Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as surprising as Jeff Bezos’ new $41B business coming out of stealth today 🕵♂️
In today’s edition:
💡 Role simulators that let you test-drive a hire
⛽ Canva inside ChatGPT, a $115M AI comeback + more
🔍 AI despair, offshore ops + more
🍺 Hardware for the kids who never grew up (like me)
Let’s goooo 🚀
💼 Employment Simulation Software
Role Play
👤 Source: Anthropic's Fable 5 release has given web and app development another step up. So what products can you build when creating or cloning software becomes trivial? Here’s one idea…
❓ Problem:
Hiring is still a guessing game. We screen CVs, run three rounds of "tell me about a time when…" interviews, and then act surprised when a hire doesn’t work out.
Here's the thing: decades of research show work sample tests are one of the strongest predictors of job performance, and interviews are one of the weakest. So why not take “work samples” to the next level and turn them into “work simulations”. Here's the idea.
✅ Solution:
A platform that creates a 1:1 sandboxed replica of the software platforms a person uses in a specific role for interviewing candidates and training employees in the most effective way possible
Employers describe the role and connect their stack, and the platform generates a simulation of all of the software that an employee uses: a support rep handles AI-simulated angry customers in a fake Zendesk, an SDR works AI prospects in a copy of their CRM etc.
Every session produces a structured performance report (speed, accuracy, judgement, written communication), giving hiring managers a work sample and giving candidates a genuine preview of the job before they sign.
🧑💻 Prototyping: Google AI Studio Demo | Remix this Build
💡 The Half Baked Take: Start as a hiring tool (companies already pay for assessments, so the budget line exists), but the big market here is training. Once a company's simulations are built, every new hire onboards inside them and new training can be completed through them too.
🤖 How to Access ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok for Just $20/mo
You can access ChatGPT 5, Gemini 3, Claude and Grok for $20 a month, instead of the $100+ you'd pay across four separate subs. Here's how:
Go here and set up a Bluehost AI All-Access Pack account (no Bluehost site required)
Open the dashboard and pick the model that fits the job
Cancel your other three subs
That's it. Same four models, one login, $80 a month back in your pocket.
⛽ Fuel for Taking Action
⚒️ How to Edit Any AI Image Inside ChatGPT With Canva
The Context: Canva just put Magic Layers directly inside ChatGPT, so you can generate images and turn them into a fully editable Canva design inside ChatGPT. Here's how.
Step-by-step:
Connect Canva to ChatGPT by going to Settings → Apps & Connectors, finding Canva, and approve the permissions.
Generate your image as normal, then reply "Canva, turn this into an editable design." It opens in Canva as a fully layered file, where you can swap the headline, isolate the background, and make any other changes you want.
🆓 Playbook: Here are 7 Claude prompts that replaced one founder's entire competitor research process.
🤑 Money Shot: This company's traffic collapsed due to AI, yet it just doubled revenue to $115M. Here's how.
🚀 The $80m Vibe-Coding Tool Now Builds Superagents
Base44 went from side project to an $80m Wix acquisition in six months, with 250,000 founders building apps from plain English. Now it does the same for AI agents.
Tell a Superagent to triage your inbox overnight, chase every new lead, or send a Monday metrics digest, and it builds the workflow, connects your tools and runs it 24/7.
🔍 Everything Else from Today
🛠️ AI Tool: Wispr Flow is the most-used AI tool at Half Baked. Get a 45-day free trial on us.
📈 Trends with Benefits: AI is fundamentally shifting the outsourcing playbook with one company swapping a 200-person offshore ops team for leaner AI-native teams in the US. We’re gonna see more of this going forward.
📚 Must-Read: Sarah Guo, founder at early-stage fund Conviction, recently wrote a piece pushing back on “AI despair”. A little verbose, but still worth reading.
📺 Must-Watch: Brex's Pedro Franceschi makes the case that AI is electricity, not just another tool, and most companies are still way behind. Great talk.
✖️ Trending Tweet: Finn Mallery believes that 2026 is a uniquely good time in history to start a company. But that window is closing…
🍻 Drunk Business Idea: IRL Pokédex
Did you love Pokémon as much as I did growing up? Wish you could use a Pokédex in real life?
Introducing WilDex™, the world's first real-life Pokédex that scans, identifies, and logs any wild animal you point it at. Spot a creature within 50 metres, hit capture, and it's logged forever.
WilDex™ - Gotta log 'em all.
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👋 That’s All Folks!
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