# What's the dumbest/worst "Next Million Dollar Idea" someone has shared with you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 1, 2023, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447 "2023-11-01T23:19:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/21 "2023-11-02T10:02:45Z")
Could have been, I don’t know. What I do know is that as soon as I heard the telltale signs of “Ponzi scheme,” it was time to change the subject. “Yeah, yeah, money, investments, but we’re here to play golf. Nice shot, Buddy. That’ll play well from there. Hey, how do you like your Chevy Silverado?” You get the idea. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/22 "2023-11-02T13:51:18Z")
I’d just about forgotten this one. Someone I know decided he was going to grow mushrooms to sell to restaurants. He even spent pretty much all the money he could spare to go to ‘mushroom school’. He was trying to make plans for his mushroom farm inside an old semi-trailer when I started asking him the basics, how many restaurants would buy them, how much would they pay, etc. He had no answers, hadn’t bothered to figure any of that out. By his reasoning learning to grow mushrooms and making a facility to do that in were the greatest challenges and once he’d accomplished that everything else would be easy. It’s been at least 5 years and he hasn’t grown a single mushroom. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/23 "2023-11-02T13:51:43Z")
There certainly are detailing services that come to your car. You just need to leave it in a place they can get to and park adjacent. Which is _not_ on-street parallel parking. Nor in secured or pay-for parking facilities. But that still leaves many, many parked cars readily available to be cleaned. Probably over a million cars in my metro area alone, all day every day. I always find it funny when someone talks about on-street parallel parking as a big obstacle to a national business. That clearly shows they’re thinking about the local slice of the USA they live in. We totally have it here in the Miami Metroblob. But is sure _isn’t_ the norm, either in residential or in commercial areas. The sort of people who pay to have cars detailed with any regularity are also the sort of people who drive the kinds of cars they really don’t want car washers driving on the street. The real problem with all these “million dollar” ideas is that they are instantly duplicatable by anyone / everyone. The high-profit “goldmine” businesses are the ones where you can prevent instant competition. > [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > Acai berry products. > > The guy was going to retire very young he told us, but shockingly is still at his day job. There’s an acai berry store in about half the strip malls here in SoFL. With our large Brazilian expat population they’re very popular. Many non-Brazilians have gotten the habit. I enjoy them myself when I can find the places selling the authentic non-sweetened form. The problem, as I alluded to above, is any given store is not a gold mine. Some are franchises, some are one-offs. All are in cut-throat competition with each other. They’re common enough that the only one(s) getting rich are the franchise company owners. Who need to be real businessmen to build the empire and the brand. Not passive investors who sold an “idea” for a lottery-scale payoff. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/24 "2023-11-02T13:56:31Z")
I once went to a meeting where a guy was pitching a business idea: I think he called it _office coffee_ or something similarly bland. The idea was to have a coffee shop that included conference rooms, with copiers, so people could also conduct business. It struck me as discordant for two reasons. One, people seeking coffee want to get in and out, whereas meetings are for people who are going to stick around. Also, coffee has a distinctive smell. Copier stores also give off a distinctive smell. I couldn’t imagine how well the olfactory experience would go. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/25 "2023-11-02T14:25:12Z")
Split this topic on November 2, 2023, 2:25pm UTC A post was split to a new topic: [HoneybadgerDC sock post](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honeybadgerdc-sock-post/992474) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/26 "2023-11-02T14:03:14Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I started asking him the basics, how many restaurants would buy them, how much would they pay, etc. He had no answers, hadn’t bothered to figure any of that out. By his reasoning learning to grow mushrooms and making a facility to do that in were the greatest challenges and once he’d accomplished that everything else would be easy. It’s been at least 5 years and he hasn’t grown a single mushroom. So maybe he WAS right! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/27 "2023-11-02T14:11:09Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > The idea was to have a coffee shop that included conference rooms, with copiers, so people could also conduct business. So a coworking space with good coffee on-site? That’s not a blatantly idiotic idea, but you need to know what a coworking space is to know what industry you’re entering, and then figure out if “good coffee” is enough of a differentiator to matter. > [@Asuka](#): > > At some point a decade ago somebody told me his brilliant idea to get people excited for movies again. Choose Your Own Adventure films. The audience would all sit in their seats but the seat in front of you latched onto the back were two knobs. A regular movie would play but at certain points a decision would have to be made by the main character, and the screen would split vertically into two of a left choice and a right choice. If you wanted the left choice you’d touch the left knob and turn it left, and if you wanted right choice you’d hit right knob and turn it right. Then the choice that had the most votes would happen and change the movie. [Interactive movies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_film) have been done, but the mass vote nature of this concept could be a lot of fun or it could lead to fistfights. You know, the usual nature of parliamentary democracy. But probably not worth the costs, especially since it’s hard to make a narrative that’s actually branching, such that you have to make multiple films for the price of one, and make them all satisfying to experience. Even modern games tend to reel players in to a single path. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/28 "2023-11-02T14:31:10Z")
