3 millionaires reveal their super niche businesses

All right, we're back. We're playing Shoot Your Shot, where we take founders and business owners from the audience who get to sit in this chair right here, pitch us their business. We have founders all the way from a million bucks to $100 million businesses. So let's do it. Let's bring out the next founder. [clapping]

What's up, dude?

He's styling. [laughs]

Dude. [laughs]

First leather jacket on the pod. What's your name?

Yeah. I'm Rishi. I'm one of the founders of Hotplate, and we powered over $100 million of sales for independent food entrepreneurs.

Okay.

So the big number's $100 million in sales.

Yeah.

Unpack that. Un- what does that mean?

Totally. So Hotplate is a platform that lets anybody sell food online. We work with, like, I, we work with, like, small pop-up bakers that, like, sell food at their house, all the way to, like, this guy who's an ice cream maker in Minnesota.

Have you seen this? It's Airbnb for food type of thing, right?

Type of thing.

Awesome.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're starting right now as a tool that lets a seller who has, like, an Instagram following sell food directly to their audience. A lot of times those sellers are using, like s- you know, spreadsheets, Venmo, DMs, like, a hodgepodge of tools, or they're using a platform like Squareshop. It just isn't built for, like, pre-order.

But will they stay small? Is it, like, for the person who wants to stay as a small business?

It's a really good question. So a lot of people think that, like, oh, you guys just work with, like, really tiny pop-ups that eventually go to a brick-and-mortar. We actually have tons of six or seven-figure businesses that are doing drops and selling food directly to their audience.

That's sick. I bought this, uh, there's this dude who's real jacked, he's like a bodybuilder, who does these cookies.

I'm in.

You've seen this? [laughs]

I'm in. [laughs]

Yeah, I know this-

You talked about him, like, four years ago.

Yeah, but he, he s- he does these drops of, like-

Yeah

... cheat meal cookies.

Yeah.

They're insanely-

Totally

... huge. Way over the top. But, like, he sells out in seconds-

Seconds

... and it's all just through his Instagram-

Absolutely

... presence, 'cause he builds up a lot of trust. So first of all, Hotplate.

Hotplate, yeah.

Incredible name.

Thank you.

And this was totally, like, a COVID thing a little bit. I remember, like-

100%, yeah

... you, have you heard of Pop Up Bagels?

Yeah.

So actually, we powered Pop Up Bagels.

Oh, really?

Yeah, yeah.

Like, listen to this. So Pop Up Bagels was, uh, they actually started in Westwood, Connecticut-

Saw it in New York, but I didn't-

Yeah, yeah

... where I used to live.

Yeah.

And there was a bunch of companies that did this, where it was, like, a husband and wife couple were like, "I'm gonna make this and sell it in my apartment, and we'll drop it out of the windows when-

Yep

... people come," and whatever. And these guys did-

Oh, 'cause COVID made it like-

Yeah

... hey, just do a weird pickup on the curb.

Like, oh, we're sitting at home, let's just make food-

Yeah

... and then we'll do... And so these guys did that with bagels, and they, like, you had to have an appointment, and you could only get it by the dozen. And now they've since raised a lot