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Business Ideas #279: Breaking the Mold, Financial Literacy...

Plus From $0 to a $170m Exit in 3 Years

Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up business ideas causing as much of a stir in the tech world as DeepSeek’s new R1 model 👀 

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

  1. Business Idea💡: An idea that’s really grown on us

  2. Drunk Business Idea 🍻: A product for all the dog lovers out there

  3. Just The Tip 📈: Looking for a man lesson in finance

  4. The Moneyshot 🤑: From $0 to a $170m Exit in 3 Years

P.S: If you want to read any previous editions of Half Baked you can on our website and if you were forwarded this email you can subscribe here.

P.P.S: Half Baked is free. Half Baked will always be free. That’s thanks to the support of our sponsors. We’d love if you could take a moment to check them out.

Let’s get into it.

BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

AI Mold Identification 🖥️

Breaking the mold

Available Domain: Moldalert.ai

💡 TLDR: A platform which combines AI imaging and testing to identify dangerous mold in houses

1. Problem/Opportunity

The Problem/Opportunity: In the hidden corners of millions of homes across America, a silent threat grows unchecked. And no, it’s not the pile of laundry you still haven’t washed…

It’s something much more sinister. Mold. Mold, affecting over 70% of households in the USA, isn't just a cosmetic nuisance, it's a serious health risk that costs homeowners billions annually. Chronic exposure to mold in your house can lead to a plethora of illnesses, from respiratory conditions to allergic reactions and even neurological conditions. But what if we could spot and stop mold before it becomes a crisis? Here’s how we think you could.

Market Size: The global mold remediation market size was valued at $32 billion in 2023

2. Solution 

The Idea: A platform which combines AI imaging and testing to identify dangerous mold in houses

How it Works:

  • A user downloads the app and takes a picture of any mold they are worried about in their house

  • The app then analyzes the mold and based on its appearance and other factors like location, time of year etc. it gives an indication on what the mold likely is and how dangerous it could be

  • At this point users can request a testing kit be sent to the house to confirm exactly what the mold is

  • Based on what the mold is the app recommends how best to clean it, or the user can hire someone to remove the mold if required

  • The app also sends notifications to periodically review problem areas to ensure the mold does not return

Go-to-market: Start by focusing the Southeast US market (Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi) where the the humidity means that almost half of the homes in these regions have mold issues

Business Model: Charge for testing kits and take a commission where someone is hired to remove mold

Startup Costs: You could start this cheaply by building the mold identification app, getting users, then expanding into the testing and mold removal services

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Aim to get acquired by a large home service company like ServiceMaster

Exit Multiple: Prop and health tech companies tend to get acquired for 5x - 8x revenue multiples, which is a fair assessment here

TOGETHER WITH OMNISEND

Year in Email 2024

This isn’t your average report!

Omnisend analyzed 23+ billion emails to bring you everything from usual opens and clicks to the quirkiest and cheesiest insights that marketers can’t resist.

And while the boring part of the ecommerce email marketing report simmers, let’s jump into Year in Email | The Fun Edition!

Here is what inside:

  • Top 10 most-used emojis (Is it time to mix things up?)

  • Most mentioned artists (Taylor, Drake, or Beyonce–who ruled?)

  • Cats, dogs… or chickens? The ultimate inbox animal showdown

  • The TV shows, movies, and sports that marketers couldn’t stop mentioning

  • Overused marketing phrases, “oops” moments, and so much more

Need a break from the usual marketing grind? You’re in the right place—this recap is as fun as it is insightful.

See how 2024 shaped email and what’s in store for 2025.

DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

The Poomba

Tired of playing "dodge the dog deposit" in your backyard? Introducing the Poomba™, the world's first autonomous poop patrol robot (and not to be confused with Pumbaa of course).

Just like its indoor cousin (pls don’t sue us Roomba) tackles dust bunnies, the Poomba™ prowls your yard to detect and collect those unwanted lawn landmines.

Poomba™: For when your yard is going to the dogs.

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Financial Literacy

They say money can't buy happiness, but have you tried being broke? Well with costs soaring more and more people are realizing the importance of learning about financial literacy. And while financial literacy sounds super boring, it’s basically adult math that helps you avoid eating ramen in your 40s (unless you actually like ramen, in which case, carry on). And today more people than ever are looking to learn financial literacy, presenting big opportunities for us to look at.

Business Ideas

  • Duolingo for Finance: A gamified mobile app that teaches financial literacy through bite-sized daily lessons, using streaks, points, and competitive leaderboards to make learning about money management addictive

  • Financial Literacy Consultancy for Schools: Create a consultancy that helps K-12 schools develop and implement age-appropriate financial education programs (which they should already be doing)

THE MONEYSHOT

From $0 to a $170m Exit in 3 Years

A great business idea can completely transform your life in just a few years.

Take this founder who built and exited his business for $170m in just three years.

This is his story.

Aaron Patzer is a smart dude. A really smart dude.

He studied Electrical Engineering at Duke and got his Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Princeton, graduating back in 2004.

After college he spent the next few years working as a software engineer for various companies until late 2005, when Aaron (then 25)was faced with a problem.

As he was getting a little older Aaron decided to try and to get a handle on his personal finances. So he started looking around and different websites to manage your personal finances (think budgeting, saving, investing etc.) and eventually settled on using Intuit's Quicken to handle it. But there was a problem…he hated the product. He thought he could build something much, much better.

But before writing a single line of code Aaron decided to validate his idea, but in a very odd way. Aaron went to train stations and started asking people if they were interested in using his new personal finance platform (which he hadn’t built). People liked the idea and by March 2006 Aaron was convinced he was onto something, so he decided to take the plunge and start his business.

He started Mint.com.

The next few months were far from glamorous for Aaron. He spent the next seven months working alone, seven days a week, 14 hours a day to build the initial product. He fully locked-in.

He raised $750k from Josh Kopelman and Rob Hayes, two angel investors he met at a dinner in 2006 to get the business off the ground and by September 2007 Mint was ready to launch.

Early traction was impressive with Mint winning the TechCrunch40 competition (and taking home $50,000 in the process) and also closing a $4.7m Series A in 2007. Momentum was building.

With some funding in the door the next focus was getting users. So Aaron decided to hire a marketer, one Noah Kagan (Appsumo founder) to lead Mint’s marketing efforts and gave him a crazy goal to hit…100,000 users in 6 months. Instead Noah got Mint to 1m users in 6 months. How?

Well firstly the product was great, which helped a ton. But also Noah developed a strategy he called “quant-based marketing” (which he shares here) and used it to guide Mint to 1m users. And as the users poured in the revenue floodgates opened, with Mint monetizing through targeted financial product recommendations.

To sustain the growth they raised a $12m Series B in 2008 and another $14 million in 2009. By that time Mint was one of the hottest properties in Silicon Valley and the company's rapid ascent caught the attention of the very same company that inspired the initial idea…Intuit.

So in November 2009, just two years after its launch, Mint was acquired by Intuit for $170 million. At the time of the acquisition, Mint had over 1.5 million users tracking nearly $50 billion in assets and $200 billion in transactions.

But after the acquisition Mint didn’t fare so well. It wasn’t really a priority for Intuit and faded into obscurity over the years…until 2023 when Intuit shut down Mint.com for good. All good things must come to an end as they say, but Aaron had made his mark on the Valley (and his bank account too…).

All of which goes to prove that, with the right idea, success can come extremely quickly. Slow and steady doesn’t always win the race.

So get after it. You could be three years away from changing your life too.

1 - 1 FOUNDER FEEDBACK

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