🥽 Hello VR gold rush, and the ultimate guide to revenue

Summary

Opportunity: We are in the beginning of a new gold rush. The VR gold rush.

Level Up: The ultimate list of revenue streams so you can make more money.

The Opportunity

Welcome to the beginning of the Virtual Reality hype cycle. Just in time too, crypto and AI were getting a bit stale.

Apple released their Apple Vision Pro this month. And despite a higher number of returns then expected, the VR industry is buzzing more than ever. And as is with all new technology, there will be a “gold rush” window for early builders.

Market

The market size for VR and AR is $38.6B right now. That may not sound like a lot, but consider the mobile app market size is 10x that at $420B. If VR goes mainstream, most of those mobile apps will want to have a VR version as well.

Apple says they’ve already pre-sold 200k headsets. And analysts are predicting 1.5M sold next year, and 12M more by year 5. Things can get exponential fast.

The main limitation to the headset right now is its price and weight, evidenced by this tweet.

Both are sure to improve over time (hopefully the memes don’t though).

Advantages

1. Apple

Apple has a strong brand loyalty. And like Kylie Jenner, anything they put out their loyal fans eat up like hot cakes.

2. Early

At launch, the Apple store had only 600 VR apps. Compare that to the 1.8M mobile apps. Building now means getting ahead of a saturated market.

3. Price

Consider the headset’s high spending power. People buying the Vision Pro will be more willing to spend on apps and in-app purchases due to its high price point.

And because of that price there’s a high barrier to entry. The $3,500 headset cost will be a deterrent for a lot of developers, clearing the competition.

Plays

There are lots of different plays when it comes to a new technology. If you need inspiration, look at the stories of successful entrepreneurs who built early in the AI and crypto cycles.

1. Create Apple Vision Pro apps

The best part is you don’t need a headset to get started. You can start coding now using Mac’s native Xcode IDE. And if you have any familiarity with the gaming engine Unity, they’re partnering with Apple to make porting apps over easy.

2. Create Meta Quest apps

“A rising tide lifts all boats” as they say. If the expensive price of the Apple Vision pro is a deterrent for you, consider building for the cheaper Meta Quest instead. If the Vision Pro takes off, the Meta Quest popularity is sure to rise as the whole industry gains attention.

3. Ecommerce

Apple is known for allowing third parties to handle accessories for their products. Think iPhone cases or Apple Watch straps. Start selling accessories for the Vision Pro in an eCommerce store (eg. Shopify).

4. Publishing

Creating content is always a great play (cough cough, what I’m doing right now). Create content like a blog, newsletter, or Youtube videos. Start getting attention and then monetize through ads or affiliate links. Or create a course on how to develop VisionOS if you’ve created some apps already.

What next?

The best bet is to just get started. You can start looking through Apple’s VisionOS dev docs, and create a simple “hello world” app. Or set up a simple Shopify landing page and start testing interest. When in doubt, get in the game. 😉

Level Up

You want to make money. I get it.

But you don’t know how to make money working for yourself, yet.

As Elon Musk says, one of the best ways to learn something is to go back to first principles.

So how do you make money online? Well, you need to create revenue streams. A revenue stream is a way for people to give you money for a product or service you’re providing.

And there’s lots of different revenue streams you can pursue. Most people aren’t aware of all of them. And that’s a big mistake.

Someone running a SaaS automatically assumes they need to charge monthly. Yet there’s founders like Daniel Vassallo, a well known twitter personality. He runs a community called Small Bets, and recently switched his pricing model to lifetime memberships. Since then has raved about the increase in sales.

What revenue stream you pursue dictates what product you build, as well as how you build it. Knowing all of them can mean more revenue, and less struggle.

We created a list of every revenue stream possible. Look at the list and ask yourself if it’s something you could add to your existing project. Or use it as inspiration for your next product.

Happy building, friends!

Bonus Stories

• Someone released a new AI called Goody.2 that has perfect ethical standards. In fact, it won’t answer anything lol.

• Artists sue AI-generated art software like Stable Diffusion. AI companies fight back, and have good arguments to.

• Africa is looking like a hot new frontier for startups.