Startup Ideas #422: Bug Consultations, Alcohol Consumption...

Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as Meta’s highly questionable leaked AI rules 👀 

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:

• 💡 Solving the biggest problem for vibe coders

• 📈 The latest alcohol consumption stats are fascinating

• 🛠️ How to make a business plan in minutes using AI

• 🤑 Turning $6K into a +$170M business

• 🍻 An incredible “Tinder for X“ idea that we all need

🪲 Bug Consultations for Vibe Coders

Bug bytes

The Problem: Everybody is vibe coding these days. Programmers far and wide are opening their editors, letting AI do the heavy lifting, and sitting back and enjoying the experience. Until something breaks of course. Because the second you run into an error with code largely generated by AI, you’re in trouble. Even pros spend up to 50% of their coding time debugging, so you can imagine how long it takes to debug something someone didn’t even write themselves. So why not start a service to help these coders get unstuck in just a few minutes? Here’s what we’re thinking.

The Solution:

• In a line: On-demand, 5–10 minute expert calls for vibe coders to squash bugs and unblock their code instantly.

• Product:

  • 📲 Sign up, describe your bug in plain English or paste your error message into the platform

  • 🔍 You get instantly matched with a vetted developer experienced in your tech stack

  • 📞 You jump on a quick video or voice call to walk through the issue

  • ✅ You receive a recap of the fix plus follow-up resources so you can keep moving forward with our build

• Business Model: Pay-per-call ($5–$20 depending on length/complexity) + subscription for unlimited monthly calls.

• End Goal: Sell to a company like GitHub, Stack Overflow, or Replit for a 5–10× revenue multiple.

🩺 Your Health is Your Wealth

As a founder, you obsess over company's metrics. Revenue, run rate, churn. But what about your most valuable asset? Your health.

That's where Function Health comes in.

Function Health is a tech unicorn that offers a groundbreaking health membership that gives you access to 160+ lab tests and advanced, FDA-cleared MRI scans, all designed to detect diseases before symptoms appear for a few hundred dollars per year. Oh and scans take just 22 minutes.

Because no amount of wealth matters without your health.

Learn more about Function Health today.

🍻 Alcohol Consumption Hits All Time Lows

The Trend: We’ve mentioned this before in Half Baked, but declining alcohol consumption is one of the biggest societal shifts and mega trends we’re seeing right now, as backed up new data that’s just dropped. Recent Gallup survey data shows that alcohol consumption among adults in the United States has fallen to the lowest on record, with only 54% of Americans drinking alcohol in the past year, compared with 58% in 2024 and 62% in 2023. Sure there’s still a lot of people out there slamming beers, but the trend is going in one direction only.

Opportunities:

• Gamified Sober Streak App: Tracks days without alcohol, offers community challenges, leaderboards, and real-life rewards like coffee shop discounts.

• Dry Date Nights Platform: A dating/events app where matches are paired based on shared interest in sober social activities

Dive into the data

📄 How to Make a Business Plan in Minutes Using AI

The Tool: You may have noticed that we never talk about business plans in this newsletter. Why? Because most of the time they’re a waste of time. But sometimes, in order to avail of grants or other supports for your startup, you need to produce a business plan. So here’s how you can use AI to make one in minutes.

Step-by-step:

1. Go to ChatGPT or another model, your choice

2. Enter the following prompt and once the AI responds you input your business idea, target market, funding ask, and any existing traction

3. Make changes as necessary and export as a PDF

Get the prompt

🤝 How Frame AI Got Acquired by HubSpot

Last year HubSpot acquired Frame AI in one of their biggest acquisitions ever.

And on Aug 28, George Davis, the founder of Frame AI, is giving an exclusive fireside talk on scaling an AI startup from idea to acquisition.

Discover how to build an AI-native company buyers can’t ignore, navigate M&A with confidence, and thrive through AI hype cycles from a founder that's been there and done it.

RSVP today and you'll also unlock a free AI predictions report from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic & more, which is really great.

RSVP now.

🛏️ Turning $6K into a +$170M Business

The Idea: College buddies JT Marino (left) and Daehee Park reconnected years after graduating from Penn State, both working in Silicon Valley. JT had just gone through the nightmare of buying a $3,500 mattress that was uncomfortable and impossible to return. The experience sparked a conversation about how broken the mattress industry was - bloated markups, pushy salespeople, gimmicky “sleep science.” They figured they could make one great mattress, sell it online, and cut out the nonsense. They came up with a name from JT learning to hand-tuft a mattress from a local upholsterer, using a literal tufting needle. This was the beginning of Tuft & Needle.

The Execution:

• June 2012: The pair invested $6,000 of personal savings and threw up a simple site with a stock mattress photo and Google ads. First order landed within 15 minutes, a clear sign they’d hit a nerve.

• 2013: They reinvested profits to improve foam design and streamline shipping. Surpassed $1M in revenue without a cent of VC funding.

• 2014–2015: Leaned heavily on word-of-mouth, authentic customer reviews, and transparent pricing. Revenue jumped from $9M to $42M in two years.

• 2016: Took a $500k bank loan (still no VC) to scale operations. Hit $100M in sales. Expanded their product line to bedding and home goods.

• 2017: Reached ~$170M revenue with a team under 200 people. Opened first physical showroom to complement online sales.

• September 2018: Merged with Serta Simmons Bedding to bring their direct-to-consumer expertise to a legacy giant.

You don’t need fancy tech or VC millions to disrupt an entrenched industry. Start with a real pain point, strip away the fluff, and make something people want.

🔍️ Founder Finds

• 🛠️ AI Tool: Higgsfield just released a “Draw-to-Video” feature and it’s very impressive.

• 📰 Headline: Lovable projects $1B in ARR within next 12 months. Legends.

• 📱 Super Cool App: Someone just launched “Tiktok for vibe-coded mini games” and I want to invest so badly in this it hurts my soul.

• 📚 Must-Read: Absolutely epic SEO guide called “The AI Search Manual” just dropped. You bet we’re going to study this.

• 💬 Founder Quote: “Don’t play to avoid losing. Play to win.” Peter Thiel (PayPal, Palantir)

🔦 Reader Spotlight

• 🧮 Mathos AI: May Wang is building the best AI math solver, calculator and tutor that outperforms leading frontier models. Epic.

• 🎥 Camtasia Online: Wendy Hamilton is working on this innovative platform that offers a free, web-based screen recorder featuring stylish templates, dynamic backgrounds, and seamless collaboration

• 📄 Instant Case Study: Solomon Capell is building an AI-powered tool that enables freelancers and agencies to quickly transform client work into polished case studies

• 🌐 OddsRabbit: Jing Jun Ma is working on a community platform that brings creators together in a unique space

• 🎉 Birthday Bubbles: Matias Beeck is working on a simple birthday calendar helps you easily keep track of birthdays with reminders

P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!

🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Tinder for Spooning

• Craving some more intimacy in your life? Don’t have that special someone you can snuggle with at a moment’s notice?

• Introducing Spoonr™, the world’s first swipe-right app exclusively for platonic (or not-so-platonic) spooning. Just set your spoon size (big or little) and let our algorithm match you with a certified cuddle buddy.

• Spoonr™ - spoon feeding you affection one swipe at a time.

Vote

• ✅ Yes this actually exists

• ❌ Nope you totally made this up

👋 That’s All Folks!

Before you go just a few public service announcements:

• Have an idea you want feedback on? DM me to discuss it or book in for Office Hours here.

• Looking to sponsor Half Baked? Just fill out this form and we’ll get back to you asap.

See you soon,

John and Darragh | The Half Baked Team