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- Startup Ideas #415: Half Baked for X, Bots vs Agents...
Startup Ideas #415: Half Baked for X, Bots vs Agents...
Plus From Investment Banker to Unicorn Founder
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as innovative as Google’s new world generation model 🌏️
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:
💡 An idea inspired by…ourselves
📈 A current debate about the future of the internet
🛠️ Using AI to create interactive marketing tools in seconds
🤑 From investment banker to unicorn founder
🍻 An idea to stop a marriage ending argument
🍪 Half Baked for Newsletters
Send it
Available domain: Sendspiration.com
The Problem: Uber for X. Airbnb for Y. Cursor for Z. You know a company’s made it when they become an “X for Y” analogy. And today, we’re throwing our hat in the ring by introducing a “Half Baked for X” idea. Because while we share a wide variety of business ideas in this newsletter, the ideas that get the most feedback on are our newsletter ideas. Which got us thinking…why not create a newsletter to come up with newsletter ideas? Here’s what we’re thinking.
The Solution:
In a line: A daily newsletter which provides newsletter ideas that people can start
Product:
📥 Users subscribe to a free daily email which shares a fresh newsletter idea each day
💡 Each idea comes with a suggested niche, target audience, and growth hook (think “Fitness for Night Owls” or “AI Tools for Teachers”).
📊 The newsletter also includes growth tips, such as how to get your first 1,000 subscribers for that idea
🛠 Premium subscribers could unlock step-by-step launch kits, subject line ideas, and first-week content outlines.
Business Model: Free newsletter, monetize through ads
End Goal: Sell to a creator economy platform like Substack, ConvertKit, or Beehiiv for a 5–8x revenue multiple as a lead-gen engine for aspiring newsletter writers.
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🗣️ The Agent vs Bot Debate
The Trend: Over 50% of all internet traffic in 2024 came from bots. But now, in 2025, not all bots are created equal. As AI-powered agents like Perplexity, ChatGPT’s agents, and other LLM tools become more powerful, the line between “bot” and an agent that’s an extension of a user is blurring fast. And that distinction is causing friction between some tech giants. On one side you have Cloudflare, who are trying to give creators more control over whether or not AI companies can scrape their data. Meanwhile Perplexity argues that when their they scrape a website, they’re acting on behalf of real users in real time, per their recent article. We’re only in round 1 of this fight, and it will be fascinating to see how it plays ou.
Opportunities:
Agent Authentication Protocol: Create a protocol for verifying whether an AI agent is acting on behalf of a user, an org, or itself, with encrypted delegation tokens.
AI Bot Reputation Score: A platform that tracks the behavior of AI agents across the web and gives them a score (similar to domain authority) based on ethical behavior, accuracy, and compliance.
🛠️ Using AI to Create Interactive Marketing Tools in Seconds
The Tool: Everybody’s building websites and apps using AI these days. But now you can build interactive marketing components like quizzes, calculators, webinar registration pages or lead magnet pages using this newly launched tool. It’s like Lovable, but for marketers, and it’s really powerful. Here’s how to use it.
Step-by-step:
Go to Embeddable.co
Write out your prompt or get ChatGPT to help craft a prompt for you. Here’s an example prompt you can try which creates a growth challenge analyzer lead magnet: “Create an interactive component that asks: ‘What is your main growth challenge?’ Use AI to analyze the response and suggest three common mistakes the user might be making. After displaying the suggestions, prompt the user to enter their name and email to receive a coupon for our service.")
Refine your creation and embed it on your website
Pro tip: Embeddable just launched on Product Hunt today and to celebrate you can get 50% off using the code HB50off
😵 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.
🍴 From Investment Banker to Unicorn Founder
The Idea: Back in 2012, Timo Boldt was a hungry investment banker with no time to cook and even less time to figure out what to make. He was spending a small fortune on takeout and felt totally disconnected from what he ate. One evening, frustrated by yet another overpriced, underwhelming dinner, he had an idea: what if you could get all the ingredients for a healthy meal delivered to your door, pre-portioned, along with a recipe. That was the idea for Gousto.
The Execution:
2012: Timo quit his job at Rothschild and launched the first version of Gousto out of his London flat. The MVP was simple: a basic website, a handful of recipes, and he hand-packed the boxes himself.
2013: Gousto raised £500k from friends, family, and early angel investors. Cold emails and recipe testing in real customer kitchens helped to fuel organic word-of-mouth.
2015: They hit their first 1 million meals delivered. Growth was fuelled by paid social ads and smart referral incentives.
2016: Raised a £9m Series A led by BGF Ventures. Doubled down on tech and data to optimize supply chain, recipe personalization, and reduce food waste.
2019: With sustainability as a selling point, Gousto pledged to be carbon neutral and removes plastic from 50% of its boxes.
2020: UK lockdowns sent demand through the roof. They scale ops fast and close a £30m funding round to meet it.
2021: Gousto became a unicorn after raising £25m from SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
Today: Gousto is still private today, but is estimated to be delivering tens of millions of meals annually. We think they’ll get acquired in the coming years. You read it here first.
Naval once famously said “the best way to start is by building something you want and need yourself”. Timo’s story proves exactly that.
🔍️ Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: ElevenLabs has just launched their AI music generator, Eleven Music
📰 Headline: OpenAI have actually launched open-weight reasoning models. About time!
📚 Must-Read: Paul Graham’s tweet thread on AI taking jobs is full of classic PG wisdom
📹 Must-Watch: This guy used claude code to rank #2 on Google in 24 hours. In this video he breaks down how he did it.
💬 Founder Quote: “A great product with no distribution is a hobby.” Andy Rachleff, Wealthfront
🔦 Reader Spotlight
⏳ QueueUp: Trevor Edwards is working on a platform that allows entrepreneurs to create professional waitlist landing pages in just minutes
🏆 FanCred: Arman Reyes is working on a platform that modernizes fantasy sports league management.
🌐 Browse Anything: Mehdi Bahra is working on an AI browser agent that browses and performs actions on the web on your behalf.
🎮 TeamLoop: Håkon Dale is working on a collaboration service for game developers featuring a tinder-style matching system that allows users to send proposals to connect with others
🧠 Nemlox: Benjamin Reger is building a platform that transforms your saved content into valuable insights through frictionless saving and weekly review cycles.
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Toilet Seat Lifter
Ever been yelled at for leaving the toilet seat up? Sick of a simple hinge leading to more domestic disputes than just about anything else in your life?
Introducing the Pee-dal™, the hands-free foot pedal that lifts your toilet seat like a loyal butler. One gentle press, and boom, the seat rises, letting you handle your business. When you’re finished the seat comes back down, no need to remember.
The Pee-dal™ – because sometimes the throne should rise to greet the king.
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👋 That’s All Folks!
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