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- Startup Ideas #431: Wellness Cubes, Demon Hunters...
Startup Ideas #431: Wellness Cubes, Demon Hunters...
Plus From Musicians to Unicorn Founders
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as surprising as Elizabeth Holmes tweeting from prison? 👀
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:
💡 Carving out a new niche in the wellness space
📈 Meet the most popular movie on Netflix ever
🛠️ How to create killer ads using nano banana
🤑 From musicians to unicorn founders
🍻 The ultimate attachment to give your phone even more utility
🧊 Wellness Cubes
Ice, ice baby
Available domain: Chillixir.co
The Problem: Everyone’s trying to get healthier these days. More gym sessions, less nights out. But the real marker of someone being on a health kick is if they’re drinking those wellness shots. We’ve all seen them - those little shots of ginger, turmeric and other magical ingredients that try to heal us. But they have some problems. They cost $3–$5 each in stores, spoil within 3–5 days, and clutter fridges up with plastic bottles. Consumers clearly lack a convenient, sustainable way to get daily health boosts without the waste or hassle. Here’s what we’re thinking.
The Solution:
In a line: A subscription brand delivering wellness drink concentrates you freeze into cubes and drop into drinks, smoothies, or other drinks.
Product:
📲 Sign up online and choose a functional theme (Energy, Immunity, Calm, Focus)
📦 Receive a starter kit with branded ice tray + large bottles of wellness drinks you can freeze
❄️ You pour into tray, freeze into cubes where each cube = 1 daily wellness boost
🥤 Drop a cube into water, a smoothie or anything you like for instant hit of health
Business Model: Subscription pricing with a starter kit ($29–$39) + recurring refills ($20–$45/month depending on pack size).
End Goal: Sell to a functional beverage giant (Nestlé Health Science, PepsiCo’s Health & Wellness arm, or Unilever Nutrition) for a 5–8x revenue multiple.
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🖥️ Screen Recording Software Built for Founders
As an entrepreneur, you're constantly recording videos to share with your team or even the world. But trying to record a video that's YouTube worthy can be pretty challenging.
That's where Tella comes in. With Tella you can record your screen, deck, workflow or anything else and Tella will automatically apply layouts, trims, and find mistakes to save you time...your most precious resource.
And until August 28th Half Baked readers can get 30% off for 12 months, an incredible deal.
👹 K-Pop Demon Hunters
The Trend: K-Pop Demon Hunters has become a surprise global phenomenon, recently becoming the most streamed movie ever on Netflix. It’s an animated movie which follows a K-pop girl group who secretly battle evil demons using their music. It may sound a little insane, but clearly people are loving it. The high-energy spectacle of K-pop and the action-packed world of urban fantasy is clearly a potent combination, and there’s clearly huge opportunities in this space.
Opportunities:
Virtual Concert and Fan Meeting Platform: An interactive online platform where fans can attend live-streamed "concerts" featuring AI K-pop characters and participate in virtual fan events, using 3D avatars.
Interactive Fan Fiction Platform: A platform where users can create choose-your-own-adventure stories or visual novels with AI-generated characters.
🍌 How to Create Killer Ads Using Nano Banana
The Tool: Everyone’s talking about bananas right now. Why? Because that’s the secret name Google gave to their new image generation and editing model (great marketing move, props to you Google). And it turns out…Google really cooked with this model. It can be used to generate new images or edit existing ones like you would in Photoshop. But here’s how you can use Nano Banana to create killers ads (a sentence no-one has ever said before…)
Step-by-step:
Go to Gemini and ensure you have “Gemini 2.5 Flash” selected
Upload your base image and your company’s logo and prompt Gemini to create an ad per your spec
Download the image and use it
13 Million People are Losing Weight with this App’s Scientific Method
Losing weight is hard, we all know it. But what if we told you there was a new approach that doesn't involve medication or strict diets?
Simple is a clinically proven weight loss tool that empowers users to achieve significant results through their app.
Their science-based method uses features like habit trackers, fasting schedules, and a personal coach to achieve lasting results. So far, they’ve helped 13 million users lose millions of pounds.
🎶 From Musicians to Unicorn Founders
The Idea: Back in 2007, Swedish sound designer Alexander Ljung and musician/producer Eric Wahlforss landed in Berlin’s buzzing electronic music scene. They noticed a pain point that every DJ and bedroom producer shared: sharing music sucked. Email attachments were too big, MySpace was clunky, and feedback loops were painfully slow. What if there was a place where you could instantly upload a track, let others play it in the browser, and even comment on the waveform itself? That’s the spark that became SoundCloud.
The Execution:
2007–2008: Alex and Eric hacked together the MVP in Berlin: a simple audio hosting tool with a now-iconic waveform player where listeners could leave timestamped comments. Launched in private beta to their musician friends.
2009: Officially launched to the public. Quickly became popular among DJs and electronic producers who needed a lightweight alternative to clunky file-sharing. Raised seed funding from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures.
2010: Secured a $10M Series A led by Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures. Embedding their slick audio player across blogs and music sites made SoundCloud tracks unavoidable online.
2012–2014: Growth exploded globally. By 2014, over 175M unique monthly users were on SoundCloud. It became the breeding ground for independent artists and new genres.
2017: The company nearly ran out of cash, laying off 40% of staff. Rescue investment came from The Raine Group and Temasek, keeping the lights on.
2020–2021: Pivoted to a fan-powered royalties model, giving independent artists more transparent payouts.
2023: Valuation climbed back to $1B, cementing its role as the launchpad for careers like Chance the Rapper, Post Malone, and Billie Eilish.
The lesson? For SoundCloud it was about building the simplest possible tool that musicians actually wanted, and letting the community take it from there.
🔍️ Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: Claude is coming to Chrome. Oh yes.
🚨 Raise Alert: Assort Health nabs $50M to automate patient phone calls
📚 Must-Read: Patrick Collison’s advice to his past self is timeless
📰 Headline: Robomart has unveiled a new delivery robot with $3 flat fee to challenge DoorDash. Super cool.
💬 Founder Quote: “Optimism is a force multiplier. If you’re not the most optimistic person in the room, you can’t lead.” John Collison (Stripe)
🔦 Reader Spotlight
🪄SalesMagic: Michael Fitzpatrick is building an AI-powered sales simulation platform that revolutionizes how sales professionals train and develop their skills
🏋️ TrainAI: Derek Colvin is building an AI-powered fitness coach that makes training smarter, simpler, and fully personalized.
📈 Optimal Portfolio Dashboard: Marco Quantrill is building a dynamic dashboard that allows users to construct and analyze optimal investment portfolios.
💰 FundedIQ: Sahil Garg is building a monthly database of startups that have recently raised funding
👗 Vesto: David Raoof is building an online store dedicated to women’s clothing
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Phone Shaver Attachment
Forgot to shave before that important meeting? Ever caught yourself thinking, “Wow, my WiFi isn’t the only thing that’s patchy”?
Meet the Phazor™ - the first attachment that turns your phone into an electric razor. Just plug it in and let your iPhone double as your grooming sidekick.
Phazor™ – set your face to smooth.
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👋 That’s All Folks!
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