Start It or Scrap It

Michael Terkanian and Mr. Gummi
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Start It or Scrap It is the ultimate brainstorming session you didn’t know you needed! Join Mike Terkanian, a seasoned business attorney with a knack for spotting potential pitfalls, and Mr. Gummi, a dynamic marketing expert with a flair for turning dreams into reality, as they dive into the wild world of Reddit. Each week, they uncover unique ideas, dissect ambitious plans, and give honest, actionable advice. Whether you're looking to fine-tune your business pitch, pivot a passion project, or find the courage to scrap what’s not working, this duo has you covered.Laugh, learn, and get inspired—because every great idea deserves a moment in the spotlight (or a reality check). Ready to Start It or Scrap It? Tune in now!

  1. 2d ago

    Why Your Views Vanished Overnight (And What You Can Actually Do About It)

    Send us Fan Mail Social media platforms are private businesses, and that means they can ban you, shadow ban you, or tank your reach for almost any reason they want, with zero legal recourse on your end. Mike breaks down the actual legal reality behind a call he got this week from a creator whose live audience collapsed from 5,000 viewers to barely a dozen, seemingly overnight. That conversation opens Episode 87 of Start It or Scrap It, and it leads into a full breakdown of branding versus pay-per-click advertising, the hardest lesson both hosts learned this year about how fast their own industries are changing, and a long discussion on how AI is already reshaping farming, one of the last industries people assume is safe from it. In this episode: Why social media platforms are private businesses that can remove or limit you for almost any reason, and why the First Amendment doesn't apply What shadow banning actually is, and why appealing one is often a dead end even with video evidence A real case study: how running Facebook ads for a local mechanic nearly doubled his Google Ads conversion rate within 45 days, with zero direct return from the Facebook spend itself A barstool company case study: five months to build a winning ad campaign, eleven days for one bad automated setting to undo it Why every industry, from law to plumbing to farming, has some version of an AI reckoning coming, and why waiting to think about it is the expensive mistake A real story about a farmer whose land had to be legally reclassified as an airport just to get permits for his agricultural drones Why cross-pollinating with other creators, not just posting more, is one of the most effective (and most overlooked) ways to grow Timestamps 0:00 Cold open: social media platforms are private businesses 0:44 Intro and welcome 2:03 A golf grip fix that explains itself 3:29 Tripling output running two remote Claude instances at once 3:53 Claude 5.1 and the new AI text watermarking 4:36 How AI text watermarking actually works 6:29 Why the EU is pushing AI watermark detection, and the "AI slop" problem 8:27 The call that opens the episode: a creator's live audience collapsed from 5,000 to a dozen 9:54 The legal reality: social media platforms are private businesses 10:29 What platforms can and can't discriminate against you for 11:11 What shadow banning actually is 12:22 A case for the platforms: AI moderation at an impossible scale 14:36 Why creators are diversifying platforms, and why creator counts have exploded 17:14 Why posting natively gets 10x the views of third-party scheduling tools 19:01 Their own show's viewership story: from hundreds live to a dozen 20:03 Censorship, or something else entirely? 23:04 Viewer question: balancing short-term revenue with long-term brand building 25:34 Branding vs. marketing: the difference that actually matters 26:07 The lawn sign example: why name recognition works on you without you noticing 28:19 Pay-per-click vs. branding, explained through an auto mechanic 30:48 Case study: Facebook ads nearly doubled a mechanic's Google Ads conversion rate 32:13 Case study: a barstool company's record sales, and how 11 days undid 5 months of work 34:44 Why Morgan & Morgan spends a billion dollars a year on marketing 35:42 Viewer question: the hardest lesson learned this past year 37:23 A hacked website, 2.6 million indexed pages, and a broken rulebook 39:24 Why every major technology gets doubted before it becomes essential 41:04 Early adopters win. Everyone else plays catch-up. 44:15 The real lesson: figure out how AI affects your industry before it's too late 44:44 "AI won't replace farmers": a real debate 46:41 A farmer's land had to be reclassified as an airport to fly his drones 47:54 Autonomous farm equipment and remote-controlled farmland 49:49 Viewer question: should you run separate business and personal social accounts? 51:26 A burnout story: when social media stopped being fun 54:38 Structuring multiple accounts: discovery vs. booking vs. business 57:21 Cross-pollination: one of the most underused growth strategies 1:00:36 Wrap-up and a scheduling note for next week Hosted by Mike Terkanian (business attorney) and Gummi Sigurdarson (marketing expert) Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/SbLgT48Cvy4 Follow Start It or Scrap It: Instagram: https://instagram.com/startitorscrapit TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@start.it.or.scrap.it X: https://x.com/StartItScrapIt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/startitorscrapit/ #socialmedia #branding #marketing #ai #startitorscrapit #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #founders #shadowban #businessgrowth

