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There’s a moment in every revolution where the thing that matters doesn’t look like it matters at all. It looks like a toy. A side project. A glitch in the matrix.

Think about it:

• The first mobile apps were just flashlight simulators.

• The first Tesla barely finished a road trip.

• The first Netflix envelopes got lost in the mail.

• The first Amazon only sold books.

Nobody saw Amazon Prime, AWS, or global logistics. Nobody saw Netflix beating Hollywood. Nobody saw AI replacing entire departments.

But every once in a while history gives you a cheat code:
a chance to see the shift before everyone else.

That’s what today’s email is about, the 10 “shockwaves” that are quietly forming the next trillion-dollar companies. Not apps. Not social networks. Not SaaS tools.

New primitives. New rails. New infrastructure.

And because it’s that time of year and I want everyone reading this to get access to ideas, and lots of them

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We use it to track these trends, break them down, brainstorm 6,000+ startup ideas and figure out the right wedges early.

Now let’s talk about the 10 shockwaves that will shape the next decade.

Shockwave #1: The Company Becomes an API

The old way: Hire people to do work.

The new way: Subscribe to outcomes.

Imagine firing your entire sales team and replacing it with one Slack command:
“Generate 50 qualified leads this week.”

No drama. No payroll. No training.
Just results.

It starts in a corner no one cares about - one niche, one workflow. And then one day we wake up and companies don’t look like companies. They look like integrated systems.

NTE Idea: Revenue Engine-in-a-Box

Problem: Hiring SDRs is expensive and slow.
Solution: AI + agents + guarantee replaces the entire function.
Why now: Software can finally tackle outcomes, not tasks.
Example: “We run your sales and guarantee meetings or we don’t get paid.”

Shockwave #2: AI Comes for Atoms

Everyone thinks AI is about apps and chatbots.
Wrong. That’s just the warm-up act.

The big money is when AI controls atoms instead of pixels:

• warehouses that move themselves

• factories that reconfigure in real-time

• supply chains that reroute before a storm hits

The world becomes a programmable machine.

And the funny part? It won’t look like a robot apocalypse. It’ll start with a boring little wedge like:

“We automate forklift routing in one Walmart.”

That’s how empires start: with problems nobody glamorizes.

NTE Idea: Autonomous Warehouse OS

Problem: Warehouses waste millions matching humans to movement.
Solution: AI orchestration layer that controls logistics.
Why now: Sensors + vision + compute finally mature.
Example: Route forklifts like Uber routes drivers.

Shockwave #3: Trust Gets Solved

Right now the internet is basically a Vegas casino:
Everyone smiles. No one trusts anyone.

But imagine a world where strangers are safe. Where every transaction is guaranteed. Where identity is portable. Where fraud dies.

That’s when the internet stops being “buyer beware” and starts being “verified by default.” It turns the entire global economy into one giant trustworthy marketplace.

The PayPal of the next decade doesn’t move money.
It moves certainty.

NTE Idea: Universal Transaction Guarantee

Problem: Buying from strangers online is still a gamble.
Solution: A layer that guarantees delivery on any platform.
Why now: KYC + wallets + settlement rails finally align.
Example: Safe transactions on WhatsApp, FB groups, Craigslist.

Shockwave #4: AI Eats Science

Think of Einstein in a small room with chalk. Think of decades-long research. Think of billions of dollars burned chasing one discovery.

Now imagine running 10,000 experiments a day without a lab.

Breakthroughs stop being lucky accidents. They become predictable.

Science goes from “genius + time” to “compute + iteration.” The winners won’t be pharma. They’ll be platforms that generate breakthroughs.

NTE Idea: Materials-as-a-Service

Problem: New materials take years.
Solution: Predict polymers + alloys + proteins using models.
Why now: GPUs + simulation + generative design.
Example: A polymer for cold climates discovered in hours.

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Shockwave #5: Healthcare Becomes Predictive

Hospitals today are firefighters. They wait for flames.

Future healthcare is weather forecasting:

“You’re 3 years away from a heart issue, fix it now.”

It won’t be medical miracles. It’ll be early intervention. Personalized to the point where every person has a health trajectory.

The big unlock isn’t medicine. It’s timing.

NTE Idea: One Disease Forecasting Tool

Problem: People find out too late.
Solution: Predict risk curves using biomarkers + wearables.
Why now: Continuous data + predictive models.
Example: “You have a 78% chance of diabetes in 5 years.”

Shockwave #6: The Grid Becomes a Marketplace

The energy future isn’t solar. It’s routing.
Just like the internet wasn’t websites, it was broadband.

Imagine selling excess power from your house to the building next door. Imagine cars acting like batteries. Imagine neighborhoods priced like networks.

We’ll trade electricity like we trade stocks.

The early version?

One building trading power with another.

That’s it. The rest is inevitable.

NTE Idea: Energy Exchange

Problem: Excess power goes unused.
Solution: Localized trading + storage.
Why now: Smart grid + IoT + battery tech.
Example: Building A sells power to Building B in real-time.

Shockwave #7: Climate Gets Financialized

Climate isn’t a charity problem. It’s a pricing problem.

As soon as markets can price weather risk,
money pours in:

• flood futures

• wildfire insurance

• heat derivatives

Capitalism solves what politics can’t.

NTE Idea: Parametric Insurance for One Region

Problem: Cities can’t insure predictable events.
Solution: Futures + insurance + forecasting.
Why now: Climate models are accurate enough.
Example: Miami hedges risk against flood season.

Shockwave #8: Food Stops Being Grown in Dirt

Farms were built for a world with infinite land and infinite water.

We don’t live in that world anymore.

Food becomes compute:

• controlled environment

• portable agriculture

• lab-grown protein

It stops being farming. It becomes manufacturing.

NTE Idea: Pop-Up Farming System

Problem: Land + water limits yields.
Solution: Modular portable agriculture for one crop.
Why now: LEDs + nutrient recycling + ML.
Example: Grow lettuce in a parking garage.

Shockwave #9: Entertainment Becomes Infinite

Streaming was an improvement.
AI is a paradigm shift.

You won’t watch a show, you’ll enter a world.
NPCs will have memory. Stories won’t repeat. Every user gets their own universe.

Hollywood will look like Blockbuster.

NTE Idea: Infinite RPG World

Problem: Content ends.
Solution: Procedurally generated worlds.
Why now: Memory + models + synthetic assets.
Example: NPCs evolve and betray you across thousands of hours.

Shockwave #10: Data Becomes a Balance Sheet

This is the quietest revolution.

Your data isn’t a privacy risk, it’s an asset class.

Financial credit → biological credit → identity credit.

We will get to a world where humans are investable.

NTE Idea: Personal Data Yield

Problem: People generate valuable data with no return.
Solution: One category of data earns income.
Why now: Regulation + wallets + consumer behavior.
Example: Driving data → lower insurance → money back.

The Punchline

All these revolutions start as toys:

• one warehouse,

• one disease,

• one game,

• one power trade.

Then they become the default.

And if you want the unfair advantage of spotting these shifts earlier, or finding the tiny wedge that becomes the platform, that’s what we track inside NTE Pro.

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The best marketing ideas come from marketers who live it. That’s what The Marketing Millennials delivers: real insights, fresh takes, and no fluff. Written by Daniel Murray, a marketer who knows what works, this newsletter cuts through the noise so you can stop guessing and start winning. Subscribe and level up your marketing game.

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