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A college student reached $64k/mo in 6 months by being an AI first mover

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Re: A college student reached $64k/mo in 6 months by being an AI first mover

#11

Post by r00fus »

ulrikhansen54 wrote: post #2

There are several stories of companies going from $0 to >$5M ARR in just a few months with the boom in LLM-driven applications. The downside for these types of apps is that churn rates are through the roof, and will probs die when the LLM fad inevitably fizzles.

Of course, it will not last forever but like being "devops" when AWS started gaining traction or jumping on the crypto bandwagon - now you know how to play the game, there's literally no downside to jumping on this bandwagon if you can find a profitable niche even for a while as you gain expertise.

Re: A college student reached $64k/mo in 6 months by being an AI first mover

#12

Post by jrpt »

k2enemy wrote: post #7
teach wrote: post #3

Somebody always wins the lottery. This doesn't mean that playing the lottery is a useful path to riches for anyone else. Edited to add: This is not an indictment on the college student in question! Congrats to him for being prepared to seize on an opportunity and executing well.

Did he win the lottery though? There's a lot of MRR, but I didn't see anything about profit. He could be losing money.

You're right that this stuff isn't cheap. I'm running https://Docalysis.com/ (a chat with files website) which has expenses growing every month, so you need to make sure your price is above what it costs you, and can't give everything away for free.

His product gives you a few thousand tokens for free, then makes you add your own OpenAI API key after that, so that he isn't paying for the chat responses from then on.

Re: A college student reached $64k/mo in 6 months by being an AI first mover

#13

Post by _gfwu »

>"It made it very clear that my goal of making $10k a month from a side project is not a crazy goal to have."

Honestly that entire interview just reveals how much of that poor guys thinking is already infected by the virus called capitalism. Accumulating personal wealth shouldn't be the end goal here. It's short-sighted and perpetuates the very system that created inequality and injustice in the first place.

Instead of focusing on personal gain, why not channel that energy into organizing and fighting for a more equitable and just system? Learn about alternatives to capitalism and push for systemic change that benefits everyone, not just a select few who manage to "take advantage of opportunities."

Capitalism thrives on people thinking they can get rich quick, while most end up struggling and the rich get richer. By pursuing this goal, you're just playing into that system. Focus on the greater good and work towards a future where everyone has a fair shot, not just the ones who keep up with AI or whatever the next tech trend will be for the growth imperative to exploit.

Re: A college student reached $64k/mo in 6 months by being an AI first mover

#14

Post by jrpt »

ulrikhansen54 wrote: post #2

There are several stories of companies going from $0 to >$5M ARR in just a few months with the boom in LLM-driven applications. The downside for these types of apps is that churn rates are through the roof, and will probs die when the LLM fad inevitably fizzles.

LLMs aren't a fad though. Yasser has thousands of customers paying him real money because they find value in what his product does.

I'm running a somewhat similar website (https://Docalysis.com/) where users chat with files, and it's clear there's a lot of value being added, so people are willing to pay.

What's less clear is how this all plays out when there's more competition, but it's not like we'll all go out of business. It'll just be a bit harder, or you'll have to do things to differentiate. I'm planning on differentiating more, just using the current product as a starting point. Yasser probably is thinking along similar lines.

Re: A college student reached $64k/mo in 6 months by being an AI first mover

#15

Post by bratbag »

_gfwu wrote: post #13

>"It made it very clear that my goal of making $10k a month from a side project is not a crazy goal to have." Honestly that entire interview just reveals how much of that poor guys thinking is already infected by the virus called capitalism. Accumulating personal wealth shouldn't be the end goal here. It's short-sighted and perpetuates the very system that created inequality and injustice in the first place. Instead…

What implied they didn't stop and consider before making this choice?

Re: A college student reached $64k/mo in 6 months by being an AI first mover

#16

Post by yamtaddle »

nadermx wrote: post #4
ulrikhansen54 wrote: post #2

There are several stories of companies going from $0 to >$5M ARR in just a few months with the boom in LLM-driven applications. The downside for these types of apps is that churn rates are through the roof, and will probs die when the LLM fad inevitably fizzles.

Why would it fizzle? It provides an actual utility

There are a lot of companies "embracing AI" for CEO-fell-for-the-hype / CEO-hopes-investors-will-fall-for-the-hype reasons, that aren't related to actual business needs or benefits from using AI. Lying (to themselves, and/or others) about how use of AI is improving business efficiency. Forcing it on people down the chain whose reality-based "um, this mandate to use AI tools for this is actually making things take longer" complaints are being ignored.

Many of these companies are throwing money at these kinds of early-mover products, but are likely to stop doing that as people start to get wise to just how useful all this actually is, and for what.

[EDIT] This is not to claim that AI-based products won't find actually beneficial uses in various companies, but a lot of these trivial get-to-market-fast companies are raking in quite a bit of money from hype-chasers, and that money isn't going to stick around long-term.

Re: A college student reached $64k/mo in 6 months by being an AI first mover

#17

Post by kderbyma »

_gfwu wrote: post #13

>"It made it very clear that my goal of making $10k a month from a side project is not a crazy goal to have." Honestly that entire interview just reveals how much of that poor guys thinking is already infected by the virus called capitalism. Accumulating personal wealth shouldn't be the end goal here. It's short-sighted and perpetuates the very system that created inequality and injustice in the first place. Instead…

People don't walk a couple blocks and drive for groceries but then sign up to lift weights because they need 'exercise' but won't carry groceries....they are foolish and it's not just with money

Re: A college student reached $64k/mo in 6 months by being an AI first mover

#19

Post by mahathu »

bratbag wrote: post #15
_gfwu wrote: post #13

>"It made it very clear that my goal of making $10k a month from a side project is not a crazy goal to have." Honestly that entire interview just reveals how much of that poor guys thinking is already infected by the virus called capitalism. Accumulating personal wealth shouldn't be the end goal here. It's short-sighted and perpetuates the very system that created inequality and injustice in the first place. Instead…

What implied they didn't stop and consider before making this choice?

Thinking that acquiring n dollarydoos is a worthwhile goal to pursue with your time (and dedication and technical abilities which the student clearly has). I understand my comment was a bit radical and mean and I edited it, but that line just made me want to puke.

Re: A college student reached $64k/mo in 6 months by being an AI first mover

#20

Post by atonse »

_gfwu wrote: post #13

>"It made it very clear that my goal of making $10k a month from a side project is not a crazy goal to have." Honestly that entire interview just reveals how much of that poor guys thinking is already infected by the virus called capitalism. Accumulating personal wealth shouldn't be the end goal here. It's short-sighted and perpetuates the very system that created inequality and injustice in the first place. Instead…

(genuinely asking) Is there another theoretical system that properly incentivizes people to compete with each other, innovate, and take risks to solve problems? I ask in the "build new solutions" space – we all know there are plenty of rent-seeking businesses that add no value but just take money from everyone. I'm not trying to defend any of that. I'm only asking in the case of "people doing new, innovative things and solving difficult problems" space.
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