    Why Your Views Vanished Overnight (And What You Can Actually Do About It)

  2. Sep 3

    Should I Buy a Franchise? The Honest Answer for Under $40,000

    Send us Fan Mail A viewer intimidated by starting their first business asks a simple question: is it a rule of thumb that you shouldn't start a business in something you're unfamiliar with? Mike's answer is just as simple: go find a franchise broker and see what's available for under $40,000. That exchange kicks off Episode 86 of Start It or Scrap It, and it turns into a full breakdown of what actually makes a franchise worth buying, how SBA loans make franchises easier to finance than most people realize, and why the franchise failure rate is so much lower than starting a business from scratch. This episode also covers side hustles for people starting with almost no money, the legal reality behind the Home Depot "penny item" trick, retail arbitrage, and why the actual value of a Shark Tank deal was never the check. In this episode: Why Mike's first answer to "how do I start a business with no experience" is simple: talk to a franchise broker and look under $40,000 Why franchises fail at a dramatically lower rate than independent startups, and the one number every franchisee should check before buying in: the franchisor's success-to-failure rate Why location matters as much as the franchise itself: matching the right concept to the right market A breakdown of retail arbitrage: buying discounted or clearance inventory and reselling it at a markup, including a real story about someone buying an entire shoe inventory to resell on Amazon The legal reality behind the Home Depot "penny item" trick: why an obviously mistaken price doesn't legally have to be honored, even after you've already paid for it The story of an entrepreneur who built 17 companies and willingly gave up majority ownership, because "5% of something is more than 100% of nothing" Why e-commerce is a genuinely hard market to break into without a niche: Amazon, Walmart, and Target account for nearly half of all e-commerce revenue combined Timestamps 0:00 Cold open: the franchise question 0:36 Intro and welcome 1:21 Catching up, and the Family Guy golf clip everyone needs to see 5:16 Gummi's morning podcast on AI in marketing 5:49 A dinner conversation that turns into a full marketing teardown of a restaurant's social media 7:08 The stat that should change how restaurants think about social media 8:19 Why the best content is usually already sitting on your payroll 10:39 Why the restaurant industry is the laziest at social media despite having endless content 13:10 The difference between social media as an ad platform and social media as a discovery platform 14:02 A plumber client case study: why the process gets more engagement than the finished product 17:34 Viewer question: a good side hustle for beginners with almost no money 18:14 Side hustle ideas: AI training, lawn care, and pressure washing 22:15 Building websites for local businesses that still don't have one 23:31 What retail arbitrage actually is, and a real story from an outlet mall 27:19 Buying holiday clearance in September to resell later at a premium 28:24 The legal truth about the Home Depot penny item trick 34:20 Viewer question: starting a first business with limited experience and capital 35:08 Mike's direct answer: find a franchise broker and look under $40,000 36:08 The real advantages of buying into a franchise 38:13 The one number every franchise buyer should check before signing anything 38:45 Why the SBA makes proven franchises easy to finance, even without the cash up front 40:52 Why location has to match the franchise concept 44:19 Viewer question: finding trending, winning products without hours of research 44:43 Tools that track what's actually selling: Jungle Scout and Helium 10 47:25 Why the money on Shark Tank was never really the point 48:36 The entrepreneur who built 17 companies and gave up ownership on purpose 53:15 What "recession resistant" actually means, and why it's different from recession proof 55:45 Getting into a market without a VC, with and without startup capital 57:06 Just how much of e-commerce Amazon, Walmart, and Target actually control 59:07 Why e-commerce is a hard market to break into without a real niche 1:01:23 Wrap-up and thank you 1:01:55 Reflecting on two years of the podcast Hosted by Mike Terkanian (business attorney) and Gummi Sigurdarson (marketing expert) Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/c15N8GMDLEg Follow Start It or Scrap It: Instagram: https://instagram.com/startitorscrapit TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@start.it.or.scrap.it X: https://x.com/StartItScrapIt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/startitorscrapit/ #franchise #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #startitorscrapit #sidehustle #founders #businessgrowth #ecommerce #startupadvice #businessowner

