💡 IDEA: Time Travel? No Machine Needed

Hey friend,

Today we’re talking about a 5,000-year-old business model that still works, how a dusty piece of paper sold for $3 million, and three dirt-cheap ways to profit from humanity's oldest desire.

The Story

What do Egyptian pharaohs, Victorian businessmen, and modern tech billionaires all desperately want, but money can't buy?

The answer - immortality.

And last week, I found proof that people will pay millions for even a taste of it.

The story's almost too good to be true.

A Parisian apartment, locked and forgotten for 68 years. The owner, a French actress named Madame de Florian, fled to the south during WWII and never came back. She just locked the door and left everything there, frozen in time, like a dusty old time capsule. 

After her death in 2010, her family opened it up and behind all the cobwebs, they found a portrait. 

Nothing special at first glance. No Mona Lisa, just a random painting of a woman in a pink dress.

This turned out to be the owner's grandmother, painted by a relativey well-known Italian artist named Boldini.

But here's where it gets interesting. 

Next to the painting, they found love letters.

Seems like the artist and the grandmother had quite the thing going. Suddenly, this dusty old portrait wasn't just a painting anymore.

It was a story. A romance. A mystery. A connection to a time long gone. A whiff of immortality…

Later, it went to auction, where someone paid $3 million for it.

You see, humans have always tried to preserve themselves and their memories.

The Egyptians stuffed their tombs with everyday items, thinking they'd need them in the afterlife.

‘’Dead or not, a pharaoh's gotta eat’  is what I always say…I think. Is that a saying?

Anyway, it wasn't until 1876 that someone actually got clever about it.

At Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition, a bunch of businessmen got together and created what they called a "Century Safe Time Capsule.’’

They filled it with photos, newspapers, random stuff from their lives - nothing particularly valuable. Just objects that showed who they were and what they cared about.

This simple idea spread like wildfire.

Cities started burying time capsules during celebrations. Universities sealed away their achievements.

MIT went completely nuts in 1957 - buried a capsule with instructions not to open it until 2957. Yeah, a thousand years later - talk about playing the long game.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: we've got digital storage now. Cloud backups. Virtual time capsules. All this technology. 

But that misses the point. Technology kills the mystery. The ceremony. That feeling you get when you hold onto something that hasn't seen daylight in a century.

The way I see it, it’s not about what’s inside these capsules. As a magician, trust me when I tell you - the trick itself isn't what people pay for. They pay for that moment of wonder right before the reveal...

With time capsules, people aren't paying for the stuff that’s inside - they're paying for a shot at being remembered. They're buying tomorrow's memories - today.

And that’s where you come in…here are 3 ways to turn this timeless desire into actual profit…

HOW TO PROFIT

• The Premium Memory Box 

Last week in Lisbon, I found myself staring at sardine cans. Not because I was hungry - sardines are disgusting - but because the cans were beautiful. Seriously - these Portuguese put more artistic effort into packaging fish than most companies put into their branding.

Got me thinking: If they're making sardine tins look this good, why are we still stuffing people's precious memories into ugly steel tubes that belong in a plumber's van?

What’s stopping you from creating time capsules people actually want to display? I’m thinking handcrafted mahogany cases with brass fittings. Engraved lettering. Boxes that tell a story before they're even filled.

But think bigger...the real money isn't in the box - it's in the experience. Partner with schools, corporations, or cities to create custom time capsules for them. Go beyond the individual.

Handle everything: preservation methods, documentation, storage, unveiling ceremonies. Because they're not buying a container; they're buying legacy.

And trust me, people will pay premium prices for that.

• The Letter Vault 

In high school, one of my professors got the class to write a letter to our future self. He would then collect the letters and mail them back to us in 10 years time. I’ve always loved this concept. Let’s expand on it. Create a website where people write letters to their future selves. But be smart about it- don't just store them digitally like everyone else - that's lame and boring.

Rather, print these messages on premium paper. Seal them with snazzy red color wax. Store them properly.

Then, ten years later, deliver them with ceremony. Create events around the openings. Make it special.

This isn’t the world’s slowest mail delivery; it's time travel. And you can charge on both ends: the initial service and the delivery experience.

You get low startup costs and deliver high emotional value. That's the sweet spot for instant profit. 

• CapsuleQuest: Travel Through Time at Every Location

Now, let’s expand this concept and think outside the box.

Here’s the idea: an app that turns locations into digital time capsules - unlocked through your geo location.

Imagine you're standing in Times Square, pointing your phone at a building and seeing what it looked like in 1922.

Then you're walking through Central Park and unlock stories about how each landmark came to be. You pass a shady restaurant and get prompted about a murder story from the 30's that had Al Capone arrested. Use this app to walk through a time capsule of the world.

Extra tips:

Sprinkle hidden histories across tourist spots.

Partner with local municipalities to create historical trails that reveal forgotten stories.

Create a Bonnie and Clyde date night experience where couples follow the infamous duo's adventures, unlocking drinks at their favorite speakeasies and seeing where they pulled their first heist. A perfect addition to one of last week’s idea!

I could go on and on, but you get the gist.

It's simple, easy to scale, and you can monetise in endless ways.

Because every location has a story worth discovering - you just need to be there to unlock it.

The Ace Segment

Before we wrap up, here's how Ace Victoria (our newsletter's spirit animal) turned lost items into gold back in 1909.

See, fancy hotels would sell off their lost-and-found items every few months. Most buyers were just looking for cheap stuff to flip. Basic arbitrage, like we discussed in our first edition.

But Ace saw stories where others saw junk. A monogrammed watch from a businessman's last trip. A diary from an unfinished honeymoon. A stack of unopened letters meant for someone who never arrived.

He'd buy these items in bulk for pennies on the dollar. Then rebrand them as "Time Capsules From the Grand Hotels of Europe." 

Each item came with its own story about its mysterious origin.

Simple items, triple the price.

"The story you imagine is worth more than the story you know," he wrote in his newsletter.

Until next time,

Alex

Founder //LZY MNY CLB