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- Startup Ideas #392: Kickstarter for X, Cryopreservation...
Startup Ideas #392: Kickstarter for X, Cryopreservation...
Plus From Zero to +$300M in 4 years
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as often as Soham Parekh finds a new job 🤝
We’re still accepting applications for our researcher/writer role, keep’em coming!
Let’s goooo 🚀
In today’s edition:
💡 A product designed to support 44% of Americans
📈 Why an ice cold market is heating up
🛠️ How to use AI to screen resumés
🤑 From Zero to +$300M in 4 years
🍻 The ultimate safety device those of us who are a little clumsy
💰 Kickstarter for Side Hustles
Getting a side piece (of the action)
The Problem: Side hustles are booming. Over 44% of Americans now report having at least one. But while passion is plentiful, cash is not. Early-stage side projects often die just short of their breakout moment because of a lack of cash (or the founder moving onto another side project…we’ve all been there). But what if there was a way for founders to get some cash in to get their side hustles off the ground? We think this needs to exist. Hear us out.
The Solution:
In a line: A lightweight crowdfunding platform where founders can secure funding for their side hustles
Product:
📲 Users sign up and share the details of their side hustle and future ambitions for it
💳 They then sell shares in their side hustle for buyers to acquire
🧠 Buyers then gain a share in the side hustle and once certain milestones are crossed, are entitled to dividends or a payout should the side hustle get acquired
🔗 Demo here if you want to check it out!
Business Model: Take a 5–8% platform fee on successfully funded side hustles
End Goal: Sell to platforms like Kickstarter or Patreon at a 10x revenue multiple
Rate this idea: |
🤖 Transform Your Business with Advanced AI and Automation
In 2025, AI should be your hardest-working employee. But how do you even begin to integrate AI into your business effectively and efficiently?
That's why we've teamed up with BotBuilders to provide a free web class where you'll learn:
⏰ How to make AI work for you 24/7
🧠 6 killer ChatGPT tips, and
🤖 How to build a custom chatbot in 5 minutes.
The training is hosted by Matt Leitz, the founder of BotBuilders (a 3X consecutive Inc. 5000-winning company).
Claim your spot now and start turning AI into your unfair advantage.
🥶 Cryopreservation
The Trend: The cryopreservation sector, aka putting your body on ice in the hopes that future science will revive you, is really starting to heat up (poor choice of words…). Tomorrow Biostasis, a German startup, raised €5M last month to freeze humans at -196°C (the approximate temperature of your ex’s heart) in the hope of reviving them in the future. It costs around $200k, 20 humans have already been frozen and around 800 people have already signed up.
Opportunities:
Longevity Legacy Planner: A platform that helps people set up wills, digital vaults, and future messages assuming they might return decades later.
Frozen Futures Fund: A hedge fund that invests on behalf of cryopreserved individuals, so they wake up rich (ideally)
👔 How to Use AI to Screen Resumés
The Tool: If you’ve ever had to hire someone (like we are right now for a researcher/writer) then you’ll know the pain of having to go through every resumé you receive looking for the right candidate. Let’s get AI to take some of that workload off. Here’s how.
Step-by-step:
Go to Zapier Agents and set up an account if you need to (it’s free)
Go to the Criteria-Based Resumé Screening template and click the “Use Template” button
Fill in the criteria you want the AI to screen for
Link to the resumés you want AI to analyze. That’s it.
🖥️ How to Use Framer to Validate Your Startup Idea
Startup ideas are exciting (we would know), but execution starts with validation. Here's how to use Framer to test if your idea has real demand (Using a past Half Baked idea as an example, “Peloton for Pickleball”):
Brand it: Give your product a name and a visual identity
Mock it up: Design a few simple visuals or product mockups.
Build fast: Use Framer to create a slick, responsive landing page. No code needed.
Drive traffic: Run ads to the page and see how many sign-ups or pre-orders you get
🌎 From Zero to +$300M in 4 Years
The Idea: John Andrew Entwistle is a true founder at heart. In 2015, when John was aged just 17, he co-founded Coder.com, a platform that moved the development environment to the cloud. Coder scaled to a huge business worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but after the Series B and 5 years of running the business he decided to step away from the business. Soon after leaving John went on a week-long personal retreat in a cabin in the Rockies. Despite the tranquil surroundings though, the rental experience itself was disappointing. Which got him thinking. Could you create a luxury vacation home rental market? This was the beginning of Wander.
The Execution:
2021: Before building anything, John created an 80 page “pre-mortem” doc listing everything that could go wrong with the business. This became Wander’s bible.
2021: Launched the first luxury home on the platform. It was booked fast. People wanted more.
Late 2021: Wander raised a $7M seed led by Redpoint, with angels like Sahil Bloom and Kevin Durant’s VC firm involved.
2022: Wander raised a further $20M Series B led by QED Investors to accelerate growth
May 2025: Wander recently raised a $50M Series B from QED Investors, Fifth Wall and other investors to further scale the business. It’s an absolute juggernaut.
Key Advice: John’s key pieces of advice to all new founders are to conduct your pre-mortem, eliminate all “fake work“ and given the low odds of success, embrace delusion.
🔍️ Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: Not sure what LLM is best for your use case? This site helps you to decide.
🎁 Free Resource: Looking for design inspiration for your app or website? This site has over 500,000 screens, plenty of inspiration.
📰 Headline: Figma is going public and they filed their S-1 earlier this week. It’s well worth a quick look.
📚 Must-Read: Brie Wolfson’s essay “Flounder Mode” profiling Kevin Kelly is a gold mine of entrepreneurial wisdom.
💬 Founder Quote: “There’s no such thing that is great that was easy to do.” Jensen Huang, Cofounder of Nvidia.
🔦 Reader Spotlight
🚀 Boringlaunch - Shivam Vyas is building a platform where you can instantly launch your startup to over 100 platforms, boosting SEO.
🎥 RenderCut - Suraj Mahadev Kadam is building a platform which turns ordinary videos into captivating content with animated subtitles.
💳 Flowglad - Harrison Telyan is building an open source solution to setting up payments and billing.
👥 Jatra - Kaustubh Katdare is building Jatra, a community platform helping startups drive growth through UGC
🔗 Linkero - Marcel Cruz is building Linkero, which empowers users to create high-converting pages in minutes using an intuitive drag-and-drop editor.
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Wearable Airbags
Are you a little clumsy? Ever fallen over in public and wished the ground actually would swallow you whole?
Introducing Wearable Airbags™ – the only fashion-forward self-inflating safety system for clumsy adults, reckless e-scooter users, and anyone who thinks they “don’t need a helmet.” Just strap it on and boom – instant Michelin Man, minus the snacks.
Wearable Airbags™ – check yourself before you wreck yourself.
Vote
👋 That’s All Folks!
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