One idea a week, taken seriously
Most newsletters in this space send you a list. A trend, a number, a link, and on to the next one.
We send one. Every week we take a single shift that is creating customers who did not exist before, establish why it is happening now rather than five years ago, and map what can be built around it. Then we do the part almost nobody does, which is saying which of those businesses is actually worth your time and which is already crowded.
Four economies a month. No filler weeks, no roundups of other people’s links.
Join 8,000+ founders and operators.
What arrives, and when
Sunday. Free, and it always will be.
The exploding idea of the week. What moved, who it created, and three businesses it makes possible. About five minutes to read, and enough on its own to be worth the subscription.
Tuesday. For paid subscribers.
The deep dive on the same economy. The layers mapped one by one, the business models with the money attached, what it would cost to move on it this month, and what would have to go wrong for it not to work.
Same subject twice. Sunday tells you it exists. Tuesday tells you what to do about it.
See what is inside a deep dive
How the idea is chosen
This is the part that decides whether any of it is worth reading, so it is written down in full rather than described in a sentence.
In short: we look for structural change rather than attention, we check whether it creates a customer with a recurring need rather than a single purchase, we count how many kinds of supplier the change requires, and we work out where on the adoption curve it currently sits, because that determines what should be built rather than how hard you should try.
Anything that fails those checks does not get published, however good the story is.
Who it is for
People looking for something to build, and people already building who want to know whether the ground under them is growing or shrinking.
It is not for people who want motivation. There is none in it.
Who writes it
Ian Park, editor. Alongside the editions I write, contributors publish under the Exploding Ideas Team byline: people whose work I know and who have something worth adding.
The archive
Every edition stays readable. Start with the most recent, or work back through by topic.
Start on Sunday
The free edition is not a sample. It is a complete piece of work, and most subscribers never pay for anything and still get their money’s worth.
There is also a paid edition on Tuesdays for people who want the full analysis: $15 a month, or $150 a year. See what it includes.