Starter Story The Underdog: From His Parent’s Basement to $25M | Starter Story
Sep 15, 2025
David Park, founder of Jenny AI and an inspiring entrepreneur, shares his incredible journey from living in his parent's basement to building a $25 million company. He discusses the challenges and failures he faced while developing his AI app. Highlights include pivotal moments driven by viral engagement, the emotional toll of a cancer diagnosis, and the crucial support from friends and family. David emphasizes resilience, adaptability, and the lessons learned from navigating both professional and personal struggles in the startup world.
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Early Founder Years And Failures
- David started his first company at 16 and cycled through many failures before finding traction.
- He dropped out of college to pursue startups and found a co-founder, Henry, after many attempts.
Birth Of Jenny From GPT Experiments
- David and Henry built Jenny after experimenting with GPT-2 and loving its weird outputs.
- David handled sales while Henry coded, starting with cold calls and working from his parents' house.
Ask Hard Questions To Customers
- Talk to users and ask hard questions about dislikes and workflows to find real product-market fit.
- Observe customers using your product and ask them to share screens to uncover concrete improvements.