GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), delivering you a startup idea that’ll finally bank the banned and build payment rails for industries Stripe won’t touch.

5,000 doors just unlocked.
NTE Pro hands you the master key to walk through the ones that matter.

Most people have blueprints gathering dust in a drawer.
NTE Zero to One is the builder that brings them to life.

Check out all the past newsletters here

Here’s what we’ve got for you today.

• Daily Idea - Payments For Misfits

• Founders Anonymous

The Credit Card Walk of Shame

The industries everyone uses but nobody talks about are still running on duct tape.
NTE Zero To One can help talk you through building the payment platform that finally makes vice mainstream.

The One Liner

Bank for the banned. Stripe for your “NSFW” side hustle.

The 140 character tweet (or X) version

Your sex toy shop, OnlyFans empire, or weed store can’t use Stripe. What if there was a payment processor built for vice?

The Longer Story Version

The Problem
Let’s be real: money makes the world go ‘round, but try selling anything “spicy” and suddenly your money gets stuck. Stripe will happily process payments for your SaaS that helps accountants meditate, but sell a $49.99 glow-in-the-dark vibrator? Account frozen. 

Want to build the Shopify of cannabis? Declined. Run an adult membership site? Banned faster than you can say NSFW.

And these aren’t tiny niche markets, they’re juggernauts. Cannabis is on track to be a $100B industry in the U.S. alone. Adult entertainment has been printing money since VHS. Sex toys are a multi-billion global industry (and recession-proof, btw).

Yet founders in these spaces are duct-taping sketchy offshore processors, wiring money to Latvia, and praying their merchant accounts don’t evaporate overnight. It’s like trying to run Amazon on Venmo.

The Solution
A payments platform that doesn’t blush. Purpose-built for the industries everyone else pretends don’t exist. Here’s the pitch:

• Merchants: finally get a legit, reliable partner instead of gambling with sketchy providers who ghost you at the first chargeback.

• Customers: frictionless, secure, stigma-free checkout (because no one wants “SexySausageToys LLC” showing up on their credit card bill).

• Banks: see a platform that takes compliance seriously instead of playing hide-and-seek with regulators.

Think: Stripe’s elegance, Coinbase’s compliance chops, and the discretion of a Vegas concierge.

How We’d Build It

• Stage 1 – MVP / Scrappy Build

  • Get one sponsoring bank willing to underwrite high-risk merchants. (Hard? Yes. Impossible? No. Think smaller regional banks who want to grow.)

  • Core payments infrastructure via Moov or Unit.

  • Fraud detection via Sardine (used by high-risk fintechs, not common knowledge).

  • Keep it super narrow at first: pick ONE vertical (say CBD or adult creators).

• Stage 2 – Pro Build

  • Add ComplyAdvantage or Hummingbird for AML/KYC automation.

  • Vertical-specific onboarding → cannabis ≠ adult ≠ sex toys.

  • Merchant dashboard built in Retool showing disputes, approvals, and risk in real time.

  • Pricing tiers: the more compliant + lower-risk you are, the cheaper your rates.

• Stage 3 – Big League Build + GTM

  • Build brand as “the Goldman Sachs of vice payments.” Professional, not sketchy. (Logo shouldn’t look like a neon XXX sign.)

  • Distribution: partner with POS providers in cannabis, adult platforms, or even Shopify-style plugins for “restricted merchants.”

  • Add social sniping GTM move: sponsor industry trade shows nobody else touches. Imagine the Stripe booth at AVN, now we’re talking.

Why It Needs to Exist
Because billion-dollar industries are currently running on duct tape and prayer. Stripe became Stripe by saying yes to the people banks said no to (startups). This is the same play, except the customers are already massive and underserved.

And honestly, “whoever owns the rails of vice owns a gold mine.”

The bar is crowded with billion-dollar ideas

It’s always “Uber but for dogs” or “Netflix but for salads.”

