Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as Nvidia becoming the first ever $5T company 🤯
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In today’s edition:
💡 A health app for an issue affecting millions of women
📈 Turns out Gen Z wants to get super rich
🛠 Using Gemini to craft your elevator pitch
🤑 Turning a “pink tax” into a $310M exit
🍻 The ultimate keyboard for the AI age
⏸️ AI Perimenopause App
Hitting pause
The Problem: Perimenopause, the often-misunderstood transition to menopause, can begin as early as a woman's 30s. Yet, many women feel unprepared for this phase, with over 55% of women aged 30-35 experiencing moderate to severe symptoms. This creates a silent struggle for millions, who are left to navigate a complex array of physical and psychological changes with little guidance or support. We think someone needs to help with this. Here's what we're thinking.
The Solution:
In a line: An AI-powered app that helps women track, understand, and manage their perimenopause symptoms with personalized insights and evidence-based support.
Product:
📱 A user downloads the app and completes a comprehensive onboarding assessment, including health history, lifestyle, and initial symptoms.
🧠 The app uses AI to analyze user-inputted data (symptom tracking, journaling, cycle data) and provide personalized insights, educational content, and predictive symptom patterns.
🤝 Users can access a supportive community, evidence-based lifestyle interventions (CBT, mindfulness, nutrition), and generate a detailed health report to share with their doctor.
Business Model: Freemium model with a premium subscription that unlocks advanced analytics, personalized coaching, and specialized content.
End Goal: Sell to a major digital health platform (like Teladoc or Ro), a large consumer health company (like Johnson & Johnson or P&G), or a leading women's health company (like Organon) for a 7-10x revenue multiple
Rate this idea:
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💰 Gen Z Wants to Get Suuuuuper Rich
The Trend: Everyone has a different definition of success. But it turns out Gen Z has a very, very different definition of success compared to other generations. According to a recent survey from financial firm Empower, Gen Zers on average believe an annual salary of $587,797 and net worth of $9.47 million are needed when they envision “financial success.” By contrast, older generations have much more modest definitions of financial success. For millennials, that means earning $180,865 a year with a net worth of $5.6 million, the Empower survey found. For Gen X, the respective numbers were $212,321 and $5.3 million, while boomers put theirs at just $99,874 and $1.05 million. Let’s hope the economy improves a bit…
Opportunities:
Side Hustle Incubator: A service that helps Gen Z identify, launch, and scale side hustles.
Micro-Investing Platform for Gen Z: A mobile-first platform that offers gamified financial education tailored to Gen Z.
🗣️ Using Gemini to Craft Your Elevator Pitch
The Tool: Every startup needs a great elevator pitch. Here’s how you can use AI to craft yours.
Step-by-step:
Go to Gemini
Enter this prompt: I’m the founder of [startup] in [industry], and I need help creating a short elevator pitch for [company and product description]. I need to make the pitch relevant to [audience] and I want to especially highlight [key features of product] because I want them to [take this action]. Include a compelling hook and anticipate questions an investor might have. Make the tone professional but relaxed and confident.
Fill in the blanks and refine your pitch to create the perfect elevator pitch.
Pro tip: Google has tonnes of other prompts for startup founders, you can get see them here.
🧠 You’re Building Big Things. Don’t Forget to Build Yourself Too.
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Use your HSA or FSA funds, and for a limited time, get 25% off your first month. You can start therapy on your terms, because your mind is your most important asset.
🪒 Turning a “Pink Tax” into a $310M Exit
The Idea: Back in 2017, Georgina Gooley noticed something. Whenever she went to buy a razor, she couldn’t help but notice that women’s razors were more expensive than men’s. Georgina, with her background in advertising, saw a gap in the market to eliminate the so-called “pink-tax” and bring parity to this lopsided market. She teamed up with Jason Bravman to create a product specifically designed for how women shave. This was the beginning of Billie.
The Execution:
2017: After a year of building the company and raising an initial seed round, Billie launched in November as a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand. Their launch campaign, which showed women with body hair, immediately stood out and created a strong brand identity.
2018: The brand gained significant notoriety for being the first women's razor brand to show body hair in its advertising.
2019: Billie raised $25 million in a Series A funding round led by Goldman Sachs, bringing their total funding to over $35 million.
2021: In a major exit, Billie was acquired by Edgewell Personal Care (the parent company of Schick) for $310 million in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition was completed in November.
2022: Following the acquisition, Billie expanded from a purely DTC model into brick-and-mortar retail, launching in Walmart stores across the U.S.
2023: The brand continued its retail expansion, becoming available in other major stores like Target and CVS.
The key takeaway from this story is that building a powerful brand with a clear point of view can be just as important as the product itself. Billie didn't just sell razors; they started a conversation about the "pink tax" and female body hair that resonated deeply with consumers, proving that a strong brand identity and a willingness to challenge industry norms can lead to rapid growth and a successful exit.
🔍 Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: Google just released Pomelli, an experimental AI marketing tool designed to help users generate scalable, on-brand content. Google’s on fire right now.
🚨 Raise Alert: Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint just raised $60M from a stacked list of investors.
🎁 Free Resource: Perplexity just released a free, 43 page guide to getting more done at work.
🚀 Just Launched: Board, a face-to-face gaming console that combines the best of board games and video games, just launched. Why did no-one think of this before?
💬 Founder Quote: “Every great startup is a story that almost didn’t happen.” Stewart Butterfield (Slack)
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Copy Keyboard
Ever find yourself staring at your keyboard, overwhelmed by the sheer number of keys? Wish you had a keyboard that got straight to the point?
Introducing the Copy Keyboard™, the revolutionary input keyboard with the only two keys that matter in a world where we all use AI…copy and paste. The minimalist tool for the maximalist plagiarist, it’s so simple, you’ll wonder why the other keys ever existed.
Copy Keyboard™ - the shortcut to success.
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