Silly business ideas that actually worked

So many entrepreneurs today are racking their brains searching for their million-dollar business idea. They’re in every corner of the internet, obsessing over their ideas, and sharing success stories and failures. But looking at some of the businesses that have actually “made it,” I can’t help but wonder – do you really need to think that hard? Sometimes, the most bizarre ideas turn out to be pure gold. From pet rocks to potato parcels, some of the weirdest concepts have managed to attract real customers – and make serious money. Maybe it’s a reminder that success doesn’t always come from the most sophisticated or innovative concepts, but rather from the courage to embrace something unique (and maybe a little odd). So, let’s dive into a few of these ideas that left everyone scratching their heads… until the profits rolled in. Dollar Shave Club Dollar Shave Club’s story began at a party in 2010. Michael Dubin, who’d recently lost his job as a digital marketer during the 2009 financial crisis, met Mark Levine, a product developer & wholesaler with a stash of 250,000 razors he couldn’t sell. Dubin thought about the usual hassles people face with razors, like the high prices and the constant trips to the store for more, and… voila. Dollar Shave Club launched in 2011, but it really took off in 2012 when their viral video – where Dubin joked about how their blades were “f***ing good” – grabbed everyone’s attention online. Soon after, major venture capital players like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Andreessen Horowitz saw the potential and invested over $1 million in their Series A round. By 2015, Dollar Shave Club had captured 48.6 percent of the online razor market, putting serious pressure on established brands like Gillette and Schick. Just a year later, Unilever jumped in and bought the whole thing for a cool $1 billion. Talk about a happy coincidence! Rock Pet If you think your pet is a lot of work with the constant need for feeding, entertaining, and walking – not to mention the havoc they can wreak on your furniture – then maybe a pet rock is more your style. I’m not kidding. Gary Dahl was, though, when he came up with this idea after listening to his friends complain about the demands of their pets. Inspired, he went home and wrote an owner’s manual for a hypothetical pet rock, detailing everything from how to “train” it to do tricks like “play dead” to how its “lifelong loyalty” would never waver. But the real humour was in the presentation. Dahl boxed each rock in a cardboard “pet carrier” with air holes, a look that kind of resembled a Happy Meal box. When he introduced the Pet Rock in San Francisco in August 1975, it became a craze, with over a million sold in just a few months. Liquid Death It’s hard to believe that a brand selling plain water is now valued at $1.4 billion, but that’s exactly what Liquid Death has pulled off. It’s just… water, right? As it turns out, the secret was simply making it look cool – and a bit silly. The idea struck founder Mike Cessario back in 2009 at the Vans Warped Tour, where he noticed band members drinking water from Monster Energy cans (the event’s sponsor) to look the part. He wondered, why couldn’t healthy products have the same edgy branding as alcohol or junk food? After some time refining the concept, Cessario trademarked the name Liquid Death in 2017 and began looking for investors. But all he faced was rejection – stocking a water brand that looked like a beer or energy drink was just too out there for some. Luckily, that only motivated Mike to prove them wrong. In 2018, he created a Facebook page, mocked up a 3D design of the can to make it look like a real product, then shot a funny 2-minute ad and promoted it on Facebook. Four months later, the video had 3 million views, 80,000 followers on the Facebook page, and people asking where they could buy it. That buzz was all investors needed. After two years of pitching the idea, Cessario finally secured $1.6 million in seed funding from Science Ventures in January 2019. By the end of that month, Liquid Death was officially selling its cans of water through its website, and the orders started rolling in. The Slanket / Snuggie Snuggie, the life-saving blanket with sleeves, is actually a rip-off of Gary Clegg’s strike of genius back in his college dorm room in 1997 called The Slanket. Frustrated with having to pull his arms out of a big, heavy blanket just to change the TV channel, Gary came up with a solution: he cut holes in the blanket for his arms. Problem solved – except now his hands were cold. Talk about first world problems, eh? That Christmas, Clegg asked his mom to