Here’s the truth: ideas aren’t rare. Execution is.

NTE Zero to One is your first rep in the gym of building.
You don’t need a cofounder. You don’t need funding.
You need one shot where the rubber meets the road.

We give you that shot:

• One launch page.

• Real humans signing up.

• The “yes/no” you can’t get by talking about it.

It’s $49.
Cheaper than the bar tab where your idea was born.
But instead of a hangover, you leave with proof.

👉 Stop being the guy who talks. Start being the one who ships.

Founders Anonymous

Imagine a dark basement, folding chairs in a circle, half-eaten Costco cookies on the table. The sign on the door reads: “Founders Anonymous: High-Risk Merchants Only.”

One by one, the confessions start.

• “My account got shut down overnight. Stripe just emailed me ‘terms violation’ and poof — we couldn’t process a single dollar.”

• “Our payment processor is run out of Belize. The guy’s Gmail ends with @hotmail.com. It feels… sketchy.”

• “Customers think we’re a scam because checkout fails half the time. They’re right.”

Everyone nods.

Then the moderator leans forward: “Wouldn’t it be easier if someone just built the Stripe-for-banned?”

Cue silence. Then slow nods all around.

The Case For

Here’s why this idea makes sense:

• Massive markets. Cannabis alone is projected at $100B+ in the U.S. by 2030. Adult entertainment and sex toys are billion-dollar global categories. We’re not talking about weird niches here. We’re talking industries bigger than SaaS.

• Real pain. Founders literally can’t move money. They get banned by Stripe, PayPal, Square. They’re forced into shady offshore setups with absurd fees. It’s like running Amazon on Venmo.

• Moats. Compliance + regulatory expertise isn’t sexy, but it’s a moat. Once you get the bank partnerships and licensing sorted, it’s sticky. Merchants won’t want to move because switching means risking their accounts again.

This is one of those rare “pain is obvious, market is huge” ideas.

The Case Against

But here’s why this could suck to build:

• Regulation hell. Every state, every country has different rules. You’re not just a fintech, you’re a compliance company that happens to move money. That’s expensive and exhausting.

• Bank partners. Most banks don’t want the smoke. You’ll spend half your life convincing them that your customers aren’t criminals. One slip-up and you’re shut down.

• Reputation risk. You want to be “the Goldman Sachs of vice payments,” but there’s always the chance your logo ends up on a BuzzFeed piece called “The Bank That Fuels Porn.” That can make talent, partners, and even investors skittish.

So it’s not an easy ride. This is trench warfare.

Why Someone Needs To Do this

Stripe became Stripe by saying yes to the people banks said no to, early-stage startups. This is the exact same move, except the customers are already huge and underserved.

And the best part? The first founder who cracks this doesn’t just get rich. They change the entire perception of these industries. Overnight, the basement meeting moves upstairs. Out of the shadows, into the boardroom.

Because right now, billions of dollars are being left on the table simply because the existing rails won’t carry them. Whoever builds this? They don’t just make money. They make history.

The What-If Machine

Everyone’s got “startup ideas.” Most are boring. A few make you sit up, spit out your coffee, and say wait, what if that actually existed?

Here are three from inside NTE Pro right now:

1. Transform Idle Warehouses into AI Data Centers
Empty Costco-sized boxes are wasting away across America. Meanwhile, AI is starving for compute. What if you flipped one switch and turned dead real estate into the oil fields of the digital age?

2. Traffic Stop Safety + Legal Aid App
Getting pulled over is scary. What if one button instantly recorded, streamed to your lawyer, and walked you through your rights — in real time?

3. Modular Micro-Fulfillment Pods for Urban Delivery
Prime shipping broke logistics. What if retailers used Lego-style mini-warehouses that snap together in cities and move when demand shifts?

👉 That’s a taste. Thousands more like these live inside NTE Pro.
Push the button. See the future before it shows up in TechCrunch.

One More Meme