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- Startup Ideas #439: Dynamic Decks, AI Adoption...
Startup Ideas #439: Dynamic Decks, AI Adoption...
Plus How a Hobby Became a $500M Business
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as hotly anticipated as our live webinar that’s starting in a few minutes (don’t miss it) 🤑
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:
💡 Bringing pitch decks into the 21st century
📈 The chart that’s scaring half of Silicon Valley
🛠️ How we identify and analyze trends at Half Baked
🤑 How a hobby became a $500M business
🍻 The running accessory needed this winter
📊 AI-Powered Dynamic Pitch Decks
Slide hustle
Available domain: Slidewise.ai
The Problem: In between tweeting and holidaying at the Hamptons, the average VC looks at 1,000+ pitch decks per year. But let’s face it…pitch decks are kinda boring. Most decks are static PDFs that get 90 seconds of attention before being tossed into the "maybe later" pile. But here's the kicker: 67% of investors say they have follow-up questions after reading a deck, but there's no way to get answers without scheduling a meeting. Meanwhile, founders are sending the same deck to hundreds of investors, with no idea which slides resonate or what questions come up repeatedly. It's a broken system where great ideas die in static presentations. It’s time to change that.
The Solution:
In a line: AI-powered pitch decks that can answer investor questions in real-time and adapt their content based on who's viewing them.
Product:
🤖 Upload your company data, financials, and market research. The AI creates an interactive pitch deck (which you can edit of course) that can answer detailed questions about your business model, competition, and projections.
💬 Investors can ask questions directly in the deck: "What's your customer acquisition cost?" or "How do you compare to Competitor X?" The AI responds with data-backed answers.
📊 Track which slides get the most attention, what questions are asked most frequently, and which investors are most engaged.
Business Model: $49/month for basic interactive decks, $199/month for advanced AI features and analytics.
End Goal: Potential acquisition by a major presentation platform like Canva or Figma, or by a startup ecosystem player like AngelList or Carta.
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Our First Masterclass is Starting in a Few Minutes…
What are we doing? We’re running our first ever masterclass in like 15 minutes with Ryan Bartlett, the Founder and CEO of True Classic. True Classic is an iconic menswear brand that Ryan started with just $3K and scaled to over $250M in revenue per year.
In this 45 minute session we’re going to:
Find out what Ryan would do if he was starting a brand from scratch today
Get him to roast some of our own ideas
Showcase an e-commerce brand we launched ourselves
Make a huge announcement, giveaway a bunch of exclusive playbooks and give somebody $5,000.
We guarantee it’ll be the best 45 minutes of your week.
This is your last chance to sign up, don’t miss out!
📉 Big Companies are Getting Cold Feet on AI
The Trend: Everyone thinks massive corporations are crushing it with AI. Plot twist: they're not. Apollo data shows AI adoption at 250+ employee firms peaked at 13.5% and is now declining for the first time. While this looks like a minor blip, it’s still spooking investors. Time will tell as to how the trend will play out going forward.
Opportunities:
AI Cleanup Crew: Help large companies salvage their botched AI projects and actually make them profitable.
Small Biz AI Done Right: Teach SMBs how to adopt AI without making the expensive mistakes that Fortune 500s already made for them.
📈 How we Identify and Analyze Trends at Half Baked
The Tool: Here at Half Baked it’s our job (well…my job) to identify interesting trends to share with our readers. It requires a lot of “research” (i.e. cruising Twitter) but we also use a variety of different tools to unearth these trends. Here’s one of the best tools we use and you can use it too to identify trends.
Step-by-step:
Go to Risingtrends.co
Go to the trends database, sort by search volume and keywords
Analyze each trend and corroborate with external research (ChatGPT)
For broader trends look at the “Mega Trends” section.
Check out Rising Trends
BTW: Rachid the founder (great guy) has given us a discount code for 20% off (use code HALFBAKED20), but only for 10 of our readers. Get it while it’s hot!
