So I love this chart, it’s basically a version of the 67 Human Universals that I write about in ‘How to Build a Billion Dollar App‘. I still believe that we’re very much in the age of re-thinking classic ideas and turning them into mobile app businesses. Checklists are great, and they certainly help the creative process. Pinterest is the new Craigslist. That’s what Kevin Ryan, a serial entrepreneur believes. Ryan co-founded multiple startups, including Gilt Groupe, wedding site Zola, MongoDB and Business Insider. He’s eying new companies to start and turning to Pinterest for ideas. Ryan’s statement that Pinterest is the new Craigslist comes from a chart that was made four years ago by by Spark Capital investor Andrew Parker. The chart is a screengrab of Craigslist’s homepage and it includes valuable startups that attack specific functionalities within Craigslist. For example, job site Indeed was acquired for about $1 billion and it is competitive with Craigslist’s Jobs section. Etsy is a $1 billion-plus company that competes with Craigslist’s For Sale category. “Some of [the startups] have IPO’d,” Parker says. “Others are out of business. If you could have made investments in all of these companies back in 2010, you’d have a portfolio of 34 companies with roughly 6-8 billion dollar outcomes, which would likely be one of the best venture funds of the decade.” Here’s the Craigslist chart: David Haber And here’s some opportunities Pinterest is presenting. Mobile, photo-heavy companies in the following categories could soon explode, particularly if they’re tied to e-commerce. Weddings (Companies in the space: Zola, Loverly, The Knot) Travel (popular category on Instagram) Animals (Buzzfeed, Barkbox, Petflow, Dodo) Cooking/Recipes DIY (Brit+Co) Home and Office Decor (Houzz, Wish, Fab) Photography (Instagram) Beauty (Birchbox) Fitness/Health Fashion (NastyGal, BaubleBar, Chloe+Isabel, Gilt Groupe) Hurry up and grab them, they might just become billion-dollar ideas. This originally appeared in Business Insider.
