Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as Claude Cowork taking all of our jobs 😨
In today’s edition:
💡 Solving a problem affecting 2.2M Americans
🛠 The dream 100 strategy for early customer acquisition
🔋 How a one-man newsletter became a $5M business + more
🔍 $130M raise, 100+ new unicorns in 2025 + more
🍻 Turns your morning brew into a superfood
Let’s goooo 🚀
💸 $1,000 Giveaway: This week at Half Baked we're teaming up with the team over at T-Mobile for Business to support one of you as you build your business. In order to enter simply:
Go to this link and fill out the form on the page
Reply to this email with a screenshot that the form has been submitted. In your email tell us what you're building so we know we can help!
Get after it!
💼 Deel for Private Employment
A match maid in heaven
Available Domain: Homepay.ai
The Problem: Picture this: Maria has cleaned your house every Tuesday for three years. She's incredible - knows exactly where you hide the Christmas decorations, never judges the state of your home office - she’s a dream. You pay her $150 in cash, every week, like clockwork. Here's the thing nobody wants to talk about: you're technically breaking the law. And so are roughly 95% of the 2.2 million households in the US that employ domestic workers. The IRS considers your nanny, housekeeper, or home aide as your employee if you pay them over $2,700 a year. That means payroll taxes, W-2s, and unemployment insurance. But nobody wants to be an employer. Setting up an EIN, calculating withholding, filing quarterly 941s? For your twice-a-week babysitter? Most people would rather just...not. So they pay cash, cross their fingers, and hope the IRS never comes knocking. It’s time to fix this. Here’s how.
The Solution:
💡 The Idea: A payroll and compliance platform that makes hiring household staff as simple as Venmo
🛠️ Product:
Instant employer setup where the user answers 5 questions and the EIN, state registrations, and tax filings are all handled, making the user compliant in under 10 minutes . No paperwork, no accountant needed.
Users pay their staff through the app and the platform automatically handle taxes, workers' comp, and liability insurance. Plus, every hire includes a comprehensive background check.
Workers get access to health insurance, retirement savings, and instant pay - perks they can't get anywhere else. When they move to a new family, they bring the platform with them.
🧑💻 Prototyping: Try the demo | Get the demo prompt
💼 Business Model: $49/month base fee per household + 5% of payroll processed. Background checks at $29/each. Partner with insurance providers for rev share on workers' comp and liability policies.
⭐ End Goal: Build the operating system for the $30B household employment market. Exit to payroll giants (Gusto, ADP) or HR platforms (Deel, Rippling) at 8-12x revenue as they expand into consumer.
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📱Switch to SuperMobile from T-Mobile. Get an iPhone 17 Pro on us.
SuperMobile from T-Mobile gives your business what it needs: unlimited premium data on America's largest 5G network, intelligent network performance, and a 5-year price guarantee.*
Plus if you switch to SuperMobile right now, you can get a free iPhone 17 Pro (with a qualifying plan) to run your business.
The best business plan on the best network.
*5-year price guarantee excludes taxes & fees. Full terms at T-Mobile.com
🎯 The Dream 100 Strategy for Early Customer Acquisition
The Context: Noah Kagan (AppSumo) used Chet Holmes' Ultimate Sales Machine protocol to launch his business and book to bestseller status. Instead of mass cold outreach, this strategy focuses on building high-value relationships to secure your first 100 customers.
Step-by-step:
Identify your "Dream 100": Build a list of 100 specific targets—influential individuals, companies, or the media outlets and communities where your ideal customers hang out.
Infiltrate and provide value: Before asking for anything, "grease the wheels." Engage with their content and share their work to generate 5-7 touchpoints that put you on their radar.
Create personalized outreach: Send a unique message (direct mail, video, or specific offer) that solves a problem for them. No generic templates allowed.
Build relationships: Follow up consistently (every 2-4 weeks) and continue delivering value to move them from a stranger to a customer.
Give it a try!
📱In Case You Missed It…
Last time we mention it today, we promise. But T-Mobile have been a huge support to us - helping us give away thousands of dollars to Half Baked readers building real businesses.
Now they're helping YOU scale. Switch to SuperMobile and get an iPhone 17 Pro on them (with a qualifying plan). Unlimited premium data on America's largest 5G network, plus a 5-year price guarantee.
🔋 Founder Fuel
🤑 The Money Shot: This guy turned a blog into a $5M/year one-person media empire that inspired Substack's entire existence. Here's how.
📈 Trends with Benefits: Some people are now intentionally spreading poisoned data on the public internet to make LLMs dumber. Startup idea here? Read more.
💬 Prompt Drop: Jodie Cook's collection of 1,000+ ChatGPT prompts for entrepreneurs covers everything from sales scripts to investor pitches.
🆓 Free Resource: The YC Startup Library is hundreds of essays, videos, and guides from the world's best accelerator - completely free.
💵 Deal of the Day: Get 25% off Slack for your first 12 months. Terms and conditions apply.
🔍 Founder Finds
🎙️ Deepgram just raised $130M at a $1.3B valuation and acquired YC-backed Ofone to power voice AI for restaurants. Voice is eating software.
🦄 TechCrunch tracked every new unicorn minted in 2025 - over 100 startups hit the billion-dollar mark, most of them AI-related.
🔮 Elon has made 4 bold predictions for the next decade. They’re pretty wild (as you’d expect).
🚀 Lenny Rachitsky's breakdown of how the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users is a must-read. Spoiler: most did things that don't scale.
🦸 Dan Koe’s post on why having multiple interests is a superpower in today's world has gone super viral…and for good reason. You gotta read it.
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: BrewBoost
Tired of choosing between your morning coffee ritual and becoming a wellness influencer? Wish your cold brew came with adaptogens, nootropics, and whatever the hell cordyceps are?
Introducing BrewBoost™, the world's first coffee enhancement powder that transforms your sad office Keurig into a $47 Erewhon smoothie. Each packet contains 73 vitamins, mushroom extracts, collagen peptides, and enough supplements to make your pee glow in the dark. Available in flavors like "Mushroom Mocha," "Collagen Cappuccino," and "Ashwagandha Americano."
BrewBoost™ - grounds for improvement.
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👋 That’s All Folks!
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