Zion Kim

Sharing lessons learned while building Atlas to $1M in Profit

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@matt_gray_ Ig

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@SahilBloom We’re working on this now. We take care of this and laundry, dishes, errands and all the personal stuff on top!

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@georgesttock NANO

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@jamescoder12 DS

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@mikefutia TikTok

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@mikefutia Json

[Regina Gerbeaux @_rpgbx]

Every week, operations leaders at ElevenLabs, McKinsey, and multiple YC-backed companies ask me the SAME questions.

Not about metrics or KPIs.

But about the stuff nobody talks about publicly:

A thread on what REALLY keeps operators up at night 🧵

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@willroman @thesamparr This

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@lncmpltemission 😂

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@BowTiedTikTok @BowTiedSwan @ViralBuilder TikTok

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@FitFounder Taking a dry 2024. It’s been a few years since I took a year off!

First time was after I turned 21.

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@thesamparr @thesamparr happy to share my inbox zero system with your assistant for free. It’ll take about an hour to watch and you can get setup right away.

https://t.co/HLCEalDwaf

Also releasing a software that does this - it’ll be done in a few weeks!

Will dm you a code if interested

[Rex Woodbury @rex_woodbury]

One of my favorite consumer tech frameworks—"Every consumer company is built on one of the Seven Deadly Sins."

• Instagram = Envy
• Tinder = Lust
• DoorDash = Gluttony

And so on. Today, EPIK is the No. 1 app in the App Store—and raking in $250K a day.

EPIK is going viral for using AI to generate 90s-esque yearbook photos of you. Proof again that Vanity is a powerful motivator.

[Elizabeth Laraki @elizlaraki]

In 2006, I was 1 of 4 designers on Google Search.

For 20 years, every search engine has copied Google.

Now ChatGPT, Bard + Claude look like Google's offspring - "better” search engines.

But last week signaled we're on the brink of a design revolution.

ChatGPT unveiled incredible new features.

These could give us the opportunity to completely shift how we interface with AI.

Here's the full story:

–––

When I was a designer on Google Search, all major search engines looked the same – Google, Yahoo, MSN Bing.

Google was the market leader with a heavily optimized UI that supported billions of dollars in ad revenue.

Naturally, it became THE way to show search results.

Its success made it illogical for Google to consider big UI changes.

And any changes they did make were just mirrored by everyone else.

So 20 years later, we’ve only seen incremental changes to search engine UIs.

–––

Today, we have consumer-ready LLMs (Large Language Models) freshly in our hands.

As consumer products, these are in their infancy.

We’re very early in understanding their capabilities and defining how people interact with them.

These are uncharted waters.

And yet ChatGPT, Bard, Claude etc. all chose a text-based input box — just like Google’s search box — as the core interface.

Why?

The input box is simple, versatile, and familiar.

- It’s simple to understand → you type your questions into the box.

- It’s versatile → the box can handle all sorts of questions/queries.

- The paradigm is super familiar → people immediately know how to use it.

Because of this, LLMs have essentially become “a better Google.”

–––

But last week’s ChatGPT announcements thrust open the doors to new possibilities.

ChatGPT is now multi-modal — it can see, hear, and speak.

These are the recent announcements from @OpenAI :

Voice: https://t.co/hAeXxBTH9l

Photos: https://t.co/X3QbLnwT1V

The example of ChatGPT explaining how to lower a bike seat was incredible.

But, it could be so much better!

The video showed you'll have to post multiple new photos to keep adding new information and to progress the conversation.

It was still a linear conversation centered around the text box.

But what if we rethought the interface to center around the image?

What if ChatGPT supported both images AND voice simultaneously?

Could we end up with a more immersive experience?

–––

How else could interacting with LLMs mimic IRL conversations?

Could we (or the AI) pinch to zoom or rotate the image?

Could we interact in real time with video?

What new possibilities open up with context being preserved over time?

–––

There is so much energy and excitement around what AI can do.

But we are limiting the potential by assuming the conversation box is the best interface.

Right now, designers have the chance to create truly novel interactions and bust through the 20+ year old search UI paradigm.

The ideas above are just to illustrate some potential options.

But they are also intended to spark a flame.

Now is the opportunity to be creative and explore divergent UIs.

What are the craziest, coolest, most creative UI ideas we can unleash?

LFG 🚀

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@AviSchiffmann If you want I can get this setup for you.

[Jash Dholani @oldbooksguy]

Napoleon was a master orator

But we would NOT know this without Balzac

In 1838, Balzac went through all of Napoleon speeches

And saved his best insights in a book

10 bangers from the king👇🏻

1/ "I found the Crown of France lying in the gutter, and picked it up with my sword."

[Barsee 🐶 @heyBarsee]

1. Train ChatGPT-4 generate unlimited prompts for you.

(One prompt to replace them all)

Prompt:
You are GPT-4, OpenAI's advanced language model.
Today, your job is to generate prompts for GPT-4. Can you generate the best prompts on ways to <what you want>

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

The power of niching down, solving multiple dimensions of the customer's problem while removing any friction to receive value.

[Luke Sophinos @lukesophinos]

Unbundling and 'verticalizing' massive horizontal companies has resulted in $400+ BILLION worth of startups.

It's happened with Craigslist, TV, Xcel, and Uber, to name a few.

How BILLION $$ companies are created with this approach 🧵

[Zion Kim @ZionK20]

@anothercohen Perhaps they actually make money? If not, then yes, 100% agree.

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

Just reminded of one of the good old marketing stunts from 2010.

PayPal was already then known for freezing people's accounts for unknown reasons.

WePay came to the PayPal conference w/ a 600 lb block of ice w/ money inside that said "PAYPAL FREEZES YOUR ACCOUNTS"