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Business Ideas #351: Hairbnb, Water Filters...

Plus Making +$500m from Selling Metal

Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up business ideas as innovative as Amazon building a robot with a sense of touch 🤔 

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

  1. Business Idea💡: A business idea that’s head and shoulders above the rest

  2. Drunk Business Idea 🍻: An idea to 10x your productivity

  3. Just The Tip 📈: A trend that’s making a splash in homes across America

  4. The Moneyshot 🤑: Making +$500m from selling metal

P.S: If you want to read any previous editions of Half Baked you can on our website and if you were forwarded this email you can subscribe here.

P.P.S: Half Baked is free. Half Baked will always be free. That’s thanks to the support of our sponsors. We’d love if you could take a moment to check them out.

Let’s get into it.

BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

Hair Transplant Marketplace 🦳  

A hair-braned idea?

Available Domain: Follycle.com

💡 TLDR: A marketplace that connects men experiencing hair loss with vetted, high-quality hair transplant clinics worldwide.

1. Problem/Opportunity

The Problem/Opportunity: Hair loss among men is a silent epidemic. One day you're running your fingers through luscious locks, the next you're booking your flights to Turkey at 2 a.m…

But while lots of hair transplant recipients have great experiences, many others do not. Every clinic claims to be the #1 in the world and has endless 5 star reviews, making getting to the truth a little…hairy. Clinics often hide pricing, don’t list real medical staff, and use AI-generated before-and-afters to dupe unsuspecting customers to go with them. It’s time to bring some order to this market. Here’s how.

Market Size: The hair transplant market is valued at around $9bn annually currently

2. Solution 

The Idea: A marketplace that connects men experiencing hair loss with vetted, high-quality hair transplant clinics worldwide.

How it Works:

  • Users input their preferences (location, budget, hair loss stage etc.).

  • The marketplace then matches them with vetted clinics based on independent certifications, reviews, results etc. compiled by the platform.

  • Users browse profiles with before/after images, pricing, and doctor credentials.

  • Booking is done through the platform, which may include optional travel and concierge services.

  • Customers receive post-op support and optional teleconsults for ongoing care.

Go-to-market: Create success story content with creators who have undergone transplants on listed clinics.

Business Model: Commission on bookings (5–15% of $3k–$15k procedures).

Startup Costs: You could start this very cheaply, once you figure out a cost-effective way to verify how good the clinics are.

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Exit to a healthcare marketplace or wellness brand.

Exit Multiple: If positioned as a SaaS-enabled marketplace with recurring revenue, you should get 6–10x EBITDA

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DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

The Naptop

  • Are you a workaholic? Looking to get in some quick naps in between work to boost your productivity?

  • Well now you can with The Naptop™, the world's first cushioned laptop cover designed for work and rest. Stop wasting time on getting high quality sleep and embrace the burnout.

  • Note: we take zero responsibility for any broken or cracked screens.

Vote

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Water Filters

  • Rising concerns over global water quality are fuelling a rapid boom in the water filtration market.

  • In the U.S., 91% of consumers reported using a water filter in 2023, a sharp 25% increase from 2020. The trend is mirrored internationally, with UK retailer John Lewis noting a 37% surge in water filter sales.

  • And this trend is sure to continue as these products become staples in homes all over the world.

Business Ideas

  • Portable Filters for Travelers & Hikers: Lightweight, refillable personal water filters targeting digital nomads, hikers, and international travelers.

  • Water Filter Recycling Program: Build a brand that collects and recycles used filters, offering discounts for returns.

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THE MONEYSHOT

Making +$500m from Selling Metal

Opportunity is absolutely everywhere.

Take these three founders who reinvented a product we’ve all seen before, selling $500m worth of product in the process.

This is their story.

Karol Banaszkiewicz, Jacek Świgost, and Edward Ruszczyc always wanted to be founders.

So much so that they dedicated many evenings to late-night brainstorming sessions dedicated to figuring out how to build “something big”.

And during one of these sessions the trio realised that, while digital art communities were growing, there wasn't a great way to showcase that artwork physically in a stylish, modern, or easily swappable format. Posters existed, of course, but they were typically printed on paper, framed, and hard to replace or move.

So the trio began by experimenting with printing artwork directly onto metal sheets, developing a magnetic mounting system that made the posters easy to hang and swap without damaging walls.

It was 2013 and this was the beginning of Displate.

The company began modestly, with the founders working and printing posters from a small tin shed. Over time though, the product gained popularity, especially after securing licensing agreements with major franchises like Star Wars and Marvel Comics in 2017.

That same year Displate raised its first venture funding, securing $2.3m from Prague-based Credo Ventures. At the time of this funding, Displate’s model of metal posters is validated by its sales traction (nearly $10m in revenue to date) and a growing global customer base.

By 2019, Displate was already selling hundreds of thousands of posters globally and had established itself as a go-to brand for premium wall art.

In 2020, they received a major investment from MidEuropa Partners, one of the largest private equity firms in Central and Eastern Europe. Around this time the business was making more than $100m in revenue per year.

As of 2025 they have sold more than 13 million Displates, equalling well over $500m in revenue. All from selling some sheets of metal with pictures on them. Genius.

All of which goes to prove that opportunities are absolutely everywhere. Every single one of us have seen a poster in our lives, but none of us thought to innovate in this space. The old Steve Jobs quote comes to mind: “people don't know what they want until you show it to them”.

So go out there, start building and show people what they want.

1 - 1 FOUNDER FEEDBACK

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