💪 0 to $325 ARR for Mike & Alex

Hey - It’s Guy & Farzan.

Hope you’re doing well. We hit 4,600 people per month on the Founderoo website, which is our highest ever. Over our lifetime, we’ve had people from 176 countries all around the world read our stories. This seems nuts to us. We’re starting to see things compound which is super exciting.

Enjoy the 2 founder stories, 1 playbook, and 1 Linkedin post.

Estimated reading time: 9 mins

2 Founder stories

1. From Zero to $325K ARR: The AI Revolution of Mike Heap & Alex Rainey

Imagine stepping off the beaten corporate path, armed only with a vision and the grit to redefine customer support. This isn't just a story; it's the epic journey of Mike Heap and Alex Rainey, who transformed a £1.2M setback into My AskAI, a revolutionary AI-driven tool, bootstrapping their way to $325k ARR and lighting up what is normally a relatively boring space with their ingenuity.

🎓 Corporate Warriors to Tech Mavericks

• From Accenture and EY to AI revolutionaries, Mike and Alex leapt from secure corporate jobs into the exhilarating chaos of entrepreneurship.

• Alex's venture into InsurTech was met with a harsh pandemic reality, while Mike juggled roles from auditing to innovation, craving something beyond the corporate script.

• A serendipitous meet-up over shared entrepreneurial pains and AI dreams paved their path forward.

🛠 Crafting a Niche in AI

• Their AI epiphany? A No-Code AI Model Builder, transforming tech novices into AI whisperers.

• Initial scepticism turned to triumph with a top-ten spot on Product Hunt, igniting their venture with 2k visitors and early adopters.

• My AskAI evolved from a versatile AI conversationalist to a focused AI Customer Support Assistant, proving that adaptability can carve out success in a crowded market.

🎓 A Foundational lesson for founders

Among the myriad insights from their journey, one stands out: The Art of Pivoting. Mike and Alex demonstrate that entrepreneurship is not a straight path but a series of calculated turns, each informed by user feedback, market trends, and the audacity to reimagine your product. Their ability to pivot from a broad AI tool to a specialized customer support assistant underscores the power of focus and adaptation in the startup world.

🌟 Dive deeper into their story

This snippet barely scratches the surface of Mike and Alex's adventure from corporate confines to AI trailblazers. For those wanting a deeper dive into their strategic pivots, early challenges, and the lessons that paved their way to success, the full saga awaits at Founderoo. Join us as we peel back the layers of their journey, offering not just inspiration but a blueprint for transforming a big vision into reality.

2. See how Michael and Ira created a billion-dollar coconut water company.

Imagine bumping into two ladies from Brazil at a bar in New York City back in 2003, chatting about how much they miss the delicious coconut water from home. That's exactly what happened to Michael Kirban and his buddy Ira Liran. Inspired, they decided to bring coconut water to America. They launched Vita Coco in 2004 with just $75,000. Fast forward 20 years, and now they're a billion-dollar empire with a bunch of cool products.

1 Founder playbook

How Liquid Death's founder Mike Cessario branded water into a $700 Million business

🤘 Dive into the extraordinary journey of Mike Cessario, the punk-rock visionary behind Liquid Death, who transformed canned water into a cultural icon.

🎸 From a Netflix director to a hydration hero, Mike's path is a masterclass in branding. With a background steeped in punk and metal aesthetics, Mike leveraged his unique perspective to launch Liquid Death in 2017, a brand that's all about murdering your thirst with style and sustainability.

Milestone Mayhem: A Rapid-Fire Recap

• 🛹 Skateboard Sparks: Childhood love for skateboarding and art kickstarts creativity.

• 🎤 Punk Rock Pedigree: Band life and graphic design shape Mike’s aesthetic edge.

• 🎓 Ad Man Ascends: From ad intern to Netflix director, a journey through creativity’s highs and lows.

• 🚀 Liquid Launch: A bold move to brand water with a punk twist, starting with a viral $1.5k video.

• 🌱 Eco-Warrior Mode: Commitment to sustainability with recycled cans and ocean cleanup contributions.

The golden gulp of wisdom 

The essence of Liquid Death's success lies in its fearless branding and its audacious stance on sustainability. Mike's journey really shows the power of a distinctive brand voice. By daring to be different and leveraging his roots in punk culture, he not only made water "cool" but also embedded a strong environmental message into the brand's DNA. This is a testament to the idea that authenticity and purpose can propel a seemingly mundane product into a cultural phenomenon. 

1 Linkedin post

A post we loved on Linkedin from Greg Isenberg:

Here are 30 realizations that changed my life as an entrepreneur:

1. Startup valuation is literally a made-up number.

2. It's impossible to work with people who don’t answer texts within 24 hours.

3. The internet can be your lottery ticket or your prison sentence.

4. If Abercrombie & Fitch can rebrand (up 285% in 2023), then you can rebrand too.

5. Having an internet audience is still wildly underpriced.

6. Build products that no one asks for, but everyone wants.

7. It's actually a good idea to be poor in your 20s and reinvest everything in yourself (learnings, travel, network, figuring out who you are).

8. Google is probably not going to “copy your startup”.

9. Content is your salesperson that works for you 24/7.

10. Look for opportunities that are low status now but probably high status in a few years.

11. Lifestyle businesses are still massively underrated. You can often turn them into non-lifestyle businesses if you want.

12. Avoid dependency on anything. Social apps, VCs etc. Freedom is two words: self-sustaining.

13. Taking a break doesn’t mean you’re lazy; burnout is real.

14. Whatever you do, don't be mid-curve.

15. The only things that should change your mood are things that will change your life.

16. Copycats are a nuisance, not killers. They are usually mosquitoes, not sharks.

17. Good design can’t fix a poor product. But good design can multiply a product that’s working.

18. People follow a journey, not a social account.

19. If you’re doing stuff you hate, you aren’t rich.

20. Don't create a startup without a "why now".

21. Strangers don’t want to hear about you. They want to talk about themselves or better themselves.

22. The best negotiators talk 10% of the time and listen 90%.

23. Good things happen when you add value to people’s lives through content & community.

24. You could learn a lot about someone by their likes on X/Twitter.

25. First, find the niche, then learn from the community, and then the startup idea will come to you.

26. On hiring: if it isn’t a hell yeah, it’s a hell no. Never compromise for fit.

27. Startups never go according to plan. There is no real plan for startups, only a direction.

28. The best businesses are the ones that look like a movement. It needs to be an identity, not a product.

29. Your identity is never your company ever. Your company is your business.

30. Change scenery 2-3x per day to be extra creative.

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See you next Sunday.

Guy + Farzan
Founderoo