GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), delivering you a startup idea that’ll take U.S. e-commerce brands global overnight, “ship once, sell everywhere.”

5,000+ ideas and counting. NTE Pro is the secret warp pipe in Mario, skip the grind, jump worlds, and land where the big boss is guarding the treasure chest.

A napkin sketch is just ink. NTE Zero To One is the launchpad that turns it into a rocket with real thrust.

Check out all the past newsletters here

Here’s what we’ve got for you today.

• Daily Idea - Global Made Simple

• The Kindergarten Debate

Your Passport to Global Sales

Inspired by the MFM Podcast 

NTE Zero To One can help you turn the “ship once, sell everywhere” international expansion model into a category-defining global powerhouse.

The One Liner

Ship once. Sell everywhere. We handle the chaos.

The 140 character tweet (or X) version

Expanding abroad is hell. This service = “international in a box.” Ship once, we handle warehouses, customs, taxes, & delivery. You just collect sales.

The Longer Story Version

The Problem

Every U.S. DTC brand has that moment. Sales are humming along at $5M, $10M, $20M a year. You’ve maxed out Meta ads, your TikTok CPMs are rising, and you’re thinking: We should sell in Canada. Or maybe the UK. Or hell, let’s just say “Now shipping worldwide” on our site.

Then reality hits. Shipping to London? $40 and 2 weeks. Your package gets stuck in customs like it’s in Shawshank. A customer in Paris returns a pair of sneakers and suddenly you’re personally on the hook for VAT compliance. Expansion dreams die right there.

It’s not just a headache, it’s a buzzsaw. Brands either blow millions trying to set up their own ops or they stay stuck selling only to Americans in Ohio and Oklahoma.

The Solution

This service flips the script. Think of it like Shopify crossed with FedEx crossed with your most type-A international lawyer.

Here’s the pitch:

• Ship once → Send inventory to a U.S. hub.

• We deploy → Products land in local warehouses in Canada, Europe, or Australia.

• We handle the nightmare → Customs, duties, taxes, returns, compliance. All invisible to you.

• You scale → Just watch dashboards light up with foreign orders.

It’s basically an “international GM in a box.” Your Canadian customers get their skincare serum in 2 days instead of 3 weeks. Your Paris shoppers stop abandoning carts when they see “€4 delivery” instead of “import fees may apply.” And you, the founder, stop waking up to 2am emails from angry Australians wondering why shipping cost more than the actual t-shirt.

How We’d Build It

Stage 1 (Proof of Concept – Canada first):

• Start where the hockey is: Canada.

• Plug into Deliverr or Stord for backend warehousing.

• Automate tax/duty compliance with Avalara and Zonos.

• Build a Shopify app: one click = “Now shipping to Canada.”

Stage 2 (Expansion – Europe & Australia):

• Layer in multi-country warehouses.

• Add brand dashboards powered by Rutter (commerce API aggregator).

• Use Taktile for flexible royalty models and pricing experiments.

• Partner with boutique agencies to localize marketing because selling protein powder in Berlin ≠ selling it in Boston.

Stage 3 (Moat & Blitzscaling):

• Own select warehouse capacity for control and margin.

• Create a “shared ops” layer: pooled local customer service + reverse logistics.

• Position it as “growth capital without dilution” instead of raising VC, brands partner with you to unlock global sales.

Why It Needs to Exist

Because international expansion should feel like flipping a switch, not filing a mountain of paperwork. Imagine being a founder: today you’re selling candles to Brooklyn hipsters, tomorrow those same candles are showing up in Tokyo apartments and Berlin lofts.

The best part? No giant upfront gamble. Just ship once, sign the revenue-share deal, and suddenly you’re worldwide. It’s the difference between “small brand with a cult following” and “household name in three continents.”

The TAM here is massive. Every mid-sized U.S. e-commerce brand wants this. The pain point is real (logistics nightmares). And the consumer win is obvious: faster shipping, lower costs, higher conversion rates.

This is the kind of business that makes founders slam their laptops and say: Why the hell doesn’t this exist already?

Mining the Internet’s Complaint Gold

A Message From Our Partner

If you’re building this “ship once, sell everywhere” platform, you need to know what brands actually complain about, where they hang out, and what they wish someone would just fix already. That’s where a tool like GummySearch comes in, basically a stethoscope for the internet’s group chats.

