Startup Ideas #367: Wirecutter for X, Alt Yoga...

Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as valuable as GameStop’s bitcoin holdings 🤑 

We want to start sharing what ideas and businesses our readers are working on. So if you’re building a business right now, whether it’s a Half Baked idea or not, let us know through this form so we can start shouting you guys out!

Let’s goooo 🚀 

In today’s edition:

• 💡 Bringing unbiased reviews to a specific vertical

• 📈 The 5,000 year old practice that’s getting remixed

• 🛠️ An incredible way to spy on your competitors

• 🤑 Selling a side hustle to Amazon for $200m

• 🍻 The ultimate tool in the fight against phone addiction

🤖 Wirecutter for AI Tools

Try before you AI

The Problem: As we all know AI is exploding right now. Want proof? Take a look on There Is An AI For That (great name) where there are 36,421 AI tools currently listed. Like I said, exploding. But this begs the question…which tools are actually worth using? Say I want to find an AI tool to design a logo. There are at least 50 of them I need to try and when I start looking for reviews or feedback on Reddit it’s full of bots and people sharing biased opinions with affiliate links. Which is why we need a trusted review site for AI tools that we can rely on. No affiliate links. No shilling. Here’s what we have in mind.

The Solution:

• In a line: A trusted, editorially-driven review site that reviews AI tools in an unbiased way

• Product:

  • 🧠 Expert-Led Reviews: In-depth, hands-on testing and ratings from real professionals, not fluff or affiliate-bait.

  • 🧰 Use-Case Toolkits: Curated collections like “Best AI tools for solopreneurs,” “Cold email stack,” or “Automating your job 101.”

  • 🛠️ Comparison Engine: Side-by-side breakdowns of tools based on features, pricing, and user type.

  • 🗳️ Community Feedback Loop: Verified user reviews with incentives to reduce spam and hype.

• Business Model: A patronage model where readers (or ideally big companies) pay to keep the site going, maintaining the integrity of the reviews

• End Goal: Sell to a media conglomerate (e.g., Vox) or a SaaS aggregator (like HubSpot) at a 5–10x revenue multiple for its trust, audience, and affiliate cashflow.

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🧘 Alternative Yoga

The Trend: Yoga has been around for a while, and by a while I mean like 5,000 years. But more recently, other forms of yoga are starting to emerge, not by replacing yoga, but by remixing it. This includes the rise of mobility flows, somatic stretching, floorwork and even chair yoga. These alternate forms of yoga help different people in different ways, but unlock new opportunities for us to get in on.

Opportunities:

• Adaptive Yoga Platform for People with Disabilities: On-demand video and live classes tailored for users with physical limitations - chair yoga, bed yoga, post-surgery flows, etc.

• Micro Yoga Studios in Coworking Spaces: A chain which offers 5–15 minute Yoga sessions in offices and co-working spaces

🕵️ Steal your Competitors’ Meta Ads

The Tool: A lot of brands spent a lot of money on Meta ads. So much in fact that Zuck is currently the second richest man in the world. But the best part about everyone advertising on Meta? You can check out exactly what ads they’re running…for free. Here’s how:

Step-by-step:

1. Go to Meta’s ad library

2. Select a country from the dropdown, change “Ad category” to “All ads” and then search for your competitor’s page in the search box

3. Browse their ads, take inspiration from their copy, do what you like.

Check it out

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📖 Selling a Side Hustle to Amazon for $200m

The Idea: Back in 2006 times were simpler. The Financial Crisis was yet to unfold, the iPhone didn’t even exist yet and a Big Mac cost just $2.68 (imagine). Meanwhile, Otis Chandler, a software engineer and voracious reader, noticed something. Despite the explosion of online platforms for everything, there wasn’t a great way to track what you read, want to read, or get trusted book recommendations. His wife, Elizabeth, shared the frustration so they decided to build their own platform to do exactly that. This was the beginning of Goodreads.

The Execution:

• The MVP: Otis coded the first version himself. It was bare-bones: just a site where users could create bookshelves, rate books, and see what friends were reading. Nothing fancy, just a clean, functional tool for book lovers.

• The Launch: Goodreads quietly launched in January 2007. They didn’t buy ads or go viral on Reddit. Instead, they tapped into communities where readers already lived, blogs, book clubs, and online forums. Bloggers and early adopters helped fuel its organic spread.

• Growth & Traction: In order to grow Goodreads leaned into virality. When users rated books, reviews were visible to friends, prompting more activity. They added widgets for blogs, Facebook integration, and book group features, turning Goodreads into the social layer for reading. By 2012, it had over 10 million users.

• Investment: They raised just one funding round in 2007: $2.75M from angel investors and True Ventures. That money went a long way. They stayed lean, community-focused, and never splurged on unnecessary tech.

• The Result: In March 2013, Amazon acquired Goodreads for an undisclosed amount, reportedly between $150–200 million, becoming the default social layer across Amazon’s Kindle ecosystem.

The Lesson: Build something you’d actually use yourself, and if you do it well, millions of others might want it too.

📵 NoPhone

• Looking to wean yourself off your phone? Struggling to stop yourself checking your ex’s Instagram 5 times a day?

• Say hello to the NoPhone™ – the sleek, pocket-sized placebo for your screen addiction. It’s like Nicorette for screen addicts…it looks like a phone, feels like a phone, but won't ruin your attention span.

• NoPhone™ – because sometimes, the smartest phone is the one that’s dumb as hell.

Vote

• ✅ Yes this actually exists

• ❌ Nope you totally made this up

🔍️ Founder Finds

• 🚨 Raise Alert: Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant startup, has raised $600 million at $9 billion pre-money valuation

• 💰 Exit Alert: Rhode, Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand, has been acquired for $1bn

• 📚 Must-Read: This article from a16z on the future of search and Generative Engine Optimization in the LLM era is incredibly important

• 💬 Founder Quote: “You don't have to have everything figured out. Just start.” Diane Greene (VMware)

👋 That’s All Folks!

Before you go we have a few public service announcements:

• If you have content ideas you think we should cover on the newsletter, let us know here!

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• If you want to speak to one of Half Baked’s founders about the newsletter or even your own startup idea we’re opening up Half Baked Office Hours. Book here.

• We’d love to know what you thought of today's newsletter to help us improve:

See you soon,

John and Darragh | The Half Baked Team