10 most successful examples of US business ideas
America is known as the land of unlimited opportunity. The startup scene quickly shows that this also applies to business ideas and startups. Because many trends first develop in the USA and then come over to Europe. Accordingly, business ideas can be copied very well from the USA. We will introduce you to some business ideas that have become very successful in the USA and can serve as inspiration for your own company.
Use the best business ideas from the USA as a source of inspiration
Americans have a very experiment-friendly startup mentality. They are generally more willing to take risks than people in some countries and are less afraid of failure. The consequence of this is that new business ideas from the USA continue to attract international attention. This mentality can help many founders from Germany to gain motivation and inspiration for their own independence. After all, many American business ideas have proven themselves on the international market: Facebook, Airbnb, or Uber – they are described as the best business ideas and companies from the USA and are now also very successful here. Accordingly, it can be very worthwhile to observe the American market and startup ideas from the USA and to find out early on when a trend in American startups comes across to us again. Then it may be a good time to put your own business idea into practice.
The important thing is that you don’t forget that not all business ideas from the American market can be implemented 1:1 here. The American market is very different from most markets. It is therefore important to find out early on whether certain business ideas from the USA would even work in your country. It can often make sense to adapt this idea of American startups to the market and thus find a gap in the market.
Pros and cons of business ideas from the USA
Of course, being inspired by US business ideas has pros and cons. To give you a good overview, we want to list some of the most important advantages and disadvantages of startup ideas from the USA below.
Advantages
- Business idea from the USA has already proven themselves on the market.
- You save costs and time because no new ideas have to be developed.
- Risk assessment can be more positive.
- You can use the American model as a guide for marketing and sales.
Disadvantages
- Business ideas from the USA do not come from you, so customers can prefer the original.
- Not every American idea can be implemented in another country’s market.
- You have to be careful not to infringe any patent or trademark rights.
- You face great competition from American startups.
Which business ideas are trending in the USA?
Trends are always changing, so it’s hard to define what’s trending explicitly when it comes to business ideas in the US. The fact is, however, that the German market is strongly oriented toward the US market. Because the best business ideas usually come to Germany in a different form and inspire customers here too. There are a few sectors and areas that currently offer particularly high potential in the USA. This includes the areas of nutrition and fitness, fashion, social media, and new gastronomy concepts. So if you want to set up your own business in the future, you can also look around in the USA and be inspired by the existing trends.
10 successful business ideas from the USA
So that you have an idea of which successful business ideas come from the USA, we would like to present ten of them to you below. Maybe you can get some inspiration for your possible startup from this.
1. Rent a dog
In 2008, the American Marlena Cervantes founded the company “FLEX PETZ,” a rental agency for dogs. What sounds strange at first is a very good option for dog lovers who are busy or who cannot or are not allowed to keep dogs in their homes. Because with FLEXPETZ, a startup idea from the USA, you can rent a dog by the day, but it lives with another caregiver.
The company is an agency financed by membership fees. There are also daily rates for renting a dog. However, the customer has no costs for food, veterinarian, examinations, or the care of the dog. In principle, however, the dogs are only rented to a limited number of families so that they can get used to certain people better. The company looks after the families for 90 days and monitors developments. If they get a positive assessment, a permanent transfer of the dog to the family is then possible. This American startup aims to prevent dogs from being abandoned or handed over to animal shelters because you got a dog too quickly.
2. Selling used textbooks
Books, especially textbooks, are very expensive for pupils, trainees, and students. In addition, they need a lot of them throughout their apprenticeship, which then just lie around unused at home. The two Americans, Josiah and Seth Wartak, want to prevent this with their company “fairbooks.com.” fairbooks.com has been buying used textbooks from students and pupils since 2010, giving them the opportunity to earn money with them. How exactly the books look, i.e., whether they are dog-eared or not, is completely irrelevant here. It is only important that the pages are complete.
Visitors can check whether there is a need for a specific book directly on the website of the startup idea from the USA by entering the ISBN code. The purchase process can be initiated directly if the checked book is searched for on the website. There are no shipping costs for the seller of the book since a shipping label is generated at the end of the purchase process. These are therefore taken over by the company.
fairbooks.com no longer exists. Nevertheless, the business concept is well thought out, and one of the business ideas from the USA that can be used as an inspiration.
Read also: 22 tips and ideas to increase your wealth
3. Flat rate for leisure activities for children
There are now flat rates for everything: mobile phones, the Internet, music, and films. So why not also for leisure activities for children? The founders of the New York startup “KidPass” must have thought something along these lines. This offers families a membership that can be canceled on a monthly basis, giving the children access to numerous leisure activities in the area. Such offers can be cooking courses for children, visits to museums, sporting activities, or cultural events – everything that is designed to encourage children.
To this end, KidPass, as an American startup, works with various providers of leisure activities and gives them a share of the income from the monthly membership fee.
4. Orthopedic insoles via app
Orthopedic insoles can help those affected with back pain, joint problems, and malpositions. However, since every person and every foot is different, insoles must always be individually adapted to each patient. Until now, this was always the job of a shoemaker who made these insoles by hand. On the one hand, this is very time-consuming and, on the other hand, very expensive. The startup “ExoSOLS” wants to change this by using 3D printers to produce custom-fit and inexpensive insoles.
