Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as out of this world as the US military's first confirmed space weapons 🛰️
In today’s edition:
💡 An idea to get founders paid properly for their data
⛽️ Your first AI UGC campaign, $1B in under 5 years + more
🔍 Sam Altman's advice, our new podcast + more
🍻 An idea to get better (aka cheat) at golf
Let’s goooo 🚀
FYI: We've just opened applications for START, a free 30-day programme that gets you from no idea to a launched business. Playbooks, live sessions, a founder cohort and cash prizes included. The cohort kicks off 5 October and spots are limited.
💡 Sell-side Data Brokerage
Going for brokerage
Name.com Domain: dividata.io
👤 Source: Oliver Brocato, who co-founded and sold Tabs Chocolate before founding brand-protection company Bustem, says he sold his company’s internal operational data to an AI lab for $370k+. Two friends reportedly received $900k and $540k for theres. Which got us thinking: who’s helping founders price and negotiate these deals?
❌ Problem:
“Data is the new oil“. This phrase has been thrown around a lot recently, and it turns out a lot of companies are sitting on hugely valuable data that other companies are looking to buy.
Your company’s SOPs, project histories and support workflows could be valuable AI training material. micro1 advertises data partnerships from $100k to $1m+. But who’s there to help these businesses understand what their data is worth and make sure they’re no getting ripped off? Here’s the idea.
✅ Solution:
Build a data brokerage representing the businesses selling access to their data. Start with an approved sample, assess what buyers might value and help the owner define a package they’re comfortable licensing.
Bring that package to prospective buyers, seek competing bids and negotiate the scope, permitted uses, exclusivity and payment terms. Coordinate specialist review of data rights and sensitive information before anything changes hands.
Start as a hands-on service for companies already receiving offers. Charge an assessment fee plus a success fee on completed deals. Build software around the work that repeats.
🧑💻 Prototyping: Product Demo
💡 The Half Baked Take: Selling data is a bit of a dark market, so you need to be very careful about who your working with here on both the buy-side and sell-side.
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🎁 Make the team lunch budget go a little further
If you're already ordering lunch for your US team, give that spend another job. With ezCater Rewards, you earn rewards points when you order, redeemable for Amazon Gift Cards or discounts on future orders.
You also get catering-ready menus and 24/7 human support. A useful extra for something that's already on the calendar.
💡 Ideas to Inspire You
💻 SaaS: Never underestimate what enthusiasts will spend time on. This AI-built demo points to a niche worth exploring.
📱 Mobile: No one’s built this viral app idea yet. We think it could be easily done and monetised quickly.
🛍️ E-commerce: Shopify made it easy to launch an online shop. Here's a Shopify-inspired idea built around lawn care and pressure washing. Mow money, less problems.
🤖 Hardware: Zach Yadegari, founder of Cal AI, is at it again. This time with a wearable wristband with some unique features.
💵 Side Hustle: Chris Koerner profiles a former DoorDash driver who hit $81k in third-month revenue with a ‘boring’ handoff business model. Check it out.
⛽️ Fuel for Taking Action
🎓 Founder Tutorial: How to run your first AI UGC campaign - a step-by-step guide that walk you through the whole thing.
🛠️ AI Tool: Wisry finds the ads already winning in your market and rebuilds them for your brand. Paste your URL, get finished creative. Very handy.
📘 Playbook: Here’s how one founder scaled his app to exit with no funding, no co-founders, and no CS degree. Great read.
🤑 Money Shot: These guys went from quitting their jobs with no product to a $1B valuation in under 5 years. Here's how.
P.S. Got an idea you're ready to take seriously? Our Founder pack has the deals, playbooks and exclusive content to get you moving, and it's 100% free.
🤖 AI Turned 16 Hours of Phishing Work Into Five Minutes
That is IBM's own red team. Five prompts, one convincing email, pennies a go. When attacking you costs almost nothing, being small stops counting as protection.
Bitdefender catches the phishing, fraud and ransomware automatically, before your team ever sees it. Get 60% off your annual subscription, courtesy of Half Baked.
🔍 Everything Else from Today
📚 Must-Read: Paul Graham on how startups actually become powerful. Hint: it's not by chasing revenue.
🎧️ Must-Listen: We've launched a podcast! Episode 1 serves up four $100M startup ideas anyone could start tomorrow. Give it a listen and a follow.
📺 Must-Watch: Here’s what Sam Altman reckons you should focus on now, and coding didn’t make the list.
✖️ Trending Tweet: Ben Cera built a $250m in 3 months, but his journey was anything but smooth. Worth a read.
⭐️ Reader's Pick: Here’s a simple way to find $1m business ideas. Make sure you bookmark this! (Top pick from yesterday’s edition)
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Golf Ball Ankle Holder
Love playing golf at the weekend? Sick of hacking through the rough for a ball you're never going to find?
Introducing DropKick™, the world's first ankle-mounted golf ball dispenser that delivers a fresh ball straight out of your trouser leg. Strap the 3D-printed chamber to your ankle, load one ball, and a discreet heel-kick deploys it into the fairway in under a second.
DropKick™ - Never out of bounds.
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👋 That’s All Folks
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See you soon,
