CEO ChatGPT raised €100k pre-seed for its startup, in just 47 days.
It gave the idea, execution plan, feedback & made it profitable.
ChatGPT took every decision & the founder followed as an assistant. 🧵
@Joao_F_Santos has been in the startup and VC space for 10 years.
It all started when he saw this thread by @jacksonfall.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall He got excited and just for fun started a 30-days experiment:
He appointed ChatGPT as the CEO and asked it to come up with business ideas with 2 constraints
1. Capital of $1000
2. An hour/day of work
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall Out of the 3 ideas it presented, Joao decided to start a "print-on-demand store"
Then he wanted a brand name.
and "AIsthetic Apparel" was the winner.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall Joao then needed a business plan.
Mr. CEO gave a simple 10-task plan:
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall For the logo of the brand, Joao asked it to come up with a prompt and fed that to Midjourney.
And the logo was ready
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall The boss also helped pick the perfect tagline for the brand.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall "AIsthetics Apparels: Wear the future!"
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall Then he set up a simple online store through Shopify.
Now he needed a product to sell.
So he narrowed it down to t-shirts and asked ChatGPT to write design prompts for midjourney.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall He even asked the boss to come up with the pricing of the t-shirts.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall He got the designs, and the retail price and added them to the Shopify store
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall To have some upfront capital, he raised $2500 at 25% of the company from 3 friends.
Had a tough conversation with the boss about this.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall Then to launch the online store through LinkedIn and asked ChatGPT to write one.
And the bossman got 5M+ impressions 👇
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall In just 48 hours, he had 200+ orders.
Revenue: €7,000
Headcount: 0
Open AI: €20/month
Midjourney: €12/month
Typeform: €32/month
Net profits: €3,000
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall On day 5, the store was out of stock.
Classic!
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall By 30 days, a LOT happened.
- Interviewed by CBC & a possible Netflix documentary lined up!
- Contacted by senior execs at Google, Meta, Netflix, Amazon, BBC
He didn't only use ChatGPT as CEO but his storytelling style was on-point.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall Joao kept on #BuildingInPublic and got a few angel investors interested from DAY 1
So he asked Mr. CEO what should be the ticket price for min investment.
€5000, said the CEO
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall The boss even helped to finalize a pre-money valuation -
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall In 30 days, he had €120,000 in investor capital passed through KYC/AML.
And because of all that, he expanded his plan.
It was no longer a 30 days experiment, he now wanted to become one of the craziest fashion labels.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall And he expanded his online store to other product categories as well.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall Because of so much hype, people were also interested in the franchise of the brand.
The boss was open to the idea with a few terms
-10k USD upfront capital.
-5% commission on sales.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall The boos even had some suggestions on a quality issue!
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall 2 weeks ago, he closed €100K in pre-seed funding.
He is waiting for the money to arrive in the company's bank.
Once it's all there, he will literally ask ChatGPT "WHAT TO DO NEXT"!
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall Imagine what will happen 3-4 months down the line.
$1M in sales?
More fund-raises?
Anything can happen!
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall If you found this story interesting, retweet the first tweet below ❤️
And follow @tibo_maker for more
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall This happened because Joao has been publicly posting the journey on LinkedIn regularly.
He's created a loyal following, and grew from 6K-> 46K followers in 40 days!
This boosted their brand awareness through the roof.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall João is showing a new kind of AI-first thinking by outsourcing the executive decisions to GPT4 & telling the brand story himself.
Because that's what he loves to do ❤️
This can be the future: let AI do the boring tasks, and focus on what you love.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall But could you use AI like GPT4 as CEO and be profitable?
Is GPT4 capable of making better executive decisions than humans?
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall I believe it is 100% possible.
You can also train local AI models on personal/company data & use it for better decision-making.
@Joao_F_Santos @jacksonfall It all boils down to people showing interest in buying, investing, and sharing the story.
After all, business is all about people, even if it's run by an AI.
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