Central 23: The meme-y, profane answer to Hallmark that’s making $1m a year
The Trends Small Business Database houses hundreds of small businesses, along with their financials and unique stories. You can access the entire database here or read dozens of in-depth features here.
When they were 17, Marcus Ereira and Luke Shelley co-founded a private tutoring company called Tavistock Tutors. Sales rose when they painted a bike fluorescent orange and parked it around private schools in central London as part of a guerilla marketing campaign.
Now, novelty is their main business. With the financial backing of Tavistock Tutors, Ereira and Shelley launched Central 23 in 2016. It specializes in greeting cards (it’s like a younger, more profane “Hallmark Shoebox”), notepads, and home accessories. Recent examples shared on Central 23’s Instagram include cards with fresh takes on internet memes and one that says, “You’re how old? Fack off.”
Available exclusively to Trends subscribers
Understand upcoming market trends, receive our premium weekly report, access our database of research, and network with the smartest people we know
7 Day Trial
Join Trends now for $1!
Already a member? Log In.
Hear from our members:
Gagan Biyani
Co-Founder / Udemy
Adrian Salamunovic
Founder / Author of "Free PR"
Jack Smith
Co-Founder / Vungle
What do you get with Trends:
Private Community
The most powerful business peer group
Connect with thousands of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, executives and insiders. Collectively, Trends members have companies with tens of billions in revenue.
They say you’re the average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with. Are you surrounding yourself with the right people? You are now.
Weekly Case Studies
Curated stories from the business world
Dive into the success stories of companies around the world and discover how they achieved.
Market Signals
In-depth trends analysis & monitoring
Discover what’s trending before it goes viral
Don’t press snooze on this opportunity: sleep supplements
The signal: As meditation becomes mainstream, people may be surprised to find that searches for sleep apps double their meditation counterpart. As people invest in getting a better night’s rest, there’s opportunity abound, including physical products like weighted blankets or premium PJs, supplements, popular insomnia drugs having their patents expire, companies paying their employees to sleep better, marketing for sleep specialists, or online sleep education (ex: sleep apnea test has 27k searches per month).
The alternative milk market is getting frothy
The signal: As more people wave goodbye to dairy, alternative milk is slowly taking over; it has already cornered 13% of the market. With the exception of soy milk, all of the alt-milks have been on the up, with some of the newer entrants including hemp milk and pea milk. Other alt-products are getting attention, including cashew cheese, with 18100 searches per month.
Capitalizing on the Airpods market, making more money than Shopify
The signal: Since killing the headphone jack, Apple has graced the world with AirPods, which did an estimated 60m units in 2019. That means AirPods alone are bringing in approx ~$10b in revenue, more than Twitter, Shopify, or Spotify, to name a few popular tech giants. Opportunity lies in Apple opening up SiriOS or the wave of iPhone accessories (including cases, cleaning kits, hooks, and keychains) which have shown “hockey stick” growth alongside their hardware predecessor.
Weekly Lectures
Leading experts share their knowledge
Attend exclusive lectures from experts in the industry and stay in the know
Sound good?
7 Day Trial
Join Trends now for $1!
