BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

WeWork for Remote Interviews 👔 

A view to a skill

Available Domain: Vetted Venue

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: Job interviews are awful. They’re stressful, embarrassing and most of the time…a waste of time.

But AI has made the interview experience much easier for many people. Why? Because they cheat. They use AI to listen in and help them to answer questions or to complete coding questions in interviews. This is becoming an increasingly big problem for companies, particularly when most job interviews are done remotely these days. So let’s figure out a way to solve this.

Market Size: As of 2024, the global remote workplace services market is valued at approximately $20 billion and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21% until 2028.

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A platform which matches remote-first companies who need to interview prospective employees with vetted spaces where they can do the interview to prevent cheating

How it Works:

• Companies sign up and list their interview requirements (location, duration, equipment needed).

• Workspace owners (could be individuals with home offices, coworking spaces, or specialized interview centers) list their available spaces.

• The platform matches companies with suitable spaces based on requirements and availability.

• Companies book the spaces for their interviews near where interviewees are based and interviewees are provided with the location details.

• The platform ensures the space is equipped with necessary technology for remote interviews and anti-cheating measures (e.g. laptop with websites blocked, 360-degree cameras, screen recording software).

• After the interview, both parties can rate their experience

Go-to-market: Work with remote-first companies who are hiring engineers near you, use your house or office space as a testing ground fro the idea then build form there

Business Model: Charge a fee for using the space, share the revenue with the space provider

Startup Costs: You could start this for a few thousand dollars, the main cost being the cost of the equipment

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: You could exit to an interview software platform, like HireVue

Exit Multiple: This could likely be sold for 2x - 6x revenue, since it’s a hybrid marketplace-SaaS play

TOGETHER WITH OMNISEND

Spend $1 ➡️ Earn $73

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 $73!

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.

Use code: HALFBAKED10 to get 10% off Omnisend.

(you won't get a discount for Omnisend anywhere else)

DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Open-toe Wellies

Rain boots. Wellington boots. Wellies. Rubber boots. Whatever you call them, with winter closing in, many of us will be breaking out these bad boys as we make our way through fields or go to festivals in the pouring rain. But they’re not exactly the most stylish boots are they?

Which is why we’ve created the open-toe wellington boot. Let your toes run free.

Both stylish and functional.

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Vagus Nerve Stimulation

In recent years, the vagus nerve has become an object of fascination, especially on social media. The vagal nerve fibers, which run from the brain to the abdomen, have been anointed by some influencers as the key to reducing anxiety, regulating the nervous system and helping the body to relax. This is why the global vagus nerve stimulation market was worth around $483m in 2023.

Business Ideas

• Vagus Nerve Massage Training: Provide a service which upskills spa workers in vagus nerve massage training so they can add this to their existing services

• Vagus Nerve Health App: Create a mobile app that guides users through exercises and techniques to improve vagus nerve function, including breathing exercises and meditation.

• Niche Vagus Nerve Packages: Vagus nerve supplements and spa care for particular niches, like postpartum moms

THE MONEYSHOT

From $30k in Debt to Building a $4bn Business

Entrepreneurship takes courage, ambition and most importantly resilience, which these three founders have in spades.

By never giving up they managed to go from $30k in debt to building a $4bn business.

This is their story.

Vlad Magdalin (middle) is resilience personified.

He was born in the USSR and immigrated to the United States as a refugee at age 9. He earned a degree in computer science from Cal Poly in 2006 and went to work for intuit as a software engineer straight after college.

But Vlad always wanted more. So on nights and weekends he started building a software platform, solving a problem he noticed while interning at a web design agency many years prior. He had noticed that designers struggled to communicate their visions to developers and thought it would be much cleaner if designers could build websites themselves.

He worked his day job from 7am to 2pm each day and would design/code until 8 pm every day afterwards. Soon though Vlad realised he wasn’t making enough progress on just nights and weekends, so in July 2012 he quit his job to work on the business full-time, taking a huge risk. He had $25k in savings, a wife, two kids (ages 1 and 3) and no streams of income. But still, he took the plunge.

Still though, progress was slow, so Vlad recruited his brother Sergie (left) to help him to build the product. They worked from 7am to midnight daily (with the exception of Sunday mornings until noon which was Vlad’s family time) and Vlad racked up $30k of credit card debt while trying to get his product to market. They did this for months but eventually, in 2013, everything changed.

Around this time they convinced Bryant Chou (Right) to join their team as their 3rd co-founder and the team developed a functional prototype of their platform, which they referred to as a "playground." This demo showcased the potential of the platform and was designed specifically to attract designers and non-technical users. They posted their demo on Hacker News and it went viral, with over 20,000 users signing up in a few days.

The team had just launched Webflow.

The traction they received on Hacker News laid the groundwork for their acceptance into Y Combinator’s summer 2013 batch. During YC's Demo Day, they launched Webflow publicly and secured $2.9 million in seed funding.

Over the next few years the business grew, but not at warp speed. By 2019 though Webflow was profitable and had reached more than $10 million in revenue, allowing them to raise a $72 million series A round of funding.

In January 2021, they raised $140 million in their series B and this cash injection propelled the business to to $100 million in ARR and 200K+ customers by March 2022.

Today, Webflow stands as a leading visual web development platform with over 3.5 million users and as of their last raise, a $120m series C in 2022, the company was valued at approximately $4 billion.

All of which goes to show than in order to to reach extraordinary success, sometimes you need to take extraordinary risks like Vlad did and push yourself through the tough times.

The old Robert Frost quote holds true in life but also in entrepreneurship:

“The only way out is through.”

INFLUENCER IDEAS

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