- Half Baked
- Posts
- Startup Ideas #411: Tinker Tinder, Hearing Loss...
Startup Ideas #411: Tinker Tinder, Hearing Loss...
Plus From Idea to $30M Valuation in 4 Months
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as often as Ramp raises hundreds of millions of dollars 💰️
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:
💡 Building the tinder for tinkerers
📈 A mega-trend you need to hear about
🛠️ How to use ChatGPT to learn anything
🤑 From idea to $30M valuation in 4 months
🍻 The best way to start your day
🛠️ Tinder for Makers
Tindering x tinkering
Available domain: Tinktank.ai
The Problem: The world belongs to makers. Whether you’re building a drone, sewing a cosplay costume, prototyping a robot, or filming your next music video, creating is the best thing we do. But doing it alone? Not so fun. It’s lonely. And sometimes, it’s downright impossible without the right skills. But finding a creative partner outside of your immediate friend group is still awkward and mostly limited to Facebook groups, Reddit threads, or chance encounters. So what if you could find people to work with you on whatever you’re doing? 23k likes on this post on X suggests people are crying out for this. So let’s make it.
The Solution:
In a line: An app that matches makers, hobbyists, and creators to start projects together.
Product:
📲 Users sign up and share what they’re working on or would like to create (A business, an app, music, furniture, it could be anything)
🔄 They swipe through potential collaborators looking at profiles which highlight skills, current projects, and dream ideas.
💬 When two users swipe right, they match and can brainstorm, plan, and start officially working together
Business Model: Freemium with pro features like project management tools, skill filters, and local event coordination.
End Goal: Sell to a company like Etsy or Meetup for a +5x revenue multiple
Rate this idea: |
😵 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 Hearing Loss Epidemic
Every once in a while, a “mega-trend” sneaks up on us, one that is so profound it can’t be ignored. Hearing loss is clearly one of them. According to the World Health Organization, by 2050, 2.5 billion people (one in four humans on Earth) will experience some level of hearing loss. Of those, 700 million will need rehabilitation or medical intervention for disabling hearing loss. What’s driving this? Well populations are ageing, people are living longer and the fact that most of us blast music into our ears for hours everyday probably isn’t helping…
Business Ideas
Hearing Loss Detection App: A mobile app that lets users easily test and track their hearing health over time while providing lifestyle and product recommendations to protect their hearing (from edition #345)
AI-Enhanced Hearing Aid Marketplace: A platform that pairs users with the best hearing aids for their needs and budget, using machine learning to match audiograms to devices.
🎓 How to Use ChatGPT to Learn Anything
The Tool: OpenAI just launched study mode, a new way to learn in ChatGPT that offers step by step guidance instead of quick answers. Here’s how you can use it to learn anything.
Step-by-step:
Go to ChatGPT and ensure the “study and learn” tool is selected (if you click this link it will be for you)
Type in what you want to learn e.g. how to run Meta ads
In study mode, ChatGPT breaks the skill into small steps, checks on understanding and gives mini-practice exercises (like writing ad copy) instead of just giving the answer. Epic.
🎟️ Win a free ticket to INBOUND 2025 ($1,399 Value)
Tech conferences can be transformative for startups. But as a founder, you have to be strategic with your time, energy and capital.
That’s why we've teamed up with HubSpot for Startups to give away two free tickets to INBOUND 2025, HubSpot's globally renowned sales and marketing conference, to our readers.
With speakers like Dario Amodei (CEO of Anthropic), Dharmesh Shah (HubSpot co-founder), Colin Jost (Comedian and writer) and many more, this is not to be missed.
🤖 From Idea to $30M Valuation in 4 Months
The Idea: Jaspar Carmichael‑Jack grew up building businesses. By 21, he’d already launched a global branding agency and a marketplace for local services. But it wasn’t until he was drowning in repetitive sales outreach tasks at his own startup back in 2023 that he wondered…could he build an AI employee to do this for him? So he teamed up with Sam Stallings and together they set out to build the first AI sales employee. This was the beginning of Artisan.
The Execution:
2023: The team ships their first product, Ava, the AI SDR that writes and sends sales emails, books meetings, and even handles follow-ups. It took around 4 months to build.
Early 2024: Artisan joins Y Combinator and they raise $1.5M around this time at a $30M valuation.
Mid-2024: They plaster San Francisco with “Stop Hiring Humans” billboards, sparking online outrage, debate, and thousands of new leads.
Late 2024: Artisan raises $11.5M seed led by Oliver Jung. ARR crosses $1M.
April 2025: They raise a $25M Series A led by Glade Brook Capital. They publicly appoint an AI CEO named Jasper 2.0 (yes, seriously) as a publicity stunt. It trends.
Mid-2025: Artisan claims to have one of the largest proprietary datasets in outbound sales (over 300M lead profiles) and Ava’s hallucination rate is <0.01%.
It’s becoming abundantly clear that, over the next few years, AI is going to upend everything. Artisan are using AI to disrupt the sales industry. So…what industry are you going to disrupt?
🔍️ Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: This tool helps users to generate winning ads with AI Actors
🎁 Free Resource: Y Combinator just dropped their “request for startups” for Fall 2025. Get it while it’s hot!
📚 Must-Read: Zuck just shared Meta’s vision for the future of “personal superintelligence”. It’s super interesting.
✖️ Trending Tweet: So apparently Google indexes ChatGPT shared urls. The more you know…
💬 Founder Quote: “The things you are scared of are usually the things worth doing.” Tobi Lütke (Shopify)
🔦 Reader Spotlight
🎶 Omix: Andrew Allen is syncing your soundtrack to your focus. It literally drops the beat when you lock in.
🦊 Microfox: Pramod Geddam is building Microfox, a competitor to Zapier. Waitlist open.
💬 ContentLook Ask AI: Florin Muresan is turning boring websites into smart, chat-powered experiences instantly.
☕️ Founders Around: Leo Nagano put a live map on the founder network. See who's down for coffee, near you.
💡 Techequit: Muhammad Uzair Arif is connecting micro startups with investors. Think MVP meets M&A.
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Smell-based Alarm Clock
Tired of alarms that make you want to throw your phone into another time zone? Ever wish your morning routine started with a smell?
Meet AromaRise™, the scent-based alarm clock that wakes you with the sweet smell of lavender, roses, bacon, whichever tickles your fancy. Your nose knows best!
AromaRise™ – wake up and smell the future.
Vote
👋 That’s All Folks!
Before you go just a few public service announcements:
What did you think of today's edition? |
See you soon,
Reply