Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as Andrew Tulloch joining Meta for a reported $3.5B salary 😭
Let’s get into it 🚀
In today’s edition:
💡 A startup idea stemming from an AI breakthrough
📈 Why Gen-Z is breaking up with social media
🛠 How to find $100k/m B2C App Ideas
🤑 Turning tragedies into a +$300M business
🍻 Some protection where you badly need it
🛍️ AI Purchase Intent Platform
Market presearch
Available Domain: Intentive.com
The Problem: Over the last few days an academic paper has been doing the rounds on socials: LLMs Reproduce Human Purchase Intent via Semantic Similarity Elicitation of Likert Ratings. Sounds super exciting right? Well it kind of is. I’ll spare you the technical jargon (which I totally, 100% understand of course) and tell you what the paper found - that you can predict actual purchase intent (with 90% accuracy) by asking an LLM to impersonate a customer with a demographic profile, giving it a product & having it give its impressions, which another AI rates. This finding means that consumer research, which costs companies billions annually, can now be done in seconds. Someone’s gotta build a business out of this. Here’s how.
The Solution:
In a line: A self-serve platform that uses AI-driven consumer simulations to instantly validate product purchase intent.
Product:
💻 A marketer signs up and uploads their concept, which could be ad copy, a product description, or a landing page design.
🤖 The platform uses advanced AI models to run thousands of consumer simulations, modeling the reactions of different demographic and psychographic profiles.
📊 Within minutes, the user receives a dashboard with purchase intent scores, key emotional drivers (e.g., "buyers are motivated by a sense of security"), predicted market segments, and the top objections or concerns from simulated consumers.
Business Model: A tiered subscription model: a pay-per-test option ($49/test), an unlimited monthly plan ($499/month), and an enterprise API for agencies and large teams.
End Goal: Sell to a major market research firm (like Nielsen or Kantar) for a 10-15x revenue multiple.
Rate this idea:
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📱 Gen Z is Breaking Up With Social Media
The Trend: Everyone assumes young people are glued to their phones 24/7, but the data is starting to tell a different story. This chart from the FT shows that social media usage peaked in 2022 and has been declining ever since, with 16-24 year olds leading the exodus. They've cut their daily usage from nearly 3 hours to 2.7 hours, while their parents and grandparents are still scrolling more. Sure it’s a small dip, but the trend here is fascinating.
Opportunities:
Digital Detox Services: Create programs specifically designed to help adults to address social media addiction.
Light Phone for Gen Z: Create a sleek, aesthetic device that only allows essential functions (calls, messages, maps).
🔍 How to Find $100k/m B2C App Ideas
The Tool: Consumer mobile apps are popping off right now. AI features, coupled with TikTok distribution, is an epic combination. But coming up with viral app ideas can be pretty tricky. Well Ernesto Lopez, who owns 9 apps making $52,000 MRR, is here to help, sharing his prompt to find $100k/m app ideas.
Step-by-step:
Go to ChatGPT or another LLM
Copy and paste this prompt into your LLM
Whittle down your app ideas and find one to build
🤫 The Secret Weapon Behind Half Baked
Running a fast-growing newsletter isn't for the faint-hearted. There's content, sales, growth - the chaos never ends. So how do we manage it all? We have a secret weapon.
Executive assistants.
Executive assistants, like the ones sourced by Oceans, are a game changer.
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Oceans are kindly offering 2 weeks free (up to $1,500 off) on a 3-month contract for the first 5 Half Baked readers that book in a call. Don't miss out!
🧬 Turning Tragedies into a +$300M Business
The Idea: In his youth Kevin Unkrich experienced a tragedy. He tragically lost his best friend to a brain tumor, an event that pushed him towards biomedical engineering and medicine. His future co-founders, Jacob Peters and Max Marchione, also had their own harrowing experiences with a healthcare system that felt broken and reactive. Jacob nearly lost his life to misdiagnosed conditions that cost him over $2 million to resolve, while Max spent decades battling health issues that were repeatedly misdiagnosed by over 20 doctors. The trio, all having experienced the burnout of the venture-backed startup world, connected with a shared mission: to empower people to take control of their own health. This was the beginning of Superpower.
The Execution:
Early 2023: They began Superpower as a scrappy, service-based business, offering everything from diagnostic testing to personalized supplement and nutrition plans. This hands-on approach, while not scalable, provided invaluable insights into customer pain points and desires.
May 2024: Having proven the demand for their services, Superpower raised a $4 million pre-seed round led by Susa Ventures. This capital injection allowed them to pivot from a high-touch service to building a scalable product.
Late 2024: Instead of pouring money into traditional ads, Superpower focused on building a powerful brand and community. They created a 150,000+ person waitlist through clever growth tactics like a referral program that let people jump the queue, and shareable “Bio Age”.
April 2025: Superpower officially launched its platform to the public, announcing a $30 million Series A round led by Forerunner, valuing the company at over $300 million. The launch made their comprehensive biomarker testing and AI-powered health guidance accessible to a wider audience.
May 2025: Continuing its growth, Superpower acquired Base, a food-as-medicine startup, to further enhance its personalized health offerings.
The lesson? The old adage “do things that don’t scale” really comes through here, but more importantly than that, you need to work on something you care deeply about. That’s where you’ll find the drive and the will to do anything you can to win.
🔍 Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: Napkin turns your text into visuals so sharing your ideas is quick and effective.
📹 Must-Watch: Amjad Masad (Replit’s CEO) believes that the value of traditional software will approach zero. Soon.
✖️ Trending Tweet: This 17 year old sold his side project for $70,000. Kid’s going places.
🔬 Science Corner: This hair-growth serum based on plant extracts has noticeable results in less than two months. Someone needs to productize it.
💬 Founder Quote: “At the limit, nobody knows anything.” Michael Dell
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Toe Armor
Ever stubbed your toe so hard you saw your entire life flash before your eyes? Looking to keep your toes toe-tally protected?
Introducing Toe Armor™ - the world’s first line of personal protective equipment for your toes. Slip them on and laugh in the face of coffee tables, bed frames, and rogue Lego bricks.
Toe Armor™ - eliminates stub-born pain
Vote
🔦 Reader Spotlight: Meet Jack
What are you building? We’re building an AI/ML platform that can see the invisible world of radio signals, scanning the airwaves to classify and catalog everything it finds.
How did you come up with the idea? I was blown away by how much you can learn just by “listening” to the air. There’s an entire invisible world of signals happening around us.
How can Half Baked readers help? Project management guidance, VC introductions, and Android/ATAK devs who want to help make something groundbreaking real. The vision’s solid, it just needs a team behind it.
Connect with Jack: Jack on LinkedIn
P.S: If you want your startup or project featured, click here!
👋 That’s All Folks!
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