Framework
Two ways to mine Chrome extensions for a business
Sam's playbook for finding Chrome-plugin businesses: (1) take companies already doing $100M+ in sales and rebuild them as a plugin, or (2) find behaviors people want but skip due to friction, and use the plugin to remove that friction.
“What I think is like, do two things. One, look at successful companies already that do over $100 million in sales and just say, well, how can I just create this in the form of a Google plugin? Or two, which behaviors do people want? But but they don't do it because there's a little bit of friction. And how can I use this plugin to alleviate that friction?”
Steal thisPick a $100M+ app, then rebuild its core behavior as a low-friction Chrome extension.
Number
3B Chrome users, only 200K plugins vs 2M iPhone apps
Sam's case for the Chrome extension opportunity: 1.6B iPhone users share 2M apps, while 3B Chrome users have only 200,000 plugins — far less competition for a larger audience.
$200K
Chrome plugins in store vs 2M iPhone apps · plugins
“There's 1.6 billion iPhone users. Okay. 1.6 billion users, 2 million iPhone apps in the store right now. Chrome users, 3 billion Chrome users, 200,000 plugins. There's a ton of opportunity here.”
Fact
Chrome extensions get read permissions on every site you visit
Shaan flags the privacy reality of Chrome extensions: they receive read permissions on every website you visit, effectively handing over access to your bank account and everything you've ever said to anyone — yet most users install them without realizing it.
“Chrome extensions are a fucking crazy thing to install because they get like read permissions on every website you visit, which is just insane. Um, that's like handing over the keys to every account, your bank account and everything you ever said to anybody.”