BUSINESS IDEA | STARTUP

Alternative SaaS Platform 

Don’t be a SaaShole

Available Domain: Swapsstack.com

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

Software has been getting more and more expensive over the years. Take Netflix who raise prices so often most of us are turning to a life of crime…

The same is true in enterprise software, where costs have been slowly increasing. Why? Because lots of big software companies have high cost bases. Take Docusign, which has over 6,000 employees, which seems like a lot of people for a (relatively) simple piece of software, no? But in the age of AI cheaper and even free alternatives to these software platforms are starting to be built. So let’s make these easier to find.

Market Size: The global SaaS market is estimated at c.$273bn presently. Think of this as the

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A searchable database of free alternatives to popular (often expensive) SaaS tools

How it Works:

• Users go to the site and browse or search for free or cheaper alternatives to popular paid tools by category, use case, or brand name.

• Each listing includes feature comparisons, pricing breakdowns, pros and cons, and user reviews.

• Users can submit new tools, upvote the best alternatives, and contribute reviews or curated tool stacks for different industries

Go-to-market: Build a massive blog/wiki-style content moat around "free alternatives to X" using long-tail keywords, that should be the core strategy here

Business Model: Sponsored listings and affiliate revenue from sign ups

Startup Costs: You could start this for basically $0

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Acquisition by a SaaS marketplace like AppSumo or StackCommerce

Exit Multiple: SaaS/microSaaS businesses with recurring revenue sell for 5x–8x ARR

TOGETHER WITH OMNISEND

Boring Marketing That Delivers BIG Results

The thrill of not knowing how something will turn out? That’s what gets your heart racing, right?

But you know where excitement has no place? Marketing.

With marketing, you want predictability. So predictable, it’s almost boring.

That’s why Omnisend is a marketer’s dream. In 2023, for every $1 spent on Omnisend’s email & SMS marketing, merchants made $73 back.

Yes, $73 for every $1.

It’s not flashy. It’s not a gamble. It just works. Every. Single. Time.

At Half Baked, we only recommend tools that actually deliver. That’s why we partnered with Omnisend—because they’re the real deal.

From popups to newsletters to abandoned cart recovery, 125,000+ e-commerce brands use Omnisend to grow their revenue while keeping costs low.

Use code HALFBAKED10N & get 10% off your first 3 months.

DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Tinder for Fighting

• Looking to vent some frustration you have with the world. Then Fightr™ (Tinder for Fighting) is the app for you.

• Sign up and get matched with equally bitter, angry people looking for a fight, like our retired teacher Bill here. Reckon you could take him? Swipe to find out!

Vote:

• ✅ This needs to exist

• ❌ Nah this is nuts

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: AI Game Development

• “Vibe coding” (which we talked about a few weeks ago) has found a new home, and that home is in the game development space.

• Programmers are using AI to develop simple, open-world games, the most successful of which is Pieter Levels’ Flight Sim Game, which took him 30 minutes to create and was bringing in $50k per month (ad revenue) after only a few days. Good for him, definitely not jealous at all. Not one bit…

Business Ideas:

• AI Game Development Bootcamp: Start a bootcamp which teaches people how to use AI to build different kinds of games

• Game Testing Platform: Create a platform which allows game developers to test their game by generating thousands of bots to use the game and find bugs, exploits or errors

TOGETHER WITH RYSE

Mr Wonderful Lost Out on $400m…Will You?

The Sharks passed on Ring before it sold for $1.2 billion to Amazon. Now, there’s another smart home company catching investors’ attention.

Meet RYSE, a leader in smart shade automation with $10M+ in revenue, 200% year-over-year growth, and distribution in 127 Best Buy stores (with Home Depot launching in 2025).

RYSE’s patented technology is making waves in a booming market, and you can invest at $1.90/share before their next growth phase.

Find Out More

THE MONEYSHOT

Building a +$1bn Business by Taking on Google

Tech giants like Google and Facebook are unimaginably powerful organisations. So much so that only a mad man would decide to take them on.

Which is exactly what this guy did, deciding to compete directly with Google and building a +$1bn business in the process.

This is his story.

Back in 2008 Gabriel Weinberg was already a successful founder.

He had previously founded and sold The Names Database, a (pretty terribly-named if you ask me) social network, for $10m in 2006. He had already achieved his first exit, but Gabriel was far from done. Because he had a problem…

Around this time Gabriel started to notice how extensively Google was tracking its users, something he was not cool with. He wanted to protect his privacy so Gabriel decided to build a competitor search engine all by himself. Bold move.

He started building the search engine as a solo project, using open source data sources like Wikipedia and Yahoo’s BOSS API and after a few months of building he was ready to launch it.

He founded DuckDuckGo.

Why the name you ask? Well Gabriel named it after the children’s playground name just because it sounded catchy. According to him there’s no deep meaning behind it, which is refreshingly honest of a founder.

After launching DuckDuckGo started attracting users, primarily through word of mouth and by 2011 Gabriel decided to take on some external funding for the first (and only) time to support the business, raising $3 million in a seed round.

From there the business relied on its revenue to grow, something more Silicon Valley startups should try for a change. He monetized the site through keyword-based ads (similar to Google) but without storing any personal data of users. Something that became incredibly important in 2013…

In 2013, when Edward Snowden leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs, all of a sudden a lot of people became incredibly interested in privacy. So users flocked to DuckDuckGo like…well…a flock of ducks. A herd of ducks? No a flock. Anyway…

From there the company has never looked back. Today DuckDuckGo is still a major player in search, serving up over 100 million search queries per day. And the company has expanded into a full-fledged privacy-focused tech company, offering not just a search engine but also a browser, privacy extensions, and email protection tools.

The company does more than $100m in revenue per year, has around 300 employees and is valued at an estimated $1bn. Sure the business hasn’t reached the heights of Google, but I don’t think Gabriel loses much sleep at night over that fact.

Which goes to prove that, when a market is big enough, even being a small player can lead to an incredible outcome. These markets are not zero sum, there’s always room for some healthy competition, even against the tech giants.

You just have to go out there and compete.

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