Capital Ideas

We track up-and-coming startup trends and ideas—and show you how to build them

Each week we share the white space in emerging trends and multiple proven business ideas. Simply put, we do the leg work to help you find your next venture or investment.

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➤ Proprietary insight: Our team of business nerds scours the depths of the internet, analyzes thousands of data points, and selects only the most accessible ideas➤ No fluff: We’re written by humans and don’t share any generic fluff written by AI➤ Frameworks and business models: We share our proprietary list of company building frameworks and business models, and apply these to current market opportunities➤ Deeply researched reports: Reports are deeply researched yet easy to consume, and show you how different businesses work➤ Actionable steps: Each report comes with a list of actionable next steps that can be taken to capitalize on the opportunities

Introducing Capital Ideas

By Faster Than Normal

G’day,Alex here, Founder of Faster Than Normal.Since 2022, we've built a community of over 70,000 founders, operators, and investors who read our twice weekly newsletter sharing the stories, ideas, and frameworks of prolific people and companies to provide inspiration and practical advice on growing your company and the most important asset of all: yourself.Why? Because the world needs more builders.We believe starting a company is the best self-education there is. It's how you learn to solve real problems, self-actualise, and inspire others to do the same.Our readers wanted more than just stories. They wanted a map to entrepreneurship. So we made one.Here's the thing about startups: most aren't new ideas. They're better versions of existing things. Innovation is often just clever recombination.That's why we created Capital Ideas. We dig through mountains of data and talk to insiders to find opportunities you can start today.Twice a week, we send out:
1) A startup trend and how to ride it
2) Specific business ideas you could buildIt's cheap, it's brief, and it's packed with insights.Want to try it? We have a trial offer right now.Building something new is hard. But it's worth it. And we're here to help.

Alex Brogan, Founder of Faster Than Normal

1) Ideas

Every Wednesday, we’ll email you 3-5 vetted business ideas in a detailed report, describing how you could pounce on them.Save yourself from hours of research and thousands of dollars testing.

2) Trends

Every Saturday, we’ll share an exclusive, accessible startup trend handpicked by our team of analysts.We'll also share multiple ways to capitalise on it (especially as a non-technical person).

3) Frameworks

We’ve compiled an exclusive, proprietary database of 30+ frameworks for creating new companies.With this database, you'll build the muscle of spotting your own ideas (and hopefully a million or billion dollar business!).

4) Business Models

We’ve compiled an exclusive database of 50+ business models to help you decode how companies make money.This database will help you find creative ways to monetise new ventures, or add even more value to existing ventures.

5) Risk-free

We want Capital Ideas to be a home run for you.If you're not satisfied for any reason, cancel within 7 days for a full refund.No questions asked.

Email Examples

Weekly Email 1: Wednesday Ideas Report

Idea 1: Accountability-as-a-service

“People have all kinds of ambitions, goals, and plans, but consistently following through is the hard part. Some people are wired to make steady progress or have learned to do this well. But many people depend on external pressures and constraints, feedback, check-ins, and high stakes — financial, professional, or social — to spur them into action. All of these things provide accountability.”
— Working TheorysBeing accountable is being answerable for something and to someone.Accountability-as-a-service is something people increasingly crave due to a myriad of factors, including:
• The rise of independent professionals (Solopreneurs, creators, freelancers)
• Increase in remote work structures
• Information abundance means that ‘action’ is the rate-limiting factorAnd it can apply to all domains of life:

Popular examples of successful accountability-as-a-service products are:
• Ship 30 for 30: Writing
• MyBodyTutor: Fitness & Nutrition
• CommitAction: ProductivityThe core features of the products typically include goal-setting, regular check-ins, reporting results, and a feedback loop. It can be 1:1, 1:many, or in a peer group.Here are some prompts to isolate ideas for where the world (and you!) need an accountability-as-a-service product:
• What are you currently not doing that you know you should be doing?
• What are you currently doing that you want to do more of?For me, there’s clear white space in these areas:
• Meditation/yoga
• Reading
• Cooking
• FastingIf you want to be extra creative, you could partner with an existing Creator in one of these niches to accelerate and maintain steady customer acquisition.

