An Ice Vending Kiosk vs. a Rental Property: Same Money, Different Headaches
A $90,000 ice vending kiosk out-earns a rental house on cash flow. But it depreciates and sits on someone else’s land. My side-by-side before you buy.
A Pizza Vending Machine Is a Tiny Restaurant. Price It Like One.
Turnkey pizza vending machines cost $75,000 to $110,000. I compare that to an index fund over ten years, and show when a pizza machine is worth it.
Payback Period Is the Vending Number I Trust Most. Here Are the Four Ways It Lies.
Claw machines to ice kiosks lined up by payback, plus the four ways the payback number misleads you and the three-question scorecard I’d use instead.
A Machine That Only Sells Drinks, and the Case for Doing One Narrow Thing
A $4,999 drinks-first AI cooler and when narrow beats general: match your offer to demand that already exists, then win on volume, not ticket size.
One Great Machine or Two Good Ones? The Capital Question Behind AI Vending
An AI cooler and a used combo can tie on percentage return and still differ by thousands a year. Why your scarcest resource decides which to buy.
A Laundromat Is a Lease With Washing Machines Attached
Starting a laundromat is three bets at once: the lease, the machines and the neighborhood. The honest math, and my rule for deciding if it fits.
A Landlord’s Case for the Lobby Vending Machine (It’s Not About the Commission)
Vacancy was one of the costliest things we faced as landlords. Why a free lobby machine is a retention bet, not an income stream, and what to ask first.
If I Started Vending Again, Would My First Machine Be an AI Smart Cooler?
What a year of traditional vending machines taught me, what an AI smart cooler would and wouldn’t fix, and the one question that decides your first machine.
Ice Cream at 10pm: Why Niche Businesses Pay Better and Break Harder
A $5,399 AI freezer machine is a clean lesson in niche businesses: less competition, better pricing, and a narrower, more fragile path to getting paid.
I Like Bitcoin. I Still Wouldn’t Own a Bitcoin ATM.
Three states banned crypto kiosks in 2026. Why I’d run a cash ATM or host a kiosk instead of owning one, and how I’d get bitcoin exposure separately.
