stability.ai/

• Cal.com - http://cal.com/

• OSS Capital Twitter - http://tinyurl.com/ynvpmu7j

• Automattic - https://automattic.com/

• WooCommerce - https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce/

• CleanShot X - https://cleanshot.com/

• GitLab - https://about.gitlab.com/

• Guy Spier - https://www.guyspier.com/

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Check Out Shaan's Stuff:

Need to hire? You should use the same service Shaan uses to hire developers, designers, & Virtual Assistants → it’s called Shepherd (tell ‘em Shaan sent you): https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd

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Check Out Sam's Stuff:

• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/

• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/

• Copy That - https://copythat.com

• Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth