Niche physical products with a passionate fan following are a major opportunity

Greg Isenberg points to specialty coffee equipment as the archetype: people get obsessive about it and willingly pay premium prices for well-designed gear. When Fellow launched its kettle, it filled a gap — existing kettles weren't designed with coffee enthusiasts in mind. Fellow grew into a full product suite (kettles, grinders, and more) by deeply serving that niche. The broader point is that AI tools like the latest design models now make it possible to design and prototype hardware that was previously too niche to be viable. You can use devices like the Bamboo (a Chinese prototyping tool) to iterate quickly, then move to mass production. Another example is the Minimal Company, which makes distraction-free phones and reportedly did millions of dollars on Kickstarter — a product Apple would never build, but one with clear pent-up demand. If you deeply understand a niche and can create something that goes viral within it, there is a real business there.