BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

AI Public Speaking Coach 🗣️ 

Pitch, please!

Available Domain: Oratour.ai

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: There are common fears we all share. Spiders. Heights. Getting a “what did you do last week” email from Elon Musk. Then there are people out there who are actually afraid of having fears, which is pretty rough…

But interestingly the #1 fear that most people share is public speaking, with studies showing that 75% of people experience anxiety when speaking in front of an audience. And today between in person events, large zoom calls and even podcast appearances more people are doing more public speaking than ever before. So why not create a platform to help us all excel at public speaking? Here’s what we have in mind.

Market Size: The global public speaking training market was estimated at $1.6 billion in 2022 and Toastmasters makes > $30m per year. Big opportunity.

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: An AI-powered public speaking coach that analyzes speech patterns and provides real-time feedback to improve public speaking

How it Works:

• A user signs up to the platform and gives the platform access to their microphone, camera etc.

• The user then gives a speech on the platform, whether its something they have pre-prepared or they can do improv mode where they have to speak on a topic off the top of their head.

• The platform uses AI to detect filler words and analyzes the pace, tone, volume, and articulation of the speaker.

• They are then provided with real time feedback on what they can improve across all of these areas

Go-to-market: Start by partnering with public speaking trainers to use the platform with their students.

Business Model: Freemium model with a free tier for basic speech analysis and a premium subscription for advanced analysis.

Startup Costs: With a great technical co-founder you could build a prototype here relatively cheaply

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Sell to an EdTech or a corporate training platform like Udacity or Workday

Exit Multiple: Comparable exits in the EdTech and AI tools sector show multiples ranging from 7x to 12x revenue, especially for high-growth startups

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DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

The Cold Dog

• Are you a hot dog fan? Ever find yourself thinking, “This would be better if it were… colder?”

• Introducing the Cold Dog™, the world’s first hot dog-flavored popsicle! Because why should summer be all about fruity, refreshing treats when you could be licking the savory essence of a hot dog on a stick?

• Perfect for barbecues, beach days, or any other activity out in the sunshine with your friends (who may not stay your friends for long for eating this)

• So this summer, skip the grill or the mystery of hot dog water. Just unwrap, take a lick, and enjoy the chilled, meaty goodness.

Vote

• ✅ Yes this actually exists

• ❌ Nope you totally made this up

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Myofunctional Therapy

• Therapy generally focuses on what’s going on inside our heads, but now there’s a new type of therapy that focuses on what’s going on with our faces

• It’s called myofunctional therapy and it’s a type of therapy that focuses on improving the function and coordination of the muscles of the face, mouth, and tongue.

• It involves completing exercises that strengthen the muscles of the face, mouth, and tongue, targeting specific issues such as tongue posture, lip seal, and swallowing patterns.

• As this form of therapy gets more popular it opens up business opportunities for us to explore.

Business Ideas

• Online Myofunctional Therapy Platform: Create an online platform that connects certified myofunctional therapists with clients for virtual consultations and therapy sessions

• Mobile App for Myofunctional Exercises: Develop a mobile app with guided exercises, reminders, and progress tracking for patients undergoing myofunctional therapy

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THE MONEYSHOT

How Pivoting Created a Unicorn in 2 Years

To pivot, or not to pivot, that is often the question faced by startup founders.

Well these founders decided to pivot back in 2022 and that decision allowed them to build a unicorn in just 2 years.

This is their story.

Varun Mohan (left) and Douglas Chen are super smart dudes.

They both attended MIT, both studied computer science and both left with 5.0 GPAs. So it’s no surprise that when they graduated in 2017 they both went into great jobs, with Varun working on self-driving at Nuro and Douglas working on Oculus at Meta.

But the pair had greater ambitions. So in 2021 they founded Exafunction where they aimed to address the complexities of deploying deep learning models at scale.Their primary focus was on GPU virtualization, enabling companies to optimize hardware utilization and reduce costs associated with deep learning tasks. And before you ask, of course I know what all of that means…

Their innovative approach garnered early attention, leading to a $3 million seed round in 2021, followed by a $25 million Series A funding round in April 2022, led by Greenoaks with participation from Founders Fund.

But over time the duo observed that, while infrastructure solutions were crucial, there was an emerging need for tools that directly enhanced developer productivity. This insight led to a massive strategic pivot in late 2022.

They decided to focus their efforts on building AI-powered coding tools and completely overhauled the entire company, including renaming the business.

In December 2022 they launched their flagship product, a free AI-powered code autocomplete extension compatible with popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Visual Studio Code.

They had launched Codeium.

In early 2023, Codeium had less than 1,000 users. But as more and more developers learned about how effective Codeium was at providing real-time code suggestions, significantly reducing development time and minimizing errors, developers started to flock to the site.

In January 2024, building on their momentum, they raised $65 million in a Series B round that valued the business at $500m. This allowed the business to expand their product features and acquire more users.

In August 2024, the company secured a $150 million Series C funding round, elevating its valuation to $1.25 billion and by the end of 2024 Codeium boasted over 600,000 developers and 700 enterprises on their platform.

As of February 2025, Codeium is reportedly in talks to raise funds at a valuation of almost $3 billion. Talk about a pivot paying off…

Codeium’s story shows us that the old adage of having “strong convictions, loosely held” is key to succeeding. When Varun and Douglas founded Exafunction they were certain it would work, but they held that belief loosely enough that when the opportunity to build Codeium presented itself, they knew pivoting was the right thing to do.

So whatever you do don’t be afraid to change your mind. Because changing your mind could change your life.

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