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- Startup Ideas #393: Lovable for X, Xenobots...
Startup Ideas #393: Lovable for X, Xenobots...
Plus Turning Tickets into a +$1B Business
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as shocking as a ChatGPT induced spiritual awakening? 🧘
Happy 4th of July to all of our US readers, we hope you, your friends and your family all have an amazing day.
Let’s goooo 🚀
In today’s edition:
💡 Unleashing the creativity of millions of gamers
📈 A fascinating advancement in biology
🛠️ How to create cinematic landing pages with lovable
🤑 Turning tickets into a +$1B business
🍻 A must-have accessory you’ll need for this weekend
🎮 Lovable for Video Games
Loading…Your Idea
Available domain: Ourcadia.co
The Problem: As a kid I was a big gamer. In fact, many successful tech founders’ first foray into the tech space was through playing or programming video games. But as we know, AI is changing the way software is being built. Take web and mobile apps. Tools like Bolt.new, Replit and Lovable (who are on track to raise $150M at a 2B valuation) have changed the game, turning everyone into a developer. But no one seems to have cracked this yet for video game development? It’s time someone did. Here’s our thinking.
The Solution:
In a line: A platform that turns natural language prompts into playable video games, instantly.
Product:
⚡️ User visits the site, enters a prompt like “create a 2D dungeon crawler where a cat fights broccoli monsters”
🕹️ AI generates a working prototype with characters, environment, basic mechanics, and a start-to-finish loop
🎨 Users can tweak game logic, assets, or levels via a no-code editor or regenerate with new prompts
💾 Playable builds are exportable to web, PC, or mobile, with one-click share links to invite friends to play too
Business Model: Token-based subscription model
End Goal: Sell to Unity, Epic, Roblox, or a major no-code game platform for a 10–15x ARR multiple.
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😵 Bad Passwords Kill Startups
As a founder, you're used to taking risks. But some risks just aren’t worth it - like leaving your company exposed to weak or reused passwords.
That's because just one leaked password can nuke your business. It’s not worth the risk.
That's why smart teams (and even dumb teams like ours) use 1Password, the industry leader in password management. It keeps your credentials safe, your team in sync, and your business protected.
Take big swings with your product, not with your security.
🐸 How Xenobots are Reshaping Biology
The Trend: Despite being conceived of back in 2021, advances in AI mean the “Xenobots” field is rapidly advancing. Xenobots are programmable blobs of living cells that blur the line between biology and robotics. Crafted from frog cells, these tiny machines are part robot, part organism. They can move, heal, biodegrade, and potentially deliver medicine or clean up microplastics in the future. Some researchers even argue that Xenobots represent a new category of life. We’re not just rewriting biology these days, we’re entering its sci-fi chapter.
Opportunities:
Browser-Based Xenobot Simulator: A gamified educational tool where users can design and simulate Xenobot behavior. Think Minecraft, but for synthetic biology.
Biology Innovations Newsletter: A weekly newsletter that delivers the wildest, weirdest, and world-changing innovations in biology
🖼️ How to Create Cinematic Landing Pages with Lovable
The Tool: With more and more people building websites than ever before, the most powerful designers in the world are the people in charge of the pre-sets on popular website builders. That’s why a lot of Lovable or Bolt sites can look pretty similar. Here’s how to make yours stand out, like this one we just built.
Step-by-step:
Go to a site like Pexels or Midjourney (no free trials for Midjourney unfortunately) and select or create the background video for your landing page. Make it a cinematic one.
Go to your web builder of choice (I used Lovable) and enter the prompt we have here. Fill out the square brackets for whatever site you’re building.
Make any edits using Lovable in their editor and push your beautiful site live
🎁 Get 3 Months of Perplexity Pro for Free (Thanks HubSpot)
Here at Half Baked, we’re all about giving early-stage founders every unfair advantage so they can succeed. Luckily, so is HubSpot.
That’s why we’ve teamed up with the HubSpot team to hook our readers up with 3 free months of Perplexity Pro.
Here’s how to claim it:
Click this link and create a HubSpot for Startups account (it's free and takes 1 minute)
Fill out the form at the bottom of this page (takes 10 seconds)
Unlock and use your Perplexity Pro discount if you’re eligible
🎟️ Turning Tickets into a +$1B Business
The Idea: Back in 2008, Russell D’Souza (right) and Jack Groetzinger were just two sports fans annoyed at how hard it was to find a good deal on tickets. Jack even built spreadsheets to track ticket prices across different sites. That pain sparked the idea - what if there was a Kayak.com for live events? Since there wasn’t, they decided to build one. This was the beginning of SeatGeek.
The Execution:
2009: They launched an MVP for a ticket search engine aggregating prices from StubHub, TicketsNow, etc. Early traction came via SEO and content.
2010: They raised a $550k seed round and focused on data tools like price tracking to help fans find the best bang for their buck.
2014 - 2015: Raised Series A & B ($35M+). Shifted from aggregator to seller by partnering directly with teams and promoters.
2016: Landed MLS as a client, entering the primary ticketing space and positioning against Ticketmaster.
2018: Launched SeatGeek Open, an open API platform letting anyone sell tickets through their system.
2022: A SPAC deal at a $1.35B valuation was planned but pulled. Not bad for a site that sells a few tickets.
The lesson? Start small and solve one painful problem really well. Then, over time, you can wedge your way up the value chain.
🔍️ Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: You can generate high-performing ad creatives in bulk using this tool.
📰 Headline: Daniel Gross, Safe Superintelligence’s co-founder and CEO, has left the company. Is he going to Meta too?
✖️ Trending Tweet: Sam Altman’s tweet on “techno-capitalism” is trending right now.
📚 Must-Read: What the “4-Minute Mile” teaches us about mentorship in the entrepreneurship space.
💬 Founder Quote: “Our destiny is really in our hands” Jan Koum, WhatsApp Founder.
🔦 Reader Spotlight
🤖 Crust AI - Yahlli Levy is building Crust AI, which uses AI to automatically create tailored business software. They have already closed a pre-seed round have a dozen paying customers.
📊 Motherboard - Preet Mishra is working on a browser extension that consolidates all your key metrics and KPIs into a single dashboard.
📅 Kairo Day Planner - Wouter is building an AI scheduler that organizes your day by planning work sessions, breaks, and tasks around your existing commitments.
🤖 Hup AI - Stan Mattingly is building an innovative assistant which leverages cameras to monitor your spaces and automatically create task reminders.
👕 ShirtMockups - Matheus Jacques is building a platform which lets you create ultra-realistic mockups of t-shirt designs.
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Shower Beer Holder
Planning on having a few beers this weekend? Don’t want your need to shower to get in the way of the party?
Introducing the The Shower Beer Holder™, a suction-mounted masterpiece that turns your shower into a five-star brewery experience. Finally, you can scrub and chug in perfect harmony.
The Shower Beer Holder™ - less slippin’, more sippin’.
Vote
👋 That’s All Folks!
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