BUSINESS IDEA | VENTURE STARTUP

AI Loan Advisor 🏦  

The loan ranger

Available Domain: Lendpal.ai

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: Finance is super complex at the best of times. But these days it seems to revolve around tariffs, trade deficits, yield curves and penguins apparently?

But even at the micro level, things aren’t much better. Take small business loans. Trying to get one means deciphering endless acronyms, like APR, AER, CAR and EAR. Meanwhile every small business has its own unique cash flow profile and capital needs, meaning they often take on the wrong debt at the wrong time. Small businesses need a way to cut through the noise and get the financing they need. Here’s how.

Market Size: The Global SMB lending market is worth $8.5 trillion+

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A smart assistant that helps small businesses to understand what kinds of financing they qualify for and compare options from various lenders

How it Works:

• An SMB owner logs in and completes a 2–3 minute questionnaire (revenue, age, industry, goals, etc.)

• They connect up their banking and accounting data to the platform using Open Banking APIs and through their accounting software, like QuickBooks

• The AI then analyzes the business and gives recommendations on what loan they should get and why.

• The AI then matches the business with pre-qualified loan offers from multiple lenders in real-time, explaining the pros/cons of each option in plain language.

• The business then applies for the loans they want through streamlined, guided workflows

Go-to-market: Start by niching down and targeting small business owners and micro-entrepreneurs in a specific vertical, like retail or beauty

Business Model: Charge lenders a commission on closed loans (1% - 2%)

Startup Costs: Getting this off the ground will take engineering talent and time, so you’ll need to do a raise to get this going

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Get acquired by a major fintech player like Stripe, Plaid, Lendio etc.

Exit Multiple: Fintech platforms with sticky usage and lending volume typically exit at 5x–10x ARR

TOGETHER WITH SNAPCHAT

The Growth Lever Most Businesses Haven’t Pulled Yet

Every founder knows the feeling. Performance drops. Acquisition costs creep up. You’ve optimized every creative and squeezed every audience.

Snapchat gives you a completely different play.

Most of your competitors are skipping it. But the audience is there. 80% of Snapchatters are over 18. This isn’t just a Gen Z playground anymore. It is a discovery engine. 85% percent of Snapchatters find new products through ads. And they love to shop.

If your brand is already spending big on other platforms and you’re looking for your next big unlock, this is where to look.

Learn more.

DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Two Headed Toothbrush

• Ever feel like brushing your teeth takes forever? Wish you could brush them in half the time?

• Introducing The DoubleDown™ Toothbrush, the revolutionary dental device that proves that "two heads are better than one". With one sleek, slim handle and two glorious brush heads, this incredible device lets you scrub both your top and bottom teeth at the same time.

• This time saving device frees up more time for the important things in life. Time with friends. Going outside. Endless doomscrolling. Whatever you fancy.

Vote

• ✅ Yes this actually exists

• ❌ Nope you totally made this up

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Portfolio Careers

• One of our hot takes at Half Baked is that, in this day and age, working for yourself is actually safer than working for a big company. And this is something Gen Z has realized as well, which is why so many of them are pursuing “portfolio careers”

• A portfolio career is when someone builds a career out of multiple income streams or professional roles, rather than having one full-time job. These could include freelance gigs (e.g., copywriting, consulting), part-time employment or passion projects that generate income (e.g., art, coaching)

• The idea is that your “career” isn’t one job, it’s a portfolio of roles, which reduces risk and reliance on a single employer

Business Ideas

• Stackable Microcredential Marketplace: A platform where people can collect verified badges (like LinkedIn Skills but actually useful) for their diverse skillsets.

• Portfolio Career Builder for Gen Z: A platform which helps college students launch multiple small income streams before graduation.

TOGETHER WITH SURFSHARK

Your Passwords Got Leaked. Now What?

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Surfshark One keeps you locked down. Hide your IP, encrypt data, and get breach alerts in real time.

Half Baked readers get 85% off + 3 extra months.

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THE MONEYSHOT

How a YouTube Channel Became a +$100m/yr Business

Most founders chase exits, but not this one. He chased impact.

That’s how his tiny YouTube channel blossomed into a $100m/yr organization.

This is his story.

Sal Khan is a textbook over-achiever.

In the early 2000s, after getting degrees from both MIT and Harvard (sheesh), Sal landed a job working at a hedge fund in California. But that wasn’t all he was using his math skills for.

Because in his spare time Sal began tutoring his 12-year-old cousin Nadia, who was struggling in math, teaching her over the phone and using Yahoo! Doodle Notepad as a virtual blackboard.

Soon more cousins started asking for help and Sal found himself tutoring 15+ family members in his spare time, something he was short on. So he began recording short videos and uploading them to YouTube so his family could watch them whenever they wanted. Which is when something strange happened.

People who weren’t related to him started watching. And thanking him. And coming back for more. They loved his teaching style.

By 2009, Sal’s YouTube channel had tens of thousands of followers. So he did the unthinkable and quit his hedge fund job to go all-in on his education business.

Khan Academy was born.

Sal set out with the mission to provide free education for everyone, so he decided to structure Khan Academy as a nonprofit. This meant Sal needed backers to fund the organization…which is when legendary figures in Silicon Valley started to support Sal on his mission.

The first believer? Ann Doerr, wife of VC legend John Doerr, who gave him $100K to get started. Then in 2010, Google gave a $2 million grant. Around the same time, Bill Gates mentioned Khan Academy in an interview, saying his kids were using it. Shortly after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation contributed $1.5 million to support Khan Academy.

This surge in funding allowed Sal to grow the team and turn Khan Academy into a full-fledged learning platform.

Today, Khan Academy is one of the most trusted names in education, serving tens of millions of students around the world. The platform brings in around $100m in income per year from grants and service revenue. Not bad for something that started out as a YouTube channel.

And that’s the thing about entrepreneurship. At its core, it isn’t about getting rich. It’s about impact. Getting rich is just a by-product of the impact you have.

So instead of asking yourself “how can I get rich?”, you should be asking yourself “how can I do the most good for the most amount of people?”

Because that will set you on the path to success.

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