make him a blanket with one sleeve, which he used all through college. Later, he upgraded it to have two sleeves. The Slanket didn’t turn into an actual business until 2005, and while it pulled in over $7 million in 2009 alone, the idea didn’t go viral until the Snuggie came along. Because The Slanket wasn’t patentable, Snuggie was able to swoop in with some great marketing and grab the spotlight The Slanket deserved. Crocks Sure, they’re ugly – but they’re also ridiculously comfy. Love them or hate them, Crocs have stamped their place in modern fashion, and they’re raking in cash with the brand making a jaw-dropping $2.2 billion in profit in 2023 alone. How did it all start? Crocs first hit the scene in 2002 after Scott Seamans, Lyndon Hanson, and George Boedecker Jr. went sailing together in Mexico. Seamans showed off a boating clog he’d been working on with a Canadian company (Foam Creations), made from a lightweight resin called Croslite. Sure, the shoe looked a little strange, but it was extremely comfortable and worked just as well on land as it did in water – just like a crocodile, hence the name. By 2005, Crocs had sold 6 million pairs, and their fanbase was growing to include everyone from chefs and nurses to Oprah and Michelle Obama. Then, a woman named Sheri Schmelzer invented little charms, called Jibbitz, that pop into the shoe’s holes to personalise them. Crocs bought her idea the next year for $10 million, adding a new layer of customisation to the Crocs craze. And while some were busy hating (TIME Magazine even named it one of the 50 worst inventions of all time), others fully embraced it – and Crocs are here to stay. The Slinky The Slinky was born out of a happy accident in 1943. Richard James, a naval engineer, was working on tension springs to stabilize ship instruments during World War II when one of the springs slipped off his workbench. Instead of crashing to the floor, it “walked” across the room, and an idea sparked. James brought the spring home to his wife, Betty, and the two started thinking about how they could turn this into a toy. By 1945, they were ready to test it out on the public. They took 400 Slinkies to Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia, where they demonstrated how it could “walk” down a set of stairs. Shoppers were hooked, and every single Slinky sold out in just 90 minutes at $1 each. By the end of the 1990s, the History and Discovery Channels named the Slinky one of the 20th Century’s Top 10 Toys. Potato Parcel Why would you send your loved ones a card when you can send them a message on a potato? That’s exactly what Alex Craig thought when he came up with the idea for Potato Parcel. Even his girlfriend at the time told him it was the stupidest idea ever – yet here we are, with Potato Parcel reaching a net worth of $1.75 million in 2023. The business launched in May 2015, inspired by a viral Reddit post showing a potato covered in stamps. On just the second day of promoting it online, Craig made $2,000 in orders. By August, he was making $10,000 a month in profit. Later that year, Craig connected with Riad Bekhit in an online chat room. With some e-commerce experience, Bekhit started helping Craig manage orders and actually purchased the business in October 2015 for $42,000. In 2016, they appeared on Shark Tank (dressed as potatoes), where the reaction was… mixed. Mark Cuban called it “stupid on a stick,” and Lori Greiner couldn’t believe anyone would invest. But when the pair shared their recent sales – $25,000 in the month before taping, with a 70 percent margin – Kevin O’Leary was intrigued. He offered $50,000 for 10 percent equity, along with a royalty agreement. And just like that, Potato Parcel was no longer just a ridiculous idea; it was a serious business. Ship Your Enemies Glitter Okay, this one didn’t make millions and only lasted a few days, but founder Mathew Carpenter claims he received $20,000 worth of orders and 2.5 million website visits in just four days. While on holiday, he launched a website promising to send a glitter-laced letter to anyone in the world for $9.99 Australian dollars. Got beef with someone but don’t want the drama? Send them a glitter bomb! That was the idea, anyway. But it got so popular, so fast, that things spiraled out of control. Carpenter had to ask customers to stop placing new orders and eventually disabled the ordering feature – even as more requests poured in. He later sold the website for a cushy $85,000. So, if you’ve got a wild idea up your sleeve, maybe it’s time to stop second-guessing and see where it takes you. Who knows? The next big thing might just be the one that makes people laugh… all the way to your bank account.