Sometimes the startup world feels heavy. It often presents itself with a serious tone, even when the ideas are not that serious. You may see posts about plans to improve simple objects or routines with new technology. After a while, it becomes tiring to read.
Still, there are founders who ignore this tone completely. They choose their own path in a very direct way. They skip the usual guidelines and do things that look unusual. It can be surprising, but it can also be effective.
I’ve taken the time to research different eras and sects of cyber culture throughout the internet, including old forums for niche communities. There were several projects that seemed overly bizarre to me, where I had to stop myself and reread the campaign afterwards. Unlike most of the companies I found during my research, these projects didn’t appear to be anything more than advertising campaigns; rather, they were efforts that seemed to have become disconnected from the creator’s original vision and had gone completely awry. However, even with these failures, all proved to be success stories in terms of what they achieved with respect to their initial intentions.
1. The Guy Who Just Wanted Potato Salad
Remember when Zack Danger Brown got famous making potato salad for $10 on Kickstarter? He went to Kickstarter with a goal that most people would consider so lowball that it would be laughable, which was $10.
Even people on Reddit were teasing him, asking things like: “So, how do you feel about the other ways of serving potatoes – mashed, boiled, double-baked?
For his project, he said, “I am going to make a potato salad”, and nothing else. He didn’t say anything about “innovative tuber solutions”; just a regular guy wanting to make a salad, the only real selling point he had.
The internet was apparently starved for something other than a tech scam, so they went after him. They ended up throwing money at the guy; it snowballed really quickly until he had raised something like $55,000 for a freakin potato salad! He even made up stretch goals as he went along: “At $3,000, my kitchen gets renovated.” “At $10,000, I use a different mayonnaise.” It was a wild ride, and it proved that sometimes you don’t need a value proposition; all you need is an honest person being silly. I salute the determination of Zack, while simultaneously feeling jealous that I didn’t come up with this idea first.
2. Who Gives A Crap: The 50-Hour Toilet Sit-In
You want to talk about commitment? Let’s talk about Simon Griffiths. He’s the bloke behind the Aussie toilet paper brand Who Gives A Crap.
When they launched, they didn’t just run Facebook ads. Simon sat on a toilet. In a warehouse. On a live stream. He refused to get up until they had pre-sold $50,000 worth of toilet paper.
It raised a simple question in my mind: Are you building a business or just a product? Simon clearly chose the first option.
Imagine explaining that to your mum. “Yeah, I’m watching a bloke sit on a dunny on the internet.” It was genius because it was high stakes. It was basically a hostage situation, but the hostage was his dignity. It took him 50 hours.
Fifty. Hours.
He had to eat there. Sleep there. Do… everything… there (presumably off-camera, thank god). It was weird, it was uncomfortable, and it was undeniably human. They hit the goal, and now they’re a massive company donating millions to charity. But I’ll never forget the image of that poor bloke just wanting to stretch his legs.
3. Half.com: Buying a Literal Town
Okay, this one is straight out of a fever dream. Back in the dot-com boom (late 90s), a startup called Half.com wanted to make a splash.
They found a tiny town in Oregon called Halfway. They made the town an offer: We will give you money, computers for the school, and internet access if you legally rename your town to Half.com, Oregon.
And the town said yes!
For a whole year, the signs entering the town literally said “Welcome to Half.com.” It sounds like a joke, but it was real life. It was the first time a dot-com company had physically manifested itself on a map. eBay ended up buying them for hundreds of millions later, so maybe buying a town is the secret to success? Or maybe it’s just the most aggressive branding exercise in human history.
4. Koala: The Billboards That Picked a Fight
Another Aussie classic. When Koala (the mattress crowd) launched, they didn’t have the budget to outspend the big guys like IKEA. So they decided to just annoy them instead.
They bought a massive billboard right outside the IKEA store in Sydney. It simply said: “NÖFNIDEÅ” (No tools, no worries).
It’s petty. It’s childish. It’s hilarious.
They also did the “wine glass test” video, jumping on a mattress with a full glass of red wine on it, which went absolutely viral. But the billboard wars were what really set the tone. It felt like watching the little guy throw rocks at the giant, and as Australians, we love an underdog who takes the piss. It wasn’t polished corporate marketing; it felt like something your mate would dare you to do.
At this point, you may even ask yourself where new ideas like this come from. If you are curious about how to come up with business ideas as a first-time tech founder, read here.
It’s actually kind of inspiring, isn’t it? In a totally weird way.
