Chris Koerner

Flip Costco/government liquidation pallets on Facebook Marketplace

Chris Koerner pitches buying liquidation goods (returns, appliances) from sites like GovDeals and B-Stock using a resale certificate, then reselling on Facebook Marketplace where demand already lives. He bought washers and dryers for ~$250 each and sells them for $750-$900.

“Another business I've done, I bought $7,000 worth of washers and dryers for $250 each on average, and I'm selling them on Facebook Marketplace for $750 to $900 each. It's an amazing business because You don't need a warehouse, you don't need a bunch of space, just a garage. And it's all sold on Facebook Marketplace.”

Steal thisGet a resale certificate, buy large appliances off B-Stock liquidation, and resell on Facebook Marketplace where customers are already searching.

List liquidation items before you bid to test demand risk-free

Koerner's de-risking move for reselling: list the item on Facebook Marketplace before you actually buy it, gather price and demand signals from real buyers, and only bid once you know it will move. If a buyer commits, just tell them honestly you haven't bought it yet.

“And then if they're like, all right, I'm ready to come get it, you're like, actually, I haven't bought it yet. You know, which is fine. You're being honest, but you're, you're getting signals-ish. You're getting signals from the market before you take any risk. That there's enough demand for it at a specific price point.”

Steal thisPost the listing before you buy the inventory; let real buyer messages confirm price and demand before you spend a dollar.

Use Claude to list and sell all your stuff for you

Koerner describes a TikTok of a guy who used Claude to handle the tedious part of reselling: he uploaded photos of his belongings, and Claude researched pricing, wrote listings, messaged buyers, and scheduled pickups around his calendar, selling everything in his house.

“He just took pictures of all his stuff. He uploaded it to Claude. He said, here's my stuff, research what it costs, list it, talk to people on my behalf. Here's my calendar availability. I don't care when, as long as it's open, have people come to my house and pick it up. And he did. He sold every— like he was moving. He needed to sell everything in his house. And Claude sold all of it for. So like that, even the tedious part is now fixable.”

The free seminar + clipboard funnel for landing AI clients

Koerner's playbook for getting AI consulting clients: offer a free AI tutorial at your local Chamber of Commerce, have a partner sign attendees up for paid AI audits in the back, and use the seminar and audit as two feet in the door until you become the business owner's only AI expert.

“You go to your Chamber of Commerce and offer to give a free tutorial on AI, teach them what Claude is, seminar, good prompting skills. Yeah, for free. Vibe Coding. And then you've got your buddy in the back with a clipboard and you sign people up for AI audits. And so you use the free seminar to get one foot in the door. You get the free audit to get your second foot in the door. And then by that point, you're an AI god to them.”

Steal thisRun a free AI seminar at the Chamber of Commerce and convert attendees into paid AI audits on the spot.

AI voice agents are the killer 'first website' product for small biz

Asked for the AI equivalent of 'every business needs a website,' Koerner says voice agents that answer the phone are the best foot-in-the-door product for small businesses, with chatbots a distant second. Latency is now low because the LLM is trained only on the business's own data.

“Voice agents are really good. The latency is not that bad at all anymore because the LLMs are smart enough to only be trained on your content, your data. So it's not like anytime a customer says, what are your operating hours? It doesn't need to go like read the whole training manual, right? It just answers immediately. So AI voice agents are like the best foot in the door for small businesses right now.”

Vibe-coded Replit apps for SMBs: $2.5M year one at 60% margins

Koerner cites John Cheney (name-dropped by Replit CEO Amjad on Joe Rogan), who sells custom vibe-coded Replit apps to medium-sized businesses for $15,000 upfront plus ~$1,500/month, and did $2.5M his first year at 60% net margins, projecting $8M this year.

“he, he started a business selling like custom vibe-coded Replit apps into medium-sized businesses for $15,000, $15,000 upfront, and then like I think $1,500 per month or something like that for like one call a month. He did $2.5 million his first year, 60% net margins. This year he's gonna do $8 million, uh, with 50% net margins, all built on Replit, just vibe coding custom apps for medium-sized businesses.”

Copy-paste AI voice agents niched to barbershops

Koerner describes an operator who sells the same AI voice-agent setup to barbershops for $2,500 upfront plus $250/month, just swapping the name, hours, and calendar each time. The pitch: make more money, never talk on the phone again.

“And then another guy, he does this for barbershops. He charges $2,500 up front and then $250 a month. That's kind of like a good ratio. 10% of whatever you charge upfront, you charge per month.”

Steal thisPick one narrow vertical, build one voice agent, and resell it copy-paste at ~$2,500 upfront + 10%/month, swapping only name, hours, and calendar.

Snail-mail letter club: $0 to $60K MRR in 7 months on 6 TikToks

Koerner cites Hannah of The Tiny Post, who mails handwritten letters to ~6,000-7,000 women for $10/month at 70% gross / 30% net margins. She went from $0 to $60K MRR in 7 months via 6 organic TikTok videos with no paid spend, and churn is ~2%.

“Yes. $10 a month, 70% gross margins, 30% net. And she went from $0 to $60K MRR in 7 months through like 6 TikTok videos, all organic, no paid ad spend.”

