The Underdog: From His Parent’s Basement to $25M
Summary
TLDRDavid Park shares his journey from working tirelessly in his parents' house to building an AI app valued at $25 million in just two years. Despite facing numerous rejections, financial struggles, and even a cancer diagnosis, David persisted with the support of his family and co-founder. By continuously refining his product and leveraging viral marketing, David's startup, Jenny AI, eventually found success. His story highlights the importance of resilience, customer feedback, and the power of social media in achieving entrepreneurial success.
Takeaways
- 📚 David Park started his entrepreneurial journey at 16 and faced a decade of failures before achieving success.
- 🌟 His breakthrough idea was creating an AI app named Jenny, which significantly changed his life.
- ☎️ David spent countless hours cold calling agencies, facing 99% rejection, demonstrating perseverance.
- 🎢 He experienced a rollercoaster of emotions, from getting a cancer diagnosis to receiving a $100,000 investment from Jason Calacanis.
- 👨👩👦 Despite financial struggles and feeling like a loser, David's parents and co-founder believed in him.
- 💡 Key to his success was talking to users, understanding their needs, and refining Jenny based on feedback.
- 🌐 Virality played a significant role, with a viral Twitter thread and social media marketing driving user growth.
- 💪 After overcoming cancer, David chose to double down on his business rather than selling it, leading to further success.
- 📈 Strategic marketing efforts, especially on TikTok and Instagram, helped scale Jenny from $2,000 to millions in revenue.
- 🎓 David emphasizes the importance of persistence, hard work, and long-term commitment to achieve entrepreneurial success.
Q & A
Who is David Park?
-David Park is an entrepreneur who started his first company at 16 and eventually built an AI app with a $25 million valuation in just two years.
What challenges did David Park face at the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey?
-David faced significant challenges, including a decade of failing startups, cold calling agencies for weeks, and dealing with constant rejection.
How did David Park and his co-founder, Henry, come up with the idea for Jenny AI?
-David and Henry stumbled upon GPT-2 and were inspired by its capabilities, leading them to create Jenny AI, an AI-assisted writing tool.
What was David's initial approach to selling Jenny AI?
-David worked tirelessly from his parents' house, making cold calls and trying to sell Jenny AI, despite facing rejection and financial struggles.
What pivotal moment led to the first wave of users for Jenny AI?
-The pivotal moment came when GPT-3 was released, leading to increased interest in AI from businesses, which helped Jenny AI gain traction.
What strategy did David use to understand and improve Jenny AI's product market fit?
-David focused on talking to users, asking difficult questions about their workflow, and understanding what they disliked about the product to refine Jenny AI.
How did David's appearance on a podcast lead to a significant breakthrough?
-A scout for Jason Calacanis heard David on a podcast and subsequently invested $100,000 in Jenny AI, providing the much-needed funding to continue the business.
What personal challenge did David face during the growth of Jenny AI?
-David was diagnosed with cancer, which posed a significant challenge as he feared it would affect his ability to lead the company and his voice.
How did David manage to continue growing Jenny AI after his cancer diagnosis?
-Despite his diagnosis, David focused on hiring people for marketing and growth, and continued to iterate on the product, leading to further success.
What was the impact of social media on the growth of Jenny AI?
-Social media, particularly a viral Twitter thread and successful use of TikTok and Instagram Reels, significantly contributed to Jenny AI's rapid user growth.
Why did David decide not to sell Jenny AI even when faced with personal and business challenges?
-David felt it was not the right decision to sell early, despite the challenges, as he believed in the potential for further growth and success.
What was the financial impact of David's persistence on Jenny AI?
-David's persistence led to Jenny AI growing from an initial valuation of a few million to a worth of $10 to $30 million within six months.
Outlines
🚀 Entrepreneurial Struggle and Breakthrough
David Park's journey from struggling with numerous failures to building a successful AI app is encapsulated in this paragraph. Starting at the age of 16, David's decade-long endeavor involved relentless attempts to create a profitable business. Despite the lack of financial support and facing rejections, a breakthrough came when his AI app gained traction, attracting thousands of users. However, his success was overshadowed by a cancer diagnosis, adding a layer of complexity to his entrepreneurial narrative. The paragraph highlights the perseverance required to turn an idea into a $25 million valuation within two years.
📈 Pivotal Insights and Scaling Challenges
This paragraph delves into the critical turning points in David's business journey. After hitting a revenue plateau, David learned the importance of understanding customer dislikes and needs, which led to significant product refinements. Despite financial exhaustion, a chance podcast appearance resulted in a $100,000 investment, providing a lifeline to his startup. The narrative then shifts to the challenges of scaling the business, including a viral Twitter mention that propelled user growth. David's personal battle with cancer during this period added emotional depth to his story, emphasizing the resilience needed to navigate both health and business crises.