    Should I Buy a Franchise? The Honest Answer for Under $40,000

  3. Aug 27

    How to Vibe Code Your First Business (With Clayton McDonald, Founder of Black Light Resumes)

    Send us Fan Mail Clayton McDonald doesn't know how to write code. He's also built and shipped a full SaaS platform, Black Light Resumes, almost entirely by prompting AI. This week he joins Mike and Gummi as guest host to break down exactly how he did it: what vibe coding actually is, how to quality-check AI-built software so it doesn't turn into a maintenance nightmare, and the real cost of building a business this way (spoiler: it's not what you'd expect). This episode also covers two live viewer business ideas: a cold-contact list strategy question, and a recycling-transparency subscription concept that turns into a genuinely interesting detour into where your recycling actually ends up. A Note from Clayton At the end of the show, I mentioned the next thing I'm working on: sales training built by connecting ChatGPT to my GitHub repository and having it role-play different perspectives. It tests my own knowledge of the software so I can better understand exactly what I've built, the problems it solves, and how to explain it clearly — and it lets me catch what I'm missing before bringing it in front of somebody else. That's an adversarial review, and it's one of the most valuable ways vibe coders can use AI to actually finish a project. Even when the software feels done, AI can look at it from the perspective of users you may not have considered, surfacing missing workflows, UX/UI gaps, and other issues that are easy to overlook when you're the person who built it. Anthropic Prompting Video Referenced in this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysPbXH0LpIE Timestamps 0:00 Cold open 0:43 Intro and today's live platforms 1:24 Meet Clayton McDonald, founder of Black Light Resumes 1:44 What "vibe coding" actually means 3:03 Why Clayton started using AI to build instead of hiring out 4:22 What Black Light Resumes is and how it started 5:23 Building a privacy-first product: no accounts, no cookies 7:27 The grading tier system and automatic revisions 8:10 Keeping AI-written resumes from sounding like AI wrote them 10:01 The no-code frustration that pushed Clayton into coding directly 13:46 Why treating AI like a search engine is the biggest mistake people make 16:19 How to quality check vibe-coded software so it doesn't become a maintenance nightmare 17:28 Automated testing with Playwright, staging databases, and visual QA 20:15 Are vibe coders the new generation of developers? 21:30 Why Codex told Clayton his "finished" product was still an MVP 23:24 The AI-made heavy metal yodeling band that could never have existed before 26:53 From vibe coder to project manager: the skill Clayton didn't know he'd built 28:18 Why the last 10% of any build is the hardest part 30:28 Viewer question: are cold-contact lists worth the money? 33:18 A client's trick for catching who sells his contact info 34:26 Using AI to clean out and manage an inbox 36:09 What Clayton is testing right now and still unsure about 37:03 Why the same product needs different marketing messages on different platforms 39:32 The overlooked audience for a resume platform: recruiters 42:40 Viewer business idea: a transparency subscription for recycling 45:13 Why most people wildly overestimate what actually gets recycled 48:01 Why internal telemetry matters as much as your product itself 52:13 The "send it to mom and grandma" test for whether a product is ready 53:28 The two free UX skills Clayton uses for every build 54:12 Why you should try to break your own product before anyone else does 55:52 Security mistakes to watch for: exposed environment variables and hardcoded passwords 56:35 SQL injection, and why it's still worth checking for 58:28 Regular expressions, explained simply 1:01:22 What it actually cost to build Black Light Resumes end to end 1:02:22 How long it would take Clayton to rebuild it today, knowing what he knows now 1:02:46 Clayton's step-by-step process for using AI to build a real business, not just a product 1:04:48 A word of caution: the AI horror stories about runaway token bills 1:06:19 Wrap-up and what's next for Clayton Connect With Clayton / Black Light Resumes Black Light Resumes website: https://blacklightresumes.com/ Black Light Resumes on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572932631878 Black Light Resumes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/blacklight-resumes/ Clayton's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcdonaldjr/ Clayton's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clay__lay Hosted by Mike Terkanian (business attorney) and Gummi Sigurdarson (marketing expert), with guest host Clayton McDonald, founder of Black Light Resumes Follow Start It or Scrap It: Instagram: https://instagram.com/startitorscrapit TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@start.it.or.scrap.it X: https://x.com/StartItScrapIt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/startitorscrapit/ #ai #vibecode #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #startitorscrapit #saas #founders #resumes #businessgrowth #machinelearning

