Mining sci-fi novels for billion dollar business ideas 👽

Explore the inventions, technology and ideas of science fiction writers at Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) - over 3,800 are available.

… took this very outdated HTML site that's hard to navigate, and he put it into this database... so it basically takes all the ideas – not just the books but the ideas within these sci-fi novels – and says "does it exist today?"

Jonathan Swift foresaw 3D modeling, search engines, biofuels, and even floating rocks in Gulliver’s Travels, way back in 1726? 

… Ephraim Chambers wrote about humanoid robots nearly 300 years ago in 1727’s Cyclopaedia? 

… When Jeff Bezos walked through the logic behind selling books online in this legendary 1997 interview, he looked insanely prescient. But H.G. Wells imagined e-commerce 98 years earlier in When the Sleeper Wakes (and remote work, handheld video players, a proto-internet, and more). 

​​If history is a guide, there are billion-dollar-startups hiding all over the Sci-Fi Idea Bank. 

My wife and I worked through the material and found it immensely helpful. Based on the AH training, we began The Coffee Folk, an affiliate marketing website. It started slowly, but reached the point that it was earning around the amount either of us would make with our full-time jobs.

What ultimately won me over were the numerous positive reviews of the course and the fact that they don’t make false promises of quick wealth. Instead, they provide a blueprint to steadily build a successful, profit-making affiliate website in a couple of years.

I was a freelance software developer for 8 years, but I decided it was time to pursue my long-overdue wish of building my own products.

In May 2021, Notion released the beta of their public API… I knew Notion before but never invested too much in the product… 

I deep dived into the product itself, and communities like Reddit and Facebook groups to better understand users and realized that syncing databases with Sheets would enable some workflows that were currently not possible otherwise.

The marketing strategy revolved heavily around social media engagement.

Participated in relevant discussions by replying to questions and mentioning my product if relevant.

Sharing brief videos and screenshots showcasing the capabilities of the tool further boosted visibility.

Initially, the tool was free. However, after introducing paid plans, it took two months to acquire my first 10 paying customers.

Growth has always been organic, I am active on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook Groups and where Notion users hang and try to provide value to them, mentioning Notion2Sheets when appropriate.

Lou Rice was breastfeeding her son Archie one night when disaster struck—she dropped her Kindle on his head!

[Next Day], Ben [Lou’s husband] fashioned a silicone strap with staples to attach Lou’s Kindle to her hand…

After positive initial testing, Ben and Lou explored whether there were any similar products on the market and found very few competitors.

Luckily, they had an existing manufacturing contact in China through a friend to produce prototypes and ultimately fulfill inventory orders.

It took 2-3 rounds of back and forth with the factory to perfect the design, dimensions, tension, and sizing of the very first Strapsicle strap.

We decided to launch and give it away for free and people just paid shipping… It was a bit unconventional.

It went absolutely nuts… like hundreds of comments, loads of support, and then people started buying.

These people only paid the shipping costs, and they were only asked to provide feedback about the strap.

This approach allowed Lou and Ben to begin building community and start a dialogue with real customers using Strapsicle on their Kindles. Plus, it enabled gathering user-generated content and reviews to aid subsequent marketing efforts.

Lou soon stumbled upon BookTok – an engaged subculture on TikTok obsessed with reading… BookTok participants were an ideal target market…

She reached out to lots of micro-influencers, offered them free samples to try, and provided discount codes they could share with their followers to drive sales…

This micro-influencer strategy combined with the initial free giveaway enabled Strapsicle to gain significant organic traction in just its first 3 months in business.

You've just gotta keep going. You will not be able to see the wood for the trees for at least the first year. It'll feel like you're a hot mess. I still feel like that. 

But you just keep going and eventually you will start to see traction.

When Kael… posted his first video on TikTok, he wasn’t expecting to blow up, overnight there were thousands of views and followers. And that was the start of an era.

Due to his neurodivergence, Kael had difficulties socializing and interacting with other kids. In the meantime he found himself through art, such as drawing and painting which enabled him to create his own comic books.  

He majored in Industrial Design because of his passion for arts. At the time there weren’t many options for Visual Arts in Brazil, so he learned it on his own, animation being his main goal.

The process was slow at first, doing frame by frame of scanned photos, but after some time he became more in touch with Motion Graphics. By then, Kael had discovered many Brazilian animators and started learning After Effects.

For Netflix’s premier of the Red Notice movie, Nobody Sausage was invited to recreate the trailer and epic heist – animated Sausage style. After all, it’s what the platform really likes.

The recreated trailers were watched 1.53 times longer and engaged 62% more than the conventional trailer.

​​I start my day slow—I do my daily meditation and yoga practice. After that, I go sit down with my sketchbook and get some creative ideas. I also check TikTok to see what’s trending at the moment.

My most important advice is to have fun while creating content, to make your inner child happy. When my inner child is cheerful and excited, I know I’m in the right place.

Friends and family at home ask how my work is going, and it occurs to me that they might already know. They could be reading my finance reports or Momentos. I feel comfortable broadcasting those details online but prefer to give vague answers in person.