Five data-backed business ideas in growing consumer markets

Executive overview

Most business advice tells you to follow your passion. A better approach is to find a category growing like a tidal wave and position yourself on it early. These five categories show strong search growth, rising investment, and expanding consumer demand.

Pick a big category. Solve your own problem within it. Start now.

The core insight: market size compounds — working in a $100B category beats perfecting a product in a $10M one.

Male grooming and personal care

• Industry grew from $47B to $140B over five years — over 200% growth.
• Men's moisturizer searches up 300%; beard growth kits up 200%; men's skincare up 34%.
• Subreddit subscriber counts for male grooming topics have exploded — a useful early signal for any category.
• Existing brands (Dollar Shave Club, Beardbrand, Pete & Pedro) built large businesses by pairing audience-first content with direct-to-consumer products.
• Underserved niches: makeup for men (33,000 searches/month; one-third of men under 45 open to trying it) and male spas (20,000+ searches/month; men already represent 50% of spa-goers).

Esports and gaming

• Esports market expected to grow from $1B to $6B+ by 2027.
• League of Legends World Championship drew more viewers than the Super Bowl.
• Established brands show how to win by targeting a narrow audience: G Fuel (energy drinks for gamers, 600,000 searches/month); Secretlab (gaming chairs, high brand loyalty).
• High-opportunity gaps: esports coaching (Fiverr saw 43% demand jump in Q1 2020; coaching market already ~$1B), gaming-specific supplements and food, gamer dating platforms (27,000 searches/month).
• Don't enter a category just because it's growing. Solve a problem you actually have.

Sleep optimisation

• Market was $30–40B in 2017; projected to exceed $100B by 2023.
• Search demand spans products (mattresses, weighted blankets, blue light blockers, bed cooling systems) and information (best mattress guides get 45,000+ searches/month).
• Sleep app searches are 2x meditation app searches — a useful benchmark when choosing between adjacent niches.
• Underserved gaps: sleep consulting (personalised advice from wearable data), sleep education courses, and bundled product reviews.
• Easy-to-source commodity products (white-label supplements, generic blankets) are easy to copy. Differentiate by customer specificity or proprietary content.

Fermented foods

• Global fermented food market projected to reach $60B within five years.
• Fermented food interest grew 149% in 2019 alone; the r/fermentation subreddit doubled subscribers in one year to 100,000.
• Fermentation technology startups raised nearly $500M in the first half of 2020.
• Big brand recognition is low — most consumers can't name a leading kimchi or kombucha brand beyond GT's Kombucha. That's the opportunity.
• High-growth sub-categories: hard kombucha (projected 40% growth, rivalling White Claw in popularity); DIY fermentation kits (kimchi recipe searches exceed 100,000/month; kefir, cheese-making, tempeh, and yogurt starter kits all in demand).
• COVID accelerated at-home hobby adoption — content and kits for home fermentation remain under-served.

Mushroom products

• Global fungi industry forecast at $86B by 2025.
• Mud Water (mushroom coffee) gets 200,000 searches/month; r/mycology grew 300% in subscriber count.
• Leading brands: Four Sigmatic (mushroom coffee and tea, 200,000+ site visitors/month) and Back to the Roots (homegrown mushroom kits, $132,000/month on Amazon).
• Amazon search volume for mushroom supplements grew 10x in 2020.
• Opportunity areas: homegrown kits, mushroom supplement bundles, and mushroom foraging excursions (500,000+ Instagram posts but almost no organised commercial trips or events).
• The category framework is transferable — apply the same kit or supplement model to adjacent niches (tiger nuts, sprouting, microgreens).

Principles for choosing a business idea

• Target categories with tidal wave momentum — you'll exert the same effort, so choose a bigger wave.
• Solve your own problem first; external opportunity-chasing leads to poor fit and low follow-through.
• Don't dismiss ideas that seem small or silly — the NFL, Snapchat, and esports all started that way.
• When entering a crowded market, pick a defensible angle (cheapest, most specialised, best content) rather than competing head-on.