Daily briefing AI, Hello Fresh but better, building in a cave, postcard lead gen, controllable input metrics.
Hey,
In this issue: idea for an AI-powered Gmail extension to streamline your digital life, private prep cooks as a service, startup concepts inspired by Y Combinator data, prompt for SEO optimized articles. Plus, founder insights on the power of focus and advertising channels. Also revenue updates from Pallyy - a social media management platform, and Tag Parrot - a Google indexing tool.
Why you’re getting this: This is the Business Brainstorms newsletter - every week I write this email to share the most interesting trends, frameworks, opportunities, and ideas with you.
Let's dive in!
💡 Opportunities
“startup idea: a gmail extension that uses ai to scrub all your emails, newsletters, calendar and sends you one email highlighting the most important items of the day, meetings, news you need to need to know.” - Maggie Sellers
“I don’t want a private chef. I want a private prep cook. Someone who can go shopping and chop everything up and put it in little containers in the kitchen so I can still cook but only do the fun part. And no Hello Fresh and Blue Apron didn’t solve this: bad ingredients and mediocre recipes. No creative control.” - Nat Eliason
Ethan Mollick put the descriptions of 400 of the latest Y Combinator startups and asked it to generate on-trend startup concepts based on them. Two interesting ones:
Computer vision and multilingual NP for automated vehicle damage assessment
No-code platform for building personalized health chatbots for patient
engagement and treatment adherence
🛠 Things Worth Checking Out
GummySearch makes it easy to ideate & validate businesses with Reddit. Quickly find painful problems to solve and solutions people are asking to be built.
If you’re looking to use AI tools to write SEO optimized articles, try this prompt Josh Pigford shared. There are dozens of tools that do something like this but most are really just thin wrappers around APIs like GPT or Claude. I always prefer having 100% control so I can my prompts as needed.
Durable is the AI-powered website builder and platform that makes running a business easier than having a job. Create a fully functioning website in 30 seconds with AI. Then, use powerful AI tools to start marketing, book jobs, and get paid. Try it free for 90 days.
If you’re writing a lot of code, try Cursor. It’s a bit like VS Code with Copilot but better since it’s a native integration instead of a plugin. (Not an ad)
Senja makes it easy to increase conversion with social proof. In a nutshell: collect more video and text testimonials, share them to get visitors, sign ups and sales, more ways to share than anywhere else, free forever. Start collecting proof free.
(links in bold are sponsored ads, get yours here)
👨🎓 Founder Tweets
There are a gazillion things people tell you to do as a founder.
But ultimately, only one thing matters: building something that provides value.
When everyone is so focused on digital advertising channels, offline channels become promising again.
You can get really creative and send lumpy mail, bottles of champagne, or simply a postcard to “tap them on the should & say hello”.
Pretty sure Peter will generate a positive ROI here.
It’s super easy to come up with lofty goals. “Let’s close 5 new clients each week!” “Our revenue goal is $1M MRR!”
But unless you actually understand the “controllable input metrics” for each goal, they’re nothing more than a fantasy.
💰 Revenue Signals
Pallyy just hit $58k MRR after 46 months. (“Social media management platform for growing brands and agencies”)
Tag Parrot just hit $1.9k MRR. (“Struggling to get indexed by Google? Let us automatically get your pages indexed in less than 48hrs.”)
End Note
As always, if you’re enjoying this report, I’d love it if you shared it with a friend or two. You can send them here to sign up.
Have a great week,
Jakob