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My First Million6 Retro Business Ideas That Could Be As Big As LEGO ($11.8B)
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WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
How LEGO ‘kidults’ reveal niche communities’ billion-dollar business potential
- Shaan and Sam explore the rise of “kidults,” arguing that adults buying toys like LEGO is a major and growing segment driven by nostalgia, bonding, and screen/anxiety detox.
- Sam explains his personal LEGO Technics habit and why it feels relaxing: it’s tactile, structured, and lets him follow directions instead of making decisions.
- They dissect two LEGO-adjacent businesses—Rebrickable (a marketplace for fan-made build instructions) and BrickLink (a long-running secondary market for LEGO parts/sets)—to show how niche communities create durable moats.
- They brainstorm retro-style product ideas (Tamagotchi-for-babies, an adult-oriented K’nex reboot, an easier Wordle-like Rubik’s cube, candle pouring kits, and a “relaxation puddle”) and discuss how “meme-able” weirdness can drive adoption.
- They connect the episode’s theme to building audiences and products: grow from hardcore users upward (“reverse funnel”), avoid diluting authenticity for fast growth, and treat passionate communities as something you steward rather than control.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasAdult toy-buying (“kidults”) is a big, fast-growing market driven by emotional needs.
They describe this as a growing toy-industry segment where adults buy traditionally “kid” products for reasons like nostalgia, bonding/anti-loneliness, and escaping screens/anxiety.
LEGO appeals to adults as a decision-free, calming, hands-on hobby with a learning loop.
Sam explains he prefers LEGO Technics because it’s a structured, tactile activity: he follows instructions, relaxes, and enjoys learning how mechanical parts work while building.
Ideas that sound childish or silly can become breakout products if they meet a real adult craving for comfort and relaxation.
Shaan connects the LEGO trend to other “childlike comfort” products, telling the story of Calm’s adult sleep stories as a product that sounded weird at first but became central to Calm’s growth.
Rebrickable shows how a niche community site can become a scalable marketplace with strong loyalty.
Sam breaks down Rebrickable as a marketplace where fans upload and sell building instructions (MOCs) and where users can input which sets/parts they own to discover what else they can build (and what parts they’re missing).
BrickLink illustrates “community stewardship” businesses where continuity and trust matter as much as product features.
Sam describes BrickLink’s origin as a LEGO buy/sell marketplace started by Dan Jezek, his death, the surprising handoff to his mother/stepfather who didn’t even have passwords, a later acquisition by Jay Kim, and eventually LEGO buying it to keep it going.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesRenting a really fancy Airbnb for a week, it could be expensive. Let's just say it's $1,000 a night or more. So let's just say, let's round up and say it's 10 grand for a week. That's expensive. But you know what's more expensive? Buying a home that you only see for 24 hours and, or through a one-hour tour and being like, "Cool. This is my place now for the next 10 or 20 years." That's way more expensive.
— Sam Parr
The three were nostalgia, which you just said, um, anti-loneliness, so bonding with, with whoever you're, you're doing it with, and detoxing from, from phone, as well as kind of like a anti-anxiety angle to it, like as a re- a relaxing, a relaxing activity.
— Shaan Puri
Yeah, it's like a, it's like a, a, a PG-rated dominatrix, you know? Like, instead of spitting in my mouth... it's telling me to, like, connect these, these two pieces.
— Sam Parr
This type of business that he has, once you get users to a passionate following like this to your website, you can sell them anything.
— Sam Parr
If you wanna build, like, a, a, a truly, a truly strong business, build, like, a reverse funnel.
— Shaan Puri
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SPEAKERS
Shaan Puri
hostEntrepreneur and co-host of the My First Million podcast.
Sam Parr
hostEntrepreneur and co-host of the My First Million podcast, based in Austin and founder of Hampton.
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
