October 22, 2026 | Read online | Listen to our podcast
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas faster than Scott Wu can do math in his head (this is legit amazing) 🤯
Welcome to the 402 new readers who joined yesterday. In today's edition we’re covering:
💡 An idea to turn your company data into content
🛠️ How to build a lead list using LinkedIn
⛽️ Sneaker bots at 13 to a $5.1bn valuation, 200 websites in 12 months + more
🔍 Mercury turned into gold, four AI agents tested head to head + more
🍻 An idea to end the thermostat war
Let's goooo 🚀
💵 Half Baked x T-Mobile: This week we’re teaming up with T-Mobile to give away a MacBook Neo to help one of our readers to build their business. In order to enter simply:
Click here and fill out the form (it takes 2 seconds)
Reply to this email with what color computer you’d like
Good luck!
💡 AI Data Content Engine
Content with receipts
Name.com Domain: DataPress.co
👤 Source: Kieran Flanagan (former SVP of Marketing at HubSpot) recently highlighted how Ramp hired a data journalist to turn their customer data into original content. What if other companies could get the same help through software?
❌ Problem:
Every company has a blog. Increasingly, every company’s blog sounds like the same AI wrote it. Another “Five Trends Transforming Your Industry” probably isn’t transforming your pipeline.
Meanwhile, businesses have data nobody else has: what customers buy, where spending is changing and which behaviours are taking off. There are stories in those spreadsheets. Most companies don’t have a journalist to find them. Here’s the idea.
✅ Solution:
Launch DataPress, an AI content engine that turns company data into original research, reports and posts. Connect approved data sources and receive story suggestions based on interesting patterns.
Each suggestion includes supporting numbers, charts and an explanation of how the findings were calculated. Your team reviews the evidence, chooses an angle and generates a draft, with claims traceable to their sources.
Charge a monthly subscription, with an optional editorial service for bigger reports.
🧑💻 Prototyping: Demo
💡 The Half Baked Take: Such a cool companies turn the information they already own into stories their competitors can’t simply prompt into existence.
Rate this idea
👥 New Org Chart. Same Old Phone Plan?
Thank you for supporting our sponsors, they keep this newsletter free!
Hiring, restructuring and new responsibilities can change a team quickly. The recurring bills tend not to volunteer for a review.
Give your mobile setup a place on that checklist. T-Mobile for Business CoreMobile offers 10 lines for $150/mo with Autopay, plus taxes and a $35 device connection charge. Check the offer against the people and lines your business actually needs now.
🛠️ How to Build a Lead List Using LinkedIn
The Tutorial: You’ve got something to sell. Now you need people to sell it to. Here’s how to build a list of potential customers using nothing but LinkedIn.
Step-by-step:
Get specific about who you’re targeting. Not just “marketers”, but “US marketers at 50 to 100 person companies, manager level or above”.
Pick a company that fits, open its LinkedIn page and search its employees for the role you want (e.g. “marketing”).
Copy each person’s profile URL into a spreadsheet. It’s slow but it works, and Sales Navigator speeds it up with filters for company size, seniority and location.
⛽️ Fuel for Taking Action
💡 Software Idea: One video, 9k followers, 23.8 million views. The concept? Turning your living room workout into an endless runner game. The app writes itself.
🤖 Hardware Idea: Here’s a headset that quiets tinnitus with a gentle fizz on your tongue. Over 86% of patients saw real relief, lasting up to a year. Big opportunity!
💸 Side Hustle Idea: Two guys sold 200 websites in 12 months with no agency, no designers and a stack anyone can copy. The trick isn’t the build, it’s how they find the clients. Very clever.
📘 Playbook: Tom Bilyeu (Quest Nutrition founder’s) 30-day plan to land your first 10 paying customers with $0 on ads is pretty sick.
🤑 Money Shot: These guys went from $20 sneaker bots at 13 to building a $5.1B business in a few 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.
🎁 Your Logo Has Plans Beyond Your Pitch Deck
Another year, another gift-buying spreadsheet. The people behind your business deserve more than a last-minute “thanks!” on Slack.
Put your brand on MOO’s Notebooks, Water Bottles and Pens, and give your team or clients something they can use beyond the unboxing. Choose your gifts, add your logo and get one more thing off the founder to-do list.
🔍 Everything Else from Today
📈 Trends-with-Benefits: Two leaked PHP bugs just left half the internet’s servers wide open. Aaron Levie thinks cybersecurity is about to become one of the biggest AI job creators going.
📚 Must-Read: Product Hunt and Hacker News are just the start. Here are 50 places to launch your startup, including a load of lesser-known gems you’ve probably never heard of. Bookmark-worthy.
📺 Must-Watch: Why hasn’t AI killed coding jobs? And what actually keeps Sam Altman up at night? He answers both in this new interview.
🧬 Science Corner: Marathon Fusion just turned mercury into real gold, beating CERN’s record by 10x. Next up? A fusion reactor in San Francisco. Wild times.
⭐️ Reader’s Pick: 5 faceless channels at $6K each is one creator’s two-year route to $30K a month. No camera, no fame required, just a content machine and a very specific niche. (Top link from yesterday’s edition)
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Two-Key Thermostat
Sick of your partner cranking the heat to 76°F the second you leave the room? Wish touching the thermostat needed the same clearance as launching a nuke?
Introducing Thermo-Nuclear™, the world’s first smart thermostat with a two-key launch system. Any change over 2°F needs both of you to turn your keys at the same time, from opposite ends of the hallway.
Thermo-Nuclear™ - Mutually assured comfort.
Vote
👋 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!
Before you go:
Looking to sponsor Half Baked? Just fill out this form and we’ll get back to you asap.
We recently launched the Half Baked Podcast. If you like this newsletter, you’ll love the podcast. Check it out!
See you soon,
