00:00:00 · S0, S1, S2, S3
Ad[00:00:00] S0: This episode is brought to Ad[00:00:01] S1: you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed Sponsored Jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Ad[00:00:30] S2: The Vuori core short moves with you. With everyday versatility and classic athletic fit. It's the one short for everything your day brings. Invest in your happiness and get 20% off your first purchase at viore.com/coretwenty. That's vuori.com/kore2zero. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. Ad[00:01:00] S3: When you're building a company, you learn that trust is what closes deals. You may have the best product, but buyers won't sign without proof that your product is secure, especially if it has AI. Vanta gets you compliant fast with SOC two, ISO twenty seven zero zero one, and more, and keeps you secure with continuous monitoring. Hyperbound, a YC backed startup, used Vanta to unlock the Fortune 100 in under a year. Snowfire got audit ready in a month and closed a multimillion dollar deal. Trust matters. Get started at vanta.com.
00:01:00 · S3, S4
Ad[00:01:00] S3: When you're building a company, you learn that trust is what closes deals. You may have the best product, but buyers won't sign without proof that your product is secure, especially if it has AI. Vanta gets you compliant fast with SOC two, ISO twenty seven zero zero one, and more, and keeps you secure with continuous monitoring. Hyperbound, a YC backed startup, used Vanta to unlock the Fortune 100 in under a year. Snowfire got audit ready in a month and closed a multimillion dollar deal. Trust matters. Get started at vanta.com. Ad[00:01:28] S4: This is Blue from the UPS store with a very special holiday announcement for small business owners. We're open. Let's be real. Your deadlines don't take holidays. So while the other guys are checking out, the UPS store is here to pack, ship, print, shred, notarize, and check more things off your list all year long. With over 5,500 locations, there's a blue near you at the UPS store. Shredding services are provided by Iron Mountain as Visit the upsstore.com/shredding for full details. Most locations are independently owned. Product services prices and hours of operation may vary. See store for details.
00:01:58 · David Park
[00:01:58] S5: You can always fail. You can fail at something you don't love, so you might as well fail at doing what you love. The sad truth isn't that you'll fail. I think that if you build a start up and you really work towards it on a long enough time horizon, you'll probably be able to make something and make somewhat of a living. But the sad truth is it just won't be super eventful many days. Many days will just be really boring. I worked my whole life, eight years of my life, start ups. Eight years. Zero zero zero, just failing, failing, failing. Finally, I'm finally able to peak a little bit above the clouds, I feel like we're finally growing, and then I get a cancer diagnosis. Hi, my name's David. I'm 27 years old. I'm the CEO of Jenni AI. Jenni AI is an academic AI assistant, helps you with research, writing, and everything in between. So we've raised from Jason Calacanis. We also have the AI grant, is Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross. We grow about 15 to 20% per month continuously for the last ten months. We're at about two and a half million ARR, and we're at over 2,000,000 users globally. I think now every single country in the world, there are now Jenni users, which is nice. I don't know. I think definitely just I had a lot of growing up to do. My parents, you know, my family wasn't rich, but my parents really gave me a lot of love, a lot of confidence. In in that... In a lot of ways that helped because, you know, I was able to believe in myself and do crazy things like start a company. My first business was a clothing brand where we just sell to people in my high school, sell to people in neighboring high schools. Obviously, it was my first business. I failed pretty spectacularly, lost all my money. I was 16 years old. I was just... I didn't know the basics of business. I just... I was pretty naive. I thought if you build something cool, that's the most important thing. It's not enough to just make a t shirt and then just give up and just say, now I'm gonna be a millionaire. I remember the coolest the coolest moment of my life was when I sold clothes. I I didn't really sell that much, but I was at the mall one time, and I saw this really tall, athletic, just like jock kind of guy. Someone who would never really be my friend. He was wearing one of the sweaters that I made. It was a really cool feeling because what I built was so valuable.
00:03:51 · David Park
What I built was so cool that he was willing to wear it. I think ever since then, I've always been kind of interested in making products, provide value to people. I went to college. I actually dropped out of college. I was on a plane from Seattle to San Diego. I went to UC San Diego. I was on a plane, and there's a guy sitting next to me, and I saw he had Coinbase open. Coinbase is like how you trade crypto in America. And I realized he was probably pretty rich. So he was my captive prisoner for three hours. He couldn't leave. We were on a plane, I could just continually pitch him my startup idea. I think he was annoyed, but I think he recognized that I really cared about what I was building. So I think less than three days after the plane landed, we met up. He gave me a cashier's check, my first investment ever. And then I dropped out of college, and then I immediately went full time. And then my first business after was, it was a social media where I was in college. I would meet so many people, and they'd say, like, add me on Snapchat, or add me on Instagram, or here's my LinkedIn. So I... We made an app that, you click one button and then you get added on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn all at once. It didn't do well. I'd I'd... I didn't know how to, like, get customers at the time. I didn't know, like, network effects at the time. We also weren't building for our users. We we made a lot of poor decisions product wise. Then I made a dating app startup, which also failed. The dating app startup was actually pretty cool. It was like an AI dating app where you don't swipe at all. And we use machine learning to look at your face and your previous partners to see who you might be physically attracted to, and then look at your Facebook to see, like, your interests and then try to find people. And then we partnered with, restaurants in the city, and then set up your first date for you at a restaurant you both liked with the coupon. So was like a concierge service, and the local business has also loved it because they got free customers. They got these customers coming in from our dating app. But when I went to raise money, and then the VC actually, you know, I'm not gonna invest in your startup because we actually want them to stay on your dating app as long as possible.
00:05:41 · David Park, S0, S1, S6, S7, S8
If they find a boyfriend or girlfriend and they get happy, they're gonna delete the app, not renew their subscription, and you're not gonna have a billion dollar business. Honestly, was really sobering for me. I was still, what, like 19, 20 at the time. So when I heard that, I felt like I had just crossed the chasm into, like, the adult world of, like, venture. Ad[00:05:59] S0: This episode is brought to Ad[00:06:00] S1: you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Ad[00:06:28] S6: Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time. Ad[00:06:40] S7: Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing. Ad[00:06:43] S8: Sam's Club is the club for every holiday club. Guess who's joining the club this season? Walmart Plus. Yep. Sam's Club Plus membership now comes with Walmart Plus at no extra cost. Two memberships, one great price. Just a $120 a year can save you time and over $700. Wanna get in on a membership duo of the century? Visit sam'sclub.com. Come join us. Sam's Club.
00:06:43 · S8, S9, S10
Ad[00:06:43] S8: Sam's Club is the club for every holiday club. Guess who's joining the club this season? Walmart Plus. Yep. Sam's Club Plus membership now comes with Walmart Plus at no extra cost. Two memberships, one great price. Just a $120 a year can save you time and over $700. Wanna get in on a membership duo of the century? Visit sam'sclub.com. Come join us. Sam's Club. Ad[00:07:04] S9: Annual plan only auto renews TNC apply estimate based on average combined Walmart Plus and Sam's Club Plus savings among members of both for one plus year versus nonmember or club member pricing slash fees excludes membership fees. See Walmart Plus terms and Sam's Club terms for more info. Ad[00:07:15] S10: Brussels clean up nicely at Sweetgreen. Maple glazed, roasted, and edges perfectly caramelized. Sweetgreen's fall harvest is back on the menu, and the season's most overlooked little green vegetable is dressed to be devoured. You know what to do. Order on the Sweetgreen app.