Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as Polymarket’s $2B investment from the NYSE 🏦
Let’s get into it 🚀
In today’s edition:
💡 Turning content into a bonding opportunity
📈 Did AI just have its app store moment?
🛠 How to use OpenAI’s new agent builder
🤑 From zero to acquisition in 2 years
🍻 The extra protection you need in life
🖍️ AI Cartoon Creation Platform
Cartwoons
The Problem: Kids’ content is pretty nuts. It’s super addictive, with kids spending over 3 hours a day on screens watching everything and anything. Meanwhile, parents struggle to find creative, bonding activities that compete with the addictive pull of YouTube and/or TikTok. Traditional art or storytelling tools can’t keep up with kids’ desire for instant, visual gratification. So what if, instead of consuming shows, families could create them together…with a little help from AI? Here’s what we’re thinking.
The Solution:
A collaborative AI storytelling platform where parents and kids co-create animated shows together, from script to screen.
Families sign up and start by choosing a theme (pirates, space, superheroes, etc.) or upload their own kid-drawn characters.
AI then helps turn their ideas or doodles into full storyboards, voiceovers, and animated episodes, guided by prompts written together. Finished shows can be shared privately with family/friends
The ultimate goal is to sell to a kids’ media or edutainment company or an AI video platform for a 7–10x revenue multiple.
Rate this idea:
📦 The Easiest Way to Start your E-commerce Business in 2025
In our recent webinar with Ryan Bartlett, founder & CEO of True Classic (+$850M brand), we asked what he’d do if he were starting an e-commerce business today.
His answer? Dropshipping.
It’s the fastest way to test products, gain traction, and scale without big upfront costs. And the easiest way to start is with AutoDS. One-click imports, automated fulfillment, and trend-spotting tools are just some of the reasons why it's trusted by 8,000+ founders.
🛠️ Did AI just have its App Store Moment?
The Trend: AI may have just had its "App Store Moment." Just like Apple did with the iPhone, OpenAI is creating an ecosystem where anyone can build specialized AI experiences that live directly inside ChatGPT. And with 800M weekly active users, there’s huge potential for big businesses to be built here. This move signals OpenAI’s move to become the “Apex Aggregator” where we interact with countless apps under their paradigm. RIP GPT wrappers, it was fun while it lasted.
Opportunities:
AI App Discovery Hub: A curated search engine and analytics platform that ranks and reviews ChatGPT apps, tracks trending ones, and helps users find the best AI tools by use case.
OpenAI App Development Studio: Create a studio that specializes in building apps for ChatGPT
🤖 How to Use OpenAI’s New Agent Builder
The Tool: OpenAI launching their agent builder platform yesterday is a big move into this market, where players like Zapier and n8n dominate right now. So…here’s how to create your first agent using their agent builder.
Step-by-step:
Go to this link (which is surprisingly hard to find), sign in, and add credits to your account if you need to (womp womp)
Then hit create or pick from one of the templates to create your first agent. There’s a quick tutorial from OpenAI on how the UI works here.
Once you’re happy with your workflow click preview to test it out.
When ready hit publish and you’ll get a workflow ID to integrate with your site using ChatKit (guide to set up ChatKit is here if you need it)
🛡 Marketing That Founders Can Trust
Tired of marketing agencies that over-promise and under-deliver?
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🗞️ From Zero to Acquisition in 2 Years
The Idea: Back in early 2023, Noah Edelman and Pete Huang saw a tidal wave coming…AI was going mainstream, fast. Pete had built a following on LinkedIn by breaking down complex AI topics into simple, engaging posts, and Noah, a seasoned newsletter writer, saw there was an opportunity to build a newsletter in this space. They teamed up to create The Neuron.
The Execution:
March 2023: The Neuron launched on Beehiiv. The MVP was straightforward - one daily email breaking down the most important AI news in plain English. Within weeks, they hit 10,000 subscribers, largely from Pete’s LinkedIn audience.
June 2023: The team leaned into organic social growth, funnelling Pete’s followers into signups while maintaining tight quality control.
September 2023: They hit 100,000 subscribers in six months and reinvested ad revenue into Meta ads to scale further.
Early 2024: The Neuron acquired four smaller AI newsletters, merging their audiences under one brand. Growth remained steady and linear.
Mid 2024: The brand expanded into a full media company, launching a podcast and educational courses that eventually served 20,000+ students.
January 2025: Just two years after launch, The Neuron was acquired by TechnologyAdvice. The deal, completed over a few months, recognized the brand’s unique voice and authority in the exploding AI media landscape.
The lesson? By picking and executing on the right idea you could be a year or two away from changing your life.
🔍 Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: This guy gives a great intro to using Agent Builder (1 hr tutorial).
📹 Must-Watch: This startup launch video is something to behold.
🎁 Exclusive Offer: Protect your personal information from cybercriminals. Get 50% off the top-rated password manager today.
✖️ Trending Tweet: PG’s 6 principles for making new things are timeless.
💬 Founder Quote: “Wandering is so important because wandering is a kind of humility,” Jeff Bezos
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Keyboard Condoms
Does your keyboard look like a crime scene? Tired of explaining to IT why your spacebar is permanently dirty?
Introducing KeyboardCondoms™ - ultra-thin protective covers that keep your keyboard safe from crumbs, spills, and the general chaos of your eating habits. Yes, we called them condoms because apparently that's the only way to get people to practice safe computing.
KeyboardCondoms™ - because protection isn't just for your hard drive anymore.
Vote
🔦 Reader Spotlight: Meet Logan
What are you building? I’m building Fininja, a privacy-first money tracker that imports CSVs/PDFs, learns your spending habits, and gives you a clean, filterable dashboard without handing your data to ad platforms.
How did you come up with the idea? It started as a personal need, I grew up tracking every penny and wanted a tool that respected my privacy. I built it for myself, and others quickly wanted in.
How can Half Baked readers help? Try Fininja, share feedback, or connect me with privacy-minded users and investors, every voice helps shape the product.
Connect with Logan: Logan on Linkedin
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
👋 That’s All Folks!
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