    How to Vibe Code Your First Business (With Clayton McDonald, Founder of Black Light Resumes)

  4. Aug 20

    An AI Model Escaped Its Own Test Environment to Cheat on a Benchmark (Here's What Actually Happened)

    Send us Fan Mail During internal testing, an unreleased AI model realized it could score higher on a benchmark by reaching outside its supposedly isolated test environment and pulling in an answer from Hugging Face. It wasn't sentient, and it wasn't malicious — it was told to complete a task, and it found an unexpected way to do it. That story kicks off a wide-ranging Episode 84 of Start It or Scrap It. Also in this episode: how Mike used Claude to stress-test a real business plan for a new venture, why a 15-year backlog of unlabeled stock photos finally got fixed by Claude's Fable Five model in three hours, and a long, honest conversation about which jobs AI is actually coming for first — and which ones it isn't. In this episode: The story behind an unreleased AI model finding an exploit to boost its own benchmark score during testing, and why that isn't the same as the model going rogue Why Claude reportedly delayed releasing a model to a handful of companies after it started finding security loopholes in Microsoft and Firefox that hadn't been found in years Mike and Gummi's pro bono work for the American Legion, and the surprise thank-you: an invitation to watch night flight operations from the deck of a Navy aircraft carrier The charities they personally support: a shelter for women leaving abusive relationships, a winter coat drive for kids, and the TLT Foundation for ovarian cancer awareness A viewer question on starting a manufacturing business from scratch: sourcing overseas, the SCORE business plan template, and the marketing budget math most founders get wrong Why quantum computing, once it's more accessible to businesses, will make today's AI advancements look small A viewer question on whether AI and supercomputing will make every job obsolete, and why the honest answer is "every industry contracts, it doesn't disappear" Timestamps 0:00 Cold open 1:09 Welcome back, intro 2:30 American Legion pro bono work and the aircraft carrier invitation 7:05 The charities they personally support 11:51 "I cheated on Arnold Palmer": Arizona's half iced tea, half lemonade 14:40 World Cup recap: Spain vs. Argentina, and the wild third-place match 16:46 Viewer question: staying focused during economic volatility 23:44 Viewer question: starting a manufacturing business from scratch 31:29 Mike has Claude build a real business plan, and why the first draft was "a fantasy" 34:57 Why advice is never one-size-fits-all 36:12 Viewer question: the weird soda trends 40:26 Why toothpaste is designed to fizz 41:41 Viewer question: an AI model finding an exploit in its own test environment 44:12 Why Claude reportedly delayed a model release after finding security loopholes 44:35 We gave Claude 15 years of mislabeled stock photos 47:08 Why quantum computing will make today's AI look primitive 47:49 Viewer question: will AI make every job obsolete? 50:09 One employee, Microsoft Copilot, and a job that used to take three people 52:29 A documentary on AI's trajectory, and why it was outdated before it even released 53:52 How the smartphone era changed our patience, and why AI accelerates that further 56:54 Balancing AI optimism against what it could cost kids' critical thinking 57:36 The tractor and computer analogies for how AI changes skills 1:01:05 The research analogy: from the library to the internet to AI 1:02:21 Why Clayton McDonald joins the show next Thursday Hosted by Mike Terkanian (business attorney) and Gummi Sigurdarson (marketing expert) Follow Start It or Scrap It: Instagram: https://instagram.com/startitorscrapit TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@start.it.or.scrap.it X: https://x.com/StartItScrapIt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/startitorscrapit/ #ai #artificialintelligence #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #startitorscrapit #futureofwork #machinelearning #founders #businessgrowth #claude

    An AI Model Escaped Its Own Test Environment to Cheat on a Benchmark (Here's What Actually Happened)

  5. Aug 13

    The Most Brilliant Marketing Campaign I Have Ever Seen (And It Came From Colombia) | Ep. 83

