Weekly AI Recap: From 0 to 1M Users: Bootstrapping TensorPix into a Thriving AI Startup

Goooood morning! ☕

Welcome to Homebase Edition #12 - A weekly newsletter bringing you stories & insights from scrappy teams and solo founders building the AI unicorns of tomorrow

What’s on tap today:

• Weekly Founder Story

• Weekly AI Headline Recap

• Emerging AI Trend

AI FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT
1 Founder story

“How We Pivoted Our B2B AI Tool into a B2C Platform with 1M Users and Rapid Growth”

Bartol Freskura, a young entrepreneur from Croatia, turned his early interest in computers into TensorPix, an AI-powered platform that enhances video and image quality. 

In his final year of high school, Bartol developed an Android app for book summaries that reached 500,000 downloads, demonstrating his knack for tech projects.

Now, TensorPix allows anyone to improve their videos and images online using AI technology.

They've achieved:

👥 26K monthly active users
📈 80k new users every month
🔥 Over 1M registered users in the last year
💻 Built a website where people can use AI to improve their media
🌐 Changed from selling to businesses to selling directly to consumers


Bartol got the idea for TensorPix when he realized AI could make bad-looking videos and photos look good for pretty much anyone.

This pushed him to create a website where people can upload their media, click a few buttons, and get much better-looking results in minutes.


How they did it: 

💎 Self-funded and profit-focused from the start
☁️ Used cloud computing to make service accessible
👐 Looked at both numbers and user feedback to make decisions
🔍 Launched MVP in 2021, iterated based on user feedback
⚡ Quickly switched from targeting businesses to individual users
📢 Got users through search engines, social media, and sites like Reddit


Key Highlights:

• Made pro-level media enhancement accessible

• Innovating in AI-powered visual improvement

• Kept costs low and bootstrapped their way to success

• Changed their approach based on what real users wanted

• Grew by writing content that ranks well in search engines

• Got more users by focusing on what people actually needed

Read more about their journey here 🔥🔥🔥

HEADLINE ROUNDUP
Headline recap

• OpenAI is working on new reasoning technology under the code name ‘Strawberry’. (R)

• Researchers from Cambridge developed an AI tool to predict Alzheimer’s progression with over 80% accuracy. (E)

• Google debuts Vids, an AI-powered video creation tool for generating presentations with scripts, AI voiceovers, and stock imagery. (G)

• Apple's stock hits record highs after Morgan Stanley names it 'top pick' due to Apple Intelligence and AI initiatives boosting device sales. (R)

• Whistleblowers filed a complaint with the SEC alleging OpenAI violated federal protections. (TWP)

• Meta's Llama-3 405B model is to be released on July 23 with multimodal capabilities. (TI)

• Amazon expands Rufus AI shopping assistant to all U.S. customers, offering personalized recommendations and improved query responses. (A)

• Samsung to release upgraded Bixby voice assistant powered by its own LLM, integrating AI across its devices. (CNBC)

• $3 billion software unicorn scraps plan to give AI 'workers' rights after criticism from tech execs. (AOL)

• HP's OmniBook Ultra to feature AMD's new AI chips and Copilot Plus integration. (TV)

TRENDS
1 AI Trend of the week

Drona Pay

• Founded: 2022

• Location: India

• Annual Revenue: $1.2M as of Dec 31, 2023

• Volume: 500K transactions/month

• Growth: +150X

As online financial transactions grow, so does the risk of fraud. The latest trend? AI-driven platforms offering real-time fraud protection in payments and lending. These solutions use machine learning to safeguard wallets, BNPL services, credit cards, debit cards, neo banking, and real-time payments (RTP) from scams and delinquency.

This trend is transforming financial security by providing advanced fraud detection capabilities. Platforms like Drona Pay exemplify how AI enhances safety for businesses and consumers in the digital financial landscape.