November 12, 2026 | Read online | Podcast
Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as often as Jensen was having affairs (allegedly, of course) 🫢
Welcome to the 285 new readers who joined yesterday. In today’s edition:
💡 An alternative way to land your next job
⛽️ A $2.5bn offer, a profitable favor for Dad + more
🔍 IPO announcement, selling to bots, thinking bigger + more
🍻 An idea for keeping a conversation alive. Very alive.
Let’s goooo 🚀
💡 Alternative Hiring Platform
Apply a little differently.
Name.com domain: wayin.io
👤 Source: Lenny Rachitsky (founder of Lenny’s Newsletter) paints a tough picture for jobseekers in his latest jobs report. But this approach shared by Ayesha suggests the application form isn’t the only way in. Which got us thinking…
❌ Problem:
The job market is tough out there. You hear story after story of people trying for months to find a job through the usual methods, all to no avail. Applying through LinkedIn, using recruiters…these channels are bursting with applicants.
There are other routes to find jobs though, less traditional ways - messaging a founder, spotting a funding announcement, asking for an introduction or pitch a project. What if you could build a platform around this concept? Here’s the idea.
✅ Solution:
Launch WayIn, an alternative hiring platform that helps people land jobs through unusual methods. Add your experience, target roles and companies. It builds a personalised plan for getting noticed.
Find relevant hiring posts, funding rounds and company announcements, then identify people worth contacting. Get help writing a LinkedIn message, cold email or DM, asking for an introduction, or putting together a small project that shows what you can do.
🧑💻 Prototyping: Try the demo
💡 The Half Baked Take: The key here is to have strong evidence that these hiring channels work well. Once you can prove that, the users will come.
Rate this idea
🧩 The Domain Step Is Part Of The Product
You nailed the onboarding. Then the domain step sends your customer somewhere else.
Bring domain registration and DNS into your product with the name.com API. Explore the guides at name.dev and turn another launch chore into part of your onboarding.
⛽️ Fuel for Taking Action
💡 Idea Inspo
Request for Startup: A stealth founder just shared five problems that could turn into big businesses. Someone’s next company could be in the list.
Side Hustle Idea: Teaching AI is one of the biggest opportunities in 2026. Trent Hughes has a way to turn that into an amazing side hustle…
🛠️ 10xecution
Tutorial: Want to start building AI agents? Dean Perkins shares a 23-minute walkthrough of building four AI agents.
AI Tool: Anthropic just launched Claude Meetings, which joins video calls and builds documents, whiteboards and other artifacts while you talk. RIP about 100 Silicon Valley startups.
🤑 Money Shot
Comeback Story: Fred Luddy lost his $35m fortune, then started ServiceNow around his 50th birthday. Years later, the business was worth $2.5B. Here’s what happened.
Side Project: His dad’s slow typing inspired an app. Now Kourosh says it brings in $16k-$20k a month alongside his day job. The customers he found are the interesting bit.
🛍️ Give Your Business Its Own Shopping Account
Your business has its own expenses. Give it an account built for them. Amazon Business is free, with business pricing and buying tools for work essentials.
Create your free Amazon Business account and get 20% off your first order, up to $100. Terms and conditions apply.
🔍 Everything Else From Today
📰 Breaking News: Anthropic has announced the share price for its initial public offering. A huge moment in the AI space.
📈 Trends-with-Benefits: Your next customer might be someone else’s AI agent. a16z makes the case for the B2A economy, and why businesses should make themselves easier for agents to use.
📚 Must-Read: Think you’re being ambitious? This reminder to aim higher might make your next business feel a little less unreasonable.
📺 Must-Watch: Max Kolysh (YC Partner) breaks down how to get your first 10 customers. Useful if you’ve finished building and realised nobody’s coming.
⭐️ Reader’s Pick: Yesterday’s most-clicked editorial link was three consumer app ideas from a frontier model. Worth another look if you’re deciding what to build next.
🍻 Drunk Idea: AI Relatives
Ever wished you could ask a late relative one more question? Wondered whether “have you tried turning it off and on again?” survives the afterlife?
Introducing AfterChat™. Record your stories and likeness while you’re alive so family can talk to a digital version later. Familiar advice, family stories and absolutely no guarantee they’ll approve of your career choices.
AfterChat™ - The last word.
Vote:
👋 That’s All Folks
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