Chris Koerner: 17 Revenue Streams Without Raising a Dollar

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Let me tell you about Chris.

This guy has 17 revenue streams. SEVENTEEN. He’s the kind of entrepreneur who doesn’t just talk about business ideas, he does them.

He didn’t start with a trust fund, a Silicon Valley network, or even a fancy degree. He started with a broken iPhone screen.

Let me break it down for you.

The iPhone Screen That Built a Mansion

Chris was a broke college kid at the University of Alabama when a classmate mentioned a broken iPhone collecting dust in his drawer. “I’ll take it,” Chris said (because who says no to a free iphone)

After a few days he saw a flyer: “I’ll fix your broken iPhone for $60.”

So Chris marched to some random kid’s dorm room, iPhone in hand, and watched as the guy popped the screen off with a suction cup. His brain lit up.

“Where’d you get the screen? How much does it cost? How’d you learn this?”

The kid probably thought Chris was crazy. But Chris left that dorm room with two things:

1. A fixed iPhone.

2. A burning curiosity to start his own iPhone repair business.

He Googled “iPhone repair stores” and realized they were printing money. So he did what any impatient 20-year-old with a newborn and $0 would do:

He signed a 5-year lease for a retail store.

Yes, a store. With cement floors, a Craigslist handyman desk, and drywall separating the “showroom” from the back. He funded it with family loans, credit cards, and a $10k wire from a guy he met on a church mission in Europe.

Chris was running his iPhone repair shop in college when he got a cold call that changed everything.

“Hey, we want to buy your broken iPhone screens.”

At first, it made no sense. Broken screens? Worthless, right? Wrong.

Chris discovered these screens could be remanufactured in China. So he started buying broken screens, shipping them to China, and selling them back to repair shops.

That business? It built his house.

• First month: $28,000

• Second month: $56,000

• First year: $2.1 million

Not bad for a “worthless” product, huh?

The Viral Stunt That Launched a $1M Business

Let’s talk about Buc-ee’s.

If you’ve never been to Texas, Buc-ee’s is a gas station on steroids. Think 100+ pumps, a cult-like beaver mascot, and billboards that haunt you for miles. People love this place.

So Chris walks into a Buc-ee’s, buys a bag of jalapeño jerky, and has a thought: “These guys must crush online sales.”

He checks their website. No “Shop” button.

“Wait… they don’t sell this stuff online?!”

Most people would shrug and move on. Not Chris.

He does two things:

1. Buys one of everything in the store (yes, including the $4 pickled quail eggs).

2. Launches a bootleg e-commerce site called “Texas Snacks” for Buc-ee’s… without telling Buc-ee’s.

Then he cold-emails reporters: “We’re reselling Buc-ee’s merch. No, they don’t know. Yes, it’s legal. Wanna write about it?”

Buc-ee’s lawyers called. Chris panicked… until he remembered the “First Sale Doctrine” (you can resell anything you legally own).

Result?

• First month: $160,000

• First year: $1M

• Growth: 30-80% every year since

All while paying full retail price for every bag of Beaver Nuggets.

The lesson?

• Viral = velocity. Speed beats perfection.

• Stories > products. Texas Snacks wasn’t selling jerky, it was selling the drama of a David vs. Goliath stunt.

The Contrarian Belief That Drives Chris

Chris believes 98% of people operate at 20% of their capacity. They’re not lazy, they’re just not doing enough stuff.

“Life is fulfilling when you do more things. Say yes. Plant a million seeds. See what sprouts.”

The Chris Framework: How to Find Business Opportunities

Chris doesn’t just stumble into success. He has a repeatable framework for finding and validating business ideas. Here’s how it works:

1. Start with a Database
   Chris doesn’t guess. He scrapes data. For his iPhone screen business, he scraped Google Maps for every iPhone repair shop in America. 20,000 rows of data later, he had a list of every potential customer.

   “I always like to start a new business with a database.”

2. Go Hyperlocal
   Chris doesn’t try to boil the ocean. He starts small, in one city, with almost no money.

   “Constraints equal creativity. If you raise a bunch of money, you’ll be far less creative.”

3. Feed Your Curiosity
   Chris doesn’t believe in grinding on one thing forever. He follows his curiosity, explores new ideas, and lets the winners rise to the top.

Chris’s story isn’t about luck. It’s about taking action, staying curious, and finding asymmetric opportunities.