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Startup Ideas #406: Startup Syndicates, Tea...
Plus Raising $3.1M While Still in College
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as Lovable becoming a centaur (a startup term I never knew existed) 😱
If you want to read any previous editions of Half Baked, you can check them out on our website.
Let’s goooo 🚀
In today’s edition:
💡 Unlocking even more value that’s trapped inside startups
📈 Spilling the tea on the #1 app in the world right now
🛠️ How to stop ChatGPT from “glazing” you
🤑 Raising $3.1M while still in college
🍻 The ultimate productivity hack for office workers
💲 Startup Employee Syndicates
Stake and Shake
Available domain: Teemsheet.com
The Problem: High-growth startups are some of the greatest wealth creation machines of our time. Early employees at companies like Stripe, Airbnb, and Uber didn’t just earn fat salaries, they walked away with life-changing equity. But what if that upside didn’t stop at their own company? What if those same employees pooled their capital, insights, and networks to back the next wave of startups, including and especially ones started by their ex-colleagues? Right now, there's no easy way for startup operators to invest as a group. It’s time to change that. Here’s how.
The Solution:
In a line: A platform where startup employees and alumni pool capital to invest in early-stage startups as a collective.
Product:
👤 Sign up with your verified startup work email or alumni credentials to join curated investment syndicates
💰 Pledge small checks (as low as $1K) into shared SPVs led by other operators from top startups
📈 Get access to deal memos, investor calls, and founder Q&As — all tailored to operator backgrounds
🧠 Build reputation as a scout or lead by sourcing deals, sharing insights, or co-investing with fellow insiders
Business Model: Charge carry (10–20%) on successful investments and/or small SPV management fees.
End Goal: Sell to a larger syndicate platform (AngelList, Republic, Allocate) or to fintech firms aggregating retail investor access
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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.
🫖 The Tea with the Tea App
The Trend: If you go to the app store charts today you won’t find Instagram, YouTube or ChatGPT at the top of the rankings. No no, instead you’ll find the “Tea” app at the top spot. The app, inspired by a Facebook group (and similar regional groups) called “Are We Dating the Same Guy”, effectively allows women to give feedback on men they’ve dated and even run background checks on men they’re dating. The app has caused a bit of a stir, so it will be interesting to see how long it stays on the top spot for.
Opportunities:
“Are We Working for the Same Guy?”: A pseudonymous review platform for people to privately share warnings or experiences with certain coworkers or bosses they’ve worked with
Tea for Landlords: A platform where renters share experiences with landlords and properties, including mold issues, surprise rent hikes, or withheld deposits
✔️ How to Stop ChatGPT from Glazing You
The Tool: ChatGPT is amazing, but sometimes it can be a little too encouraging. I tell it I think that “water is wet” and it comes back with something like “you are absolutely crystallizing something breathtaking here.” If that bothers you too, and you want ChatGPT to be more honest with you, here’s how to make that happen.
Step-by-step:
Go to the profile dropdown menu and select “customize ChatGPT”
Enter this prompt into that section and hit save
Prompt to your heart’s content
🪄 Magically Create AI Video Documentation with AI
Tired of writing training materials, how-to-guides or other internal docs that rarely get read?
Meet Guidde, the AI tool that turns your workflow into a step-by-step video guide in seconds. Here's how:
Download the Chrome extension and hit record before doing a task
Guidde creates a video tutorial and adds voiceover, highlights clicks, and creates chapters
Share the guide instantly with your team
Perfect for onboarding, support, training and more. Join 100,000+ users already saving 12+ hours a week.
🎓 Raising $3.1M While Still in College
The Idea: Nathaneo Johnson grew up watching business shows with his mom on TV. But over time he noticed something…the founders he was seeing on TV rarely looked like him. This inspired him to blaze a trail and become a founder that others looked up to. This led Nathaneo to Yale where he met Sean Hargrow, where the pair decided to team up to build a podcast and then a new kind of social network. This is their story.
The Execution:
2023: While still at Yale, Nathaneo and Sean launch The Founder Series podcast, which racked up more than 500k views. The buzz convinced them that serendipity and authenticity were missing from social media, inspiring the idea for Series.
Early 2024: They build the MVP for Series, an AI social network that uses AI agents to facilitate warm introductions. It works well and 20k+ conversations happen in the first week.
April 2025: The duo raised $3.1M in pre-seed funding in just 14 days, led by Parable VC and backed by Reddit’s Steve Huffman. They did this while still in college, making this the largest raise by active Ivy League undergrads.
Mid 2025: Series gets coverage in Forbes, NBC News, AfroTech, and Business Insider. The team announces plans to scale Series into dating, education, health, and more with a 10-year goal to deploy 1 billion AI friends.
In the end Nathaneo didn’t wait around for someone who looked like him to build the thing he wished existed. He became that person instead. So when you don’t see the path, create it. When you don’t see the platform, build it. That’s what real founders do.
🔍️ Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: This AI video editing tool for YouTube videos is a game-changer for creators
🎁 Free Resource: Someone pulled together a list of 77 free online AI courses from reputable learning platforms and universities
📚 Must-Read: Elad Gil thinks the early winners of the AI race have been crowned. We tend to agree.
🏷️ Event: Alex Hormozi is launching his new book next month. His last two were genuinely great, so we’re stoked for this launch event
💬 Founder Quote: “Every ‘overnight success’ is at least 10 years in the making.” (Marc Andreessen, Co-founder a16z)
🔦 Reader Spotlight
📊 Elkar: Elkar is turning Excel into your smartest teammate with dashboards, forecasts, and formulas on demand.
🐞 Triage: John has built a Slack agent that handles bug reports and feedback chaos, so you don’t have to.
🪄 Reaady: Léopold says you can launch a killer landing page in 60 seconds. No code. No design. Just go.
💻 Glich: Rohit is building a system design sidekick for engineers, and it’s just the start of a whole ecosystem.
💸 NozelPay: Srijan wants to kill payroll delays forever with an AI-powered fix that’s faster than your finance team.
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Nap Desk
Ever hit that 2:00pm slump and think, “What if I just... disappeared?” Wonder if corporate would notice if you went full horizontal mid-Zoom?
Introducing the Nap Desk™, the world’s first workstation with a hidden nap compartment underneath. It's like bunk beds for burnout. Comes with a built in TV for extra relaxation.
Nap Desk™ – where “sleeping on the job” becomes a productivity hack.
Vote
👋 That’s All Folks!
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