GM. This is Needs To Exist (aka NTE), dropping a startup idea that turns your city’s darkest crime scenes into the most unforgettable walking tours.

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Here’s what we’ve got for you today.

• Daily Idea - Blood, Bread, Stories

• Ghost of Al Capone

True crime, but with dessert.

The One Liner

Walk the crime. Eat the city.

The 140 character tweet (or X) version

Retired cops guide you through infamous crime scenes, mixing gritty stories with the best local food. Dark history + flavor.

The Longer Story Version

The Problem
Tourism is predictable. Every city’s got the same cookie-cutter lineup: food tours, ghost walks, museum passes. Fun? Sure. Memorable? Barely. Meanwhile, true crime is one of the biggest obsessions in culture.

Millions binge Netflix docs, devour podcasts, and swap theories on Reddit. But when it comes to real-world experiences, true crime is stuck in tourist-trap limbo, cheesy, theatrical, or historically vague. No authenticity, no bite.

The Solution
Crime Walks flips the script. Imagine walking the streets of Chicago with a retired homicide detective. He’s not reading off a plaquem he’s reliving the night he tracked a suspect through that very alley. Or picture New Orleans with a criminologist who connects voodoo legends to real unsolved cases. And in between the dark stories? You’re hitting the city’s hidden food gems. Gumbo in New Orleans, deep-dish in Chicago, curry pies in London. It’s a double hit: the thrill of crime lore + the comfort of local cuisine.

This isn’t cosplay tourism. It’s immersive storytelling from people who actually lived it with flavors that make the experience unforgettable (and Instagram-worthy).

How We’d Build It

Stage 1: Scrappy MVP (1 city test)

• Recruit a retired officer and map 5 infamous crime spots.

• Partner with 2 restaurants for food tie-ins.

• Launch via Airbnb Experiences and Eventbrite.

Stage 2: Scaled Play (multi-city)

• Playbook routes + scripts → expand to New Orleans, London, LA.

• Add booking + scheduling stack with FareHarbor.

• Growth hack through true crime podcasts and foodie TikTok.

Stage 3: Experience Brand (national/global)

• Layer AR with Stellar AR → see crime scene overlays in real-time.

• Franchise model for retired cops worldwide.

• Seasonal specials: Mafia Walks, Cold Case Nights, Haunted Holidays.

Why It Needs to Exist

Because travel should leave a mark. Not another “cute brunch spot,” but stories that stay with you. True crime is the #1 cultural obsession, and food is the #1 reason people travel. Crime Walks is where they collide. It’s unforgettable, postable, and authentic — the kind of experience you brag about long after the trip ends.

How to Sniff Out Demand Before You Build

A Message From Our Partner

Most founders guess. They think, “This sounds fun, people will buy it.” Wrong move. Before you start recruiting retired cops and mapping crime scenes, you need to know if people even care. That’s where the magic comes in:

1. Find the Obsessions. Pop “true crime tour,” “mob history,” or “unsolved mystery podcast” into GummySearch. You’ll see Reddit threads where thousands are already debating their favorite stories. If the comments run deep, you know people want more.

2. Spot the Complaints. Maybe people gripe that existing tours are too cheesy, too short, or skip food stops. Perfect, you just got your product roadmap handed to you for free.

3. Identify the Superfans. Look for users who are basically unpaid evangelists (“I flew to London just for Jack the Ripper tours”). Those are your early adopters. Interview them, test pricing, let them beta the first walk.

4. Copy-Paste the Playbook. Even if you don’t care about crime walks, the method still works. Swap “true crime” for “cat cafés,” “haunted houses,” or “pickleball meetups.” The formula’s the same: go where the nerds talk, mine what they complain about, build the thing they secretly wish existed.

The tool isn’t just a search engine. It’s like having a cheat sheet to the internet’s collective brain pulling demand signals from thousands of micro-conversations. That way, you’re not launching into the void. You’re launching into proven obsession.

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The Ghost of Al Capone

Picture this: You’re in Chicago, pitching Crime Walks, a guided tour where retired cops lead you through notorious crime spots, sprinkling in mob stories and local food stops. Sounds fun, right? Except… the ghost of Al Capone just floated in, cigar in hand, and he’s got some notes.

Capone’s Ghost:
“Finally, somebody’s got the brains to make money off my old stomping grounds. You got tourists, you got stories, and you got pizza. But listen kid, you better cut me in on the royalties, brand licensing, the whole racket. Otherwise, we got a problem.”

The Michelin-Star Chef:
“Excuse me? Pairing cannoli with mob hits is culinary sacrilege. Food should celebrate culture, not crime. You want to honor Chicago? Do a deep dish pilgrimage. A foie gras taco crawl. But murder and marinara? That’s a bad Yelp review waiting to happen.”

The Cop:
“Hold up. As someone who actually worked these streets, I like this idea. Retired officers can bring authenticity. Tourists eat it up. And it’s better than Hollywood making another cartoonish mob movie. As long as it’s framed as history, not glamorization, I say go for it. Plus, these restaurants could use the traffic.”

Capone’s Ghost (again):
“History, schmistory. These people don’t want textbooks, they want juice. They want to know where the body dropped, then grab a hot dog on the way out. That’s the hook. Lean into it. Make it flashy. I built an empire on supply and demand, and the demand here is blood and pasta.”

The Chef:
“You’re missing the point. If this becomes TikTok bait then influencers posting selfies at crime scenes with hashtags like #MafiaMunchies, it could blow back. The moment it looks like you’re celebrating crime, the whole thing collapses.”

The Cop:
“Or it scales. Think about it: New Orleans voodoo murders + gumbo. London Jack the Ripper + curry pies. LA mob hits + tacos. Every city’s got a darker side and a signature dish. Package it right, and it’s viral.”

Capone’s Ghost (final word):
“Listen. You can dress it up with morals and Michelin stars all you want. At the end of the day, people love three things: stories, scares, and snacks. You’re giving them all three. So either build it… or let me haunt somebody who will.”

Travel is flooded with cookie-cutter experiences: another food tour, another ghost walk. Crime Walks fuses two unstoppable forces, the cultural obsession with true crime and the universal love of food. Done right, it’s not glamorizing, it’s educating. It’s history you can taste. And it’s the kind of quirky, photo-ready experience people brag about long after the trip ends.

The Startup Betting Slip

Put your chips down. Which of these ideas would you bet on?

• Long Shot: An AI-powered “Taste Twin” app that finds strangers with the exact same Spotify, Goodreads, and DoorDash habits and then matches them for friendship.

• Dark Horse: A subscription service for retro tech addicts: every month, you get a restored gadget (iPod, GameBoy, PalmPilot) plus a zine on the culture around it.

• Sure Thing: Software that auto-generates “meeting recaps for humans” , not transcripts, not AI fluff, but a clean, story-style writeup you’d actually forward to your boss.

👉 Odds only available inside NTE Pro.

One More Meme