BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP IDEA

Patent Expiry Tracker ⏳

A patently obvious idea

Available Domain: Patends

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: We recently covered the sensational comeback of Ryan Breslow to his e-commerce startup Bolt. And it seems to be going great.

But there’s one thing we can learn from Ryan’s journey…how he came up with the idea. He knew that Amazon’s one-click-checkout patent was ending in 2017, and knew that building a platform which offered this function to other sites was a huge opportunity. This insight about a patent expiring led to a billion dollar business. So why not help others do the exact same thing?

Market Size: In the US around 500k patents are registered every year. Hard to estimate how big the market is for businesses looking to track patents however.

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A platform which tracks the expiry of tech patents to help businesses and founders identify opportunities

How it Works:

• An individual or business signs up to the platform and gives details about what industry they’re in and their goals

• The platform uses the US Patent Office’s API to surface details about patents which are expiring that they may be interested in and users can opt to receive alerts when a patent is about to expire

• Users can also browse all patents filed in the database and choose certain ones to track

Go-to-market: Sell this to big tech companies who have large R&D departments in the first instance since they’ll be happy to pay whatever bill you send them

Business Model: Monthly subscription

Startup Costs: You’ll need a great dev and data scientist to build this, so if you can find some co-founders you can get this going pretty cheaply

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: You could sell this business to an IP management firm or to a large technology company who could use it for their R&D departments or to offer as a service

Exit Multiple: Given the specialized nature of this platform it could potentially command multiples on the higher end of the SaaS range, maybe 7x-15x revenue or even higher in some cases

TOGETHER WITH ONMISEND

Spend $1 ➡️ Earn $72

E-commerce is a game of money-in vs money-out.

You spend $1 and make $2.

The higher that ratio is, the more successful you’ll be.

So check this out…In 2023, for every $1 spent on Omnisend’s email & SMS marketing, merchants made $72!

We (Half Baked) want to work with brands that deliver for our readers (you). That’s why we asked Omnisend to work with us. They agreed.

Omnisend offers affordable, scalable pricing that grows with your business. From popups to newsletters & abandoned carts, 100,000 e-commerce brands are selling more stuff while paying less.

To get 10% off use code: HALFBAKED10 (you won't get a discount for Omnisend anywhere else)

DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

9-in-1 Shampoo

At some stage in their life every man has tried out a 3-in-1 shampoo product which combines shampoo, conditioner and body wash into a single, incredible product. Some have even tried 4 or 5-in-1 products, if they can find them. But you’ve never used a 9-in-1 shampoo product.

Until now.

This incredible produce combines shampoo, conditioner, body wash, soap, lotion, shaving cream, toothpaste, detergent and motor oil all in a single easy-to-use product.

This is a game-changer.

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Matcha

Matcha, a soothing yet stimulating tea, was brought to Japan by Chinese monks in the 12th century and has since become a global trend. This expansion can be attributed to its health benefits, versatility, and the global rise in the popularity of Japanese culture and cuisine. And many people are making money off the matcha madness.

Business Ideas

• Matcha Candy Brand: create a range of confectionery products that incorporate the distinct flavor and health benefits of matcha green tea.

• Matcha-infused Pet Treats: Develop a line of matcha-infused pet products, focusing on the potential health benefits of matcha for animals.

THE MONEYSHOT

How 35 Failures Led to a $3bn Business

“If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.”

Well these childhood friends tried and failed 35 times before they build a $3bn business.

This is their story.

Tom Okman is a proud Lithuanian born and raised in Vilnius, the capital of the country. He studied history in college but, as it turns out, would spend his career trying to invent the future.

After graduating Tom was working for a Lithuanian tech company called 5ci, but on the side was working on his own projects.

So in 2008 Tom and his childhood friend Eimantas Sabaliauskas (don’t worry, we can’t pronounce his name either) decided to start a business to focus on one of their ideas. So they founded Tesonet together.

As time went on the pair tried many more ideas within Tesonet. They tried building online gaming platforms, e-commerce businesses, web hosting…you name it, they tried it.

And after 35 failed projects they decided to narrow their focus to a few markets, one of which was network security.

And in 2012, on the 36th try, they finally found a product that worked. They spun it out of Tesonet to become its own business.

That product was NordVPN.

That’s right, Tom and Eimantas are the co-founders of NordVPN. All the VPN ads you get bombarded with on YouTube and podcasts? That’s their fault.

In fact Tom directly contributed to the development of VPN solutions, significantly reducing the time required for TCP packets to travel between the client, the VPN server, and their ultimate destination. Tom is actually listed as one of the inventors of this method in the US patent office database. All with just a history degree.

Over time NordVPN expanded their product offerings to include NordPass for password management, NordLocker for cloud sync and storage, NordLayer for network access for businesses and developer tools to build custom VPNs.

NordVPN managed to thrive with no outside capital. In fact for the first decade of its existence NordVPN was completely bootstrapped. However this changed in April 2022 when the company raised it’s first outside funding of $100m at a $1.6bn valuation. In fact, you can see the deck they used to raise the $100m right here.

But deciding they needed even more money in 2023 the company raised another $100m at a $3bn valuation.

Today NordVPN has over 14m users and is a globally recognised brand.

There’s far more to NordVPN’s story including a debate over the actual benefits of VPNs and their complex corporate structure involving entities in Panama, but theres are stories for another day (or newsletter).

As for Tesonet that’s still operating today and has been transformed into a startup incubator, mainly for businesses in the cybersecurity space. In fact Surfshark (another VPN player) was originally incubated by Tesonet until the two firms merged in 2022.

But in the end the main takeaway for us is that, when it comes to starting your own business, you have to keep trying. It could take you 2 failures to find your big idea, or 102, there’s no way of knowing.

So all you can do is fail often and fail fast to get you closer to your big win.

INFLUENCER IDEAS

#HalfBakedBizIdea

Eduarda Ferreira sharing a cool AI startup idea with us all

DM us or use #halfbakedbizidea on X/Twitter to get your idea featured in our newsletter.