Thread by @tibo_maker

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.

https://twitter.com/jacksonfall/status/1636107218859745286

@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

https://twitter.com/tibo_maker/status/1664950130246668288

@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.