My First Million

The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.

StudyEars

For: Students, knowledge workers, parents concerned about academic performance

Buildability

Noise pollution reduces children's working memory by 23% and complex memory by 11%, significantly impacting learning and productivity

Specialized noise-cancelling headphones designed specifically for studying, not music or sleep

Recent Barcelona study proving noise impact went viral, creating awareness of the problem

Day 1

Buy existing noise-cancelling headphones

Day 2

Create StudyEars branding and packaging

Day 3

Build simple landing page with study statistics

Day 4

Test with local students and measure results

Survey students about noise distractions during study

Test existing headphones with study groups

Measure actual performance improvements

Pre-sell through social media content

Direct-to-consumer sales with higher margins than commodity headphones

First-mover advantage in study-specific positioning, branded around academic performance

Low differentiation from existing productsHard to prove actual performance improvementSeasonal demand tied to school year