- Pickle Rooms
- Posts
- Building $20K/Month with AI
Hey Pickle Gang, it’s Rob.
Here's what's in today's issue:
Former a16z Investor has Acquired a Private Island to Create a "Network School"
How Saeed Ezzati Built a $20,000/Month AI Chrome Extension
$80M Raised by Story to track Content IP
And more…
First time reading? Sign up here
This Weeks Favourites
Something: A Closer Look at Term Sheets for Early Stage Investments (link)
Article: OpenAI - Businesses can now fine-tune GPT-4 with their own data, in an afternoon (link)
Video: Greg Isenberg - Sharing The Science Behind Viral Products (link)
Podcast: Colin & Samir - A Brutally Honest Conversation about 100 Thieves (link)
Fun Stuff: If you don’t know what to wear today…. (link)
Today’s Goodies
Fancy a Chat?
I’m opening up the floodgates. Ask me anything you want.
Strategies?
Problems?
Questions?
Fire away! - Let’s talk
News
Former a16z Investor has Acquired a Private Island to Create a "Network School"
Former a16z investor Balaji Srinivasan has bought a private island near Singapore to launch his "Network School."
The school will focus on crypto, longevity, and building a tech-centric college town. This project advances Srinivasan's vision of "network states" - online communities with physical locations seeking diplomatic recognition. Supported by tech leaders like Marc Andreessen and Vitalik Buterin, the 90-day program starts in September.
P.S. The island is bigger than the one in the photo…
Read the full article
How Saeed Ezzati Built a $20,000/Month AI Chrome Extension
Saeed Ezzati turned a simple browser extension into a $20k/month business!
He went from working in startups to being a solopreneur, all by focusing on a niche and solving real problems. Curious how he did it with zero ad spend?
He built a Chrome extension, "Superpower ChatGPT," which enhances the capabilities of ChatGPT by adding features users needed.
But, how did he figure out what people needed? …he used Reddit and Discord to see what problems people were having.
And, while this identified what to build, it also gave him an audience, as he was able to reply to the Reddit threads with the product he built.
Funding
$80M Raised by Story to track Content IP in an AI Era
News: Blockchain startup, Story just raised $80M at a $2.25B valuation to build an "IP blockchain" for content in the AI era. Led by a16z, Story aims to empower IP owners with better tracking and monetization tools. CEO S.Y. Lee envisions an IP ecosystem where creators can easily remix and capture value. The platform is set for a commercial launch later this year after a successful beta with over 200 teams. Watch out, this could reshape the future of digital IP!
My take: Now this is interesting! The problem is that many people take the same content, and marginally adapt. How would Story tackle this, treat it as the same content, or something new? Big challenge to overcome. But, if they manage it, it would be one heck of a business!
Growth
Why Y Combinator?
In 2005, four visionaries came together to create Y Combinator (YC), revolutionizing the startup landscape. Their goal? Empower founders with resources, community, and funding.
Fast forward to today: YC funds hundreds of companies per batch, producing game-changers like Stripe, Airbnb, and Coinbase.
But, what's their secret sauce? Here’s stuff they preach:
Growth is the result of a great product not the precursor
Don’t scale your team/product until you have built something people want
Avoid long negotiated deals with big customers if you can
Sometimes you need to fire your customers (they might be killing you)
Read their best Startup advice here
Recommendation
|
Meme of the Day
Hope you enjoyed today’s issue!
I won’t lie, it takes me a while to write, so I’d love it if you could give it a share! (just forward it to a friend if you’re lazy like me!)
Cheers,
Rob 🥒
Robert Benson-May, ACA
How did you like today's newsletter? |