BUSINESS IDEA | VENTURE STARTUP

Smart Home Dock for Old Devices 🆕  

Dock it like it’s hot

Available Domain: Dockback.com

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: You may not know it but you’re probably a collector. Of what you ask? Old electronic devices. How could we possibly know this? Because you almost certainly have a drawer in your house that looks like this…

We all have old phones and tablets sitting in drawers in our homes gathering dust, never to be used again. Meanwhile these devices still have so much potential. They could become digital photo frames, baby monitors…even smart home devices. We think it’s time to breathe some life back into these devices. Here’s how.

Market Size: As of 2025, it's estimated that there are between 5 to 10 billion unused mobile phones and tablets stored in homes worldwide

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A hardware dock and companion app that turns old tablets into smart home devices

How it Works:

• A customer plugs their old tablet into the dock which acts as a stand and also charges the device

• The dock then auto-configures the device as a smart display

• The user then chooses a mode they want to use, like photo frame, clock, baby monitor or even a full smart home device (for Android, hard to do on iOS) etc.

• The customer uses their main phone to remotely manage what’s displayed through a separate app they download

• Users can optionally subscribe for premium features, like turning their device into a full smart home device

Go-to-market: Build a pre-launch waitlist via landing page and use a “give your tablet a second life” hook to draw in sign-ups

Business Model: Charge $39–$59 for the dock, free companion app with subscription for premium features

Startup Costs: You’ll need to do a small raise here to build and test the hardware, then you can do a bigger raise to scale production

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Get acquired by a smart home player like Google, Amazon, or Sonos who might value a foothold in the upcycled smart tech

Exit Multiple: 2–4x revenue is the usual revenue multiple for a hardware device, higher if subscription revenue

TOGETHER WITH KIXIE

Connect with 5x more Leads, get 10x more Sales

Kixie’s Power Dialer puts your sales team in overdrive, connecting you with more leads, faster.

• Instant Connections – Multi-line dialing eliminates wasted time.

• Auto Follow-Ups – Never miss a deal with automated call & text sequences.

• CRM Integration – Every call, note, and outcome logged automatically.

“The functionality is unsurpassable.” – Klaus W., one of 10,000+ businesses using Kixie 🚀

Book your free demo today

Pssst you get 10% off when you mention "Half Baked", so make sure you do…

DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Drone Drinks Tray

• Tired of weaving through a sea of sweat, regret, and spilled vodka just to deliver a tray of drinks?

• Introducing the SkyTray™, the drone-powered drinks tray that brings your booze from bar to booth with zero legwork. That’s right, no more crying over spilled drinks.

• Is it dangerous? Absolutely. Does it look cool though? Most definitely. Hotel? Trivago.

Vote

• ✅ Yes this actually exists

• ❌ Nope you totally made this up

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: eVTOL

• Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, once the stuff of science fiction, are becoming very, very real.

• The Business Research Company estimates the market will reach $14.36 billion in 2025, growing to $34.2 billion by 2029.

• eVTOL aircraft are being developed for different purposes like air taxis, cargo, logistics and as emergency medical services where companies like Joby Aviation, Archer and Volocopter are leading the charge.

• I for one can’t wait for the day to order my eVTOL aircraft on Uber.

Business Ideas

• eVTOL Booking App: Build a platform like "Skyscanner for air taxis", aggregating routes, times, and prices from multiple operators.

• eVTOL Pilot Training Platform: A VR-based training solution for eVTOL-specific certifications and scenario training, sold to OEMs and flight schools.

TOGETHER WITH SNAPCHAT

Still Scaling with the Same Platforms?

Snapchat reaches buyers your current ads never will. 80% of its users are over 18. One in four are 35+.

And unlike most social users, Snapchatters actually pay attention. 85% discover new products through ads. 88% say they love to shop.

If your acquisition strategy feels stuck, this is the next move.

Learn more

THE MONEYSHOT

Building a $700m Watch Empire in 2 Years

Great business ideas can be inspired by looking at other great businesses.

Take these founders who were inspired by another startup and went on to build a $700m empire in just 2 years.

This is their story.

Quaid Walker (left) is a designer at heart.

So it’s no surprise that Quaid found himself working at Google for many years where he led UX for Google TV. But apart from design Quaid’s other big passion in life is watches. And these two worlds collided when Quaid received a bonus from Google and decided to commemorate the occasion by purchasing his first Rolex. Must have been a nice bonus…

However, he found the watch buying process to be unexpectedly challenging and opaque. He shared these frustrations with his childhood best friend, Chase Pion (middle), who had a background in finance and a similar interest in watches.

They saw a clear opportunity to build the platform they wished existed. A trustworthy, tech-driven marketplace for luxury watches where pieces were authenticated before getting sold. They drew inspiration from StockX, a brand doing something similar in the shoe space, and set out to build “StockX for watches.”

To execute this vision, they brought on Darryl Johnson, a Google engineer, who became their CTO. Together, they spent months researching the industry, building their product and sourcing inventory for the platform, managing to list $7m worth of watches pre-launch. Finally by June 2022 they were officially ready to go live.

They launched Bezel.

The team’s early strategy to attract inventory paid off. They onboarded numerous professional dealers and collectors through personal outreach and trust-building, rather than paid ads.

This strategy, coupled with the authentication of each watch and offering a concierge service for sourcing hard-to-find pieces, meant that users started pouring in.

Bezel started gaining significant momentum and in January 2023 the company announced an $8 million seed funding round from venture firms and notable celebrity investors including John Legend and Kevin Hart.

By early 2023 the platform featured over $100 million in inventory of luxury watches, but this exploded to more than $700 million by early 2025.

Bezel now features listings from iconic brands like Patek Philippe, Cartier, Piguet and of course…Rolex. So I’m sure Quaid will be adding some more Rolexes to his collection in the future.

As for the business, looking ahead, Bezel’s founders have articulated a broad vision of building the foundational technology layer for the watch industry. And we certainly wouldn’t bet against them.

Which goes to prove that taking inspiration from other startups can be a great way to pursue your own idea. You just have to watch out for them.

1 - 1 FOUNDER FEEDBACK

We Need Your Help

We're on a mission to become the world's #1 entrepreneurship newsletter, but to do that we need your help. Got feedback, ideas, or thoughts on what you’d love to see next? This is your chance to help shape Half Baked. Darragh (our Head Baker) is opening up his calendar just for you. Click here to book a 15 minute call.