Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as hilarious as Mark Zuckerberg pretending to enjoy a pint of Guinness 🇮🇪
A massive welcome to our 566 new readers who joined since yesterday. In today's edition we’ll be covering:
💡 An idea to make customers walk to their discount
🛠️ How you can scope out a MVP to build
⛽️ $1.65tn in lost 401(k)s, a watch blog turned $100m brand + more
🔍 Meta’s Muse Wonder lands, Product Hunt’s 4 predictions for 2027 + more
🍻 An idea to livestream your garden birds
Let's goooo 🚀
💡 Pokémon Go for Discounts
Gotta save ’em all
Name.com Domain: Perkdrop.co
👤 Source: I was thinking about this after Patrick Collison questioned how coupons work when every AI agent hunts for them. I may have the answer…
❌ Problem:
Discount codes are supposed to give customers a reason to buy. But when everyone’s AI agent can find every available code, your exclusive offer starts looking a lot like your normal price.
Brands still want to reward customers, get people into shops and make discovering their products fun. So instead of hiding discounts somewhere on the internet, why not hide them somewhere in real life? Here’s the idea.
✅ Solution:
Launch PerkDrop: a mobile app that lets brands drop rewards onto a real-world map. Think Pokémon Go, except you’re catching a free coffee or 20% off trainers.
Users explore nearby drops and unlock them only when they reach the location. Brands choose the reward, expiry and number available. Each claim creates a single-use pass tied to that person’s account, rather than a reusable code that gets shared everywhere.
Let businesses place drops near their premises or run treasure hunts around town, then charge for campaigns and reporting on claims and redemptions. Add location checks and on-site verification to discourage remote claims.
🧑💻 Prototyping: Demo
💡 The Half Baked Take: Slightly biased take here but I think this could be a super cool app, huge viral potential. I might just build this one myself…
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🧢 One Less Hat To Wear
Founder. Salesperson. Finance department. Apparently, IT too.
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Protect business devices against ransomware and malware.
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Protect mobile devices from mobile threats.
Try it free for 15 days. Use halfbaked for 25% off Falcon Go, Pro or Enterprise on 1-, 2- or 3-year annual plans when purchasing. Monthly plans excluded.
🛠️ How to Scope an MVP
The Tutorial: Once you’ve decided on the idea you want to build, the next step is figuring out exactly what to build first. Here’s how to scope your MVP.
Step-by-step:
Brain-dump every feature and task you’re considering.
Sort them using the Eisenhower Matrix: do now, schedule, delegate or drop.
Pick the essentials your first version needs, then build those before adding the extras.
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⛽️ Fuel for Taking Action
💡 Extra Startup Idea: Americans have $1.65 trillion sitting in forgotten 401(k)s. Here’s how an AI agent could hunt it all down and take $99 a pop.
💸 Side Hustle Idea: $8 of ink, an $800 invoice. Chris Koerner reckons wall printers are the new pressure washing, and he’s shared the full blueprint.
📘 Playbook: Everyone chases product-market fit. Almost nobody nails brand-market fit. Here’s the free playbook to get it right.
🤑 Money Shot: This laid-off banker turned a watch blog into a $100M brand backed by LVMH and Tom Brady. 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: Meta just launched Muse Wonder, its new frontier model, and it’s beating Claude and GPT-6 on a bunch of agentic benchmarks. Worth a test drive.
📈 Trends-with-Benefits: Product Hunt CEO Rajiv Ayyangar just dropped 4 predictions for 2027. Get in before the early movers own them.
📚 Must-Read: Anyone can hit $100k, says Sean Frank. Getting to $100m is a different sport, and he’s mapped out every level in between. Gold.
📺 Must-Watch: Meta’s new frontier model, agents with their own shopping accounts and why AI won’t be winner-take-all. Zuckerberg and Wang spill it all over a pint.
✖️ Trending Tweet: Greg Isenberg thinks we still haven’t processed how big this AI shift is, and his car analogy makes a scary amount of sense.
⭐️ Reader’s Pick: 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.
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: AI Bird Bath
Ever wish you could catch every splash at your garden bird bath? Want to watch a robin have a wash from the comfort of your sofa?
Introducing Bird Brother™, the world’s first bird bath with a built-in film crew. A 2K portrait lens zooms in on every feather, AI identifies 6,000+ species mid-rinse, and a solar-powered fountain keeps the water moving while your phone pings “Bird’s here!”. All yours for $199.99.
Bird Brother™ - Plume with a view.
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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,
