GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), delivering you a startup idea that makes selling anything as easy as pushing a button and getting cash instantly.

5,000+ ideas and climbing. NTE Pro is your cheat code in the arcade, skip the quarters, jump straight to the level where the billion-dollar prize is waiting.

Ideas are seeds. NTE Zero To One is the greenhouse that turns them into towering oaks.

Check out all the past newsletters here

Here’s what we’ve got for you today.

• Daily Idea - Instant Exit Button

• Cartoon Character Boardroom

Instant Liquidity Across Every Category

NTE Zero To One can help talk you through turning the “push-button cash-out for anything you own” into an actual billion-dollar business.

The One Liner

Push a button, sell anything instantly.

The 140 character tweet (or X) version

Selling is broken. Craigslist = scams. eBay = waiting. Flippa = ghosting. What if you could push a button, skip the hassle, and get cash instantly for your phone, cards, even your business?

The Longer Story Version

Everyone has that drawer, that closet, that “someday I’ll sell it” pile.

An old iPhone that still works fine. A Pokémon binder from middle school. Sneakers you wore twice. Maybe even a Shopify store you built, grew, and then got too tired to keep running.

The thought of selling sounds nice… until you actually try.

• Craigslist = 100 scammy DMs.

• eBay = two weeks of “watchers” and zero buyers.

• Business marketplaces = three months of tire-kickers who ghost at the finish line.

So what happens? You procrastinate. The stuff gathers dust. The business limps along. Value slowly melts away while you do nothing because the hassle tax of selling is too damn high.

The Solution

Imagine if selling was like ripping off a Band-Aid.

You push a button, and it’s done. Cash in your account. No haggling, no listings, no strangers flaking on meetups in Starbucks parking lots.

This already exists in pockets of the world:

• Cash-for-gold kiosks turned broken jewelry into an ATM machine.

• Gazelle bought your used iPhone instantly, long before Apple’s trade-in program.

• CardCash let you unload unwanted gift cards in seconds.

Now stretch that model horizontally: one brand that does this for everything.

• Your old iPhone? Snap a photo, instant quote, money lands same-day.

• Your Pokémon cards? Dump the shoebox in the mail, Venmo hits before UPS scans the package.

• Your Shopify store? Tired of customer emails? Tap out, get wired the exit cash tomorrow.

The hook isn’t about squeezing every last dollar. It’s about certainty + speed. People don’t want the most. They want done.

How We’d Build It

Stage 1 – Test the wedge

• Pick one juicy category (trading cards or iPhones).

• Simple intake (Tally form → Stripe payout).

• Scrape market data from eBay/StockX/TCGplayer to set prices.

• Flip fast, even at thin margins to build trust and momentum.

Stage 2 – Expand horizontally

• Layer in sneakers, collectibles, small online businesses.

• Train appraisal models with Metaphor API + embeddings.

• Automate payouts using Modern Treasury.

• Growth wedge: “Sell [thing] instantly” SEO + viral TikToks of people cashing out live.

Stage 3 – Scale & moat

• Secure a credit line to bankroll instant payouts.

• Build predictive pricing that gets smarter with volume.

• White-label the “Instant Sell” button for marketplaces.

• Become the default cash-out brand across categories.

Why It Needs to Exist

Because selling sucks and most of us would gladly trade 10–20% of value for the magic of being done.

Your iPhone might be worth $300. But you’ll take $250 today if it means skipping the Craigslist clown show.

That Pokémon binder might fetch $5k on eBay. But $4k tomorrow, no listings, no bubble wrap? Yes please.

That Shopify store you grew to $50k? You could spend three months negotiating on Flippa. Or you could cash out in 24 hours and book a one-way to Cabo.

Humans are lazy. We crave certainty. We’ll pay a premium to skip the mess. Cash-for-gold proved it. Opendoor scaled it for houses. Now it’s time for a universal “cash out now” button.

Because the real flex isn’t maxing your profit. It’s getting your time, energy, and sanity back.

The Internet Is Screaming, Are You Listening?

A Message From Our Partner

Want to build the “push-button cash-out” platform? Cool. But before you wire a million bucks to buy Pokémon binders, you need signal: Who’s desperate to sell? Where are they hanging out? What words do they use when they complain?

That’s where GummySearch is a cheat code. It turns Reddit, forums, and online chatter into live customer discovery. Here’s how you’d use it here (and frankly, for any startup idea):

1. Find the pain in the wild
   Search “how do I sell [thing] fast” and you’ll see frustrated posts about iPhones, sneakers, even Shopify stores. That’s raw demand, no surveys needed.