First, the app creates an image of the foot. To do this, the user has to take photos of his foot from different perspectives with the smartphone camera. This uses a technique called Stereo Photogrammetry. This enables a three-dimensional reconstruction of the foot on the computer. If a foot deformity is diagnosed, the patient can send their data to the ExoSOLS laboratory and, a few days later, will receive an orthopedic insole from the 3D printer. In addition to the app, the startup also works with various medical supply stores.
5. The advanced baby monitor
“Nanit” is a baby monitor that is placed on a 1.70-meter-high stand above the baby bed. With a high-resolution camera and a microphone, it can send the image and sound to a parent’s receiving device via WiFi. It also uses modern image analysis methods to recognize movements and examine sleep patterns. From this, Nanit, as an American startup, creates a point value and summarizes all important events in a morning report. In this way, the parents are informed precisely about their child’s sleeping habits, which means that this American business idea is justified.
6. Cancel subscriptions with one click
Do you know right away which subscriptions you have taken out or which subscriptions you still have? From a certain number of subscriptions, you can quickly lose track. This should become clearer with “Truebill.” Truebill is an Internet service that searches your own bank account for monthly recurring payments. These are then clearly listed. The system then analyzes how much you have already paid for the respective subscription and offers you a button with which you can cancel the subscription. This is done either through an automated interface to the respective provider, or a Truebill employee takes care of it himself. This service is free. With this American business idea, you always have an overview of all your subscriptions.
The company makes money by keeping statistics on the cancellation rate of various services and evaluating information from all users. For example, if someone cancels a subscription, this business idea from the USA will suggest more popular alternatives. Truebill then receives a commission for this recommendation – quasi-app-based affiliate marketing.
Read also: 71 business ideas for your self-employment in 2023
7. High-quality frozen food for children
Anyone who has children knows that getting them to eat healthy meals isn’t always easy. Especially since many parents often do not have enough time to prepare elaborate, healthy meals themselves every day. However, ready meals are often very unhealthy and contain few vitamins and minerals that children need for growth. Matt Cohen knows that too, which is why he founded the company “Kidfresh.” With his American business idea, he offers healthy alternatives to ordinary fast food. These are also ready meals, but they contain valuable vitamins, trace elements, and minerals. On the website of the American startup, you can find out a lot about the individual products, such as the ingredients and how they are made. So there is for parents,
8. A gym for frequent flyers
Anyone who travels a lot by plane for business knows the problem that planes are often late or canceled. If that’s the case, you often have a lot of time at the airport that is difficult to use wisely. The startup “ROAM” proposes a solution so that you don’t have to sit in one hall all the time. ROAM is a health club that opened its first location at the Baltimore Airport. Here you can spontaneously decide to visit the gym if the flight is canceled. If you don’t have any sports gear with you, you can borrow them from ROAM. At the moment, there is only one gym, but in the future, many more will be added at various international airports.
9. Spin at home
Anyone who goes to the gym often will be familiar with the spinning classes, where you train in a large group on stationary bicycles together in crowded classrooms. With Peloton, this should now also work from home. The startup from the USA sells fitness bikes that are connected to the Internet via an integrated tablet and transmit the spinning unit directly into your own living room. For $39 a month, you can take as many courses as you want with different Peloton Instructors. During a course by the American startup, the speed, revolutions, and distance are transmitted so that participants can compete against each other.
10. A drone that plants trees
As more and more forest disappears from the surface of the earth, the startup DroneSeed came up with the idea of using drones to plant trees. According to the startup, one billion new trees could be planted within a year. However, further investors are needed for this. To do this, the startup builds planting drones or upgrades normal drones accordingly.
For this task, drones have the advantage that they can also reach remote forest areas without major problems. The drones either scatter plant seeds in seed pods or drop small seedlings from the air. In addition, the drones of this startup idea from DroneSeed in the USA can also fertilize and water. The drones are now being used in numerous reforestation projects.
Conclusion: American business ideas as inspiration
New business ideas are constantly being developed in the USA, quickly making an international breakthrough. The Americans have a different startup mentality than we Germans and are more daring to implement an idea that might seem crazy. In addition, most trends come from the USA and can therefore be a good inspiration for us to know what to expect in the near future. It is, therefore, definitely worth keeping an eye on American companies and getting inspiration for your own business idea.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ) about business ideas from the USA
How do I come up with the right business idea?
There are many ways you can come up with a business idea. It is usually difficult to say in advance whether this is the “right” idea, i.e., whether it will prevail on the market. Here it can help to look for inspiration in the USA. Because there you can easily foresee whether trends are developing that will soon come over to Germany. The only important thing is not to copy the idea 1:1 but to adapt it to the German market.
What are good methods for finding a business idea?
There are 6 successful creativity techniques :
- Brainstorming
- Ring exchange creativity technique
- 6 color thinking
- Walt Disney’s method
- The headstand creativity technique
- Brainwriting
How do you start a franchise?
A franchise can be set up in 6 steps:
- Securing time and capital
- Selecting the system
- Pre-contractual duty to provide information
- Writing a business plan
- Signing a franchise agreement
- Setting up and opening a business
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