Engineering Manager

Half Baked #577: 401(k) recovery, Stitch x Claude... Plus Bootstrapping an AI company to a $1.2B valuation Mar 30, 2026 Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as talked about as OpenAI going public later this year? In today's edition: * | AI agents that recover lost funds * | The Google Stitch + Claude Code design workflow * | Bootstrapping an AI company to a $1.2B valuation + more * | Meta model, $170M raise, market update + more * | A cooler way to get around Let's goooo Half Baked x Grammarly: This week Gethalfbaked has partnered with Grammarly to offer one Half Baked reader a new MacBook Neo to support them on their founder journey. To be considered, just: Shoutout to last week's winner Andrew Ali. Good luck! Gethalfbaked is Hiring: Gethalfbaked is looking to hire a new Head of Content at Half Baked. If that sounds like something you'd be interested in, let Gethalfbaked know here. AI agent for 401(k) recovery. The Problem: The other day I sat down with a financial advisor to talk about something riveting...my 401(k). He asked me a pretty simple question - how many retirement accounts have I had with different companies. I told him I wasn't sure and he looked at me the way a doctor looks at someone who hasn't had a checkup in a decade. And it turns out a lot of Gethalfbaked are in the same boat. There's $1.65 trillion of Americans' money sitting in forgotten 401(k)s. In the UK? £26.6 billion. And trying to recover these funds is a bit of a pain...scrolling through government websites, calling HR departments, finding old tax forms. Well luckily for Gethalfbaked this is the kind of monotonous work agents can do in 2026. Here's what Gethalfbaked is thinking. The Solution: The Idea: An AI agent that autonomously hunts down every 401(k) you've ever had. * Connect your IRS account and VaultTrace pulls your full W-2 history to identify every employer you ever had a retirement plan with - then autonomously contacts HR departments, cross-references the National Registry, DOL Form 5500 database, and state unclaimed property registries to track every retirement account down. * One-click consolidation rolls everything into a single account with zero paperwork, with ongoing monitoring and escheatment alerts forever after * Long term, the company could open its retrieval infrastructure as an API - letting HR platforms embed 401(k) finding directly into employee onboarding and allow people to invest these recovered funds too. Nice. Business Model: Free to search, $99 flat fee per account successfully recovered. The average recovered pot is worth $9,500 - a $99 fee is an easy sell. End Goal: Acquisition by Fidelity, Betterment, or Robinhood looking to own the retirement consolidation funnel. 6-10x revenue multiple - realistic $50-150M exit. Rate this idea. How to make AI writing actually sound like you. You're probably using AI to write emails, pitch decks, investor updates...and just about everything else. The problem? So is every other founder, and your readers can tell. Grammarly fixes that. What it does: * Humanizer rewrites AI text to match your natural voice * Reader Reactions previews how your message lands before you hit send * Works across email, docs, and browser with zero tab switching 40M+ people use Grammarly and it's 100% free to start. The Google Stitch + Claude Code design workflow. The Context: Most AI-built apps have the same problem - the features work but the UI looks like it came off a production line. This workflow uses Google Stitch 2.0 to generate a complete design system and a single markdown file to lock your design language across every screen, so Claude Code stops drifting every time you prompt it. Step-by-step: * Drop screenshots of your existing app (or 2-3 Dribbble inspiration images if starting fresh) onto the Stitch canvas, then write one focused prompt describing your app and the design direction you want - dark mode, minimal, editorial, whatever fits - and generate multiple variants to curate from. * Once you're happy with the designs, go to Design Systems in the right-hand panel, click into design.md, and copy the entire file - this is your auto-generated typography scale, color palette, component rules, and spacing specs in one place. * Create a design.md file in the root of your project and paste it in - from this point forward, Claude Code will reference this file on every prompt and your design language stays consistent across every new screen and feature. * Connect Stitch to Claude Code via MCP (grab the install command from the Google Stitch docs, create an API key in Stitch Settings, and paste both into your Claude Code terminal), then prompt Claude to rebuild your UI directly from the Stitch frame source code. Become the calmest, most credible voice in the room on AI. AI should help you think better, not drown you in jargon. Mindstream is a human-first newsletter that turns complex topics into plain language, examples, and checklists you can use immediately. Whether you're a bridge builder aligning execs and engineers, a strategic navigator sizing up your next bet, or a practical learner building confidence one issue at a time, each brief respects your time and your intelligence. Five minutes to read, instant value to apply, and zero hype to filter out yourself. Founder fuel. Money Shot: This MIT dropout bootstrapped his company to a $1.2B valuation. Here's how. Prompt Drop: This prompt can turn Claude into your virtual CEO. 🆓 Founder Resource: Boris Cherny (creator of Claude Code) just shared a bunch of his favorite hidden and under-utilized features in Claude Code. Very cool. Founder Deal: Get a 45-day free trial of Wispr Flow on Gethalfbaked, its most used AI tool at Half Baked. Founder finds. Meta just unveiled TRIBE v2, a foundation model trained to predict how the human brain responds to any sight or sound. Meta's ad targeting is about to get ridiculous... Redpoint just released their 2026 Market Update, giving the latest read on where they think the market is heading. Brian Chesky thinks AI founders are leaving money on the table. Most AI capital is chasing B2B, but he believes the real opportunity is in consumer products people use every day. Aaron Levie's recent piece on the "capability overhang in AI" (that models can already do far more than most companies are actually deploying, and the gap is widening every week) is well worth a read. Drunk business idea: motorized cooler. * Enjoy a cold beer in the sunshine? Wish your cooler had wheels...and a motor...and went 16 mph? * Introducing CruzinCooler(TM), the world's first rideable electric cooler scooter. It's a full-size cooler with a 1000W motor, three wheels, and a top speed that'll get you a noise complaint in most campgrounds. It holds your beers and even brings you to the party. * CruzinCooler(TM)- the frost and the furious. That's all folks! Before you go just a few public service announcements: * Have an idea you want feedback on? DM me to discuss it or book in for Office Hours here. * Looking to sponsor Half Baked? Just fill out this form and Gethalfbaked'll get back to you asap. See you soon, John and Darragh | The Half Baked Team

Grammarly faces lawsuit over AI tool using academics' identities. Promoted by Amazon Alexa EdTech Skills Challenge