Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as surprising as Jeff Bezos becoming co-CEO of a new startup (much to Elon’s dismay) 👔
The Half Baked x Bolt Founder Hackathon is kicking off this week. $15K in prizes up for grabs. More details here.
Let’s get into it 🚀
In today’s edition:
💡 An app idea from a Japanese goal setting technique
📈 Why the future of AI may not be LLMs
🛠 Using AI to build a startup financial model
🤑 From childhood friends to Building a $10B fashion brand
🍻 Combining walking and cycling into one amazing product
⭐ Harada Goal Setting App
Grid and bear it
Available Domain: Haradaily.com
The Problem: With Christmas closing in fast (Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé are coming out of cryo-freeze as we speak), people are already starting to make their plans for 2026. Goals they want to achieve. New Years resolutions that they’re definitely, totally, 100% going to stick to this year. Maybe that’s why the “dream sheet” or “Harada” Method for achieving goals went super viral recently online. In short, it’s a goal setting technique invented in Japan that turns goals into a concrete, daily action plan using a 64-cell grid, 8 pillars and 8 smaller actions. It’s pretty cool, and we think it could be the basis for a neat little productivity app. Here’s what we have in mind.
The Solution:
In a line: A goal-setting app that digitizes the Harada Method, turning ambitious goals into a daily action plan.
Product:
🎯 Users start by defining their central, long-term goal, which becomes the core of their personalized 8x8 "Goal Grid."
🧠 The app then automatically creates a grid with 8 core pillars to achieving the goal and each pillar has 8 smaller, actionable daily tasks, filling the 64-cell grid.
✅ A daily diary and routine check sheet feature helps users track their progress on each of the 64 tasks, and the app includes a social component for mentorship and accountability.
Prototyping:
Here’s the prompt we used to build it
Fork your own version of this app
Business Model: Freemium for individuals (1 goal, 1 grid), then subscription tiers for unlimited goals/grids.
End Goal: Sell to a larger productivity app for a 5-8x revenue multiple.
Rate this idea:
👨💻 Half Baked x Bolt Hackathon
Looking for the perfect time to launch your startup? This is it.
We’re teaming up with the incredible team at Bolt to run a 10 day hackathon from Nov 19-30.
By registering for the hackathon for free you'll get:
🚀 3 months of Bolt Pro free
💡 Startup Idea Vault
⚙️ Zero-to-Validation playbook
🔥 Private Discord Access
And to kick-off the hackathon we’re running a live launch event on Nov 19 @ 1 PM PT | 4 PM ET | 9 PM GMT with Eric Simons, Bolt’s CEO. It’s going to be epic, don’t miss it!
It’s time to build.
❌ The Future of AI May Not Be LLMs
The Trend: LLMs kicked off the AI boom, but as we’ve seen with recent model launches, progress seems to be slowing. So could something take their place?Well, Yann LeCun (former Chief Scientist at Meta) argues instead that “world models” are the future of AI. These are systems that build internal representations of the real world and use this understanding to simulate actions, predict consequences, and understand the real world. And interestingly, the team at Future House just announced a major release in this space. This could be a turning point in the AI industry.
Opportunities:
Autonomous Ops Planner for Warehouses: A model that simulates warehouse layouts, worker movement, and robot paths - then optimizes throughput without real-world trial and error.
AI Product Manager for Hardware Teams: A world model that evaluates “what if” manufacturing choices (materials, tolerances, thermal constraints) and simulates failure modes before fabrication.
➗ Using AI to Build a Startup Financial Model
The Tool: Building a financial model means projecting revenue, burn rate, runway, and unit economics - work that can take founders days to build from scratch. Here’s how you can use AI to do it in minutes.
Step-by-step:
Go to Claude and enter a prompt like this one to kick-off the analysis
Use connectors to give Claude access to your data sources (Enable Google Drive to access existing financial tracking sheets, Turn on Web Search to research industry benchmarks and use Extended Thinking for more sophisticated scenario modeling)
Claude will then create a financial model with three-scenario projections with sensitivity analysis.
Continue the conversation to refine, expand, or explore further.
💯 Unlock Your Next Income Stream: 100 Side Hustles for Ambitious Founders
In a world where financial freedom feels like a distant dream, ambitious founders are building wealth on their own terms. And HubSpot is here to help by offering:
A curated database of 100 proven side hustles (that actually work)
Each idea comes with required startup costs, time investment, and potential earnings
Exclusive insights from founders who've turned side gigs into 6-figure empires
Detailed skill requirements so you can match your talents to the right opportunity
Don't let another month slip by watching others build their empire. Your next income stream is hiding in our database, waiting to be discovered.
🧘 From Childhood Friends to Building a $10B Fashion Brand
The Idea: Danny Harris and Marco DeGeorge were childhood friends from Los Angeles with a knack for entrepreneurship. They started a screen-printing business right out of high school, which they grew into a massive apparel manufacturing company called Color Image Apparel. But their big break came when they both started practicing yoga and saw a gap in the market for high-quality, fashion-forward yoga wear that could be worn on and off the mat. This was the idea for Alo Yoga (an acronym for Air, Land, and Ocean).
The Execution:
2007: Danny and Marco officially launch Alo Yoga in Los Angeles. Their MVP is a small line of yoga-pants and tops designed to combine performance fabrics with street-sensible aesthetics.
2010-2012: The brand begins building its community through content and partnership with local yoga studios; they emphasise ethics (sweat-shop free manufacturing) and the lifestyle side of yoga.
2015-2017: Alo Yoga builds momentum as “studio-to-street” athleisure. Celebrity sightings (Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber etc) boost its cultural cachet.
2020: The launch of their skincare line, Alo Glow System, signals expansion beyond apparel into a broader wellness-lifestyle brand.
2021-2023: Rapid global store rollout (“sanctuaries” - stores with studio-feel, cafés) and brand positioning as a challenger to larger athleisure incumbents.
2025: While still privately held (by Danny and Marco) the business is valued at a reported $10B.
Alo’s trajectory shows how anchoring a brand in a movement, not a product category, creates endurance. By treating apparel as an entry point into a broader philosophy of mindful living, they built something competitors selling “performance wear” couldn’t easily copy. That’s how they build a billion dollar brand.
🔍 Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: Arcads just launched an AI hook generator for going viral.
🚨 Raise Alert: Ramp just raised $300M at a $32B valuation. These guys love raising money.
📚 Must-Read: Here’s YC’s formula for manufacturing startups.
🧬 Science Corner: This new malaria treatment has cured 97.4% of patients its been tested on. A big win for humanity!
💬 Founder Quote: ”If you’re unsure of what to do, just do anything, even if it’s the wrong thing. This will give you information about what you should actually be doing.” Brian Armstrong
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Treadmill Bike
Love the idea of a leisurely stroll but can’t stand how long it takes? Wondering why biking and walking still haven’t merged into one efficient motion?
Say hello to the Stride-Rider™, the electric walking-bike that lets you stroll and roll at the same time. If a treadmill and a bike had a fling, this would be the offspring.
Stride-Rider™ - stroll to roll
Vote
👋 That’s All Folks!
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