Leadership coaches, niche social networks, +2 more trending topics to watch
Exploding Topics scours the internet to find emerging trends before they take off.
Here are four of the latest developments, along with some insights and analysis to help you take advantage.
1. Gravel Bike
A gravel bike is a multi-terrain bicycle.
Resembling a standard road bike, it is fitted with a number of features (like wider tires and lower gears) that allow riders to ride on various surfaces.
8.62M people in the US take part in non-paved surface cycling — up from 6.99M a decade ago.
Moots, DTC bikes brand, has a dedicated gravel section. And generates an estimated $2.9M in annual revenue.
Gravel bikes and the closely related cyclocross industry are often combined into a single category. The global cyclocross market is projected to reach $7.87B by 2024.
What’s next:
Gravel bikes are part of the alt-cycling meta trend.
The cycling industry as a whole is worth an estimated $29.2B (Research and Markets).
And e-bikes are the fastest growing bicycle category. Year over year growth in that space stands at 190%.
Sales of electric bikes are expected to jump from 3.7M to 30M by 2030.
Lectric, an e-bikes startup, grew revenue to $14M in under a year.
Stationary bikes are also seeing huge growth. The market is expected to almost double by 2027, reaching $2.34B.
Fast-growing startups in this space include Velocore and Electric Bike Company.
2. Letterboxd
Letterboxd is a “social network for film discussion and discovery”.
The platform has quickly grown to over 3M members in 2021, an increase from 1.7M users at the start of 2020.
75% of Letterboxd users access the platform via the mobile app (the Letterboxd app has been downloaded 229K times over the last 30 days).
Cinephiles can create movie diaries, share lists, write reviews, and connect with other members on the platform.
The startup is run by a bootstrapped team of 20 people.
What’s next:
Letterboxd is a part of the “niche social networks” meta trend.
User satisfaction with mainstream social networks are on the decline. For example, the ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) for Facebook dropped from 75 in 2015 to 64 last year.
Here are some fast-growing niche social networks:
Hoplr: Social network for neighborhoods. The platform is used by 500K households in Belgium and the Netherlands. 78% of users are active weekly. Participants can meet neighbors, borrow items, and organize community activities. The startup has raised €4.1M in funding to date.
Roadstr: Social network for car enthusiasts. Users can create or discover new car models, find local meetups, and join small groups. The startup raised $769K in equity crowdfunding last year.
Vampr: Social-professional network for musicians. The platform passed 1 million users in September. And is on track to hit 2.8M users by the end of 2022. The startup has raised a total of $2.6M in funding to date.
3. Pop Up Picnic
A pop up picnic is a luxury outdoor dining spread, set up and cleared away by professionals.
The original brand, also named Pop Up Picnic, is based in San Diego.
But several other startups have taken up the same idea. For example, New York-based Perfect Picnic offers themed setups, like “brunch picnics” and “proposal picnics”.
The corporate and tourist picnic experiences make up 67% of Perfect Picnic’s revenue. While the remaining 33% comes from online sales. Perfect Picnic has an estimated annual revenue of $4.7M.
The Picnic Collective, another pop up picnic brand, is averaging around 40 picnic setups a week in California.
What’s next:
Pop up picnics are part of the Instagram aesthetic meta trend.
8.9M posts use the picnic hashtag on Instagram.
And 50% of Instagram users say that the platform is the single biggest influence on their shopping habits.
Balloon garlands have seen very strong search growth recently — thanks almost exclusively to Instagram. One kit for making these arch-shaped displays brings in an estimated $94.6K per month (AmzScout).
Other fast-growing topics within this meta trend include cottagecore, farmhouse kitchen and the donut vase.
4. Leadership Coaches
American workers spend an estimated $166B on leadership development each year.
And a survey of industry professionals found that leadership coaching is the most prominent trend within the field of executive coaching. 89% of both internal and external coaches cited “leadership development programs with additional coaching” as a likely or highly likely trend through 2022.
And a recent Sherpa Coaching Survey found that 61% of all business coaching is now designed to develop leadership, compared to just 43% in 2006.
What’s next:
Leadership coaches are part of the online business coaching meta trend.
There are an estimated 50K+ professional executive coaches worldwide. And one study found that executive coaching produces a 788% ROI.
Ezra is an app specifically designed to connect leadership coaches to organizations.
Of the businesses to adopt Ezra, 86% report a positive ROI. And 99% of those who receive coaching are satisfied: 14K+ sessions have received a 5-star rating from participants.
And Noomii is a directory and discovery engine for finding individual coaches across the US and Canada. More than 2K leadership coaches are listed, second only to life coaches.
Other fast-growing topics within this meta trend include ThePowerMBA, BetterU and SkiIIUp.