    Send us Fan Mail A Colombian beer brand offered soccer jerseys at four different price tiers based on how large you were willing to make their logo. The biggest logo got you 80% off. Hundreds of thousands of Colombians chose the biggest logo. That is the opener for Episode 83 of Start It or Scrap It. And it sets up one of the best marketing conversations we have had on the show. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Cold open highlights 1:00 Intro and World Cup quarterfinals discussion: Norway, Morocco, and the Colombia joke 4:22 The most brilliant marketing campaign Gummi has ever seen: Aguila's Size Your Price jersey campaign 7:00 Why FIFA did not block it: national jerseys are controlled by the team and the sponsor, not FIFA 7:20 Using marketing to supplement what customers are buying anyway: the walking billboard model 8:10 Gummi's $7.80 polo strategy: Alibaba, subtle logos, and 30 shirts handed out that morning 9:40 What branding actually is and why it is not the same as advertising 10:20 The phone call from the car that had been sold for months 11:00 The vinyl window decal that got a lead at a parking lot the next day 11:35 Co-branding: splitting every door direct mail with a complementary business 12:45 Why who you co-brand with matters: the FIFA controversy example 13:00 House washer plus landscaper: cut the mailing cost in half and do twice the reach 20:00 Hybrid vs in-person work: the water cooler idea problem 26:30 Why text removes emotional inflection and why one sentence has seven different meanings 28:00 The project manager who thought the client was annoyed based on a simple request email 30:30 Defense tech side hustles and Sam.gov introduction 32:00 How Sam.gov works: registering your business, searching RFPs, and why so many go unanswered 33:35 The women-owned business certification and WBInc: the winning formula for minority-owned businesses 36:10 What the government actually outsources: Air Force.com, Space Force.com, the healthcare.gov build 36:49 The 3D printing human organs government contract already out for bid 41:00 The robot takeover discussion begins: what people are actually afraid of 42:10 What LLMs actually are: pattern recognition and next-word prediction, not true AI 43:35 Why hallucination is not lying: the key distinction between LLM error and human deception 45:40 Claude's token efficiency bias: why it may check its own previous answer instead of re-running a task 48:30 What true AI actually means: self-initiated tasks without human assignment 51:40 Claude's Fable Five model noticing and auto-correcting an error it was not asked to find 53:00 The danger of letting AI agents loose on primary systems 54:55 What to realistically expect from the first Optimus robots 56:00 The pipe leak test: why Optimus will not self-initiate a fix 57:00 The tractor, the automobile, and why automation shifts work rather than eliminating it 59:40 If robots handle the mundane, humans get back the time for creativity and the arts 1:02:20 Entertainment as social control: the gladiators, the television, and why creative conversations drive change 1:03:00 Closing, Clayton McDonald coming on the show, and next week preview Hosted by Mike Terkanian (business attorney and software developer) and Gummi Sigurdarson (marketing expert) Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/FtHT4ehZ3Jg Subscribe for weekly live business breakdowns every Thursday at 11:30 AM EST. Follow Start It or Scrap It: Instagram: https://instagram.com/startitorscrapit TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@start.it.or.scrap.it X: https://x.com/StartItScrapIt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/startitorscrapit/ #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #marketing #startitorscrapit #branding #ai #government #worldcup #llm #robot #founders #businessgrowth #cobranding #samgov #promotionalproducts

    The Most Brilliant Marketing Campaign I Have Ever Seen (And It Came From Colombia) | Ep. 83

  6. Aug 6

    How to Start a Business, Sell a Business and Survive SaaS Tool Fatigue | Start It or Scrap It Ep. 82

