What Is FinTech? The Basics
πΒ YC Advice:
Launch a product quickly and iterate on it as you go.
πΒ OpenAI’s Approach (as described by Altman):
Took four and a half years to launch a product.
ποΈ Truth versus reality distortion story.
Date | Product release | Number of Months Between Releases | Years and Months to Product Launch | Estimated Users (First Year) |
2015-12 | OpenAI is founded | β | β | β |
2017-11 | GPT-1 | 2 years and 2 months | 2 years, 2 months | 100-1,000 |
2018-11 | GPT-2 | 1 year and 2 months | 3 years, 2 months | 10,000-100,000 |
2019-01 | DALL-EΒ | 10 months | 3 years | >100,000 |
2020-11 | GPT-3Β | 11 months | 5 years | >1,000,000 |
2021-04 | CLIPΒ | 3 months | 5 years, 4 months | 20k to 100k |
2022-02 | ChatGPTΒ | 10 months | 6 years, 2 months | > 10m |
2022-11 | Chatbot prototype | 6 months | 6 years, 8 months | > 100m |
πΒ YC Advice:
Focus on being cost-efficient.
πΒ OpenAI’s Approach (as described by Altman):
Became the most capital-intensive startup in Silicon Valley history.
ποΈ Truth versus reality distortion story.
This is their cap table and quite clearly they are not on a silicon valley or global basis the most capital-intensive startup.
Β
Date | Investors | Round | Amount |
December 11, 2015 | Founders Fund, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and others | Seed | $100 million |
July 2017 | Microsoft | Series A | $1 billion |
February 2019 | Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ Growth, Khosla Ventures, Microsoft Research, YC Continuity, Valor Equity Partners, First Round Capital, Thrive Capital, and Founders Collective | Series B | $1 billion |
January 23, 2023 | Microsoft | Strategic partnership investment | $10 billion |
April 28, 2023 | Tiger Global Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Bedrock | Series C | $10 billion |
π‘ A capital intensive startup is a business that requires a lot of money to start and operate, here are the top ones:
Company | Amount Raised (USD) | Industry | Top Investors |
SpaceX | $100 billion | Aerospace | Founders Fund, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Google Ventures, Fidelity Investments, DFJ Growth, Valor Equity Partners |
ByteDance | $75 billion | Technology | Sequoia Capital, SoftBank Group, General Atlantic, Hillhouse Capital, GGV Capital, Matrix Partners |
Stripe | $68 billion | Fintech | Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins, Thrive Capital |
Airbnb | $47.2 billion | Hospitality | Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Peter Thiel, Greylock Partners, Accel Partners, TPG Capital |
Instacart | $39 billion | E-commerce | Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital, DFJ Growth, Khosla Ventures, Coatue Management |
Palantir | $38.6 billion | Data analytics | In-Q-Tel, Founders Fund, Peter Thiel, Accel Partners, Wellington Management, T Rowe Price Associates |
DoorDash | $35.5 billion | Food delivery | Sequoia Capital, SoftBank Group, Khosla Ventures, General Atlantic, Accel Partners, DST Global |
Rivian | $35 billion | Automotive | Amazon, Ford Motor Company, T Rowe Price Associates, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton Investments, Soros Fund Management |
Slack | $31 billion | Team collaboration | Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Coatue Management, DST Global, GV, ICONIQ Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins, and more |
Coinbase | $27.8 billion | Cryptocurrency exchange | Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Greylock Partners, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, Paradigm |
Zoom | $25.6 billion | Video conferencing | Sequoia Capital, SoftBank Group, Accel Partners, GIC, T Rowe Price Associates, Franklin Templeton Investments, Soros Fund Management |
Uber | $25.2 billion | Transportation | Sequoia Capital, SoftBank Group, Benchmark, T Rowe Price Associates, Franklin Templeton Investments, Soros Fund Management |
πΒ OpenAI’s Approach (as described by Altman):
Built a technology without any idea of who their customers were going to be or what they were going to use it for.
ποΈ Truth versus reality distortion story.
"We're going to build tools that are useful for everyone, from researchers to artists to businesses. We want to make sure that AGI is used for good, and that it doesn't just benefit a small group of people."
"We're not building technology for technology's sake. We're building technology to solve problems and make people's lives better. We think that artificial general intelligence has the potential to do that, but it's also a very dangerous thing, and we want to make sure that it's used for good."
"We believe that LLMs have the potential to revolutionize a wide range of industries, from healthcare to education to customer service. They can be used to generate new insights, create new products, and automate tasks that are currently done by humans. We're excited to see how LLMs will be used to make the world a better place."
"We're working with a variety of partners to explore the potential of LLMs in different fields. We're collaborating with researchers at universities and research labs to understand the capabilities of LLMs and to develop new ways to use them. We're also working with businesses to explore how LLMs can be used to improve their products and services. We're excited about the potential of LLMs to make a positive impact on the world. We believe that they can be used to solve some of the world's most pressing problems, such as climate change, poverty, and disease. We're committed to working with others to ensure that LLMs are used for good."
πΒ YC Advice:
Incorporate social features, built-in sharing, and an inherent viral loop to enable user growth and engagement.
πΒ OpenAI’s Approach (as described by Altman):
ChatGPT has no social features, built-in sharing, or inherent viral loop.
ποΈ Truth versus reality distortion story.
Wrong, Their community channels had over 50k users at the end of 2021, over 1m users of GPT3 model in 2021, and Elon Musk talking about them with his gazillion followers. They literally had the biggest organic viral loop of any startup ever. ππ
"We're excited to see how LLMs are used to make the world a better place."
"We believe that LLMs have the potential to solve some of the world's most pressing problems."
"We're committed to working with governments and regulators to ensure that LLMs are used safely and responsibly."
"We're excited to see what the future holds for LLMs."
"We believe that LLMs have the potential to change the world."
β‘οΈ “Alderaan’s not far away, it’s Californication” β‘οΈ