2: Intro.co for podcasters

Intro lowers the barriers to accessing incredible people.Previously, you had to rely on a warm introduction to meet famous entrepreneurs, investors, or creatives. Now, you can jump on Intro, pay a small fee (~$300-1000) and meet anyone on the platform.It’s a win-win: people who didn’t have access now have access. People who have high demands on their time can now monetise that time.Podcasts have become overcrowded. As a result, the best podcast guests are inundated with requests that they simply can’t fulfil.Simultaneously, podcasters who have existing networks are able to win because they have access to better guests.One recent example is Dwarkesh Patel, a Tyler Cowen Emergent Ventures grant winner. Dwarkesh is one of, if not the best, up-and-coming podcasters in the world. I personally think he’s brilliant, but he’s also had access to incredible guests because he’s in San Francisco and able to leverage Tyler’s network.There’s an increasingly clear use case for an Intro-like product focused on podcast guest booking, but no one has nailed it yet.What could it look like?
• Rankings for podcast guests based on cumulative appearance downloads
• A fair pricing mechanism
• Direct scheduling and payment mechanisms for booking guestsWhy hasn’t this been done?
• It’s difficult to get the most famous, time-poor people in the world to sign up
• Payments change incentive structures. Many podcasters want to build their network, and payments undermine that effort
• Guests should pay podcasters in some cases because of their platform reach

3: Global Communication Copilot

Didier Elzinga, CEO & Founder of Australian Unicorn Startup Culture Amp, had this to say about communication challenges:"Maybe there’s a very large startup waiting to be founded that solves the time-zone challenges of communicating with four offices around the world? I don’t know what it looks like, but it is a problem that literally stops me sleeping :)"On the surface, you’d think aligning time slots for communication is the only issue. But there’s also the myriad of idiosyncrasies of culture and language, including accents.Solving this challenge holistically might look like this:
• Time-zone Matching: Automatically find the best time slots that fit the majority of team members’ working hours.
• Rotating Schedules: Rotate meeting times to ensure no single team is always meeting outside of their core hours.
• Real-Time Translation: Instant translation of messages and presentations into multiple languages.
• Cultural Nuance Detection: Identify and suggest alternatives for region-specific terms or phrases.
• Sentiment Analysis: As a leader on Zoom calls, it’s difficult to know whether your message is landing. Very soon, LLMs will have the capability to do more granular video sentiment analysis. You can imagine this being useful for CEOs as they’re delivering an all-hands.
• Q&A Copilot: A Q&A Copilot, like the previous idea, would apply even more here.

Weekly Email 2: Saturday Trend Report

Declining Birthrates

Over the past 50 years, global fertility has been halved. The decline is especially pronounced in high-income economies, where the population in already shrinking or on track to shrink soon.In 2019, eighty-one countries had fertility rates below the population replacement threshold. The replacement fertility rate, estimated at 2.1 births per woman, represents the level required to sustain a stable population over the long run, assuming mortality and migration remain constant.The UN projects that by 2100, 97% of countries will have fertility rates below the 2.1 babies per woman needed to sustain population levels.How to capitalise:
• Facilitate increasing workforce flexibility with a platform that caters to parents by offering job listings that prioritise work life balance and parental support
• The biggest barrier to having a child is the financial expense, so build a venture catered to reducing living, childcare, or healthcare expenses
• Make IVF more accessible by developing fertility clinics that offer affordable, high-quality services
• Make egg freezing services are more friendly, high-touch experience for women to reduce the mental burden

Our Mission

Faster Than Normal’s mission is simple: Help you self-actualise through entrepreneurship. We are a friend to the ambitious, a mentor to the becoming, and a partner to the bold. We firmly believe that the world needs more entrepreneurs, and that entrepreneurship is the single best self-education in the world.We are here to serve those who step outside norms and build the future. The ones willing to endure the stress, loneliness, and resistance of entrepreneurship. The ones who believe they’re capable of more. The ones who lean in when things get tough. The ones who don’t take no for an answer.Thanks for stopping by.

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