I had an idea that I thought would work, but everyone I mentioned it to just poked holes in my plan. I would employ a bunch of outgoing, attractive people who would stop in bars, coffee shops, fast food places, etc with their little suitcases. In the case there would be supplies to clean glasses and sunglasses as well as tools for minor repairs of same. So, you are sitting in a bar having a drink. Someone enters the bar and announces they are there to clean and repair eyeglasses and sunglasses. It would be $1.75 a pair for cleaning. I assume people would tip, giving the person $2 or $3 dollars. I (as the ringleader) would constantly be going around to all the places my team stopped at and talk with the owner/manager. Try to get them onboard about this revolutionary idea. Personally, I like having crystal clear sunglasses yet I never take the time to clean them. I’d happily pay someone $2 to clean them. I don’t know if others would feel the same way. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/29 "2023-11-02T14:41:28Z")
I remember one guy trying to explain to me how publishing companies would make much more money printing individual books on demand rather than in big printing runs. He just refused to believe that economies of scale were a thing in the book printing business. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/30 "2023-11-02T14:47:38Z")
Don Lancaster advocated this 30 years ago: > **[Don Lancaster](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Lancaster)** > > Donald E. Lancaster was an American author, inventor, and microcomputer pioneer. > Don graduated from North Allegheny High School in Wexford, Pennsylvania. He received a BSEE degree from Lafayette College in 1961, and a MSEE from Arizona State University in 1967. > Lancaster was a writer and engineer, who wrote multiple articles for computer and electronics magazines of the 1970s, including Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics, Dr. Dobb's Journal, 73 Magazine, and Byte. He has written books on e... ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/31 "2023-11-02T14:48:32Z")
Back in the early 2010s, I met a guy at a startup event who was working on a porn customizer. The idea was that you’d upload an image of a person you wanted to see having sex – a mainstream actor, public figure, or real-life acquaintance – and the platform would combine images of that person with existing porn footage to produce a sex scene featuring someone who looked a lot like your desired person. At the time it didn’t seem like something that could be done at scale, and I don’t think his plan went anywhere. (I never encountered him again.) Nowadays with generative AI it’s probably almost too easy, so you’d never get anyone to pay for it. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/32 "2023-11-02T14:51:24Z")
A dental practice where all the hygienists and assistants are large-breasted, scantily clad women, a la “Hooters.” ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/33 "2023-11-02T14:55:06Z")
Decades ago, I met a guy who had a “Million dollar” idea- a small, palm-sized device for keeping track of baseball stats. He wanted to have some type of touch-sensitive LCD to make it easy to use. I asked him how much he thought this device would sell for, and he said $20. I think I laughed - I told him that he was off by at least an order of magnitude. These were the days long before touch-screens were ubiquitous, and I’m not even sure it could be done at that price today… I told him that the only way to even begin to approach that price would be to sell them in enormous quantities, far more than any reasonable estimate of the market. I declined to take the project. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/34 "2023-11-02T15:05:04Z")
I didn’t know he passed away. The TV Typewriter Cookbook was an essential step in my career in computer hardware and software, and for uncounted more people in the early days of the microcomputer revolution. RIP Don. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/35 "2023-11-02T15:14:56Z")
I just googled Mobile Car Detailing, and came up with 6 local companies that provide this exact service. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/36 "2023-11-02T15:30:22Z")
Some of these ideas have serious potential for someone who would work hard to get a business started and find the financing to grow. Someone probably got laughed at a few times before his dumb idea for a mobile windshield repair business that now advertises ceaselessly as Safelite and is expanding the services they provide. They also clearly had business expertise in marketing and understood the needs of the potential customer base. Remember that thing about 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration? It’s true. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/37 "2023-11-02T15:48:06Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > Back in the early 2010s, I met a guy at a startup event who was working on a porn customizer Back when DVDs first came out, there were rumors of a feature that would let you pick and choose which scenes would play. I thought that would be great for customization of porn. Film a whole lot of different scenes, then string together the types of scenes you personally like to produce a final porno just for you. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/38 "2023-11-02T16:00:01Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Decades ago, I met a guy who had a “Million dollar” idea- a small, palm-sized device for keeping track of baseball stats. He wanted to have some type of touch-sensitive LCD to make it easy to use. I asked him how much he thought this device would sell for, and he said $20. I think I laughed - I told him that he was off by at least an order of magnitude. These were the days long before touch-screens were ubiquitous, and I’m not even sure it could be done at that price today… > I told him that the only way to even begin to approach that price would be to sell them in enormous quantities, far more than any reasonable estimate of the market. > > I declined to take the project. Now, of course, there’s an app for that. No need for a special separate device. He’s probably telling everyone that it was his idea first. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/39 "2023-11-02T16:03:56Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Choose Your Own Adventure films. The audience would all sit in their seats but the seat in front of you latched onto the back were two knobs. A regular movie would play but at certain points a decision would have to be made by the main character, and the screen would split vertically into two of a left choice and a right choice. If you wanted the left choice you’d touch the left knob and turn it left, and if you wanted right choice you’d hit right knob and turn it right. Then the choice that had the most votes would happen and change the movie. That makes me think of [this scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1F4OduqrtQ&ab_channel=DougCraco) from Futurama. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447/40 "2023-11-02T16:32:47Z")
I remember there was a “Hooters-style” start-up haircut place where the women cut your hairs in bikinis but looking it up I can’t find any info about it, this was about 10 years ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dumbest-worst-next-million-dollar-idea-someone-has-shared-with-you/992447.md?page=3)