Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as often as the internet seems to break these days (thanks Cloudflare) ☠️
The Half Baked x Bolt Founder Hackathon is kicking off tomorrow! $15K in prizes up for grabs. More details here.
Let’s get into it 🚀
In today’s edition:
💡 A sign someone needs to start this idea
📈 Google’s latest model launch just blew us all away
🛠 Using Gemini 3 to build cool games
🤑 Turning trading into a +$1B business
🍻 Taking the pain out of a joyous experience
🤟 Sign Language Learning Platform
A sign of the times
Available Domain: Signappse.com
The Problem: Fun fact: the third most studied language at US colleges today is American Sign Language, right after drunken English and “frat bro” slang at the number 1 and 2 spots I presume. Jokes aside though ASL is widely used today, with over 500,000 native American Sign Language users in the US alone. But there’s a big problem here. 90% of Deaf children are born to hearing parents, yet research suggests that up to 70% of these families never achieve fluency in ASL. That’s because current apps on the market (like Lingvano) are pretty much glorified dictionaries. They show you a video of how to sign, but they can't see if you're doing it back correctly.It’s time to change things. Here’s what we’re thinking.
The Solution:
In a line: An app that uses computer vision to track your hand and facial movements, allowing you to converse interactively in real-time to learn sign language.
Product:
📲 A user downloads the app (phone or desktop) and calibrates their phone camera by holding up their hand, allowing the software to map their finger joints and facial landmarks.
🤳 Users complete lessons where the screen splits: the top half shows the lesson, and the bottom half shows an overlay on their own video feed, turning green when their hand shape and speed match the correct sign.
🤖 Users can also use "Conversation Mode," where they speak to a photorealistic 3D avatar that understands their signs (Sign-to-Text) and responds back in sign language (Text-to-Sign), simulating real-life scenarios like a doctor's visit or a coffee date.
🏆 Progress is tracked by "accuracy scores" and "signing speed," encouraging the user to improve their physical fluidity to unlock new levels.
Prototyping:
Here’s the prompt we used to build it.
Fork your own version of this app.
Business Model: Freemium subscription (limited daily feedback for free, unlimited conversational practice for $12.99/mo)
End Goal: Sell to a language learning app for a 10–15x revenue multiple (due to the proprietary computer vision technology).
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 TOMORROW 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.
3️⃣ Google Just Dropped Gemini 3. It’s Pretty Epic.
The Trend: Google has been teasing the release of Gemini 3 for a few weeks…and today, it finally dropped. This new model boasts state-of-the-art reasoning, enhanced multimodal capabilities, and has some crazy benchmark scores. The model really excels at vibe coding games (more on that below), making websites with great UX and creating super cool, interactive learning environments. Google has really cooked here and the use cases Sundar shows off are 100% worth checking out. Now it’s time to see what the other frontier AI labs respond with. The game is very much on….
Opportunities:
Verticalized AI Benchmarking Platform: A platform that tests AI models on real, industry-specific tasks creating specific AI benchmarks across different verticals so companies know what models to use (like when a new model drops)
Cross-Model Prompt Optimization Tool: A platform where developers can write a single "master prompt" and the tool automatically adapts and optimizes it for the syntax and nuances of different models.
🕹️ Using Gemini 3 to Build Cool Games
The Tool: As a founder, sometimes you just need to kick back, relax and do some gaming to take your mind off your business. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that in the future we won’t just be playing games, we’ll be building the games we want to play ourselves. Here’s how you can use Gemini 3 to do exactly that.
Step-by-step:
Go to Google AI Studio and ensure you have Thinking/Gemini 3 as the model selected (it should be selected by default)
Craft a prompt on the game you want to build (here’s an example prompt you can use). Be specific with what you want to build).
Make any further refinements you want in your game and start playing it (here’s an example game you can try)
🧠 Start Your Day Smarter
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💹 Turning Trading into a +$1B Business
The Idea: Jannick Malling and Leif Abraham weren’t interested in building just another trading app. No no, they actually wanted to dismantle the "bro-culture" of Wall Street. The pair, both serial entrepreneurs (Malling previously founded a trading app called Matador), realized that while Robinhood had democratized access by killing fees, the stock market still felt lonely and intimidating to the average person. They believed the barrier to entry wasn't financial, but psychological. Their hypothesis? Money shouldn't be a taboo topic discussed in hushed tones, but a conversation held in the open. So they decided to pivot from the solitary experience of Matador to build the "public square" of investing, a place where you could own Apple stock and discuss why you bought it. This was the genesis of Public.com.
The Execution:
September 2019: Public.com officially launches (rebranded from Matador). Unlike competitors, they lean heavily into social features, allowing users to follow friends, "tip" portfolios, and share trades in a feed.
2020: The pandemic trading boom hits. Public gains traction by bringing in "culture" investors like Will Smith, JJ Watt, and The Chainsmokers, positioning itself as the antithesis to the sterile finance apps of the past.
February 2021: A defining moment. In the wake of the GameStop/Robinhood saga, Public takes a moral stand and abandons Payment for Order Flow (PFOF). They effectively turn off their primary revenue stream to align incentives with users, introducing an optional "tipping" feature instead.
February 2021: The anti-PFOF gamble pays off in brand trust. They raise a $220M Series D led by Tiger Global, hitting a $1.2 billion valuation and reach unicorn status.
March 2022: Public acquires Otis, a platform for fractional investing in collectibles. This allows users to diversify their portfolios with alternative assets, from Michael Jordan rookie cards to Banksy art, right alongside their stocks.
Late 2023/2024: The platform matures. Moving beyond just "meme stocks" and social feeds, Public aggressively expands into serious wealth-building tools, launching a High-Yield Cash Account, Treasury bills, and Bond Accounts - becoming one of the first apps to make buying bonds as easy as buying stocks.
The takeaway? Differentiation isn't just about features, it's about values. By taking a hard stance against PFOF when no one else would, Public didn't just build a user base…they built trust. Because sometimes, taking the moral high ground can be your strongest growth hack.
🔍 Founder Finds
🛠️ AI Tool: Alongside Gemini 3, Google just launched their IDE called Google Antigravity (badass name).
📚 Must-Read: Ben Horowitz's guide on hiring executives is so good.
✖️ Trending Tweet: Why incompetent action beats competent ideation every time.
🧬 Science Corner: Valar Atomics just became the first startup in history to split the atom. Legendary stuff.
💬 Founder Quote: “When growth shows up, it doesn’t knock. It kicks the door in.” Tobi Lütke
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Motorized Ice Cream Cone
Enjoy the occasional ice cream? Find yourself constantly twisting and swirling to make sure none of it falls on the floor?
Meet the Gyro-Scoop™, the motorized cone that rotates your scoop so you don’t have to. The device’s revolutionary design ensures your tongue never has to move more than a millimeter to engage with your delicious dessert. What a time to be alive.
The Gyro-Scoop™ - where soft-serve meets hard-ware.
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👋 That’s All Folks!
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