Saam Paar & Shaan Puri with Andrew Wilkinson — Best (and Worst) Businesses to Start | 4 Minute Guide

When you want to know which businesses are worth starting before 2026, Saam Paar and Shaan Puri sit down with Andrew Wilkinson to build a practical tier list.

Get 1 hours of content into 4 minutes.

This is a conversation about real results, not inspirational outliers. Andrew defines rules: median successful outcome, lifestyle matters, and both upside and probability of success count. They rank models by median success, lifestyle tradeoffs, upside, and likelihood you’ll actually make it.

Key takeaways:
Multi‑level marketing: fundamentally unsustainable, relies on recruiting.
Freelancing: honest work, owner‑operator trap without scaling.
Agencies: lumpy, boom and bust cycles; exceptions like Metalab.
SaaS: usually strong when mission‑critical with high switching costs.
Marketplaces: dominant at scale like Airbnb, but most are low odds.
Restaurants: slim margins, relentless operations.
Airbnbs: regulation can wipe margins overnight.
Content: fragile for the median creator; stop posting and revenue can evaporate.
Real estate: predictable, debt amplifies returns, illiquidity limits growth.
Local services: operationally hard but can be cash cows if you dominate.
Angel investing: skewed returns, long illiquidity.
Buying existing small businesses: pragmatic path if returns exceed an owner’s salary.
Investment management: permanent capital compounds fees; redemptions add risk.

Practical framework: align median outcomes with lifestyle, seek durable advantages like switching costs or permanent capital, value inputs over outputs, and build resilience by getting back up over and over.

Topics:
business and economics
startups venture capital and entrepreneurship
technology and innovation
leadership and decision making
personal finance and investing strategies
society and culture
cultural trends and lifestyle shifts
macroeconomic trends and market outlook
business model innovation

Watch the full episode on YouTube:    • Guy worth $100M+ tells you the best (and w...