OnlyAPT

Founder's Office at by day, building by night. Ex-founder. Startups, AI, growth, movies, and unsolicited thoughts

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

I've been building Winnie on the side, an AI trip planner, just for India.

It's early. It's not perfect. But it can already turn "10 days in Rajasthan, tight budget" into a day-by-day plan with real INR costs.

Trying to make it a little better every day. https://t.co/Lgmzs9APQT

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

Founder's calendar has 9 hours of meetings. My calendar has 9 hours of "hold for founder." We are the same person functionally.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

Someone at every offsite says "let's zoom out." Nobody has ever zoomed out. We are stuck at 400%.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

The AI stack in most companies: three tabs of ChatGPT, one Claude, one internal wrapper nobody uses, and a Slack channel called #ai-experiments last active 4 months ago.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

Being in Founder's Office means every conversation ends with someone saying "let's take this offline." I am the offline.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

Founder's Office translation guide:
"Let's align" = I've already decided.
"What do you think?" = Agree with me.
"Circle back" = This is dead.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

Fun VC math: your seed round has 12 investors, each takes credit for the outcome, none of them return your emails after Series A.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

24 hours with the $4000 iPhone Duo, and my screen is already ruined. It only shows one website now. Can't get rid of it.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

5/ The pattern in all of these: nobody plans "a trip."

They plan an escape, a last hurrah, a getaway from the family group, an apology.

Winnie just asks for one sentence, and the sentence is always a story.

Type yours: https://t.co/Lgmzs9APQT

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

Winnie's input box is slowly becoming a confession box.

- solo trip to get over my ex, somewhere with no couples

- trip with the boys before everyone gets married

- anniversary trip, wife thinks I forgot

- somewhere my in-laws will not want to join

It planned all four. Here's how it went:

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

4/ "anniversary trip, wife thinks I forgot"

Udaipur, 3 days. Lake Pichola sunset boat, rooftop dinner booked for THE date, morning walk through the old city.

Planned in 60 seconds. Presumably from an office bathroom. Marriage saved.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

3/ "somewhere my in-laws will not want to join"

Spiti valley. 12-hour drives, cold showers, one road in, and best of all: almost no mobile network.

Nothing protects a vacation like the sentence "there's no network there."

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

2/ "trip with the boys before everyone gets married"

North Goa. 4 days. One villa split 6 ways, rented Activas, a strict itinerary of exactly zero forts.

Winnie even budgeted a line item it called "contingency." It knows.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

1/ "solo trip to get over my ex, somewhere with no couples"

Winnie sent them to Kasol and the Parvati valley. 6 days, hostel dorms full of solo travellers, treks where nobody holds hands, cafes where everyone's journaling about someone.

Statistically the safest place in India to not see a couple.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

Nothing accelerates a VC's interest like another VC's interest. Nothing kills it faster than another VC's exit from the deal.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

The gap between "the founder thinks it's done" and "it's actually done" is 3 CoS lifetimes.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

6/ anyway if you're building AI stuff, let people touch the thing before you ask for anything. cost me nothing and fixed my funnel.

winnie is at https://t.co/Lgmzs9APQT if you want to see. India trips only, first plan free, no account.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

Removed the signup wall from Winnie last week and the numbers are confusing me in a good way

itineraries created: up 70%
signups: up 57%

yes, removing signup increased signups. thread on what happened

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

5/ best explanation I have: before, people were signing up on faith. now they're signing up because there's a plan on their screen they don't want to lose. turns out that's a much easier yes.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

4/ result:

70% more itineraries
57% more signups

I stared at the dashboard for a while at that second number.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

3/ so I killed it. first plan needs nothing. you type "Kerala honeymoon, 8 days" and the itinerary just shows up. want to save it or plan another? ok NOW make an account.

[OnlyAPT @ArpitGupta_13]

2/ except people weren't signing up. they were typing out their whole dream trip, hitting the form, and leaving. I was interrupting the single most motivated moment in the funnel to ask for an email.