Post #281

Two devs turned basement crypto miners into $120M ARR AI cloud platform. Runpod started when Zhen Lu and Pardeep Singh's Ethereum mining became "boring" in 2021. Instead of selling their $50K GPU setup, they pivoted to AI hosting. Key metrics: • $120M ARR (4 years post-launch) • 500K developers • $20M seed (Dell + Intel Capital) • Bootstrapped to $24M before funding The playbook: • Repurposed mining rigs → AI servers • Posted on Reddit: "Free GPU time for feedback" • Beta users → paying customers in 9 months • Hit $1M revenue, quit day jobs • Revenue-share partnerships (no debt) • VC found them on Reddit Takeaway: Sometimes the best distribution is the simplest. Source: TechCrunch Brewed by Startup Beaker.