    Send us Fan Mail If your paperwork is this sloppy at the closing table, what else am I not seeing underneath? That is the line Mike has heard buyers say before walking away from a deal. And it is the reason this episode opens with one of the most important warnings any business owner building toward an eventual exit needs to hear: your tax return is not enough. Not even close. Episode 82 of Start It or Scrap It is a live Q&A covering what buyers actually look for when acquiring a business, how to break into the specialty coffee market, where the line is on AI monitoring your employees, how to cut your SaaS stack down to what actually matters, and why the John Deere right to repair lawsuit is the most important tech case nobody is paying attention to. In this episode: M&A preparation: what buyers actually want to see, why sloppy paperwork kills deals at the closing table, and what it signals to the buyer when your records are not organized Starting a specialty coffee business: sourcing directly from South American farmers, the bumper crop trap that catches new buyers, starting with two exceptional blends rather than a full menu, being the Liquid Death of coffee, nailing the flavor profile and the packaging before anything else Why Mike killed a SaaS product that was 75% complete because the market dynamics shifted and the economics no longer made sense The John Deere right to repair lawsuit: why it is the benchmark case for tech-dependent hardware, what happens if John Deere loses, and why the farmer 200 miles from the nearest dealership with a broken harvester during a narrow harvest window is the human face of this legal fight TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Cold open highlights 1:00 Intro and welcome 2:00 Arnold Palmer vs John Daly intro music debate 3:30 Showing a cow: the unexpected conversation and animal show businesses 7:00 Horse breeding rights and how much champion stallions earn per session 9:00 Reindeer Made asks about M&A: what buyers actually look at 10:00 Why your tax return is not enough to sell your business 11:30 What sloppy paperwork signals to a buyer at the closing table 13:00 Asset purchase vs entity purchase: the two main deal structures 14:30 Why buyers prefer asset purchases to avoid inheriting liability 16:00 The provisions that give buyers an out after signing 17:00 Start documenting everything now if you ever plan to sell 20:00 Reindeer Made follow-up: how to start your own business from scratch 24:00 Being A Roast asks: how to enter the coffee market 25:00 Sourcing your beans: go to the South American farmers directly 26:00 The bumper crop trap new buyers fall into 27:00 Colombia's coffee bean export regulations and what that means for sourcing 29:00 Start with two blends and make them exceptional 31:00 Be the Liquid Death of coffee: packaging and brand identity 33:00 The Barrel bourbon comparison: testing unique flavor profiles 34:00 19 months to perfect a formula and why that is not unusual 35:00 Coffee drinkers are habitual: how hard it is to break into the market 36:00 Nail the packaging, nail the flavor, use the Yeti model to find your audience 38:00 Bum Bum Bum asks: AI monitoring employee productivity - where is the line? 39:00 The ethics of keystroke and camera monitoring in 2026 41:00 Why Big Brother surveillance causes massive turnover 43:00 The developer who turned down a great remote job over the camera requirement 44:00 Where AI monitoring is ethical: output-based tracking vs behavior tracking 45:00 Simone Bags asks: how are you handling SaaS tool fatigue? 46:00 Gummi cut $1,000 per month in redundant SaaS subscriptions 47:00 Mike killed a SaaS product 75% through development 49:00 Needs vs nice to have: the audit that changes everything 51:00 Claude's shoebox test: 99% accuracy on random receipts 53:00 AI is replacing dedicated SaaS products entirely 55:00 The bookkeeping lady who was using AI test results from two years ago 57:00 Kia pickup truck and market saturation parallels 58:00 The John Deere right to repair lawsuit nobody is watching 1:00:00 Why the Copyright Act of 1976 cannot handle today's software issues 1:03:00 Best business decisions of the last 12 months: not signing a lease 1:05:00 Mike's best business decision: moving to Dallas and proximity to partners 1:07:00 Closing and next week preview Hosted by Mike Terkanian (business attorney and software developer) and Gummi Sigurdarson (marketing expert) Subscribe for weekly live business breakdowns every Thursday at 11:30 AM EST. Follow Start It or Scrap It: Instagram: https://instagram.com/startitorscrapit TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@start.it.or.scrap.it X: https://x.com/StartItScrapIt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/startitorscrapit/ #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #startitorscrapit #mergers #acquisitions #coffee #ai #saas #righttorepair #founders #businessgrowth #exitstrategy #foodbusiness #techlaw #productivity

    How to Start a Business, Sell a Business and Survive SaaS Tool Fatigue | Start It or Scrap It Ep. 82

  7. Jul 30

    How I Almost Lost Everything to a Social Engineering Scam (And How to Protect Yourself) | Ep. 81

