Contraigne Thinking
Cody Sanchez spent years working in investment banking and private equity, acquiring and holding small businesses. Rather than keeping this knowledge proprietary, she decided to share her insights publicly through a newsletter called Contraigne Thinking, inspired by similar media companies like Morning Brew that had successfully built large audiences around business content.
The newsletter started as a straightforward vehicle for sharing observations about "boring businesses"—the unsexy, profitable ventures that most people overlook. Unlike typical startup media that focuses on hot tech companies, Contraigne Thinking went contrarian, finding interesting opportunities in overlooked market segments and business models.
The product gained traction organically through content marketing and word-of-mouth. The newsletter grew to a couple hundred thousand subscribers, while the broader media company (which includes the newsletter plus other content channels) scaled to around 5 million total subscribers.
The core insight that worked was identifying market gaps and behavioral shifts before they became mainstream. In the podcast episode discussed, Cody pitched several business ideas based on this observation method: noticing the "trad wife" movement gaining traction on TikTok (187 million views), spotting resilience in craft retail despite e-commerce dominance, and identifying high-margin opportunities in seasonal pop-up businesses like Halloween Express. She also highlighted the pregnancy/fertility tech space as underserved, noting companies like Mira charging $150-200 for small devices while the broader fertility tracking market (represented by Flow app) generated over $100 million in ARR.
Contraigne Thinking has scaled to approximately 100 million monthly impressions across all channels in just three years. Cody has built a personal brand as a contrarian business analyst, though she notes the challenge that comes with scale: accusations of being a "grifter" or "business guru." She continues running the family office while building the media business, using both as vehicles to identify and share undervalued business opportunities with her audience.
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