New business ideas: $126K/yr dinner parties, LED side hustle, $10K AI wrapper 🤑

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Business Ideas Newsletter



Hey, it's Niall 👋

There are two types of ChatGPT users.

Type 1…

Write me a marketing email.

Gets a generic blob of text. Concludes AI is overrated.

Type 2…

You're a conversion copywriter. Write a 3-line cold email for [specific product] targeting [specific audience]. Tone: casual, no fluff.

Gets something they can actually send.

Same tool. Wildly different results.

Most people are Type 1. They blame ChatGPT 🙄

But the AI was never the problem – the prompt was.

Good news: you don't need to figure it out from scratch.

HubSpot put together 100 ready-made ChatGPT prompts you can steal 👇

Then keep scrolling for my latest batch of fresh business ideas.

Niall DohertyNiall Doherty
eBiz Insider

TOGETHER WITH HUBSPOT

Want to get the most out of ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.

Discover how HubSpot's guide to AI can elevate both your productivity and creativity to get more things done.

Learn to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and foster innovation with the power of AI.

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SUPPER CLUB

$126K Per Year Hosting Monthly Dinner Parties

📝 agotterer writes

A friend and I host a monthly dinner club for people interested in ethnic cuisine. We work with a single restaurant each month to create an 8-12 course all inclusive prix fixe menu.

They started in 2023 with 13 friends. The idea: pick a restaurant on a slow night (Tue/Wed), negotiate an all-in per-seat price covering food, drinks, tip and tax, then sell tickets to members with a margin on top.

We might go to an Indian restaurant and focus the event on only the southern regional dishes. Many times we have dishes that are off menu specially for our event.

It grew entirely through word-of-mouth. A local newspaper article was the biggest driver, then Facebook food groups and Instagram shares. They've never spent a penny on marketing.

🤑 By 2025: 1,099 guests served across 44 restaurants…

  • Average ticket: $115

  • Revenue: $126K

  • Margin: ~20% ($25K profit, split between two)

The model is elegant: restaurants on slow nights are happy to have guaranteed covers. You don't need a kitchen, staff, or inventory – just curation and community-building skills.

Could work in any city. Restaurants on Tue/Wed nights are often half-empty and would jump at 40+ guaranteed covers.

Great networking play too – you're hosting events where interesting people gather, which could lead to other opportunities 😎

LED BANNERS

Side Hustle Idea: Sell & Install These LED Banners

💬 whizwang tweets

in my friend’s apartment, there is a subway LED banner with live updates of when the trains by him depart 

I NEED ONE IMMEDIATELY

Someone else links to Transit Tracker – "a DIY customizable public transit arrivals board for your home" – and comments

looks like you need to put a little effort in yourself to program, but instructions are included!

Allie adds 👇

Btw you can get these for stocks, sports scores, weather, language learning, etc…

Technically I think you could do anything if there’s an API for it

There are instructions on Transit Tracker for building your own, or you can probably buy pre-made boards wholesale.

I can see someone making a nice side hustle out of this: supplying, programming and mounting boards for folks in their local area 😎

AI WRAPPER APP

She Built a $10K App Just to Learn How APIs Work

u/lmtDigital writes on Reddit…

I decided to play with the OpenAI API for the first time. No big plan. No market research. I just wanted to understand how it worked.

She built ArtScan, an iOS app that lets you scan a painting with your phone camera and get info about it.

It's basically an AI wrapper. Nothing fancy. No original model. Just camera → API → response 🤖

At the time, I honestly thought: Ok, this will be a fun weekend project, I'll learn something, and that's it.

🤑 Fast forward...

  • ~20K downloads

  • 30–50 downloads/day, still coming in organically

  • ~$10K total revenue

  • 7% App Store conversion rate

  • $0 marketing spend

I'm not running ads anymore. I'm not actively promoting it. And App Store analytics shows installs coming from keywords I don't even target.

She has a full-time job and didn't even know how to use the OpenAI API when she started.

If you're sitting on a "this is probably useless but I'm curious" idea… maybe build it anyway.

The formula is simple: point a phone camera at something + AI = info. Could be…

  • plants

  • bugs

  • architecture

  • dog breeds

  • antiques

  • wine labels

Pick a niche, wrap an AI API around a camera, and put it on the App Store 🎯

TOGETHER WITH THE HUSTLE

200+ AI Side Hustles to Start Right Now

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