Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as the tech getting showcased at CES 2026 🆕
In today’s edition:
💡 An idea to help us on our fitness journeys
🛠 Using the "5-second" test on your website copy
🔋 Turning $45K into a $13.7B exit + more
🔍 OpenAI x Pinterest, AI coding, Elon Musk + more
🍻 A product bringing back a tech classic
Let’s goooo 🚀
💸 $1,000 Competition: This week we’re partnering with Google Workspace and are supporting one of our readers in their founder journey. In order to be eligible all you need to do is:
Check out Google Workspace
Click here and set up your Google Workspace account
Reply to this email with proof of your account setup
Shoutout to last week’s winner Lucas Hamel who built this epic website on Squarespace.
Get after it this week!
🍽️ HelloFresh for Meal Prep
A batch made in heaven
Available Domain: Mealprept.com
The Problem: It's January, meaning New Year's resolutions are in full swing, gyms are packed (for the next few weeks at least), and millions of us are committed to getting healthier this year (but for real this time, not like last year…that was more like a test year). And for most of us that means cleaning up our diets. But who has time to cook multiple times per week? That’s where meal prep comes in. Love it or loathe it, meal prep is a super effective way to eat healthier and save time. There’s only one fatal flaw with it - it makes eating a bit miserable. After 4 days in a row of eating pre-cooked chicken and rice, you can literally feel the happiness drain out of you. But what if you could provide a service that did meal prep right. Think HelloFresh-level variety with meal prep-level efficiency. Here’s what we’re thinking.
The Solution:
💡 The Idea: A meal prep service that sends bulk base ingredients plus flavor modifiers weekly to create distinct, meal-prepped dishes each week.
🛠️ Product:
A user downloads the app, selects their diet type (keto, high-protein, vegetarian), chooses 5 or 10 meals per week, inputs target macros, and picks their preferred base protein and carb sources.
Every Sunday they receive a box which contains 3+ lbs of premium protein (e.g. sous-vide chicken, steak, tofu) plus a complementary base (e.g. quinoa, cauliflower rice, roasted veggies) with foolproof batch-cooking instructions designed for meal prep containers. This is cooked once on Sunday and portioned into five containers.
Five vacuum-sealed modifier packs then transform each day's meal in 60 seconds: tear open Monday's Thai Basil pack, pour over your base, add the included garnishes and crunchy toppings, instantly creating different dishes with zero cooking or cleanup
🧑💻 Prototyping: Try the demo | Get the demo prompt
💼 Business Model: Subscription model at $8-10 per meal with 80% recurring revenue.
⭐ End Goal: : Exit to a strategic acquirer like HelloFresh/Factor or a player in the fitness app space at 3-5x revenue.
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🆕 Make 2026 The Year You Actually Start
If you’ve been dreaming about starting a business but haven't taken that first step, this is your sign.
2026 is the year you stop planning and start doing. And every real business starts the same way: with the boring stuff. Email. Video calls. A domain that isn't @gmail.com.
That's where Google Workspace comes in. Set up your account today and get 20% off the Standard Plan for 12 months.
But here's where it gets interesting…
Every founder who takes action will be entered to win:
A $1,000 Half Baked grant
Free Google Workspace for a year (on us)
Mentorship from the Half Baked founders to help push your business forward
To enter simply:
Click here and set up your Google Workspace account
Reply to this email with proof of your account setup
👓 Using The "5-Second" Test on Your Website Copy
The Context: Founders suffer from the "Curse of Knowledge" - you know your product so well that you think your website is clear. Usually, it's confusing jargon. The 5-Second Test proves whether a stranger actually understands what you do before they bounce. Here’s how it works.
Step-by-step:
Take a screenshot of the "Above the Fold" section of your homepage (the part visible without scrolling).
Show a friend your website for 5 seconds, then hide it immediately. Ask them three questions:
"What does the company offer?"
"Who is it for?"
"Does it look trustworthy?"
You can also do this with an LLM.
If they say "I think it's cloud software...?" instead of "It's an accounting tool for florists," you need to rewrite your headline.
Try it out!
🎨 AI Makes Logos. Designers Make Brands.
Your company's logo isn’t just shapes and colors - it’s positioning, taste, and trade-offs. AI averages the internet. Great brands do the opposite.
If you want something fast, generic, and kinda forgettable, use a prompt.
If you want a logo with intent, nuance, and a human behind it, you need to work with a real designer.
That’s why brands use 99designs.
Get matched with a designer on 99designs today and get $20 off a logo design contest by clicking the link below (1/5/2026 - 1/31/2026)
🔋 Founder Fuel
🤑 The Money Shot: This guy took $45K, survived a flood and sold his business for $13.7B. Here’s how.
📈 Trends with Benefits: Superpower founder Max Marchione believes that this will be the biggest consumer category of 2026. He’s probably right.
💬 Prompt Drop: Here’s a prompt you can use to generate really good prompts. It’s promptception.
🆓 Free Resource: Here’s a great guide to Claude Code 2.0 and getting better at using coding agents
💵 Deal of the Day: Get 25% off Slack for your first 12 months. Terms and conditions apply.
🔍 Founder Finds
📍 OpenAI is allegedly interested in acquiring Pinterest. Looks like Sam Altman needs more data…
✖️ Jaana Dogan, a software engineer at Google, just showed how incredibly powerful AI coding is.
🔙 Elon Musk being interviewed about Zip2 back in the 90s is a real throwback.
👀 Stacy Muur pulled together a watchlist for 2026 based on some big ideas from a16z. Very interesting read!
🔥 Harmonic just released their hot 25 Startup List for Q1-26. Lots of newcomers in there, cool to see!
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Keyboard Case
Ever find yourself longing for the good old days of BlackBerry Messenger? Wish we never gave up on physical keyboards on phones?
Introducing the KeyCase™, the iPhone case that brings back the beautiful bulk of physical buttons. Watch your phone stretch to nearly double its length as you rediscover the joy of tactile typing.
KeyCase™ - it just clicks.
Vote
👋 That’s All Folks!
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See you soon,