💼 Overcoming Adversity and Scaling Success
The final paragraph focuses on David's recovery and strategic decisions to stabilize and grow his business. After his surgery, he faced the reality of an unstable business model and the absence of product-market fit. Choosing to persevere rather than sell, David invested in marketing and growth strategies, which led to exponential business growth. He shares insights on the importance of persistence, discipline, and the willingness to sacrifice for a dream. The story concludes with a reflection on the value of resilience and the potential for success even after years of struggle, culminating in a business now worth millions.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Entrepreneur
💡Failure
💡Cold calling
💡AI (Artificial Intelligence)
💡GPT-2/GPT-3
💡Product-Market Fit
💡Virality
💡Cancer diagnosis
💡Fundraising
💡Persistence
Highlights
David Park started his first company at 16 and spent over a decade facing failures.
He worked tirelessly from his parents' house, cold calling agencies for 8 hours a day.
David and his co-founder Henry stumbled upon GPT-2 and created Jenny, an AI-assisted writing tool.
Despite early struggles, they persisted and eventually got their first users.
David learned the importance of talking to users and asking tough questions to improve the product.
A key moment came when a podcast appearance led to a $100,000 investment from Jason Calacanis.
They moved to Malaysia to cut costs and extend their runway.
A viral Twitter thread by Zay Khan brought a huge wave of users and rapid growth for Jenny.
Despite success, David faced a cancer diagnosis which put his role and the business to the test.
He decided not to sell Jenny, despite the instability and challenges, and focused on finding product-market fit.
Hiring marketing and growth personnel helped scale the business significantly.
David emphasizes the importance of persistence, dedication, and continuous improvement in building a successful startup.
Through social media and viral marketing, Jenny AI's revenue grew from $2,000 to millions annually.
David's belief in his dream and the support from his family and co-founder were crucial in his journey.
David reflects on the long-term commitment required to achieve success, even in the face of potential failure.
Transcripts
hi David what's your
story I was working from my parents
house in the bedroom day and night I had
no money and it was time to really it
was time to Make It or Break It this is
David Park and for years he tried
everything to make money I started my
first company when I was 16 I'm 27 now
that's a decade of failing then one day
he came across an idea that would change
his life forever but at the beginning
things weren't looking so bright a cold
called every single Agency for 8 hours a
day for weeks and weeks and weeks they
hang up on you reject you literally
probably 99% of the time but when
everything was at its worst David
experienced a miracle suddenly we get a
huge wave of users when we're getting to
50 60 80,000
Mr then I got a cancer diagnosis and it
felt like my dreams and nightmares were
happening at the same time this is the
story of how David Park built an AI app
to a $25 million valuation in Just 2
years I'm Pat walls and this is starter
story David grew up in a family of
entrepreneurs and even though they never
had a lot of money he still had a dream
that he could be one too when I was in
seventh grade I thought you know man
it'd be so cool if like I'm a founder
and it'd be so cool if I can build stuff
and so when I was 16 I actually made my
first company was like a clothing brand
obviously it failed spectacularly David
experienced his first failure early on
and like all protective parents they
sacrificed everything they had to send
him off to a college in hopes for a
better life my parents gave me $20,000
they said you know you go to college
you're going to have a better life than
us you're going to go be a lawyer doctor
the sad thing is I kind of felt like I
didn't really fit in anywhere I didn't
really feel it fit in in my fraternity I
didn't really feel it fit in with like
the people in my major I was always
surrounded by people but I always felt
like a little bit lonely which is kind
of sad David was facing a dilemma he was
an entrepreneur at heart but he was
trapped in an environment that didn't
make him happy so we made a huge
decision he decided to drop out and
Chase his dreams of starting a startup
and luckily along the way he meets
someone just as weird and passionate as
him his eventual business partner and
co-founder Henry he loved AI I loved
writing we always try to find some way
to make it work the sum total of failed
STS that we did together was probably n
or 10 which is pretty nuts eventually we
stumbled upon gpt2 we asked it to tell
us a story gpt2 spit out this line that
said nothing is darker than a butthole
and and obviously as two people enamored
with this Tech we were raving we're like
this is the funniest line ever also it's
profound that butthole sentence
convinced us two but holes to create
Jenny all right so this is a quick
product uh video for Jenny the boys had
found their idea and and now the
business was in motion Henry would do
the coding and David would do the
selling their goal was simple create a
product to help agencies write better
content with the help of AI and their
next goal was to make their first dollar
that was like a terrible painful time of
uh cold calls obviously nobody wants to
talk with you they hang up on you reject
you you have to get used to getting
rejected so I was working from my
parents house just in the bedroom it was
pretty sad my mom she would wake up and
then she'd hear me just like raving to
some poor soul about why they need to
