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- Startup Ideas #451: Patent Infringements, Solo Founders...
Startup Ideas #451: Patent Infringements, Solo Founders...
Plus From $0 to $50M ARR in 5 Months
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as Riley Walz reverse engineering the SF parking ticket system (what a legend) 🅿️
Let’s get into it 🚀
In today’s edition:
💡 An idea we need to slap a patent on
📈 How founding team are changing over time
🛠️ How to turn a Figma design into code
🤑 From $0 to $50M ARR in 5 months
🍻 The ultimate weight loss utensil
🔍 AI for Patent Infringement Detection
The C-ease Suite
Available Domain: Patend.co
The Problem: Patents, if you can get one, are super helpful. But actually enforcing them is like pulling teeth (something dentists seem to have a patent on). Lawyers and analysts spend hundreds of hours combing through patents and competitor products to figure out if there’s infringement. In fact, over $3 billion is spent annually on U.S. patent litigation research before a single case is even filed. Yet most of this work is repetitive claim parsing and product comparison that could be automated. Here’s what we’re thinking…
The Solution:
Build AI software that reads patents, scans competing products, and auto-generates claim charts showing potential infringement.
A legal or IP team in a company sign up and upload their patents. AI then identifies key technical features and scrapes competitor product data and compares to check for any patent infringement.
Over time you could expand beyond just patents to all other forms of IP infringement.
Rate this idea: |
🗄️ Compliance Made Simple for Startups
Achieving SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, or even ISO 42001 compliance can feel overwhelming. But Vanta makes it painless.
Trusted by 12,000+ companies, Vanta automates up to 90% of the compliance process, offers real-time monitoring, and streamlines audits so you can get certified in weeks, not months.
And we've teamed up with Vanta to offer a collection of resources for startups, including step-by-step compliance checklists and case studies from fast-growing startups. It's an incredible resource.
👤 Solo Founders are Coming Out in Force
The Trend: Historically, solo founders have been the second class citizens of the startup world. But slowly, they’re becoming the majority. Carta's analysis of 43,492 US startups shows solo founders have doubled from 17% in 2015 to 35% in 2024, while teams of 3+ founders have collapsed from 51% to just 27%. Turns out AI tools, no-code platforms, and remote talent have made it possible to stay solo.
Opportunities:
Solo Founder Support Network: Communities and tools specifically designed for solo founders who need advice, accountability, and connections without giving up equity.
AI Co-Founder Platform: AI-powered tools that handle the tasks co-founders typically split, from technical development to marketing strategy, letting solo founders stay solo.
🔲 How to Turn a Figma Design into Code
The Tool: For years, designers have had to hand off their Figma designs to programmers to turn their designs into code. But now, with Claude Code, everything’s changed. Because now you can turn a Figma design directly into code using Claude Code. Here’s how.
Step-by-step:
Connect Figma to Claude by opening up the connectors directory on Claude desktop and click install on the Figma connector.
In Dev Mode on Figma desktop, enable MCP server to let Claude save generated code to your project.
Copy the link from your Figma frame (right click and hit “copy link to selection”) and paste it into Claude.
Prompt Claude Code to turn the design into a website in HTML and CSS and watch the magic happen
🤖 Master BFCM With 50 AI Prompts
BFCM can drive up to 40% of annual revenue, but success depends on fast, data-driven decisions. Basic LLMs can quickly analyze complex datasets, reveal patterns, and offer actionable guidance — as long as they’re paired with the right prompts and organized data.
This guide covers:
LLM applications for BFCM optimization
How to prepare your data for analysis
50 expert-crafted prompts for every scenario
Step-by-step workflows and automation tips
Manual vs. automated approaches with Triple Whale’s Moby
📹 From $0 to $50M ARR in 5 Months
The Idea: Alex Mashrabov is the best founder you’ve probably never heard of. A top-ranked Russian programmer, he built translation systems at Yandex before co-founding AI Factory in 2018, an AR effects business that was acquired by Snapchat for $166M in 2019. While working at Snap as their Head of Generative AI over the next few years, Alex saw that while AI had made creation easier, marketers still couldn’t scale video production. So he set out with Yerzat Dulat and Mahi de Silva to fix that with Higgsfield.
The Execution:
October 2023: Higgsfield is founded in San Francisco with the vision of replacing prompt engineering with “Click-to-Video.”
Early 2024: MVP launches with Draw-to-Video and preset-based workflows. The hack? Strip away confusing inputs and make AI feel simple.
Mid 2024: Explosive early growth - hit 11M+ users, 1.2B+ impressions and a $50m revenue run rate in just five months, driven by viral social clips and word-of-mouth.
September 2025: Higgsfield raises a $50m Series A led by GFT Ventures to scale infrastructure and expand model capabilities. Epic.
Higgsfield proves that usability is the key. You don’t need the most complex model to win, you need to build experiences for the masses.
🔍️ Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: Google just launched an experimental, AI-powered concepting board called Mixboard. Bye bye Pinterest.
🚨 Raise Alert: Emergent just raised $23M from Lightspeed to scale their AI app builder tool.
📚 Must-Read: Sam Altman’s latest blog post “Abundant Intelligence” has to be read. End of story.
✖️ Trending Tweet: David Senra is launching a new podcast, and everyone in Silicon Valley is freaking out.
💬 Founder Quote: “There are only a handful of things that are really important…devote all your time to those and forget everything else.” Larry Ellison (Oracle)
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Smart Fork
Trying to get your eating under control? Looking to better understand your mealtime analytics?
Introducing the Smart Fork™, the smart utensil that vibrates if you eat too fast and gives you analytics on your meals. It’s basically Fitbit, but for your face.
Smart Fork™ - chew on this.
Vote
🔦 Reader Spotlight: Meet Robert
What are you building? I’m building Vizzly, a way for teams to catch design bugs before they slip through. I saw firsthand how this was always treated as an afterthought, so I’m making it part of the process from day one.
Biggest challenge right now? Getting in front of the right people and proving Vizzly isn’t just “another tool.” Plus, learning the founder side of sales, marketing, all the unglamorous stuff outside of code.
How can Half Baked readers help? Try Vizzly and tell me what works, what doesn’t, and what’s missing.
Connect with Robert: Robert on LinkedIn
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
👋 That’s All Folks!
Before you go:
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