❌ Start Blocking Ads Right Now
Ever noticed that when you view an item on Amazon or eBay, for the next month, all you see is the same repeated ads? That’s because advertisers are tracking us. All the time.
That's why so many of us use ad blockers, like Total Adblock.
With Total Adblock from Total Security you can:
Say goodbye to pop-ups, autoplay video ads on YouTube™, and banners on Facebook
Clear your browsing history, cookies, and cache in one click
Enjoy smoother browsing and improved page load times
Mute any annoying notifications
If you’re tired of the clutter and want a cleaner, faster, and more private browsing experience, give Total AdBlock a try. Half Baked readers get 80% off.
🛫 How a Hobby Became a $500M Business
The Idea: Back in 2006, two Swedish aviation enthusiasts (Mikael Robertsson, and Olov Lindberg) were frustrated that they couldn't easily track flights in real-time across Europe. While air traffic control had this data, regular aviation fans were left guessing where planes were flying. So as a hobby they decided to build their own network of ADS-B receivers to capture aircraft signals and display them on a map. What started as a side project called Flygradar.nu became Flightradar24.
The Execution:
2006: Mikael and Olov founded the company to scratch their aviation itch
2009: Opened network to allow anyone with ADS-B receiver to upload data, enabling rapid global expansion through community participation.
2010: Major breakthrough during Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruptions when international media relied on platform for flight disruption reporting.
2012: Fredrik Lindahl became the CEO, professionalizing operations while maintaining community-driven growth model.
2015-2020: Achieved global coverage through 50,000+ volunteer receivers, became #1 app in 130+ countries with 100M+ downloads.
2022: Platform crashed during Russian invasion of Ukraine due to massive surge in users tracking flights in conflict zone.
2024: Reported $45M turnover (up 18% YoY) and $23M of profit, serving 5+ million daily users tracking 250,000+ flights.
September 2025: Sold 35% stake to Sprints Capital at $500M valuation, with the founders retaining majority control.
The lesson? Mikael and Olov’s story proves that when you democratize access to previously exclusive information, you can build massive value even in seemingly niche markets.
🔍️ Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: These are the top 100 Gen AI apps according to a16z
📰 Headline: OpenAI appears to have figured out what causes hallucinations…
📚 Must-Read: This article covers how 40 leading startup cofounders met. Super interesting.
🚨 Raise Alert: Y Combinator-backed Motion raises $38M to build the Microsoft Office of AI agents.
💰 Exit Alert: SpaceX buys wireless spectrum from EchoStar in $17 billion deal.
💬 Founder Quote: "Any time is a good time to start a company." Ron Conway (Investor)
🔦 Reader Spotlight: Meet Sarah and Laurent
What are you building? Meet Sarah and Laurent who are building Elkar, an AI Analyst Agent for Excel that understands your spreadsheets and does your modeling, graphs and formulas.
How did you come up with the idea? After years at Amazon and Uber, Sarah spent most of her day in Excel and Google Sheets. I saw how much time is wasted on repetitive tasks that could be automated.
Biggest challenge right now? Rolling out Elkar at scale, specifically deploying multiple licenses within enterprise environments.
How can Half Baked readers help? Give Elkar a try and share it with your finance peers!
Connect with the Founders: Sarah on LinkedIn | Laurent on LinkedIn
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Wellington Runners
Ever try jogging in the rain only to end up with soggy socks? Tired of choosing between staying dry and staying fit?
Introducing WellingRuns™ - high-performance running shoes that are actually wellington boots in disguise. Waterproof rubber construction meets athletic sole technology, so you can sprint through puddles like a gazelle instead of splashing through them like a toddler.
WellingRuns™ - because real athletes don't let a little precipitation ruin their personal best.
Vote
👋 That’s All Folks!
Before you go just a few public service announcements:
What did you think of today's edition? |
See you soon,
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