I'm very impressed by the way Phind, despite being the tiniest of startups, has managed to keep up with the giants. Phind-70B beats GPT-4 Turbo at code generation, and runs 4x faster. There is definitely still room for startups in this game.
This $25M+ business was validated in 3 hours for $5:
Problem: You’re stuck in NYC with all your bags, but no hotel
Solution: Bag storage as a service.
How the founder validates:
1. DOES NOT write a single line of code
2. Creates a BASIC landing page w/ Typeform (see image)
3. Runs a $5 Google search ad for "bag storage NYC"
4. First request comes in 5 mins later
5. Founder hops on a Citi bike to meet the customer and take their bag
- They did ~$100k in the first year bootstrapped
- Lost all revenue during COVID, stayed alive
- Then they went massive scale and raised $12M from A16Z
- They now have 10,000+ storage locations in 2,000+ cities
- Founder sat on the idea for 3 years bc he thought it would be "too complex" to build
The PERFECT example of: do things that don't scale.
https://t.co/ZVPRRmVEkf