AI Business Ideas From Youtube

An Apify Actor that extracts transcripts from YouTube videos and uses AI to generate actionable business ideas based on the content.

Features

• 📝 Download transcripts from YouTube videos
• 🤖 AI-Powered Business Idea Generation using OpenAI
• 💡 Generates viable business ideas with detailed analysis
• 📊 Includes market size, target audience, revenue models
• 💰 Provides startup costs and time-to-market estimates
• 🎯 Works with regular videos, shorts, and live streams

Input

The actor accepts the following input:

• Video URLs (required): List of YouTube video URLs to extract transcripts from

  • youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
  • youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID
  • youtu.be/VIDEO_ID

• OpenAI API Key (required for AI features): Your OpenAI API key

  • Get one at https://platform.openai.com/api-keys
  • Marked as secret (encrypted in Apify storage)

• OpenAI Model (optional): Choose which OpenAI model to use

  • Options: gpt-5.2, gpt-5.2-pro, gpt-5.1, gpt-5, gpt-5-pro, gpt-5-mini (default), gpt-5-nano, gpt-4.1, gpt-4.1-mini, gpt-4.1-nano
  • Default: gpt-5-mini
  • gpt-5.2 / gpt-5.2-pro / gpt-5.1 / gpt-5 / gpt-5-pro: Most advanced models (best quality and reasoning, higher cost)
  • gpt-5-mini: Very fast, affordable, and good quality (default, recommended)
  • gpt-5-nano: Fastest and lowest cost model (lower output quality)
  • gpt-4.1 / gpt-4.1-mini / gpt-4.1-nano: Legacy models (older generational outputs, still good for simple use)

• Generate Business Ideas (optional): Enable/disable AI business idea generation

  • Default: true

• Number of Ideas (optional): How many business ideas to generate per video (1-10)

  • Default: 3

• Proxy Configuration (optional): Proxy settings for the crawler

Output

For each video, the actor outputs:

Video Metadata

• Basic Info: Video ID, URL, title, type (video/short/stream)
• Channel Info: Channel name, ID, URL
• Engagement Metrics: View count, like count
• Timing: Duration, upload date, publish date
• Content: Description
• Classification: Category

Transcripts

• Available transcript languages
• Full transcript text
• Individual segments with timestamps
• Segment count and total duration

Business Ideas (AI-Generated)

Each business idea includes:

• Idea Name: Clear, concise business concept
• Summary: Detailed 200-300 word description
• Market Size: Estimated TAM with reasoning
• Target Audience: Specific demographics
• Revenue Model: Monetization strategy
• Competitive Advantage: Unique differentiators
• Implementation Complexity: Low/Medium/High
• Estimated Startup Cost: Cost range
• Time to Market: Launch timeline
• Key Resources: Essential requirements
• Potential Challenges: Key obstacles
• Success Metrics: KPIs to track
• Existing Competitors: 2-4 real companies already in this space (with websites and descriptions)
• Recommended Tools: 4-6 tech/SaaS tools needed to build and run the business

Example Usage

Input:

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" }
  ],
  "openaiApiKey": "sk-...",
  "openaiModel": "gpt-4o",
  "generateBusinessIdeas": true,
  "numberOfIdeas": 3
}

Output:

{
  "videoId": "VIDEO_ID",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID",
  "title": "30 Years of Business Knowledge in 2hrs 26mins",
  "type": "video",
  "channelName": "Simon Squibb",
  "channelId": "channel/UCxxxxxx",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@SimonSquibb",
  "duration": "2:26:15",
  "durationSeconds": 8775,
  "viewCount": 1234567,
  "likeCount": 45678,
  "uploadDate": "2024-01-15",
  "category": "Education",
  "description": "In this video I share 30 years of business knowledge...",
  "transcripts": [
    {
      "language": "en",
      "text": "Full transcript text...",
      "segments": [...],
      "segmentCount": 150,
      "duration": 625000
    }
  ],
  "businessIdeas": [
    {
      "idea": "AI-Powered Business Mentor Platform",
      "summary": "A subscription-based platform that provides personalized business mentorship...",
      "marketSize": "$50B TAM - Online education and business coaching market",
      "targetAudience": "Aspiring entrepreneurs aged 25-45, early-stage founders",
      "revenueModel": "Monthly subscriptions ($49-$199), enterprise packages",
      "competitiveAdvantage": "AI personalization combined with human expert validation",
      "implementationComplexity": "High",
      "estimatedStartupCost": "$100K-$500K",
      "timeToMarket": "12-18 months",
      "keyResources": ["AI/ML engineers", "Business mentors", "Content creators"],
      "potentialChallenges": ["Building trust", "Content quality", "User retention"],
      "successMetrics": ["Monthly active users", "Subscription conversion rate", "User satisfaction score"],
      "existingCompetitors": [
        {
          "name": "MasterClass",
          "website": "https://www.masterclass.com",
          "description": "Premium online courses taught by world-class instructors"
        },
        {
          "name": "SCORE",
          "website": "https://www.score.org",
          "description": "Free business mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs"
        }
      ],
      "recommendedTools": [
        {
          "name": "OpenAI GPT-4",
          "category": "AI/ML Platform",
          "purpose": "Power the AI mentorship and personalization engine",
          "website": "https://openai.com"
        },
        {
          "name": "Stripe",
          "category": "Payment Processing",
          "purpose": "Handle subscription billing and payments",
          "website": "https://stripe.com"
        },
        {
          "name": "Intercom",
          "category": "Customer Communication",
          "purpose": "User onboarding and support chat",
          "website": "https://intercom.com"
        },
        {
          "name": "Mixpanel",
          "category": "Analytics",
          "purpose": "Track user engagement and retention metrics",
          "website": "https://mixpanel.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Use Cases

• 💡 Business Opportunity Discovery: Find viable business ideas from entrepreneurship content
• 📊 Market Research: Analyze trends and opportunities discussed in videos
• 🚀 Startup Validation: Extract insights from founder interviews and business podcasts
• 📈 Content Analysis: Research competitive landscapes from industry videos
• 🎓 Educational Content: Generate actionable takeaways from business courses
• 💼 Consulting & Advisory: Identify opportunities for clients based on market insights

Notes

• Not all videos have transcripts available
• Some videos may have auto-generated captions only
• Transcript availability depends on the video uploader's settings
• Uses Playwright browser automation for maximum reliability
• For optimal performance, set memory to 4096 MB and ensure proxies are enabled