NEW: Lazy Money Issue 30

Happy Sunday!

Today: chefs cry, stars shine, industries break - all thanks to a tire salesman with a wild idea.

The Story

In 1900, André Michelin had a problem: there were only 3,000 cars in France, and his tires lasted too long. A product that never dies is a terrible business.

So he did some insane out of the box thinking and created…a restaurant guide. 

Not to sell food - he didn’t care about that - but to wear out tires. 

The Michelin Guide rated restaurants worth driving to - way out in the countryside, hours from anywhere. Suddenly, Parisians were burning through tires on weekend trips to eat countryside duck and creme brûlée. His idea worked!

Then, within a few decades, something really bizarre happened. 

The guide became more valuable than the tire company. Michelin now makes $28 billion annually from tires, but their guide controls a $800 billion restaurant industry.

Gordon Ramsay cried on TV when he got his third star. Bernard Loiseau shot himself when he thought he'd lose one. A single star increases restaurant revenue by 30%. Three stars? You're booked for the rest of the century. 

All because a tire salesman needed people to drive more.

The lesson here isn't about tires or food. It's this: Don’t sell the product. Create the circumstances that makes the product inevitable.

Michelin cracked it by accident. The rest of us? We should be looking around  - because there are a hundred industries waiting for their Michelin moment.

Here’s 3 locked and loaded: 

How To Profit

• FirstMap🗺️🚶

Michelin made money by telling people where to go. You can do the same.

Build an app that creates walking routes based on individual circumstances. Open the app, tell it your situation - "killing time for 2 hours," "showing a friend around," "going on a first date" - and it builds a custom route through your city with 3-7 stops that fit that specific need.

Preload it with options like historical walks, dog walks, therapeutic walks. Choose the length of the walk and the algorithm reads the rest from context - time of day, weather, your past routes etc.

Once you get enough user adoption, infinite monetization avenues: subscriptions, upgrades, match walking buddies, approach local businesses who want foot traffic and will pay to be featured etcetc.

• Sleep Index😴⭐

Hotels compete on everything except the only thing that matters: sleep quality.

Build an independent certification system - like Michelin stars but for hotel beds. Send anonymous auditors with sleep trackers to measure: mattress quality (hotels lie about "new" beds), true blackout percentage, temperature consistency through the night, noise at 2 AM when the HVAC kicks on, pillow quality, wakeup call accuracy, everything relevant.

Hotels are desperate for differentiation. Your certification gives status + utility. A Sleep Star badge will increase booking conversion instantly.

Work with influencers to start booking hotels for your certification. Hotel chains will beg for audits and eventually Booking.com or Expedia buys you for $5M+ because you've solved their biggest problem: differentiation in a commodity market.

• SeatMatch✈️🤝

Airlines monetize everything - legroom, baggage, peanuts. Everything except who you sit next to.

Build a seat selection feature that matches passengers by preference/demographics. During check-in, pay $20 extra to sit next to "your people" - entrepreneurs on the Austin-SF route, singles on Vegas flights, or just anyone willing to chat on red-eyes. Your algorithm groups compatible passengers together.

Airlines love this because middle seats become sellable ("meet interesting people!"), they charge for something that costs nothing, and get fewer complaints about annoying seatmates.

Start with one airline, one route. Once the model is proven, approach corporations for expansion. LinkedIn sponsors "networking flights" between tech hubs. Tinder creates "Singles Sections" on Vegas and Miami routes - dating at 30,000 feet.

The Ace Toolkit

Ace's notebook, 1914: “If a tire company made restaurants compete for stars, you can make anything compete for anything."

The Michelin Guide Origin Story - The complete origin story for the Michelin guide explaining how selling restaurant guides moved more tires than any advertisement could.

KLM's Meet & Seat - One airline that actually tried social seating in 2012, letting passengers link Facebook profiles to choose seatmates. It quietly disappeared during Covid but the blueprint is there.

Until next time,

Alex

Founder //LZY MNY CLB