The Startup Ideas Podcast
I Built a $10M AI Startup as a College Dropout (Exact Strategy That Worked)
26 Feb 2025
David Park, founder of Jenny AI, details his step-by-step approach to building a profitable AI startup that reached $10 million in annual recurring revenue. He emphasizes starting with organic short-form content and influencer marketing before moving to SEO and paid advertising. Park attributes much of Jenny AI's success to finding viral content formats that could be repeated with variations, working with the right influencers regardless of follower count, and focusing on retention metrics as the company scaled.Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro03:00 - Organic Short Form Content08:25 - The Power of Fresh Accounts in Influencer Marketing11:17 - Case Study: MengMengDuck and Influencer Partnerships18:01 - New Creator Guidelines25:57 - Order of Virality: Steps to Achieve Success30:55 - Finding Influencers36:21 - Outreach Strategies40:34 - Negotiating with Influencers44:50 - Content posting strategy49:15 - Final UGC Tips 51:52 - SEO Strategy57:00 - Paid Ads Playbook59:53 - David's final advice:01:02:08 - From $5M to $10M1) ORGANIC SHORT-FORM CONTENT David's shocking truth: Fresh accounts with 1 follower can OUTPERFORM accounts with millions!The algorithm rewards quality, not history.2) The "Fresh Account" Strategy:• Create new accounts specifically for your product• Find creators to be the face of these accounts• Pay them to create consistent content• Focus on hooks that resonate with your audience3) The Viral Series Formula Find ONE format that works, then repeat it with slight variations.Example: "POV: You have an essay due" videos for Jenny AI generated 300M+ views and $500K+ in revenue!4) INFLUENCER MARKETING Don't waste time with mega-influencers charging $20K per post.Instead:• Find creators whose audience matches your users• Create a new account with them as the face• Pay for consistent content (not one-offs)• Let them maintain their authentic style5) How to find the RIGHT influencers:• Ask your users which creators they follow• Create a "scout" account that only follows relevant creators• Let the algorithm suggest similar accounts• Look for creators with high engagement (not just followers)6) Outreach hack that WORKS:Send money via Venmo to influencers you want to work with!They'll get a push notification and respond out of curiosity.7) Negotiation strategy:• Start by asking for their HIGHEST price point (all features)• Remove elements you don't need to lower the price• Negotiate bulk deals (20% off for multiple videos)• Split payment between upfront and performance-basedNEVER pay based on follower count - that's outdated!8) Content posting strategy:• Post 1+ videos DAILY to test different hooks• Trust creators to maintain their authentic style• Create systems that let influencers work autonomously• Don't be afraid of videos looking like ads - they convert BETTERScale to a video every few hours!9) David's final advice:"I'm a non-technical founder, a college dropout, not from Silicon Valley. If I can build this, YOU CAN TOO." - David Park"The truth? Only 1% of people reading this will implement these strategies for a full year." - David ParkNotable Quotes"We had one video that got 20 million views that had almost a negligible effect on conversions that day for Jenny. It was as if we got zero views, like nothing really happened that day. And yeah, it's just important to create content for people that actually want to convert and want to actually use your product." - David Park"I'm a non-technical person. I'm a non-technical founder doing an AI startup. I am a college dropout. I would not say I'm like one of those cracked people. I'm not from Silicon Valley... and I was able to kind of build this company." - David ParkWant more free ideas? I collect the best ideas from the pod and give them to you for free in a database. Most of them cost $0 to start (my fav)Get access: https://www.gregisenberg.com/30startupideasLCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/BoringAds — ads agency that will build you profitable ad campaigns http://boringads.com/BoringMarketing — SEO agency and tools to get your organic customers http://boringmarketing.com/Startup Empire - a membership for builders who want to build cash-flowing businesses https://www.startupempire.coFIND ME ON SOCIALX/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenbergInstagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/FIND DAVID ON SOCIALJenni AI: https://jenni.aiX/Twitter: https://x.com/Davidjpark96Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paviddark/
Full Episode
David Park went from $0 to $10 million with his AI startup in the last few years. And he's got this incredible growth tactic playbook. And we actually went through his playbook, paid ads, SEO, influencer marketing, you name it. And this is incredible. the most comprehensive, best playbook that I have seen of growth marketing for an AI startup to date. It is incredible. And he just gives it to us.
The people who listen to this episode to the end, this will actually change lives. People will actually be able to take some of this this playbook and implementing their startups. I hope you enjoy this episode. People charge for this stuff, but it's free here on the Startup Ideas podcast. Enjoy the episode. We got David Park on the Startup Ideas podcast.
I learned about him through this post, how to go from zero to $5 million AR profitably step by step. It went absolutely bonkers viral, 4.5 thousand likes. He talks about organic short form content, influencer marketing, SEO, paid ads. Now this isn't just a click baity hook. He actually goes through exactly the playbook for how to grow. And he's done it himself.
He's actually, since then, gone to $10 million ARR with his startup, Jenny AI. So I had to have him here on the pod. And we're going to just... By the end of this pod, what I hope to get out of David is some growth tactics for you to do the same. So growth tactics to go from zero to $10 million AR profitably. David Park, welcome to the pod.
Thank you so much for having me. I wrote this a while ago now, so I'll kind of be reading along with you guys and I'll kind of be adding more context as I explain things that we did to go from zero to 5 million. And then I actually haven't written the 5 to 10 million revenue posts. So we'll be, I guess, writing that real time on this podcast and figuring out how I did that.
But yeah, I mean, if we want to just not waste people's time, we can literally just like jump right into it. If you want to just... If you want to just start getting to the post, I'm happy to do so.
Cool. Yeah. So yeah, let's start with number one. So organic short form content. You basically say, you talk about the fresh account versus not fresh account and how you should think about the format, finding a face, craft a viral video series, multiply your accounts. What do you mean by this?
Yeah, so I mean that traditionally on social media, there was a lot of clout associated with like a million followers or like check marks or just like, I think there was this idea that the history of someone's channel meant a lot, but nowadays that's not really the case at all.
There are many cases where founders will just make one video on their TikTok and that video will just immediately go viral, which, you know, no matter how many times I say it, people don't really seem to believe it until it happens to one of their friends. But I mean, I'm sure you've had many guests that, you know, say the same thing. Like you can literally just make
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