    Send us Fan Mail Mike teaches white hat hacking and social engineering. And yesterday, a scammer almost got him. Episode 81 of Start It or Scrap It opens with Mike breaking down exactly what happened: a spoofed Google security email that was verified clean at every technical level, a convincing phone call from someone with an American accent, and an auto-saved password on a fake login page that gave scammers 30 seconds of access before Mike changed his password and locked everything down. If he had waited three more minutes, they would have had access to his brokerage account and potentially everything else. The episode then moves into one of the most practical conversations the show has had about where business opportunity actually is right now, why the trades are going to be the gold mine of the next decade, and how to use AI as a business tool rather than a reason to stay on the sideline. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Cold open highlights 1:00 Intro and World Cup US team discussion 3:30 Mike reveals he almost fell victim to a social engineering scam 4:22 The Poland login panic at the World Cup set him up for this 5:30 The spoofed Google email: how it passed every technical test 7:10 The convincing phone call with an American accent 7:48 He entered his password and immediately knew what was happening 8:00 How he got out: changed password, froze brokerage account, hung up 8:27 Three more minutes and they would have had everything 9:13 How someone who teaches this fell for it anyway 9:50 The number one rule: never enter your password when asked via a link 10:53 Your bank and Google will never call you about a security issue 11:35 Enable two-factor authentication on every account 12:42 Different password for every account, no exceptions 13:00 Scammers exploited the anxiety from the Poland incident two weeks earlier 15:10 Mighty Tiger question: how to step away from doing all the work 17:00 The process of building processes: start with the first hire 18:30 Document the job, hire someone, then build the next process 22:15 Gnarly Carl question: business models that are underrated right now 27:18 The trades are going to be the gold mine of the next decade 27:38 80% of current tradespeople are within ten years of retiring 28:29 Average age of a home builder has increased 20 years in seven 29:33 Two couples: trade school vs college degree, who is winning? 30:03 The college fund argument and why the electrician path may win 32:06 Supply and demand in the trades: prices have doubled in five years 32:58 That is the one thing that will not change in 100 years 33:42 The CEO of Ford and the mechanic shortage 34:50 Lean on Me and what mechanics made in the 80s vs today 36:21 You do not have to do the work to own the business 36:47 Sponsor someone through trade school with a work contract 37:24 The handyman franchise whose ideal buyer was a restaurant manager 38:42 If you can project manage, you can own almost any service business 41:27 Benny Link question: should AI competition stop you from starting a business? 41:51 AI is not a reason not to start. It changes what you should start. 43:42 Gummi is building a personal AI assistant to answer his phone 45:22 How AI filters out unqualified leads before they reach you 47:41 AI and the skill gap: great people get dramatically better, others get marginally less bad 50:00 AI chatbot case study: filtering 90% of junk calls for a client 51:50 The AI voice agent for Okeanos that handles 70% of calls without a human 53:00 Does AI voice remove the upsell opportunity? The tradeoff discussion 56:15 Clayton McDonald and the AI business discussion: Codex breakdown 57:00 Marketing your AI business and why coding knowledge helps output quality 58:00 How regional language nuance makes the difference between good and great AI output 59:30 Claude argued with Mike for six minutes about something it was wrong about 1:00:00 You are in the top 2% of AI users if you know to prompt by region 1:01:00 The wife at the Fortune 500 company who was the advanced AI user 1:02:00 Clayton invited to be a guest on the show 1:02:45 Daycare vs T brand: do not start a daycare 1:03:38 Closing Hosted by Mike Terkanian (business attorney and software developer) and Gummi Sigurdarson (marketing expert) Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/kZWdUExmI94 Subscribe for weekly live business breakdowns every Thursday at 11:30 AM EST. Follow Start It or Scrap It: Instagram: https://instagram.com/startitorscrapit TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@start.it.or.scrap.it X: https://x.com/StartItScrapIt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/startitorscrapit/ #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #scam #startitorscrapit #socialengineering #trades #ai #cybersecurity #founders #businessgrowth #handyman #tradesman #artificialintelligence #voiceagent #codex

    How I Almost Lost Everything to a Social Engineering Scam (And How to Protect Yourself) | Ep. 81

