Do you agree that now (with AI) 3 people companies can create a billion dollar valuation?

Zoe Stetsenko
23 replies
If so, what should these 3 people be able to do?

Replies

Chris Sarca
I disagree, I've yet to see a solid AI-based product. Even the big boys cannot come up with something nice, the output is really cheap and worthless. Let the hype die already, it's getting boring to see people getting drunk on cold water.
Zoe Stetsenko
@chris_sarca Really? You haven't been touched by this fever, haha! In fact, I don't really believe in this statement about 3 people in a company either... But I guess very soon we may see a refutation of our skepticism
Chris Sarca
@zoia_stetsenko It's not important how many are there, it's important that the product to be good and solve real problems. AI-based projects I've seen don't do that.
Zoe Stetsenko
@chris_sarca @adan_dv Thank you, I totally agree! Discarding all the pillars of a successful project (product-market fit, scalability, team strength, execution, etc.), leaving only one - artificial intelligence - is a balancing act that can never guarantee a reliable and excellent result. and the question is whether these 3 people can create and maintain all these pillars.
André J
Launching soon!
Definitely. Notion was very few people for a long time. Still are I believe. The next Notion amped with AI agents, could be even less. Great software is like great books. It's not how many authors who write them. It's the quality of the authors that matter. And luck.
Zoe Stetsenko
@eonpilot but then what kind of people are they supposed to be? With a high level of expertise in several fields? What do you think?
André J
Launching soon!
@zoia_stetsenko Notion was founded by a UX designer and a Software Dev. that's all you need to build products really. Most investors look for the CTO and CEO combo. But I don't agree with that. I think that mindset has begun changing. I see it at very modern companies, where they ditch the biz operators, and only hire designers and techies and pair them together on initiatives.
Rituparna Ghosh
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Apollon Latsoudis
To be fair, I do not personally believe that you can create a billion dollar valuation company with a mere 3 people. Many people tend to emphasize success and focus on successful stories (survivorship bias)in order to maintain the narrative that AI can assist you build giant companies. But for every successful story, there have been numerous companies that have failed. But I have seen operations with 1 or 2 people that manage to outperform large companies by utilizing AI in numerous efficient and surprisingly well thought off ways. For instance I read about a 1 person who used AI to sort his knowledge and make it searchable using semantics. He then trained the AI in this knowledge and created a chatbot of himself. He embedded the chatbot in his operations to interface with visitors and assist in data base search. Similarly virtual intern was created that could understand tables in the database, writes SQL queries automatically, and even send notifications on the designated Slack channels. Numerous other applications as well are on offer if you know where to look, which allow AI to replace some tasks and therefore be more efficient with less workforce. However the 3 people company statement for 1 billion usd dollar valuation seems for the time being too far off.
Zoe Stetsenko
@apollon440 Yes, I agree. If it were to happen, it would be the exception to the rule, which can hardly be called confirmation of this hypothesis
Dexter Awoyemi
The efficiency of 3 people is increasing and the value of the dollar is falling, so I'd say yes.
Zoe Stetsenko
@dextersjab and the further away, the more likely, right?:) And how do you think the efficiency of people is increasing? Does it depend on the person and their skills? Or is the development of assistive technology responsible for efficiency?
Dexter Awoyemi
@zoia_stetsenko I think it depends a lot on how people use the tech. As a programmer, it's hard to estimate exactly how much more productive I am with GPT, but it feels about maybe 5x. Many marketers are also taking advantage of these AI-powered tools. I would guess that the ones that have good workflows are seeing similar multipliers in productivity. The tools are maturing, and small teams have commanded billion-dollar valuations in the past (IG famously with ~14 people). I don't think it's far-fetched.
Mark Pavlyukovskyy
Absolutely! In this AI-driven era, it's no joke that a small team of three can conjure up a billion-dollar valuation.
Zoe Stetsenko
@mark_pavlyukovskyy but do these three people have to be superhuman? Or does it no longer matter if there is artificial intelligence?:)
Rehan Saleem
AI empowers small teams to potentially achieve billion-dollar valuations by boosting productivity, automating tasks, and improving decision-making. It levels the playing field, enabling innovative AI-driven products or services with substantial market value. Success factors include product quality, market demand, execution, and competition.
Vlad Zivkovic
It is not possible yet, if the Ai is so valuable than why Google, Microsoft, etc... still employ hundreds of thousands of people globally.
Zoe Stetsenko
@vladimir_zivkovic however, AI has squeezed out those thousands of people... But of course, I agree that AI is overrated in many issues
Vlad Zivkovic
@zoia_stetsenko No, Ai didn't squeezed anyone out of job from global giants, it's just the cost cutting strategy that even the small companies do now days. Ai is not reliable yet to do anything scalable, at least the one we have access to.
Mei
It depends on the utility of the product and the value it provides.