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From Zero to Side Hustle
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When the weekend catches up to you
🎸 The first issue of Rolling Stone hit newsstands on November 9, 1967. Founder Jann Wenner was just 21, working out of a San Francisco loft with about $7,500 borrowed from family and friends.
While big magazines dismissed rock as a fad, Wenner built a publication for the people who took it seriously.
We think about that a lot. Some of the best customers are the ones everyone else overlooks.
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The Junk Truck On Thumbtack
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
Old couches and garage piles sit for months, because getting rid of them takes a truck, a strong back and a dump run.
People want the stuff gone this week. They don't want to lift it, load it or pay the dump fee.
That's the gap: people want the junk gone, and nobody wants to be the one carrying it out.
WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?
Haul it away, priced by how full the truck gets. On Thumbtack, an app where homeowners post a job and local pros send quotes, the average junk job runs $138 to $308. Five jobs a day at $250 is about $25,000 a month in sales.
The business makes money from the truck. But it grows from the realtor who calls every time a house needs emptying.
►Matt, who once went through a stretch of homelessness, saved up for a used pickup and started Sonoma Strong Hauling in Northern California. He made $87,000 his first year working part-time, and now runs 90 to 100 jobs a month at an average of $549 each.
Zooming out: the truck is the store, and the realtor is the sales team.
Think: real estate offices, senior-living communities, property managers.
🥢The winners will turn one-off jobs into referral partners. Matt got his first three clients by walking into real estate offices with business cards and a candy dish, and says one client can be worth about $5,000.
🍜 The risk is paying for leads that never become jobs. Thumbtack charges for each request, won or not, and pros report paying $10 to more than $100 a lead. Add dump fees and work that's hard on your back.
You might also like ⇢ A Million-Dollar Junk Removal Business Built At 20
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What's your take?
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The Funny Shipping Email That Brought Thousands Of Customers
Who used it: Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, a Portland, Oregon website where independent musicians sold their CDs.
What it got them: thousands of new customers, by his own count.
The recipe: he replaced "Your order has shipped today" with a ridiculous story that opens:
Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves...
Then 50 employees polish the disc, a packing specialist lights a candle, and the whole town waves the package off in a private jet. Read the whole email.
📋 Why it works: every store sends the same dull shipping email, so the funny one gets forwarded. It took him about 20 minutes to write.
Swap this for your niche: the ritual. Candles get lifted off the drying rack; T-shirts get folded by tissue-paper specialists. Rewrite your shipping email tonight.
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The Old Internet Forum Is Worth Buying Again
Remember message boards, where people asked questions about one hobby and strangers answered? They never went away, and buyers are taking a second look.
Websites built on articles written for Google are selling for less, because Google's AI now answers before anyone clicks. Forums are different: members write the posts for free, and in May Google started showing forum posts inside its AI answers. It isn't a sure thing. Even Reddit called its Google traffic "choppy" this summer.
At the big end, Flippa, a large marketplace for small websites, says sales of article-based sites fell 39% in the first half of 2026, while its active buyers grew 18% in a year. At the small end, Chicago marketer Stacy Caprio paid $6,400 in 2021 for a forum making about $240 a month, then roughly quadrupled its ad income by switching to a company that paid more for its ad space, without writing a post.
Where the trend branches next:
Support forums for a health condition or a family situation
Faith and church community boards
Tech and hobby how-to forums
Small-business and trade forums
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Hungry yet?
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Enough talk. Go cook.
That's the plate. Reply and tell us the strangest thing you've ever paid someone to haul away. Forward this to the friend with a truck and free Saturdays. See you tomorrow.
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