A hidden-camera TikTok pitching her skeptical husband brought 1,500 customers

Hannah of The Tiny Post got her first wave of customers from a single viral TikTok: a hidden-camera clip of her explaining her snail-mail business to her skeptical finance-MBA husband. It hit 2 million views and brought roughly 1,500 customers, all organic.

“Like her most viral video, was a hidden camera in the kitchen as she explained to her husband what this business was that she was starting. So he was like not getting it. He's like an MBA finance guy and he's like, you want to send letters? And like that video got 2 million views and brought her like her first 1,500 customers, all organic.”

Feed the millions of Amazon warehouse workers with no food options

After secretly working at an Amazon warehouse to study operations, Koerner saw a billion-dollar idea: catering food to the millions of warehouse workers who have no decent options. Workers share lunch breaks, so they could preorder the day before via a QR-code flyer on each car and get one bulk delivery.

“I walked away with an idea that I think could be a billion-dollar idea, and that's providing food to the 3 or 4 million Amazon— it doesn't have to be Amazon, but Amazon warehouse workers. There are no food options. These warehouses and distribution centers are usually kind of out in the middle of nowhere.”

Steal thisPut a QR-code flyer on every car at a warehouse, let workers preorder lunch the day before, and deliver all meals at once during the shared break.

Tote rentals: one box replaces 400 cardboard boxes, distributed via realtors

Koerner pitches plastic moving-tote rentals: buy a tote for ~$20, it replaces 400 cardboard boxes over its life and pays for itself by the third or fourth rental, then becomes pure profit. Start for ~$1,000 and grow via real estate agents who gift tote gift cards to clients.

“One tote rental basically replaces 400 cardboard boxes over its lifetime. So you've got an eco angle. It's, it's like an asset that you pay $20 for and it just pays for itself over and over and over. You can start the business for $1,000. You work your way into real estate agents and you can gift them like a tote rental gift card that they can gift to their clients when they sell a home or buy a home.”

Steal thisBuy a stack of plastic moving totes and get distribution by giving free tote gift cards to real estate agents for their closing clients.

Wall printing: $8 of ink prints a wall you sell for $800 (99% margin)

Koerner pitches mobile wall printers that print murals/images directly onto walls. Machines cost $4,000-$16,000 (financeable at $50-$150/month). A 5x8 ft wall costs ~$8 in ink and sells for ~$800 — roughly 99% gross margin — run out of your garage.

“If you own the printer, which you can get them for between $4,000 and $16,000, you can finance them for like $50 to $150 a month. A 5-foot, a 5 by 8-foot wall costs you $8 in ink and you can sell for that for about $800. So literal 99% gross margin. You don't need a retail space, you don't need a warehouse.”

Binary outcome businesses: put X in, get Y out, every time

Koerner's core filter from starting 80+ businesses: favor 'binary outcome' businesses where you add one clear, defined value and reliably earn a 5-star review. Tree trimming qualifies (remove or trim); custom home building and house cleaning do not, because outcomes vary.

“And I like to call those binary outcomes, binary outcome businesses. And that is a business that is just simple, like you put X in and you get out Y. A custom homebuilding business is not that. A home cleaning business is not that. I want a business where it's just a very clear defined value that you add and then you get paid and you get a 5-star review.”

Steal thisBefore starting a service business, ask whether it's binary — one clear input, one defined output, predictable 5-star review — and skip it if outcomes vary.

Do the harder thing first: find customers before you fulfill

Koerner reduces every business to two tasks — find customers and fulfill them — and says finding is harder, so do it first. Before buying any equipment or learning the craft, post offers and see if real strangers raise their hands; only then figure out fulfillment.

“There's two tasks that any business owner needs to do. They need to find customers, they need to fulfill customers. That's it. Like, it's not like I need to get an LLC. I need to make— like, you need to find customers and fulfill them. And guess what? Net of net, all things considered, it's harder to find customers than fulfill them, right? That's the harder thing. So do the harder thing first.”

Steal thisValidate demand before buying any equipment — post the offer, see if strangers raise their hands, and only then learn to fulfill.

A growth hack's effectiveness is inversely correlated to its lifespan

Koerner's heuristic on growth tactics: the best-working hacks burn out fastest, so what works this month may never work again. For his tree-trimming business, scrappy Facebook Marketplace posts worked first but didn't scale; referrals from realtors, landlords, and property managers became the durable 80/20.

“It was, it, well, it's funny 'cause it's like, I like to say the efficacy of a growth hack is directly correlated to its lifespan. Okay. So what works in this month may never work again. It may never work until, you know, the next year during the same month 'cause it's seasonal.”

Gauge a rental market's demand by searching a year out vs this weekend

Koerner's trick for sizing supply/demand on RVShare, Outdoorsy, Airbnb, or Turo: run the same search for this weekend versus the identical dates a year out. Far more listings a year out means most inventory is already booked near-term, signaling strong demand for that unit type.

“So all the same filters, but the dates were a year from now. And instead of 47 results, it would say like 470 results. So it was like, interesting. All right. Because no one's booking a year out, right? I just want to know what the supply is, right? And what the— like the market occupancy is. So if those numbers were true, it's like, wow, they're 90% booked for this unit.”

Steal thisOn any sharing platform, compare available listings this weekend vs the same dates a year out — a big gap reveals how booked-up (and in-demand) a unit type really is.