Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as this founder paying $70M for a domain name 🫰
In today’s edition:
💡 Creating a platform to serve 11 million forgotten workers
🛠 How to mine App Store reviews for product ideas
🔋 The sales guy who built a $20M media empire + more
🔍 Pitch competition, a16z, $15M raise + more
🍻 A hair-brained idea for a product…
Let’s goooo 🚀
💸 The Baked44 Challenge: We've teamed up with Base44 to give away $5K to one founder who ships their product this February. More details here and later in the newsletter.
Good luck!
🔧 LinkedIn for Tradespeople
It's hammer time.
Available Domain: Tradelinks.com
The Problem: If you're a Half Baked reader, you're probably on LinkedIn. And if you're on LinkedIn, you know it can get pretty cringey on there. But for as bad as LinkedIn is, it's still pretty useful. You can find jobs, build your professional network, and let’s be honest…you'd miss it if it was gone. So spare a thought for the 11 million tradespeople in the US - electricians, plumbers, carpenters, welders - who have no LinkedIn at all. No way to showcase their work, build a reputation that follows them from job to job, or get discovered by contractors looking for skilled workers. It's all word of mouth and outdated job boards. So why doesn't someone build one for them? Here's what we're thinking.
The Solution:
💡 The Idea: A professional network built specifically for skilled tradespeople
🛠️ Product:
Create a profile showcasing your trade, certifications, and a visual portfolio of past projects - before/after photos, client reviews, and specializations.
Browse and apply for local jobs from contractors and homeowners, or get discovered based on your skills, availability, and reputation score.
Connect with other tradespeople for referrals, subcontracting opportunities, and mentorship - building a network that actually generates income.
🧑💻 Prototyping: Try the demo (built on Base44) | Get the demo prompt
💼 Business Model: Freemium for tradespeople. Contractors and hiring companies pay for premium job postings ($49-199/post) and recruiter tools ($99/month). Take a 5% fee on jobs booked through the platform.
⭐ End Goal: Get acquired by a construction tech player like Procore. 8-15x revenue multiple.
Rate this idea
🏆 The Baked44 Challenge: Win $5,000 for Building Your Best Idea
We're teaming up with Base44 to give away $5,000 cash to one founder who actually builds something this February.
The challenge:
Use Base44 to build an app - a tool, a portal, an MVP, whatever you've been putting off
Submit your live link by the end of February
The best build wins $5K
Base44 lets you build full-stack apps just by describing what you want. No code required. Database, auth, hosting - all included.
Claim your free credits and start building today.
📱 Using AI to Mine App Store Reviews
The Context: Negative reviews are an amazing source of startup ideas. And with AI you can now export thousands of negative reviews from the App Store and feed them directly to an LLM to find product ideas. No more guessing what to build or what features to add, just build the exact features people are already begging for in reviews. Here’s how to do it.
Step-by-step:
Head to Rivioo - it's 100% free, no signup required (not sponsored BTW). Search for any app or paste a store URL.
Export up to 10,000 reviews as CSV or JSON. Pick your target category (fitness, productivity, meal planning, etc.) and grab reviews from multiple competing apps.
Upload the file to Claude/ChatGPT and ask it something like: "What features do users actually want?" or "What are the top 10 complaints across this app?"
Get back dozens of specific feature requests with validated demand, creating your entire product roadmap in seconds.
Give it a try!
🤖 Turn AI into Your Income Engine
Ready to transform artificial intelligence from a buzzword into your personal revenue generator? HubSpot’s groundbreaking guide "200+ AI-Powered Income Ideas" is your gateway to financial innovation in the digital age.
Inside you'll discover:
A curated collection of 200+ profitable opportunities spanning content creation, e-commerce, gaming, and emerging digital markets - each vetted for real-world potential
Step-by-step implementation guides designed for beginners, making AI accessible regardless of your technical background
Cutting-edge strategies aligned with current market trends, ensuring your ventures stay ahead of the curve
🔋 Founder Fuel
🤑 Money Shot: This sales guy built a $20M+ media empire in just a few years. Here's how.
📈 Trends with Benefits: Worldwide app revenues now exceed gaming revenues for the first time ever. Great time to start building mobile games!
💬 Prompt Drop: This super powerful prompt allows Opus 4.6 (in Claude) to ship SEO-optimised websites, fully functional Claude apps, personal dashboards in under 5 minutes.
🆓 Founder Resource: This framework for finding profitable business ideas is timeless.
💵 Founder Deal: Get a 45-day free trial of Wispr Flow, the voice-to-text tool that lets you write at the speed of thought, on us.
🔍 Founder Finds
💰 Deel just launched The Pitch, a global startup competition where they’re giving away millions. It’s free to enter by the way…
🗣 a16z just dropped an epic documentary on ElevenLabs. Worth 10 minutes if you're building in AI.
💰 Sapiom just raised $15M to build the financial layer for AI agents.
📼 Sam Altman explaining why the best startup ideas ride massive technological shifts is well worth watching.
📚 a16z’s guide to exits (IPOs, SPACs, direct listings, and M&A) is something you should bookmark for later. Trust me.
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Hairbrush Case
Tired of looking rough in selfies? Wish you could fix your hair and protect your phone at the same time?
Introducing SelfieBrush™, an iPhone case with a fully functional hairbrush on the back. Bristles on one side, screen on the other. What more could you want?
SelfieBrush™ - Comb and get it.
Vote
👋 That’s All Folks!
Before you go just a few public service announcements:
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See you soon,