BUSINESS IDEA | VENTURE STARTUP

Protein Bar Mixes 💪 

A better whey

Available Domain: Barbake.com

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: Just like pre-workout, chicken and rice, and crippling insecurity, protein bars are a cornerstone of the gym bro's diet. Alongside a strict vaccination regime too of course…

These days though, a single protein bar costs as much as a gallon of gas. Why? Because we're paying premium prices to ship what's essentially compressed protein powder across the country in temperature-controlled trucks. Then it sits on a shelf for months, preserved by ingredients your chemistry teacher’s never heard of before. Which got us thinking, what if there was a better whey? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Well we think so, drawing inspiration from a pretty unlikely source…Betty Crocker. Just like Betty Crocker transformed home baking from a mystical art into a foolproof science, why not do the same for protein bars? Here’s what we’re thinking.

Market Size: The global protein bar market was valued at approximately $14.2 billion in 2023

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A dry mix which you add simple ingredients to in order to make delicious, healthy protein bars

How it Works:

• A customer goes online to the website or a store and buys the protein mix in a package, similar to a traditional cake mix

• They then add the dry mix (which contains protein powder, binding agents, and flavor components) to fresh, wet ingredients (like milk, nut butters etc.) to create their perfect protein bar mixture in under five minutes.

• The mixture is then baked or left to set depending on the product type for 30 - 60 minutes until its ready at which point it can be cut into single protein bars (each box makes 7 - 10 bars)

Go-to-market: Start this as a e-commerce business and over time move into retail stores

Business Model: Charge per box

Startup Costs: You’ll need some capital here to get this off the ground to formulate the product, design the packaging, build the website and then meet a minimum order quantity with a manufacturer once you’re ready to launch

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Exit to one of the large protein bar players in the market (like Quest)

Exit Multiple: Based on recent food & beverage acquisitions you’d likely get a 3-5x revenue multiple here. Recent examples:

• RXBAR (acquired by Kellogg's): $600M (3.5x revenue)

• Quest Nutrition (acquired by Simply Good Foods): $1B (3.45x revenue)

TOGETHER WITH AUTOMATIONLINKS

Pennies per Click

Sick of expensive ads? Paying dollars per click on Facebook? What if you could pay pennies? That’s right, PENNIES.

X Ads (or Twitter Ads if you’re old school) are where the underpriced attention is today, and AutomationLinks knows exactly how to unlock this attention for you.

With lower ad costs and high engagement, you can get in front of your audience without breaking the bank.

Download their FREE X Advertising Blueprint today to supercharge your business’ growth.

DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

The Banana Bunker

• Do you love bananas? Looking to prevent your banana from getting bruised, battered and mushy after a stint in your lunchbox?

• Well now you can with the Banana Bunker™, the ultimate protection tool for your banana. Our patented ergonomic design cradles your banana in military-grade plastic, protecting it from harm.

• 99.9% reliable but 100% better than Plan B (as in Plan Banana, exposing your banana to the elements).

Vote

• ✅ Yes this actually exists

• ❌ Nope you totally made this up

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Sleep Pods

• Originally popularized in Japan as capsule hotels, sleep pods have become a something of a staple in our modern world.

• They are compact, high-tech pods that offer a quiet retreat for naps, power naps, or even overnight sleep in certain locations including corporate offices, airports, universities, and wellness centers.

• They provide a private space for short-term rest, helping combat fatigue and boost productivity while taking up minimal space, and as they grow more and more popular there are plenty of opportunities to build businesses in this market.

Business Ideas

• Yelp for Sleep Pods: Create an app which tracks the location of different sleep pods and allows users to rate and review them

• Sleep Pod Subscription Service: Develop a membership model where subscribers can access a network of sleep pods across multiple locations

THE MONEYSHOT

From $0 to $300m in Revenue in 5 Years

Great business ideas can often come from unfortunate events.

Take this founder who, after having a little accident, was inspired to start a business which grew from $0 to $300m in 5 years.

This is his story.

Paul Tran, seen here pointing at the sky for some reason, is a self-made man.

Born in Vietnam, Paul immigrated to the United States as a first-generation immigrant, facing significant adversity in his early years. Despite these challenges though, he developed a strong entrepreneurial spirit from a young age, even organizing a weekly raffle in his elementary school to make some money.

Fast forward several years and Paul put himself through college at the University of Southern California, where he studied at the Marshall School of Business and Viterbi School of Engineering until 2004.

A few years after college Paul started his first properly successful business, IDK, a company that focussed on collaborative product creation. He worked on this business for 6 years until one day a little accident would change the trajectory of Paul’s life.

One day Paul was doing some “male grooming” and, like many men have done before, accidentally cut himself in a pretty sensitive region. He realised in that moment that there weren’t any products on the market which focussed on safe grooming solutions for men.

It was 2016 and he decided to go all in on this idea.

He founded Manscaped.

He partnered with Steve King, a fellow entrepreneur, who invested $400,000 into the newly formed company.

Early on though the brand struggled to resonate with audiences. They spent months trying to sell their first batch of products, with limited success. However the turning point for the business came when they decided to focus their strategy around one thing…humor.

The team started making funny, engaging ads and posts in order to attract customers. And the strategy worked. Within days they had sold out, with the business going on to do $1.5m in its first full year in business in 2017.

The following year Steve King and his son appeared on Shark Tank representing Manscaped, securing an offer for $500k from two of the Sharks which was accepted by the pair, but fell through after the show. Which is unfortunate for the Sharks…since they missed out on a big win.

The company closed an angel funding round in October 2018 and from there the brand turned into a rocketship. They started offering discounted bundles that included complementary grooming products to increase average order value. This, coupled with the brand’s humorous, edgy marketing, was a killer combination that laid the groundwork for hypergrowth.

In 2020 revenue hit $65 million and by 2021 Manscaped had made $297 million in revenue in just one year. And the most amazing part? All of this growth was fuelled by just $23m in total capital raised. Talk about a great ROI for those investors.

That same year Manscaped announced plans to go public through a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) merger with Bright Lights Acquisition Corp. at a valuation of $1 billion. However, in 2022, the deal was canceled, and Manscaped remained private, which is pretty apt if you really think about it…

By 2023, the company's revenue was estimated to have reached $500 million. That’s a lot of dudes doing a lot of manscaping around the world.

So the next time you have a little accident in your life, whatever that may be, think to yourself about how this could actually be an opportunity. Because just like Paul, a small accident could be the spark that ignites your entrepreneurial fire.

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.