invest in us or they need to buy us and
then she'd go before she'd go to sleep
she'd still hear me kind of speaking to
some other poor fellow so I like pretty
much just working uh day and night the
worst part was like Korean moms will
just get together and just talk about
their kids like their trading cards like
my kid is now a level two Amazon
engineer my kid is now doing their
masters at Stanford and then it would
get to my mom's turn and she would just
say oh my son is working on a startup
the most humilating thing was I had to
ask my mom for her card if I wanted to
get Chipotle cuz I just had like no
money I was a real loser but my parents
were so kind to me like they never made
me feel like a loser like they would
always um they would always give me food
and they never make me feel bad about
um
uh
they never they
never
[Music]
uh so they never make me feel bad about
anything they just always like there was
always just food on the table on days
that I didn't believe in myself I felt
like my parents believed in me my
co-founder would believe in me my
friends obviously believed in me so it
was painful but I guess I'm glad that I
went through them
yeah in 2020 GPT 3 came out David is is
getting some traction thanks to a wave
of businesses wanting to get their hands
on AI they're getting users but
eventually they hit a plateau they try
everything but they can't get past
$2,000 a month in Revenue then David
learns and implements something that
would change his business forever it
really came down to the boring stuff of
just talk to your users ask the more
difficult questions you know you
shouldn't be asking why do you like my
product you should be asking why do you
dislike my product like what what what
do you love about other people's
products the focal point of I feel like
many Founders they talk to users is like
they make it about themselves and their
product when it should really be about
the users tell me about your current
workflow how does Jenny fit into it what
exactly do you do with Jenny or like can
you share your screen and can we write
an article together these insights are
really important we realized that people
wanted to have a friendly AI assisted
writing journey and so when we pulled
out everything that was when we really
started to grow after months of talking
to customers and refining the product
they start to find a new audio for Jenny
but at this point David basically has 0
left in his bank account he's exhausted
all of his options but he decides to try
one more thing he agrees to go on a
random podcast to talk about his startup
Journey it doesn't have that many
listeners but luckily one Scout for
Jason calanus happened to listen to the
podcast the craziest Miracle ever cuz
like it was not viewed by many people
and so I got a $100,000 check from Jason
like I said I was living off Shin Ramen
and you know whatever my parents put out
on the dinner table so $100,000 was so
crazy the first thing we do is my
co-founder and I we book a flight to
Malaysia because at the very least it'll
cut down our Burn by 1/4th we basically
just want to extend our Runway because
we kind of didn't trust ourselves with
the money it was a crazy moment getting
the check but I didn't feel successful
at all because now the real job of
getting my hands dirty was actually
getting started I kind of raved earlier
about like how much I love my family but
um I was alone by myself it was very
productive but it was very lonely it was
tough it was it was character building I
would say I had 100K check I was
completely by myself it was time to Make
It or Break It Now the real dirty work
had begun with a bit of funding and a
tiny Runway David and his co-founder
spent the next several months iterating
and building Jenny into a completely new
product talking to customers documenting
the progress and trying just about
anything to increase Revenue then one
night something incredible happens
suddenly we get a huge wave of users
every minute I refresh the page I think
we would get tens of us new users every
minute that I refresh the page a guy
named Zay Khan posted a Twitter thread
that became one of the most viral
Twitter threads in history and we were
actually included in that thread from
there we went from like 2,000 to 10,000
Mr in one month that's when I felt the
first semblance of success Jenny AI was
growing at a rapid Pace in David felt
like he was on top of the world but
there was still a problem virality comes
and goes it's not something David could
rely on to build a great business so the
very next thing I wanted to do was kind
of figure that out for ourselves I
brought on one of my college buddies
actually to help us with Tik Tok and
Instagram reals All That Jazz and then
we experienced our second wave of
virality we understood the power of
social media we continue to kind of push
on with uh viral marketing when we were
getting to 50 60 880,000 Mr you know now
it was kind of happening where I think
at that point we were close to like a
million a year from where we started
that was like so crazy to us and I felt
like man we could push this so much
further we could go so much farther but
then I got a cancer diagnosis and it
felt like my dreams and nightmares were
happening at the same time the the most
worrying thing for me though is that it
would put me out of commission and there
was a chance that my voice would be
damaged I remember the surgery because
of the fever they had to reschedule me
which made my sleep deprivation food
deprivation all that even worse it
prolonged my pain more but one thing
that helped was my mom told me that
there's something I I'll tell you before
your surgery and don't worry it's going
to give you all the strength you need
you're not even going to be nervous
