Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as often as Palmer Luckey calls out Jason Calacanis on Twitter 👀
In today’s edition:
💡 Helping busy founders to secure accelerator spots
🛠 Frontend basics with Base44 (Mini-course Day 2)
🔋 The $500M fintech MrBeast just acquired + more
🔍 Harvey raise, record seed round, Runway raise + more
🍻 Finally, a way to keep fit at work
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. Happy building!
BTW: We’re looking for some help to take our brand to the next level. So if you’re a branding wizard, reply to this email. We want to work with you!
🚀 AI Agent for Accelerator Applications
A batch made in heaven
Available domain: Accelemate.co
The Problem: YC applications closed yesterday. Techstars deadlines are looming. And somewhere, a brilliant founder just missed their shot at getting into an accelerator - not because their startup wasn't good enough, but because they were too busy actually building it. The cruel irony of accelerators is that the founders who need them most are often too heads-down to apply. Each application takes hours, asks slightly different questions, and requires you to dig up the same metrics over and over. Most founders apply to one or two programs and hope for the best, leaving massive optionality on the table. So why not create a platform to make this process 10x smoother? Here's what we're thinking.
The Solution:
💡 The Idea: An AI agent that connects to your startup's data sources, tracks accelerator deadlines, and auto-drafts applications so you never miss an opportunity.
🛠️ Product:
Connect your Stripe, analytics, pitch deck, and founding docs once - the platform builds your "founder profile" and keeps it synced automatically.
Get notified when relevant accelerator deadlines approach, with AI-drafted applications pre-filled using your real metrics and tailored to each program's specific questions.
Review, tweak, and submit in minutes instead of hours - then track your pipeline across dozens of programs in one dashboard.
🧑💻 Prototyping: Try the demo (built on Base44) | Get the demo prompt
💼 Business Model: $49/month subscription includes unlimited application tracking and AI drafts. Premium tier ($99/month) adds auto-submission, interview prep, and warm intro matching to accelerator alumni.
⭐ End Goal: Acquired by AngelList, Crunchbase, or a major accelerator network looking to streamline their applicant funnel. 6-10x revenue multiple.
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📱 Your Startup's Unfair Advantage Starts Here
Running a startup is hard enough. Your phone plan shouldn't add to the chaos.
T-Mobile for Business just launched SuperMobile - built specifically for founders who need reliability, flexibility, and speed:
📡 Satellite backup when cell towers fail (yes, really)
⚡ Network slicing for priority bandwidth when it matters most
🚀 2x faster than the competition on average
All starting at just $42/line/month with 6+ lines.
🛠 Frontend Basics with Base44 (Day 2)
The Context: Yesterday, you got Base44 set up. Today we're building an actual startup landing page - complete with a hero section, feature highlights, email signup, and responsive design that works on any device. Let’s get into it.
Step-by-step:
Start by prompting Base44 to create a landing page with a hero section, three feature cards, and an email capture form at the bottom.
Refine the design by asking for a gradient background, more whitespace, and switching to Inter font for a cleaner look.
Make it responsive by prompting for mobile-first adjustments - stacked layouts on small screens, touch-friendly buttons, and readable font sizes.
Add interactions by connecting the email capture to a simple database table that stores signups with timestamps.
Get the full tutorial
P.S. In tomorrow's newsletter, you'll learn about databases, authentication, and user roles - the backend fundamentals.
🤖 100+ ChatGPT Prompts to Revolutionize Your Day
Supercharge your productivity with HubSpot's comprehensive guide. This free resource is your fast track to AI mastery:
Industry-Specific Use Cases: 15+ real-world applications across various sectors
Productivity Guide: 21 best practices to 10x your efficiency with AI
Prompt Powerhouse: 100+ ready-to-use prompts for immediate implementation
Plus, in-depth sections on email composition, content creation, customer support, and data analysis.
🔋 Founder Fuel
🤑 Money Shot: MrBeast just acquired a fintech for $500M. Here's how they built that business.
📈 Trends with Benefits: Anthropic just released their 2026 Agentic Coding Trends report. Their verdict? Everyone’s a developer now. Check out the report.
💬 Prompt Drop: These 10 prompts for NotebookLM that blew up on X and Reddit are worth checking out.
🆓 Founder Resource: This site is literally a prompt library with 1000+ engineered prompts.
💵 Founder Deal: Startups get 90% off Intercom + 1 year of Fin free. A solid deal if you're scaling support.
🔍 Founder Finds
💰 Harvey is raising $200M at an $11B valuation. The legal AI arms race is heating up fast.
🫰 Thomas Dohmke, the former GitHub CEO, just raised a record $60M seed round at a $300M valuation. A seed round…
📹 Runway, the AI video startup, just raised $315M at a $5.3B valuation, eyeing more capable world models.
📰 Peter Thiel’s "Do One Thing" framework is a great way to manage large teams of people.
📰 Steve Jobs' thoughts on design vs. marketing is a must-read for all founders.
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Hamster Wheel Desk
Sick of standing desks that don't actually make you move? Tired of paying for a gym membership you never use?
Introducing SpinStation™, a human-sized hamster wheel with a standing desk attached. Walk while you work, get your steps in, and quite literally keep the lights on while you work (it generates electricity obviously).
SpinStation™ - Spin to win.
Vote
👋 That’s All Folks!
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See you soon,