1. Find the pain in the wild.
Reddit threads like r/Entrepreneur or r/Shopify are full of founders moaning, “my package to Germany took 4 weeks.” That’s the raw language of frustration you can build around.

2. Spot your early adopters.
Brands doing $500K–$5M in sales are already asking “how do I sell in Canada without losing my shirt?” Those aren’t hypotheticals, they’re leads.

3. Collect the secret feature requests.
“Returns from Europe are a nightmare.” “Australian shipping costs kill conversion.” Each complaint is basically free R&D for your roadmap.

4. Turn gripes into content.
Take those exact questions and spin them into posts like “How to Sell in Canada Without Paying 40% in Fees.” That’s SEO gold and brand trust before you’ve even launched.

And here’s the kicker: even if you never touch this e-com idea, these tactics work anywhere. Tools that surface raw conversations are cheat codes for market research, validate demand, uncover hidden features, and build what people are already begging for.

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The Kindergarten Test

Lets explain the “ship once, sell everywhere” idea to a group of kindergartners. Spoiler: they don’t care about logistics software, but their feedback might be sharper than most VCs.

Me: Imagine you have a box of candy. You want to give it to your friends in another classroom. But you don’t want to carry the candy over there, stand in line, and pay extra snack fees. What if you gave me the candy once, and I magically made sure every classroom got it?

Kid #1: “Why don’t they just buy candy in their classroom?”
Translation: Consumers abroad already have options. Your pitch has to be better than what’s local, faster shipping, cooler brand, or lower cost.

Kid #2: “But what if your candy melts?”
Translation: Operational complexity is real. Returns, refunds, regulations, customer support, stuff will “melt.” You can’t just wave a wand; you need serious ops muscle.

Kid #3: “Can I get candy first if I’m your best friend?”
Translation: Early adopters matter. Start small, maybe Canada, maybe one category like beauty or supplements. Win trust there before going global.

Kid #4: (looks up from Lego tower) “So you’re saying they don’t have to do the hard part?”
Translation: Bingo. That’s the whole value prop. Brands already drowning in domestic logistics get a “GM in a box” for international. Low-risk, royalty model = plug-and-play expansion.

Kid #5: “Will you give me more candy if I tell my friends?”
Translation: Partnerships and word-of-mouth will drive this. If you pull it off, every founder stuck shipping from Ohio will be DM’ing their friends: “Dude, this thing works. Try it.”

So what did we learn from the Kindergarten Test?

• The TAM is huge (every mid-sized U.S. DTC brand wants global sales).

• The pain point is clear (customs, taxes, compliance are nightmares).

• The risk is low for brands (just a royalty cut).

• But the execution is a beast (warehouses, ops, local support).

The kids didn’t know it, but they just did the investor debate for us. The question isn’t whether founders want this, they do. The question is: can you build the magic machine without the candy melting all over the floor?

🕵️ The Heist Blueprint

Imagine Ocean’s Eleven, but instead of stealing diamonds, you’re stealing billion-dollar ideas. You’ve got the crew, the blueprints, the getaway car, now all you need are the targets.

This week’s score:

🎯 Target #1: Casual Sports Prediction App for Fans
Low-stakes, trash-talk-friendly predictions. Not DraftKings, not FanDuel—just the app every fan uses during the game to prove they called it first. Think of it as sports betting’s cooler, less-toxic cousin.

🎯 Target #2: Licensed Sports Highlights Marketplace for Creators
Every YouTuber wants to remix highlights without getting nuked by leagues. A marketplace that makes clips safe, licensed, and creator-ready? That’s like stealing the Mona Lisa of sports media.

🎯 Target #3: Superfan Marketplace: Exclusive Access and Experiences Hub
Merch is boring. True superfans want locker-room passes, live Q&As, or first dibs on team NFTs. A marketplace that monetizes obsession? That’s the casino vault.

The blueprint’s clear: sports fandom is massive, underserved, and begging for tools that don’t suck. And these are just three marks on the board, inside NTE Pro, there are 5,000+ more, each begging to be pulled off by the right crew.

So the only question is: are you in the getaway car, or still outside staring at the casino?

👉 Join the crew → NTE Pro

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