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- Startup Ideas #412: Promptcademy, Robotics...
Startup Ideas #412: Promptcademy, Robotics...
Plus Turning a YouTube Channel into a $1B Exit
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as Figma’s blockbuster $50B IPO 📈
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:
💡 A learning platform for the most important skill in 2025
📈 The next frontier for tech acceleration
🛠️ Using AI to create viral quiz videos
🤑 Turning a YouTube channel into a $1B exit
🍻 Adding some much needed tech to a household object
⌨️ Codecademy for Prompting
The Promptfather
Available domain: Promptcademy.ai
The Problem: Everyone’s talking about how AI will replace jobs, but the truth is, it’s the people who know how to talk to AI who will do the replacing. Right now, 90% of ChatGPT users admit they struggle to get consistently good results because they don’t know how to craft effective prompts. Teams waste hours experimenting, Googling examples, and hoping for the best, when one great prompt could save days of work. In short, people are leaving massive value on the table because they can’t “speak AI.” It’s time to teach them.
The Solution:
In a line: An interactive “Codecademy for AI prompts” that teaches you how to talk to AI and get 10x better results.
Product:
👋 Sign up and pick your goal e.g. writing, coding, design, research, or general AI use
🎮 Interactive, gamified lessons teach you how to craft and refine prompts with instant feedback
🏆 Challenges, quizzes, and real-world simulations (like “Make Midjourney create a Pixar-style pizza ad”) keep users learning by doing
🤖 Integrated AI playground lets users test prompts across multiple models (GPT, Claude, Midjourney, DALL·E) without leaving the platform
Business Model: Free beginner courses + $15-30/month for advanced lessons, certifications, and multi-model prompt testing.
End Goal: Sell to an AI education platform (Udemy, Coursera) for a 7–12x SaaS revenue multiple.
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🦾 Humanoid Robots March On
The Trend: Recent advancements in robotics have been staggering. Chinese robotics firm Unitree just launched the R1, a humanoid robot which can run, fight and even do cartwheels, but only costs $5,900. Meanwhile, UBTECH, another Chinese company, just unveiled a robot that swaps its own battery packs, meaning it can work 24/7 without human intervention. The robots are coming. Brace yourself.
Opportunities:
Robot Training Simulators: SaaS for teaching humanoids specific workflows. Think VR or AR-powered “flight simulators” for warehouse, retail, or hospitality tasks.
Morning Brew for Robotics: A daily newsletter tracking humanoid breakthroughs, funding, and enterprise adoption.
📺 Using AI to Create Viral Quiz Videos
The Tool: These "Would You Rather" and trivia quiz videos are getting millions of views on TikTok and YouTube Shorts. People are even doing product/brand mentions inside the videos as a form of marketing. Here's how you can make them in minutes using AI.
Step-by-step:
Go to VUBO & choose the "Factual Quiz" video template.
Choose 6-8 questions and write in a theme related to your niche.
Hit "generate" and get your video in under a minute. Then press "customize" to make changes.
👀 Your moment is now. Don’t miss out.
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No idea where to start? That’s our specialty.
Launch It helps you build, grow, and secure investors and funding for your startup, covering every step from A to Z.
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👶 Turning a YouTube Channel into a $1B Exit
The Idea: Back in 2006, Jay Jeon and his wife (an illustrator) were living in Orange County, California, dabbling in creative projects while raising their kids. Jay had a background in filmmaking and storytelling, and he noticed that most kids’ content online was…well, a bit dull. They wanted something safe, fun, and educational, while their kids just wanted songs and characters they could love. So the couple started making simple nursery rhyme videos to entertain their kids and uploading them to YouTube. This was the beginning of Cocomelon.
The Execution:
2006: First YouTube upload of animated nursery rhymes under the “Checkgate” channel. These were Simple 2D animations made at home.
2013: Rebranded as ABC Kid TV, focusing on educational songs like the alphabet and counting. Growth came almost entirely from organic YouTube search and autoplay, no marketing spend at all.
2017: Rebranded again to Cocomelon, introduced 3D animation and the now-iconic JJ character. Implemented a huge growth hack: looping popular songs with better visuals to maximize watch time and keep toddlers glued.
2019: Cocomelon surpassed 50 million subscribers, becoming one of YouTube’s top 3 channels. At this point, the channel was essentially a digital toddler TV network.
July 2020: Cocomelon was acquired by Moonbug Entertainment and while the exact sale price wasn’t disclosed, estimates range from $500M to $1B.
2021-2023: Cocomelon expanded to Netflix, Spotify, and merchandise (toys, books, bedding), becoming a full-blown global kids’ entertainment empire with 150M+ subscribers.
Jay’s story proves that sometimes the simplest ideas can transform into empires. You never know how much an idea will grow until you get started. So get started…
🔍️ Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: GPT-5’s launch is just around the corner. Here are 7 predictions about the biggest AI launch this year.
🎙️Must-Listen: Grace Andrews grew Steven Bartlett’s podcast from 8K subscribers to 10M. This is how she did it.
✖️ Trending Tweet: Microsoft just dropped a study showing the 40 jobs most at risk by AI…and the 40 most secure.
🎁 Free Resource: This free course for creating web applications without coding is worth checking out.
💬 Founder Quote: “The market doesn’t care about your excuses. It only sees what you ship.” Michael Seibel (Twitch / YC)
🔦 Reader Spotlight
🔍 Notifing: Max Widdowson is turning social media cries for help into leads for service businesses.
📬 Call My Mail: Thomas Stansel wants you to talk your inbox to zero. An AI call handles the rest.
🎥 1703: Asen Mitrev built a tool that edits your videos based on your script. Just write it, and it cuts the rest.
🌐 Lynka: Edema Ero made a bio link tool that actually converts. Lock content, grow your list, track it all.
🏡 MortgageTrim: Manny Meneses promises lower mortgage payments with no refinance. And a money-back guarantee.
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Smart Doorstop
Sick of your boring old analog doorstop? Time for an upgrade?
Meet Stopify™, the first-ever smart, IoT, 5G, bluetooth connected doorstop that streams your door’s every move. It doesn’t just stop doors, it tracks door movement analytics and even sends alerts when a door is being kept open. Wow!
Stopify™, all stop, no flop.
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👋 That’s All Folks!
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