Chris Koerner: What 80+ Side Hustles Really Teach About Starting Without Permission

Chris Koerner has launched over 80 businesses since selling golf balls at age nine, generating hundreds of millions in revenue. Most failed. But his approach—copy what works, ignore passion, use tools you already have—challenges everything you think you know about starting a business.

Who Is Chris Koerner?

Chris Koerner is a serial entrepreneur who has started over 80 businesses, generating low hundreds of millions in revenue and tens of millions in profit. Known as "the king of side hustles," he's built his reputation not by hiding his failures, but by publishing his entire entrepreneurial life on the internet—the launches, the experiments, the ideas that fizzled out.

What makes Chris unusual isn't just the volume of businesses he's started, but his ruthlessly practical approach. He built his dream house and raised four kids in his twenties. He doesn't preach raising venture capital or quitting your job. Instead, he talks about launching businesses with $500 or less, using tools everyone already has, and starting where your competitors already are instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. His perspective matters because he's proved that business isn't reserved for the credentialed or connected—it's approachable for anyone willing to get over caring what people think.

Why I Love Learning From Chris Koerner

What draws me to Chris is his complete lack of romanticism about entrepreneurship. There's no talk of following your dreams or finding your purpose. Instead, he tells you to ignore passion and follow profit until you can afford to follow your passion. He admits most of his 80+ businesses were abandoned, failed, or became opportunity costs for something better. That honesty is rare and valuable.

I also appreciate his view on copying. While most business advice pushes you to be innovative and unique, Chris sees that as ego. He uses tools like Web Archive and Similar Web to reverse-engineer successful competitors, then starts where they are today rather than where they began. It's the opposite of what we're told to do—and it works. His approach strips away all the mythology around entrepreneurship and leaves you with something actionable: stop waiting for permission, stop trying to be original, and start now with what you have.

What You'll Learn From This Article

• How to validate a business idea using tools one in four humans already use every day
• Why copying successful competitors is smarter than trying to innovate from scratch
• What it looks like when you reverse-engineer a business using Web Archive and Similar Web
• Why the biggest roadblock to starting isn't money or skills—it's caring what people think
• How to launch profitable businesses with $500 or less using accessible tools
• Why business partners statistically increase your chance of failure

The Pain of Your Problem Must Be Greater Than What People Think

When asked about the foundational mentality required to start businesses successfully, Chris didn't talk about vision or grit. He said this: "The pain of your problem needs to be greater than how much you care about what people think about you." That's the threshold. Not passion, not a perfect idea—just needing the solution more than you need approval.

He's clear that caring what people think is the biggest roadblock to success. People don't launch their woodworking business because someone from high school follows them on Facebook and might comment. They don't post their service on Facebook Marketplace because it feels exposed. Chris admits he's been there too—but getting over that mental hurdle is what separates people who start from people who stay stuck. He describes it as flipping a switch: people are not thinking about you, people are not caring about you. Turn that belief off, and the world becomes your oyster.

This isn't motivational fluff. Chris started his first business at nine years old, putting up a huge piece of plywood in front of his house that said "golf balls three for a dollar" and negotiating with grown adults in polo shirts. He lived on a busy road. He was a child. Now, as a father of a nine-year-old, he finds the idea unfathomable—but that's what taught him business is approachable. The difference wasn't skill or money. It was not yet knowing to be afraid of what people thought.

Start Where Your Competitor Is Today, Not Where They Began

Most people Google their business idea, see it already exists, and give up. Chris does the opposite. When he sees a competitor, he thinks: "Yes, this is it. Someone went to the front lines of the battlefield and validated this for me." Then he goes to work reverse-engineering their success.

He uses Web Archive to see snapshots of what a competitor's website looked like over time. He checks Similar Web to see their traffic patterns. He overlays the two to identify what changes drove growth. Maybe their traffic jumped from 3,000 to 4,500 visitors per month when they redesigned for mobile—so he makes his site mobile-friendly from day one. Maybe their pricing started at $99 and dropped to $49 every two months—so he knows the market dynamics. He examines their headline copy, the number of tabs on their site, whether they embed their Instagram feed. He's not trying to do it better or differently. He's trying to do the same thing, starting where they already are.

This approach directly contradicts the entrepreneurial myth that you need to be innovative or unique. Chris sees that desire as ego and pride. There's nothing unethical about copying a business model, especially if you had the original idea yourself. The law of abundance is real—the market is big enough for multiple winners. The world has eight billion people, all connected. Anything can be scaled. Starting where a competitor already is gives you a shortcut past years of expensive trial and error.

Ignore Passion—Follow the Profit Until You Can Afford Your Passion

When asked how important it is to love what you do to be successful at it, Chris's answer was blunt: "Ignore passion. Follow the profit until you can afford to follow your passion." This goes against nearly every piece of startup advice you've ever heard, but it reflects his lived experience across 80+ businesses.

Chris grew up poor. Business wasn't a self-actualization journey—it was his way of taking hold of his life and making it what he wanted it to be. At nine, he didn't love golf balls. He loved the red Schwinn bicycle his friends and neighbors had and his parents couldn't afford. The golf balls were just the white object in his yard he connected to money. That taught him that business is a tool, not an identity. Passion can come later, once you've built the financial freedom to choose it.

This advice is especially useful for people stuck in analysis paralysis, waiting to find their "thing." Chris would say: pick something profitable, proven, and accessible. Learn the mechanics of business. Build cash flow. Then, when you have margin and options, you can afford to explore what you love. Profit first, passion second.

You Already Have the Tools—You're Just Not Connecting Them to Your Ideas

Chris believes the barrier to starting isn't lack of tools—it's not connecting the tools we already use to the ideas we have. People use Facebook Marketplace to sell a sectional, but don't think to use it to validate their woodworking business. They scroll Craigslist but don't post their service idea. They have a smartphone but don't launch a simple survey. The tools are there. The dots just aren't connected.

He's adamant that 90% of the business ideas he talks about can be launched with $500 or less, and there's enough time in the day to do them nights and weekends. Ten years ago, starting a business meant moving to San Francisco or raising venture capital. Today, you can make a website with one prompt. You can make an app with one prompt. You can post to Facebook Marketplace and get hundreds of inquiries within an hour. The accessibility is unprecedented—but people still think in old paradigms.

Chris also points to the explosion of AI and software tools. Every day that goes by, the timing gets better for starting. Things are more competitive, yes—but the tools are better, cheaper, and faster. You don't need to quit your job. You don't need to raise money. You just need to stop thinking business requires things it doesn't.

How to Apply It

Lesson	Practical action	Why it matters
Stop caring what people think	Write down who you're afraid will judge you, then post one small public test (a Marketplace listing, a sign, a survey)	Fear of judgment is the #1 roadblock—facing it once breaks the spell
Copy what already works	Use Web Archive and Similar Web to reverse-engineer a competitor's growth and start where they are today	You skip years of expensive trial and error by learning from someone else's battlefield experience
Ignore passion, follow profit first	Choose a proven, profitable model for your first business instead of waiting to find your "thing"	Profit creates freedom; freedom lets you afford to follow passion later
Connect tools you already have to your ideas	Pick one platform you use daily and launch a test of your business idea on it this week	The tools are already in your hands—you just need to see them as business infrastructure
Start with $500 or less	Set a strict budget cap and brainstorm only ideas that fit within it	Constraints force creativity and eliminate the excuse that you need more money to begin

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