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Startup Ideas #419: Benchmarks, Personalities...
Plus Turning Newsletters into a $525M Exit
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as the iPhone 17 rumors 📱
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 platform to help AI users cut through the noise
📈 Why young people’s personalities are changing
🛠️ How to get the most out of GPT-5
🤑 Turning newsletters into a $525M exit
🍻 A product to make the Irish proud
📊 Verticalized AI Benchmarks
What’s Your Bench?
Available domain: Benchmarrk.com
The Problem: AI benchmarks are all the rage these days. ARC AGI 2. Humanity’s last exam. Some other benchmarks I can’t remember right now. But whenever a new model gets released (like GPT-5 for example), companies will talk about the performance of their frontier model compared to these benchmarks. But there’s a problem. While frontier models compete on these broader benchmarks, that doesn’t tell individual users what models they should be using. Like if my business uses AI in the medical field, which model is the most performant? Which should I be using? So why not create a platform to help businesses figure out exactly that. Here’s what we’re thinking.
The Solution:
In a line: A platform that tests AI models on real, industry-specific tasks creating specific AI benchmarks across different verticals so companies know what models to use
Product:
📝 You sign up, choose your industry, give your preferences (e.g. lowest cost model) and give examples of tasks your business uses AI to complete (or even some anonymized data to test)
🧪 Based on these inputs, the platform fetches relevant benchmarks to help guide the decision making process on what model they should use
📊 Users get a scorecard showing how each model performed on accuracy, safety, speed, and cost.
🛡️ They also get a compliance-ready report you can use for audits or procurement.
Business Model: Annual subscription for businesses + extra fees for custom tests.
End Goal: Become the industry standard and sell to a big compliance, cloud, or ratings company for 5–10× annual revenue.
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🔒️ The Threat Your Startup Faces Every 39 seconds
A new cyber-attack happens every 39 seconds.
And these attacks don’t just target big corporations, startups are prime targets too. And as a founder, you need to protect yourself and your business from these attacks. That's where TotalAV from Total Security comes in.
With TotalAV you can safeguard your pitch decks, client data, and product files from malware, ransomware, and hackers.
Independently tested for top-tier protection, it’s the easiest step you can take today to keep your business secure.
🧑 Young People’s Personalities are Shifting
The Trend: This data is fascinating. It’s based around four of the five OCEAN personality traits, and shows that 16–39 year olds are showing a steep drop in conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extroversion, while neuroticism is spiking. This suggests a generation that’s increasingly stressed, less socially inclined, and less disciplined. Ouch. The cause? It’s likely driven by tech overload, increasing economic uncertainty and a plethora of social factors. But it makes for grim reading.
Opportunities:
Mental Resilience Coaching: Mental resilience coaching for young professionals, combining CBT-based micro-courses with AI-driven personal check-ins.
Duolingo for Life Skills: teaching not just job skills but resilience, cooperation, and adaptability
⌨️ How to Get the Most out of GPT-5
Step-by-step:
Start by telling GPT-5 what you want and why you want it.
Then give GPT-5 a more specific roadmap and lay out your request in this simple format:
Goal: What you want done
Method: How to do it
Stop when: When to stop or what to avoid
Set the “thinking” level by asking GPT-5 for a short summary, bullet list, or a full breakdown of what you want
Use the Prompt Optimizer to make your prompts sharper and less confusing.
📦️ Tariffs Got You Tense? Take Back Control With Direct Shipping and Tariff Deferment
Recent tariffs have majorly delayed the selling season for DTC brands that waited for the tariff cuts or ran out of inventory.
And for the next 90 days, tariffs have been reduced, but this might not be enough time to get inventory where you need it, plus, you’re still dealing with a 30% tariff.
Portless is here to help. While competitors' inventory sits on a boat for 60-90 days, you could be:
Restocking best-sellers in 3-5 days
Freeing up more working capital
Paying tariffs only after customers pay you
Turn 6-week delays into 6-day deliveries directly from China.
Portless lets you take back control of your inventory and start leveraging tariff deferment today.
🗞️ Turning Newsletters into a $525M Exit
The Idea: Back in 2012, three friends Sean Griffey (a former business journalist), Eli Dickinson (tech lead), and Ryan Willumson (ad sales pro) saw a gap in the B2B news world. Trade publications were slow, dated, and often stuck behind paywalls. They wondered, what if you could deliver timely, free, high-quality industry news via email to decision-makers, starting with niche verticals no one else was obsessing over? Their vision: build a portfolio of “Dives” for different industries, each one becoming the go-to morning read for that sector. This was the idea for Industry Dive.
The Execution:
2012: They raised c.$900k in seed funding. Launched their MVPs of five newsletters (Construction Dive, Education Dive, Marketing Dive, Utility Dive, and Waste Dive) all at once
2013–2015: They doubled down on direct-sell advertising and sponsored content, avoiding programmatic ads to stay profitable early.
2016–2018: Scaled to dozens of verticals, hit $22m revenue with 25% EBITDA margins. Insane.
2019: Majority stake acquired by Falfurrias Capital Partners, giving them firepower for acquisitions.
2020: Bought NewsCred’s content marketing studio to launch studioID, expanding into brand storytelling.
2021: Acquired PharmaVOICE and three other niche brands in 18 months, while revenue hit $80m with 30% margins.
2022: Industry Dive was acquired by Informa plc for $525m, one of the biggest exits in B2B digital media history.
The takeaway? In today’s day and age no niche is too small. With the right team and incredible execution, you can make hundreds of millions of dollars in almost any vertical. You just have to pick one and start.
🔍️ Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: This new website and app builder looks super promising
📚 Must-Read: This essay from a 23 year-old back in 2024 allowed him to raise a $1.5B fund
📖 Playbook: PG’s essay on the 18 mistakes that kill startups is almost 20 years old, but still slaps
✖️ Trending Tweet: This fully autonomous cargo truck with no driver in China is wild
💬 Founder Quote: “Speed is the ultimate weapon in startups.” Parker Conrad (Rippling, Zenefits)
🔦 Reader Spotlight
💰 BrainWallet: Kerry Washington is working on a platform that offers a self-hosted Litecoin wallet tailored for those curious about cryptocurrency, with plans to launch games later in the year.
📚 CiteSnap: Thanawat Thomas is working on a tool that helps users efficiently capture, organize, and cite online content for their research needs.
🗣️ Vibing: Jingyu Hu is working on an app that makes it super easy to meet people and make connections through various themed party rooms.
💰 Reward Tool: Amgad Samy is building a platform that turns website and app traffic into revenue by allowing users to earn rewards, unlock features, or access premium content through task completion.
📝 YAMLResume: Xiao Hanyu is working on a platform that enables users to build and manage their resumes using YAML, creating beautifully formatted PDFs with ease.
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Guinness Candle
Ever wish your living room smelled like a Dublin pub at 2 pm on a Friday? Well you’re in luck.
Introducing the Guinness Candle™, a rich, malty-scented wax masterpiece that lets you enjoy the aroma of Ireland’s favorite pint, without the hangover or awkward small talk with the guy at the bar.
Guinness Candle™ - pinting you in the right direction
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👋 That’s All Folks!
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