2. Spot which categories pop first
   Maybe you thought trading cards were hot, but GummySearch shows endless threads about broken laptops and Xboxes. Follow the energy. Build where the screams are loudest.

3. Harvest the exact language
   People don’t say “liquidity.” They say “get rid of this ASAP.” Use their phrases in landing pages and ads. Sounds obvious, but most founders miss it.

4. Track trends before they trend
   Card collectors might be vocal this month. Next month? Maybe used electric scooters. GummySearch lets you ride the wave, not chase it.

Even if this liquidity play isn’t your jam, the move is the same: use GummySearch to sniff out where people are already begging for a fix. Then go build it.

Stop guessing. Start listening. The internet is literally shouting business ideas at you, GummySearch is just the hearing aid.

Sign Up For Free Today

The Boardroom of Cartoon Characters

You walk into a boardroom. But instead of VCs in Patagonia vests, it’s Bugs Bunny, SpongeBob, and Batman sitting across from you. They’re here to hear your pitch:

“A platform that lets anyone sell anything instantly, phones, trading cards, even online businesses. Push a button, cash out. Done.”

The reactions? Pure chaos.

Bugs Bunny:
“Eh, sounds like easy carrots to me. People don’t want the highest price, they want the fastest carrot. You give me a hundred bucks today instead of one-fifty next month? I’ll take the hundred, doc.”

Bugs gets it. He’s all about speed, certainty, and moving on. He’s basically the consumer voice: pay me less if you pay me now.

SpongeBob SquarePants:
“Ohhh, I’d sell my spatula instantly! And Squidward’s clarinet. And Mr. Krabs’ safe! I’ve got so much stuff to unload!”

SpongeBob represents raw enthusiasm. Every human has a junk drawer, a closet of old gadgets, or a side project they’re done with. The shoebox full of Pokémon cards? The Shopify store you’re too burned out to run? SpongeBob’s hoarding it all and screaming: “YES, PLEASE TAKE IT.”

Batman:
“This won’t scale without capital. Every instant buyout needs cash on hand. And each category, phones, cards, sneakers has its own appraisal quirks. You think Joker’s pawning his gadgets for pennies? Not happening. I work in darkness, not debt.”

Batman’s not wrong. This is the villain of the idea: capital intensity. You need a war chest to front payouts. Plus, pricing risk and get it wrong and you’re underwater fast. Batman is basically every skeptical investor, reminding you this is hard mode.

So where does that leave us?

• Bugs is right: People crave certainty. This is cash-for-gold but upgraded for the internet age.

• SpongeBob is right: The demand is everywhere. Electronics, collectibles, businesses, everyone wants an easy exit.

• Batman is right: It’s not trivial. You need sharp pricing models, serious capital, and guts to stomach risk.

The truth is, great businesses often live in the tension between Bugs and Batman. Consumers want the “easy carrot.” Investors fear the debt. Founders who figure out that middle ground? They build empires.

Opendoor did it with houses. Gazelle did it with phones. Cash-for-gold kiosks did it with jewelry. Nobody has done it across categories.

The boardroom verdict?

• Bugs votes yes.

• SpongeBob votes hell yes.

• Batman sighs, but he’s still in the room, which means it’s worth debating.

Sometimes the best startup ideas sound a little absurd, until they don’t.

The Red Pill / Blue Pill Fork

You’re Neo. Except instead of dodging bullets in slow motion, you’re dodging rent payments, a pissed-off cofounder, and your mom asking why you don’t have a “real job yet.”

And then, Morpheus slides three startup ideas across the table. Each one could change your life. But you can only pick one:

Path A – FlexCart
The “fast and scrappy” option. A smart checkout layer that lets people subscribe without committing. No warehouses, no robots, just a hack that solves a massive consumer pain: people love convenience, hate subscriptions. This is the type of thing you could ship in a weekend and actually get traction.

Path B – ExitNode
The “big, hairy, billion-dollar bet.” A sovereign wrapper that gives creators and communities independence from Big Tech’s pipes. This isn’t just a product, it’s a movement. Hard mode. Capital intensive. But if it works? You’re the one who pulled the plug on the Matrix.

Path C – ShelfForge
The “weird but secretly genius” play. Community microfactories for semi-custom creations. 3D printing didn’t hit the home. But it might hit the neighborhood. It’s quirky, it’s niche, but if you’re right, you own the infrastructure of how people make stuff locally.

So… which pill are you swallowing?

FlexCart? ExitNode? ShelfForge?

That’s the fun of NTE Pro. Over 5,000+ ideas just like these, some fast wins, some moonshots, some so strange they’ll keep you up at night.

👉 Click here to pick your path, and unlock the rest.

Because the billion-dollar treasure is buried in plain sight and you just need the right pill.

One More Meme