Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as the Strava watermark controversy 😱
Let’s get into it 🚀
In today’s edition:
💡 Speeding up the app launch process
📈 A guerrilla marketing tactic big brands are loving
🛠 Best practices for Sora 2 prompting
🤑 Turning socks into an $80M business
🍻 A dining experience to bring you back to your childhood
📱 App Store Submission Simulator
Try before you fly
The Problem: Everyone’s been chatting about OpenAI’s big “App Store“ moment (like we did yesterday of course). Meanwhile, waves of iOS developers are still being forced to wait for days or even weeks to get their apps approved in the App Store. That’s right, despite the App Store being around for 17 years, around 40% of submissions to the App Store get rejected, often for avoidable issues like metadata errors, privacy policy oversights, or UI violations. Each rejection adds days or even weeks of delay to a launch, costing momentum, marketing dollars, and morale. It’s time to fix this. Here’s what we’re thinking.
The Solution:
Create a sandbox that lets developers rehearse the full App Store submission process and get AI-powered rejection predictions before going live.
Users sign up, upload their build, screenshots, descriptions, and metadata to the simulator. An AI “App Reviewer” (trained on Apple guidelines and thousands of known rejections) then scans the submission for likely violations and gives feedback, providing solutions for any blockers that could lead to a rejected submission.
Monetize by charging per App submission.
The end goal is to sell to a developer tool platform for a 6–8x ARR multiple once adoption among indie devs hits critical mass.
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.
🏆 And the Award Goes to…
The Trend: Yesterday, at their DevDay event, OpenAI gave their power users awards for passing big token milestones. YouTube started it with Play Buttons. Shopify continued it with Milestones. And OpenAI jumped on the bandwagon with their aptly named “tokens of appreciation”. And while these may seem like selfless gestures, in reality they’re marketing ploys. Companies give out these awards which their customers then share on socials, giving the brand even more exposure. Genius hack, guerrilla marketing at its finest. Expect more companies to do this in the future.
Opportunities:
Physical Achievement NFT Platform: A platform that mints an NFT for each physical award, creating a digital, verifiable record of the achievement that can be traded or displayed.
Custom Award Design & Manufacturing: A boutique firm specializing in designing and producing unique, high-quality physical awards for tech companies and online communities.
📽️ Best Practices for Prompting in Sora 2
The Tool: Sam Altman memes aside, Sora 2 has been a very impressive model from OpenAI. But like a lot of video generation models, getting the most out of it can be super tricky. Luckily for us though, OpenAI just released their Sora 2 prompting guide to guide us in our quest to create epic AI content (no slop here). Here’s how to get the best out of Sora 2.
Step-by-step:
Go to Sora 2 inside ChatGPT or inside another app (like Higgsfield).
Prompt Sora using this format but fill in the relevant parts of the prompt for whatever you want to build.
Generate your video and make any changes you might need to.
🚀 Expect more from your CRM with monday.com
Your CRM should do more than just hold contacts. It should help you move faster and close more and more deals.
Monday Sales CRM gives founders the power and flexibility they need to win deals. You can easily create real-time dashboards, send mass emails, generate quotes and invoices, and build custom pipelines, speeding up your sales process.
This isn’t just another CRM. It’s the one designed to fuel growth.
🧦 Turning Socks into an $80M Business
The Idea: Having grown up in the skate and surf scenes of New Jersey and New York, brothers Tim West and Nick West were no strangers to community-driven brands. That’s how Tim, an avid runner and member of the Brooklyn Track Club, noticed a void in the running world. The market was saturated with corporate giants, but there wasn't a brand that truly spoke to the dedicated, everyday runner. Tim knew he couldn't take on the giants head-on. He needed a trojan horse. His insight? Start with socks, a product that was an afterthought for other brands. The brothers teamed up with Ardith Singh, a fashion designer, and together they created Bandit Running.
The Execution:
October 2020: The trio launched their MVP, a single pair of high-performance running socks. With zero ad spend, they sold out multiple drops purely through word-of-mouth within the tight-knit NYC running scene.
2021: The brand became an underground sensation. At any given Brooklyn Track Club workout, you could spot dozens of runners sporting the signature "B" logo on their ankles.
2022: Having conquered the sock game, Bandit expanded into a full apparel line, developing everything from half-tights with seven pockets to race singlets.
January 2023: Bandit opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which quickly became a hub for the local running community. They launched a weekly run club, solidifying their status as more than just an apparel company.
April 2024: The community-first approach paid off. Bandit raised a $14.2 million Series A at an estimated $50M - $80M valuation. This investment provided the fuel to scale their unique model.
2025: Bandit collaborated with ASICS, making its first move into the highly competitive footwear market and signaling its ambition to become a head-to-toe running brand.
All of which goes to prove that you don't need a massive marketing budget to build a beloved brand. Bandit showed that by embedding yourself authentically within a community and building with them, not just for them, your customers will become your most powerful marketing engine.
🔍 Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: Google has launched its vibe coding tool Opal in 15 more countries.
📚 Must-Read: 8VC’s post on scaling laws and generalizability in robotics is well worth a read.
📹 Must-Watch: This Sam Altman interview on zero-person AI companies, AGI breakthroughs, and many other things is pretty cool.
✖️ Trending Tweet: Figure’s 3rd generation robot looks badass.
💬 Founder Quote: “You can't just manifest things without applying effort.” Pavel Durov
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Cereal Café
Ever feel like your breakfast routine has become a bit...boring? Wish you could relive the golden age of Saturday morning cartoons with a bowl of sugary goodness in hand?
Introducing The Cereal Killer Café™, a revolutionary dining experience that brings you back to your youth. We serve up all of your favorite childhood cereals, and some you've never heard of, because who needs avocado toast when you can have a third bowl of Lucky Charms?
The Cereal Killer Café™ - making a killing, one bowl at a time.
Vote
🔦 Reader Spotlight: Meet Shachia
What are you building? A newsletter where every morning, I uncover one powerful, classic idea from science or technology, and show how it could build the businesses of tomorrow.
How did you come up with the idea? It all started with the story of the MP3. How a piece of research became a world-changing innovation. I realized there are thousands of similar “sleeping giants” waiting to be reawakened.
How can Half Baked readers help? If you’re the kind of person who loves spotting hidden potential, join our hunt. Subscribe, share your favorite forgotten ideas, and help us reach more “applied innovators” who can turn them into something new.
Connect with Shachia: Shachia on LinkedIn
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
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