The Underdog: From His Parent’s Basement to $25M

Summary

David 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

00:00

🚀 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.

05:02

📈 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.

10:02

💼 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.

Keywords

💡Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is someone who starts and runs their own business, often taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. In the video, David Park is depicted as a dedicated entrepreneur who, despite numerous failures, persists in his efforts to create a successful business. His journey from starting a clothing brand at 16 to developing a successful AI app highlights the entrepreneurial spirit of innovation and resilience.

💡Failure

Failure refers to the lack of success in achieving a goal or objective. David Park experienced numerous failures throughout his entrepreneurial journey, including his initial ventures. These failures were not setbacks but learning experiences that eventually led him to success. The concept of failure in the video underscores the importance of perseverance and learning from mistakes.

💡Cold calling

Cold calling is the practice of contacting potential customers or clients who have not previously expressed interest in a product or service. David Park engaged in cold calling for hours every day, facing rejection 99% of the time. This relentless effort was crucial in the early stages of his startup, demonstrating his determination and persistence in growing his business.

💡AI (Artificial Intelligence)

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn. David and his co-founder Henry utilized AI technology to develop their product, Jenny, which helps agencies write better content. The use of AI was a pivotal moment in their startup's development, showcasing the transformative potential of technology in business.

💡GPT-2/GPT-3

GPT-2 and GPT-3 are advanced language models developed by OpenAI that can generate human-like text based on input prompts. David and Henry's initial fascination with GPT-2, which produced a humorous and profound sentence, sparked the idea for their AI writing assistant, Jenny. The subsequent release of GPT-3 provided even greater capabilities, contributing to the success of their product.

💡Product-Market Fit

Product-market fit refers to the degree to which a product satisfies a strong market demand. David realized the importance of achieving product-market fit by listening to customer feedback and refining Jenny to meet their needs. This focus on understanding and serving their users was crucial for scaling the business and achieving significant growth.

💡Virality

Virality is the rapid spread of information or content through the internet, often through social media. David's startup experienced a wave of virality when a Twitter thread mentioned their product, leading to a massive increase in users. This viral moment was a turning point in their growth, demonstrating the power of social media in reaching a large audience quickly.

💡Cancer diagnosis

A cancer diagnosis is the identification of cancer in a patient. David received a cancer diagnosis during a critical time in his startup's growth, which posed significant personal and professional challenges. Despite this, he continued to push forward with his business, showing remarkable resilience and determination.

💡Fundraising

Fundraising is the process of seeking financial support for a project or business. David's startup received a pivotal $100,000 investment from Jason Calacanis, which allowed them to extend their runway and continue developing their product. This funding was essential for their survival and growth, highlighting the importance of securing financial backing for startups.

💡Persistence

Persistence is the firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action despite difficulty or opposition. David's decade-long journey of persistent effort, despite repeated failures and setbacks, ultimately led to his success. The video emphasizes that persistence is a key trait for entrepreneurs, as it enables them to overcome challenges and achieve their goals.

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