I started a premium flash cards biz for fun (and maybe profit)

[floridaman]

I've had an idea in my head for the past few years, and finally did something about it. It's nice to finally post something in the Execution section after semi-lurking for years.

Here's the TLDR for the company/products:
- I like to read physical books sometimes to get away from screens
- I always enjoyed the format of a deck of flash cards, as they're nice little bite-sized pieces of info
- I found myself journaling about the business insights I was finding online, in books, podcasts, etc.
- I realized other people would benefit from this format, so instead of just writing it privately in my journal, I'm going to sell it in a flash-card deck format
- I created a company brand called "Mind Gems," and I want to sell decks of cards with business/philosophical ideas/insights
- Card decks have become a bit more popular (see: Top Tools to Achieve Your Goals & Be Your BestSelf , the owner sold somewhat recently for ~$20mm)
- The Almanac of Naval Ravikant sold over a million copies (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FF8MTM6/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20) so that validated that people are willing to pay for summarized/curated information from Naval
- I hope to make some money, but part of me thinks "they're just cards..." so I see it as more of an experimental art project that COULD make me some money and create connections)

I have 3 card decks so far:
1) Naval Ravikant's "How to Get Rich" tweetstorm/podcast/blog posts. If you haven't read/listened to this, you have to. It's incredible.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-TZqOsVCNM
. It was originally a Twitter thread of his best ideas on how to build wealth, then it become a full podcast and blog posts.

2) 48 Laws of Power (ready to go in Figma, I reworded and summarized the idea for each law and have an image on the front of the card that the book describes)

3) Jack Butcher's "Visualize Value" (ready to go in Figma, I haven't reached out to Jack just yet for a partnership/royalties deal)

Here's where I'm at right now:
The Naval deck is currently being printed in China. I had 300 decks made for about $8/each, including the branded box and foam insert to hold the cards. I got the branded box for two reasons: to protect the actual cards during shipping, and to give a more "premium" feel to the unboxing process.

The cards will have a nice stock, linen texture, holographic edge, and side-drawer box. I wanted to go for a more premium look and feel.

The front of the cards has one idea, and a QR code that links to that blog post on Naval's website. The back has more details about that particular idea.

I have created a Shopify store and used 3D Photoshop mockups to simulate what the cards will look like. The case for the cards will be slightly different (not a traditional case for playing cards, but something they call a "side-drawer" box).

You can see the product here: Contemplation Cards - Wisdom from Naval Ravikant

It's just a pre-order right now, since I won't have the cards in-hand for another month or so.


Next steps:
- Marketing and sales for the Naval deck. This is a very niche market, which is good and bad. I have a few marketing ideas and adding on details to this thread. Manual engagement on social, maybe some normal ads and UGC ads. If anybody has any other ideas for a product and niche market like this, I'd love to hear them.
- Putting the finishing touches on the other decks. I'd like sell all 3 at once in my store, so I can get the Average Order Value up. I'm also thinking of making other products at some point, like posters, journals and maybe wearable merch.

Hey MJ... wanna do a deck together

 

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[StrikingViper69]

Is there a copyright problem with this?

I knew someone doing $5k/mo on Amazon doing something similar in a niche market.

 

[floridaman]

Is there a copyright problem with this?

I knew someone doing $5k/mo on Amazon doing something similar in a niche market.

I'm not stealing anything, just summarizing his ideas. Plus, he's worth a couple billion and always preaches about people being industrious. I don't think he'll care I'm summarizing his ideas and sending traffic to his blog. But time will tell. I'm just shooting from the hip and executing.

The writer of The Almanac of Naval Ravikant was able to get Naval's attention on Twitter. I plan to do the same thing, but I'm doing a short run of 300 decks first, and then will try and reach out to get Naval's "blessing."