everything's going to be fine and then
so for some reason my mom went to the
bathroom or something while I was taking
a nap and like the nurses run in and
they're like because of your fever
complication we have to do surgery right
now I don't even speak Korean to be
signing documents like can we wait for
my mom and then they're like we just got
to run it now and I was honestly
thinking about like man I got a crazy
startup right now I can just bolt out of
here thyroid cancer moves kind of slow
like it's not like the craziest risk I
could take but I remember on the ceiling
there was a Bible verse it said like
leave everything to God I was like all
right well I'll leave it up to the big
man upstairs like I I I have to get the
surgery so I'll just stay I don't know
what I just signed my mom's not here
it's fine I'll just stay the surgery
went well I was able to not speak for a
little bit but I was able to get my
voice back few days after the surgery I
was like hey Mom like what was that
thing you wanted to tell me before the
surgery she told me oh it's just it's
dumb it was just this one Bible verse
that I really liked and it happened to
be the same Bible verse that was on the
ceiling which is pretty crazy to me
where I take it as is like Miracle what
an awesome little blessing that I got I
had to read that somebody had to tell me
that and my mom was in the bathroom so I
didn't get she didn't get to read it to
me but thankfully that painter put it up
there for me so I got to read it after
the surgery I was obviously very
emotional I was very moved by the love
that I received from like my family and
my girlfriend and I thought the limited
time I have left was like my family my
grandparents all that stuff but instead
I'm I'm spending so much time on my
startup like so much time
so I actually shopped Jenny to like if
people would be open to acquiring Jenny
at that point David was facing a wave of
problems after his surgery he realized
that the business was unstable without
him leading the pack after seeing no
growth when he was out with cancer David
also realized Jenny did not have product
Market fit so he had a tough choice to
make either Cash Out grab a quick quick
few million bucks and start freshh or
double down find ways to fix the
business find product Market fit and
take things to a whole another level it
just didn't feel right to like throw my
cards in early you know it wasn't like a
triumphant I will not sell this will
it's sort of like I don't know if this
is the right decision but it just feels
right in my gut that one hard decision I
made I'm very proud of myself from then
I focus on hiring people on the
marketing growth side and we went into
more scaling mode I would say up to the
1 millon we're doing a lot of exploring
trying out a bunch of zany ideas a bunch
of paths and then from 1 to three we
really started heavily deploying capital
in the ones that were successful
tactically what I would do is I would
basically start a Tik Tok account try a
bunch of different creative formats and
then find one format that works and
somehow turn that into a series and then
start multiplying your accounts so you
could have multiple creators you're
basically paying creators like some
baseline monthly salary and you're
giving them some incentives where like
if your videos get X many views or if
you get y conversions then you get you
know even more money per month you
should basically just think about how
can you scale the content I think that's
like the big question you should
ask I started my first company when I
was 16 I'm 27 now that's a decade of
failing I really only got any semblance
sucess in the last 18 months so it's 9
years almost a decade of just gut
punches people not taking you seriously
you need that discipline I think if you
really care about your dream and if you
really care about making something that
is used by millions of people then you
can't give it like a onewe shot you
can't you can't even give it a year shot
you have to really put your all into it
sacrifice everything for many many years
and then you have a shot you have maybe
a chance at success but even if you put
your all into it there's a chance that
you will fail if you still make a
startup and if you still try despite
knowing that you could have nothing and
you could lose everything then that must
mean that you really care about what
you're building and you really care
about making better life for yourself
your family your users we talked about
quitting earlier had I sold then which
was earlier this year it was only like 6
7 months ago you know it would have been
such a terrible decision for me to sell
at that point because went from selling
to 3 million now we're at 3 million AR
we're above 3 million AR the true worth
of our startup now is probably like 10
to 30 million you know it's like it's
like way more than what I would have
sold for then within 6 months we more
than doubled our business yeah
persistence is quite important I would
say hey Pat from starter story here
thank you guys so much for watching I
really hope David's story inspires and
motivates some of you to get started on
your own thing as you saw in the video
David changed his life by turning a
simple idea into a $3 million per year
SAS product if you're curious about
doing something similar but you're still
looking for an idea well right now you
can download our Deep dive SAS report
for free it breaks down 52 different
micro SAS ideas and tons of other stuff
you'd want to know just click the first
link in the description and if you're
serious about building it then consider
joining starter story and we'll help you
do that much love and I'll see you guys
in the next one
[Music]
peace
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