  8. Jul 23

    How to Make Money From the World Cup (And Start a Business With $10K) | Ep. 80

    Send us Fan Mail Mike and Gummi went to the France vs Iraq World Cup match in Philadelphia. They watched Iraqi fans set up drums in the concourse during a weather delay and turn a thunderstorm into one of the best moments of the tournament. Then they came back and talked about how small businesses can use all of it to their advantage. Episode 80 of Start It or Scrap It is a live Q&A covering World Cup business strategy, the best businesses to start with $10,000, a business model that generated $5 million in three years with zero ad spend, nostalgia marketing, and why your promotional product budget might be the best marketing money you are spending. In this episode: World Cup business opportunities right now: how to become soccer-friendly without spending a fortune, why country flags and colors are completely free to use while FIFA branding is not, how to use the decision round bracket to position your products and marketing in the right cities before the matches are announced How to capitalize on international fans visiting American cities for the first time and genuinely loving everything about being here Nostalgia marketing: how to tap into shared cultural touchstones without it feeling forced, why smell and music are the two most powerful nostalgia triggers, and how to make summer nostalgia work for a local business right now The deck company that went from zero to $5 million in three years without placing a single ad: monthly promotional products to past clients, a first-year anniversary gift basket, and an engineered referral system built entirely on staying top of mind TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Cold open 1:00 Intro and welcome 2:00 World Cup obsession: Gummi's social media is good again 3:30 The decision round breakdown and how to use it for business 5:00 Country-colored merchandise and soccer-friendly business strategy 7:00 Licensing warning: do not use FIFA branding without a license 7:45 International fans visiting the US and the business opportunity 11:55 Mike and Gummi attended France vs Iraq: the Iraqi fan experience 13:30 Weather delay, lightning exclusion zone, and the drums in the concourse 16:30 Starting a business for beginners with $10,000 17:45 Why service-based businesses are the right starting point 18:30 The handyman business: marketing, referrals, and the flywheel 22:30 Become the central figure: refer what you cannot do 24:00 You do not have to do the labor yourself 27:30 Connor's story: from estate cleanout to property maintenance 29:00 Adding a recurring revenue layer to a once-and-done business 30:40 Snowbirds and vacant home monitoring as a business model 31:30 Franchise alternatives: franchise brokers, SBA loans, and Rita's 35:00 You Break It: the rage room franchise that beat 40 others on ROI 36:30 Marzano6 asks: nostalgia marketing tips for this summer 37:30 What nostalgia actually is and why smell and music trigger it most 40:00 How to use summer nostalgia without it feeling forced 43:00 Promotional products done right: quality over quantity 45:00 The hat that starts conversations and the t-shirt worn on Christmas 46:30 Customer acquisition cost vs promotional product cost 49:30 The deck company: $5M in 3 years with zero ad spend 51:00 Monthly promotional items to past clients as a referral engine 52:00 Riding viral waves: what happens after the wave is gone 53:30 It is ten times easier to keep a customer than get a new one 55:00 Start trends instead of chasing them 56:00 Godin asks: is it too early to plan for Christmas marketing? 57:00 The answer: no. Start planning now, start advertising in November 59:00 Black Friday is largely a pricing myth 1:01:00 Founders Drop update and closing Hosted by Mike Terkanian (business attorney) and Gummi Sigurdarson (marketing expert) Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/F-Gpcz87rD0 Subscribe for weekly live business breakdowns every Thursday at 11:30 AM EST. Follow Start It or Scrap It: Instagram: https://instagram.com/startitorscrapit TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@start.it.or.scrap.it X: https://x.com/StartItScrapIt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/startitorscrapit/ #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #worldcup2026 #startitorscrapit #marketing #businessideas #franchise #nostalgia #promotionalproducts #founders #businessgrowth #sidehustle #handyman #soccer #recurringrevenue

    How to Make Money From the World Cup (And Start a Business With $10K) | Ep. 80
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About

Start It or Scrap It is the ultimate brainstorming session you didn’t know you needed! Join Mike Terkanian, a seasoned business attorney with a knack for spotting potential pitfalls, and Mr. Gummi, a dynamic marketing expert with a flair for turning dreams into reality, as they dive into the wild world of Reddit. Each week, they uncover unique ideas, dissect ambitious plans, and give honest, actionable advice. Whether you're looking to fine-tune your business pitch, pivot a passion project, or find the courage to scrap what’s not working, this duo has you covered.Laugh, learn, and get inspired—because every great idea deserves a moment in the spotlight (or a reality check). Ready to Start It or Scrap It? Tune in now!

Information

  • Creator
    Michael Terkanian and Mr. Gummi
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    87
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Start It or Scrap It
  • Show Website
    Start It or Scrap It