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- Startup Ideas #390: AI Deals, CAIOs...
Startup Ideas #390: AI Deals, CAIOs...
Plus One Founder, Two Exits and a $3.5B Business
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as surprising as Grammarly acquiring email startup Superhuman 😱
If you want to read any previous editions of Half Baked (which are amazing of course), you can on our website.
Let’s goooo 🚀
In today’s edition:
💡 Getting some deals done in the AI space
📈 WTF in a CAIO?
🛠️ The prompt stack to kill weak startup ideas
🤑 One founder, two exits and a $3.5B business
🍻 The ultimate accessory for every office
🤖 AppSumo for AI Deals
A token gesture
Available domain: Cacheback.co
The Problem: AI is booming right now, but so are the prices for all of the different AI tools out there. From indie hackers to startup founders, everyone’s trying to test out the latest AI tools. And with over 4,000 new AI tools launching in 2024 alone, it’s impossibly expensive to use them all or even a tiny fraction of them. Meanwhile, AppSumo pulled in $80M+ in revenue in 2023 by curating lifetime deals for software founders who want early traction. So why isn’t there a deal site just for AI tools? We think there should be. Here’s what we have in mind.
The Solution:
In a line: A daily deals marketplace where users can unlock discounts for AI tools and buy discounted AI credits (where credits are transferrable)
Product:
🛒 Users sign up and can browse daily deals from AI companies such as discounted prompt packs, trial credit bundles, or limited-time subscriptions
🔄 Users can also buy, trade or swap AI credits via a built-in peer marketplace (where the credits are allowed to be resold or traded)
📊 Users can subscribe to alerts on discounts or credits in particular tools they’re interested in
🛠️ Check out the demo here
Business Model: Take a cut (10–20%) of every sale through the platform
End Goal: Get acquired by an AI tool aggregator (like Hugging Face or FutureTools) or a payment/credit gateway for AI services, at a 6–10x revenue multiple.
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🤖 The Rise of the CAIO
The Trend: With Zuck poaching AI talent left right and center over the last few days, one thing really stood out to me amidst all the chaos. Alexandr Wang’s new title. Zuck made him the Chief AI Officer (CAIO), which it turns out is the hottest new seat at the C-suite table. Every single business is going to need a CAIO in the coming years. So why not build a business in this space?
Opportunities:
Fractional CAIO Marketplace: A vetted talent platform matching companies with experienced fractional CAIOs based on industry, size, or tech maturity.
CAIO Agency: An agency which specializes in recruiting CAIOs for businesses
🪦 The Prompt Stack to Kill Weak Startup Ideas
The Tool: I was perusing Reddit the other day when I came across a great post with a cool framework for killing weak startup ideas using just 6 prompts. The poster previously worked in a Fortune 100 marketing function and has led startups before too. Here’s his methodology.
Step-by-step:
Open up ChatGPT (ideally GPT-4o) and start a new chat.
Paste in the prompts sequentially, filling out the square brackets as you do. The prompts are really long so we’ve pulled them together here for you to use!
Use the output to decide what startup ideas to pursue.
💡 Have a killer business idea but no idea where to start?
That idea in your head? It’s not going anywhere until you make it real.
That’s where Ade’s (OG Half Baked reader) FromToStudios comes in. They’ve worked with Nike, NASA, FedEx and countless other brands to help them bring their ideas to life. And today, they’re doing the same for our readers.
Their team will help you move from a vague concept to clear wireframes, clickable UX, and strategic flows in under a week.
No guesswork. Just a structured sprint that turns your thoughts into a product you can build, test, or pitch. Ready to get moving?
🏦 One Founder, Two Exits and a $3.5B Business
The Idea: Immad Akhund is one of the most underrated founders of this generation. After studying Computer Science at University College London, he co-founded Clickpass in 2007 (acquired by Yola) and then founded Heyzap in 2008 (acquired by Fyber for $45M). But Immad was just getting started. Because throughout his entrepreneurial endeavors, one thing kept bugging him. Why was it still so painful for startups to get a bank account? So he did what great founders do - he built the product he wanted, the bank he wished existed when he was starting out. That was the spark for Mercury.
The Execution:
2017: Immad started working on Mercury with a clear thesis - build a bank specifically for startups. No branches. No fax machines. No fluff.
April 2019: Mercury officially launched with FDIC-insured accounts via partner banks and a slick UI tailored for founders.
2020: COVID fuelled startup formation propelled Mercury forward. They also launched “Raise,” a tool connecting founders to investors. Part utility, part trojan horse growth hack.
August 2021: Mercury raised a $120M Series B at a $1.6B valuation led by Coatue, with A16z and others joining. Growth remained strong.
2022: Launched programmatic wires, venture debt, and CFO dashboards. Quietly earned a reputation as “Stripe for banking.”
March 2023: SVB collapsed. Mercury pounced with “Vault,” a risk-mitigation product. Thousands of founders switch to Mercury overnight. Guerrilla marketing at its finest.
2025: Mercury announced a $300 Million Series C Round at $3.5B Valuation. Ten consecutive quarters of profitability, $500 million in revenue in 2024, $156 billion in annual transaction volume. Mercury is a monster.
In the end Mercury didn’t try to fix banking for everyone, they just did so for startups. But but going deep on one niche, they built the foundation to take on the whole industry.
🔍️ Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: Google’s list of 10 free AI tools they offer is worth a look
🎁 Free Resource: Anthropic’s guide to building effective agents is one to bookmark
✖️ Trending Tweet: Lovable’s founder is investing in software startups built on (you guessed it) Lovable. Very cool!
🎙️ Must-Listen: Love him or hate him, Peter Thiel is a fascinating thinker
💬 Founder Quote: “The way you win in this fast-moving world… is by being super focused on solving one problem better than anyone else” Daniel Ek, Spotify Founder
🔦 Reader Spotlight
👨⚖️ Relaw - Christopher Farestveit is building the leading legal AI suite for lawyers, helping them to save time by automating their legal work
🔗 TripleChecker - Dmitriy Rokhfeld is building the Grammarly for websites which catches typos, broken links and other website errors
🚗 DriveMind - Jesvin Jerry is building an intelligent trip tracking companion
☕️ BrewCrew - Matthew Lucas is working on a modern networking app that allows people to build real relationships…over coffee.
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Call Booth Saunas
Find yourself wasting away your days in call booths at work? Wish you could optimize your health while you maximize shareholder value?
Introducing Call Booth Saunas™ - the first office phone booth that also doubles as a full-body sauna so you can improve your health while you work for maximal efficiency.
Call Booth Saunas™ - because sweat equity just got literal.
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👋 That’s All Folks!
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