The $15B Secret Vault (that can make you rich)

Hey friend,

Today, we’re diving into a Mormon doomsday bunker, Big Pharma’s DNA deals, and 3 ways to cash in on humanity’s existential crisis.

The Story

Six hundred feet inside a Utah mountain, behind a 14-ton blast door, lies a vault built to survive nuclear apocalypse. Its contents? 3.5 billion dead people’s names—stockpiled by Mormons to baptize your ancestors into their faith after they die.

But this doomsday bunker did more than just save souls. It accidentally birthed a $15B industry selling identity upgrades to the living.

Ancestry.com, founded by two Mormon graduates, pulls in $1.3 billion annually—more than the entire GDP of Belize. Its spinoff, 23andMe, silently farms $300 million a year from people who think they're discovering their heritage, not realizing their DNA is being sold to pharmaceutical giants at $60 per profile.

I watched this unfold when my friend Dan discovered he was 4% Scandinavian. Within days, he'd bought an axe, started brewing mead, and wouldn't shut up about his "Viking blood." His wife rolled her eyes so hard I thought they might fall out of her head.

Dan isn’t delusional—he’s just a perfect customer.

Psychologists at Cornell found that people who believe they're descended from royalty rate themselves higher in positive traits, even when the "royal connection" is entirely made up.

Turns out we’re literally programmed to assimilate our ancestors' status into our own self-worth.

This is identity arbitrage in its purest form.

And if you understand this primal hunger for meaning, for belonging to something greater than yourself, you're perfectly positioned to profit from it.

How To Profit

• Family Tree Artistry

Most ancestry companies hand you a pie chart of ethnicities and send you on your way. "Congrats, you're 23% German. Good luck figuring out what to do with that information!"

That gap between knowing and experiencing is where you step in.

Focus on one product that’s both simple to create and irresistible as a gift: premium family tree art - designed, printed, and framed for your customer.

Start with a basic package (149$): a gorgeously designed family tree going back 3 generations, on quality paper with elegant typography.

Then offer add-ons that boost your margins — custom-designed family crest (+50$), mahogany frame (+75$), packaging for special occasions (+25$), extra generations of research (+90$ per generation).

The beauty of this business is its simplicity. Outsource the genealogy research, use templates in design software and batch-process orders. Your basic package costs less than $50 to produce, and the add-ons have even better margins.

• Digital Family Experience

Why settle for paper when you can resurrect the past? Transform faded memories into digital stories worth sharing.

Start with a basic package ($199): A digital family tree with AI-enhanced portraits that bring old black and white photos to life with realistic colorization.

Then offer add-ons that boost your margins: "Life trailers" of key ancestors (+$100), narrated family stories (+$50), interactive timelines (+$75), digital artifacts (+$40 each).

For the full experience, bundle it all into the "Family Saga" package ($499) and position it as the ultimate family gift.

The tech is straightforward. Midjourney enhances photos, ElevenLabs creates voices, basic web templates handle presentation. Production costs stay under $60 even for the complete package.

• Ancestry ChatBot

People already pay psychics and mediums thousands of dollars to hear from lost loved ones—but imagine if you could deliver that experience with AI (and without the creepy vibes).

Create a simple chatbot service where customers can have text conversations with their ancestors. They provide basic family info and photos, you build a digital personality that knows their ancestor's life story, speaking style, and historical context.

Start with a basic subscription ($19/month): Text conversations with one ancestor who responds in a personalized way to questions about their life, family stories, and can even offer "advice" based on their values.

Then offer premium features: Voice calls with ancestors (+$30/month), video chats with AI-generated ancestor faces (+$50/month), or family plans with multiple ancestors (+$40/month).

ChatGPT handles the conversation, ElevenLabs creates the voice, and character.ai helps build consistent personalities. Money in the bank.

Ask Ace (Q & A time)

‘‘Ace, what few decisions actually matter for success?" — Ben, overwhelmed in Ohio

In his journal, Ace wrote about the 3Ws compass:

Until next time,

Alex

Founder //LZY MNY CLB