Ben's 1x1x1 - Be the Barnacle 🐋 - October 31, 2025 🚀
For those of you that are new here, every week I send what I call a 1x1x1.
One thought from my week. One interesting find/tool from my week. One image from my life.
Let’s dive in 👇
Thought from the week
I look at a lot of businesses every week.
Like, way too many.
My screen time report is basically 80% BizBuySell and 20% Justifying BizBuySell.
I used to think the key was finding industry tailwinds things like AI, pets, or anything involving old people spending more money on themselves.
But lately, I’ve been obsessed with platform tailwinds after coming across a few Shopify apps that have had loads of organic success.
It quickly made me reflect on the founders who built businesses like Salesforce implementation agencies ten years ago and are now retiring on private islands with coconut Wi-Fi.
They didn’t build the whale. They just stuck to its side and held on tight.
This week I found myself asking:
What are the whales swimming by right now?
OpenAI apps. Notion templates. ClickUp agencies.
Every new platform creates a mini-economy around it and early barnacles get rich before the rest of us even notice the current.
So yeah, build something new if you want…
…but sometimes the smartest move is just to be the barnacle.
I can’t take credit for the “barnacle on the whale” saying. Hats off to whomever tossed that in my headspace.
Interesting Tool/Find
Nothing worthy of your eyes.
Image from my life
Winter came early but we don’t mind!