Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as shocking as Logan Paul’s world-record Tetris score 🤨
A massive welcome to our 626 new readers who joined since yesterday. In today's edition we’ll be covering:
💡 An idea to give every business its own AI model
🛠️ Eight frameworks for finding $1M startup ideas
⛽️ $1M in 30 days, a forgotten side project worth $20M + more
🔍 Claude’s new tricks, Meta’s AI rebuild + more
🍻 An idea to take a load off laundry day
Let's goooo 🚀
💡 Custom AI Models for Businesses
Model employees
Name.com Domain: Modelform.io
👤 Source: This tweet from Brian Armstrong (Coinbase CEO) inspired Chris Saum to share this huge opportunity in the AI model space (and he wants to write $500K checks to builders in this space btw…)
❌ Problem:
In 2026 AI Models are getting better, faster, stronger (shoutout Daft Punk) every day, but companies don’t necessarily need the latest or greatest frontier model to run their business. What they really want is a cheap model trained on their own data.
Brian Armstrong just showed this is possible, sharing that Coinbase’s own fine-tuned fraud model beat frontier models at a lower running cost. So…why not create a business offering this for other companies? Here’s the idea.
✅ Solution:
Launch Modelform: a platform that uses company data to fine-tune an open model for one task, like routing support tickets.
Start with one repeatable task, like classifying incoming customer-support tickets. Prepare the training data, fine-tune a suitable open model, and compare it against the customer’s existing approach on examples it hasn’t seen before.
🧑💻 Prototyping: Demo
💡 The Half Baked Take: Start with one task a company does thousands of times a day. A small saving on every invoice or support ticket adds up.
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🛡️ Protect What You’re Building
You’ve spent months building a business. “Sort cybersecurity” is still sitting below “pick a better font” on the to-do list.
CrowdStrike Falcon® Go brings AI-powered cybersecurity to small businesses, with protection against ransomware and malware that’s designed to be easy to install and operate.
Start with a free 15-day trial. When you’re ready to buy, use halfbaked for 25% off Falcon Go, Pro or Enterprise on 1-, 2- or 3-year annual plans. Monthly plans excluded.
⚡ How to Generate +$1M Startup Ideas (8 Frameworks)
The Tutorial: After sharing 700+ startup ideas, we’ve developed eight frameworks for finding new ones. This two-part series shows you how to start generating your own.
Step-by-step:
Watch part one (of two) to see how the frameworks work.
Pick one framework and apply it to an industry or problem you know well.
Write down three ideas before deciding which deserves a closer look.
📦 Before You Place That Next Business Order…
Thank you for supporting our sponsors, they keep this newsletter free!
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The offer ends Oct 12, 2026, so now could be a good time to tick a few things off. Terms and conditions apply.
⛽️ Fuel for Taking Action
💡 Bonus Startup Idea: Get one giveaway rule wrong and your launch stunt becomes an illegal lottery. This SaaS idea fixes that, with a $20-50m exit in sight.
💸 Side Hustle Corner: This side hustle turns a couple’s year into a printed memory book, and you could start it this week for a few hundred dollars.
📘 Playbook: Here’s how Ryan Lock reportedly made $1m in 30 days, and why video game companies are the current goldmine.
🤑 Money Shot: A side project its founder ignored for four years is now a $20M-a-year business that has never taken a penny of VC. 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.
🔍 Everything Else from Today
🛠️ AI Tool: Anthropic just shipped two new Claude betas. One builds live dashboards straight from your data, the other turns ideas into animated explainers. Looks amazing!
📈 Trends-with-Benefits: The latest AI models were a step-change that most people completely missed. Reverse engineering software is now on the table and it will have huge implications.
📚 Must-Read: Stripe CEO Patrick Collison reckons personal AI agents will kill the insurance upsell, the coupon and the forgotten subscription. His conclusion on who wins is worth reading.
📺 Must-Watch: Alexandr Wang went from Scale AI founder to rebuilding Meta’s AI lab from scratch. In his 72-minute chat with David Senra, he explains how Meta built Muse in just 7 months.
✖️ Trending Tweet: Building something meant to last? Nikita Bier reckons your code won’t protect you anymore, and names the three things that will.
⭐️ Reader's Pick: Tim Denning’s 17-step blueprint for a side hustle that pays more than your salary. No millions of followers required. (Top pick from Friday’s Edition)
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Laundry Tower
Sick of a wet load festering in the drum because you forgot it was there? Wish your laundry would just sort itself out?
Introducing TriCycle™, the world’s first 2.1-metre laundry tower that washes, dries and folds in one continuous 94-minute loop. Dirty clothes go in the top, gravity does the rest, and a crisp stack of T-shirts slides out the bottom drawer folded perfectly.
TriCycle™ - a load off your mind.
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👋 That’s All Folks
We hope you enjoyed today’s edition, shoot us a reply if you have any feedback. We read every single one!
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See you soon,
