This 20yo Sold an AI Startup for Millions in 7 Months…

Key Concepts

AI agents, autonomous cognitive entities, open-source development, agent marketplaces, AI-driven automation, human-AI collaboration, agency, product development, sales strategies, venture funding, AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), future of work, San Francisco tech scene.

Marco Kramer's Entrepreneurial Journey and SoftGen's Acquisition

Marco Kramer, a 20-year-old founder, shares his journey of building and exiting multiple startups, including SoftGen, an AI web app builder, in a seven-figure deal. He emphasizes the importance of participating in the current "industrial revolution" driven by AI.

Early Ventures: Started with a Minecraft server, leading to a graphic design and programming agency called Blue Page, selling marketing landing pages to local businesses. This evolved into Gastro Page, focusing on restaurant QR code menus and booking systems.
Legal Hurdles: Faced legal challenges operating a company underage in Germany, requiring a court permit.
Plutos Agency: Founded Plutos, a software development studio with offices in Germany, Serbia, and Bosnia, digitizing European businesses.
SoftGen Genesis: Inspired by the efficiency gains from using GPT-4 for project planning, he conceived SoftGen (initially SoftPlan) to automate web app development.
Early Iterations: Experimented with agent builders similar to Devon, focusing on issue-to-PR automation, but initial models weren't capable enough.
Sonet 3.5 Unlock: The release of Sonet 3.5 was a "gigantic unlock" for the AI web app builder space, enabling SoftGen to build UIs and connect to backends like Firebase and Supabase from natural language prompts.
Public Launch and Initial Struggles: Launched on Twitter, but faced server issues and slow initial revenue growth (2K MRR after 3 months).
Growth Strategy: Hired Dom as head of growth, focusing on influencer marketing, which propelled SoftGen to 50K MRR in 4-5 months.
Acquisition: Negotiated multiple times due to rapid growth, ultimately selling SoftGen at 50K MRR.

Product Iteration and Market Timing

Marco discusses the importance of public launches, user feedback, and betting on future AI model performance.

MVP and Iteration: Emphasizes launching quickly with a minimum viable product (MVP) that has a "wow effect" and iterating based on user feedback.
Building vs. Selling: Highlights the importance of both building and selling to drive the iteration loop.
Model Performance: Stresses the significance of building products on the "edge of capabilities" of current AI models, anticipating future improvements.
Future Models Performance: "Betting on future models performance" is key, as model upgrades significantly improve product capabilities.

Lessons Learned from SoftGen

Marco reflects on decisions he would have made differently, focusing on boldness and team composition.

Boldness and Marketing: Regrets not being more aggressive with marketing and launching sooner.
Team Composition: Emphasizes the importance of assembling an "A-class team" from the start, rather than keeping the team too lean.
Risk-Taking: Advocates for taking more risks and aggressively pursuing the market, even if the product isn't perfect.

Cortex and the Transition to AI

Marco explains his decision to sell SoftGen and focus on Cortex, driven by a broader mission to enable the transition from human to AI.

Strategic Exit: Prioritized a deal with minimal involvement to focus on Cortex.
Cortex Mission: Aims to answer the question of how to migrate 80% of knowledge workers to AI.
Action Recorder: Developed an action recorder to capture human workflows, annotate them, and train AI models to replicate those tasks.
Human to AI Migration: Everything at Cortex is focused on enabling the migration from human to AI.

Suna Agent: Development and Open Source Strategy

Marco details the rapid development of Suna Agent, an open-source general agent, and the strategic reasons for open-sourcing it.

Rapid Development: Built Suna Agent in 3 weeks, leveraging the AgentPress framework.
Team Collaboration: The team worked intensely in Lisbon, Portugal, fueled by coffee and steak.
Open Source Rationale: Believes dev tooling should be open source to encourage adoption and ecosystem development.
Ecosystem Vision: Aims to create an open marketplace of agents, tools, and "MCPS" (presumably referring to configurable components), enabling users to run 80% of their company through AI.
Business Model: Plans to monetize through a cloud platform with token usage charges and enterprise offerings.
AgentPress Framework: The goal is that Suna will outgrow Cortex and create its own economy, with the underlying framework potentially being renamed AgentPress.

General vs. Niche AI Agents

Marco discusses the future of AI agents, emphasizing the need for specialized AI employees within companies.

Niche Specialization: Believes AI agents will primarily be niche, specialized workers within companies, similar to human employees.
Integration: Sees potential for AI agents to use other AI products as tools.
Customization: Emphasizes the ability to customize agents to fit specific needs.

Target Market and Pricing Strategy

Marco outlines Cortex's target market and pricing approach for Suna Agent.

Target Market: Initially targeting prosumers, but seeing enterprise inbound.
Enterprise Strategy: Plans to match enterprises with developers and agencies for implementation.
Pricing Model: Considers a usage-based pricing model on the cloud platform, with potential for self-hosting.
Long-Term Vision: Believes the long-term cost will primarily be energy and LLM costs.

The Future of AI and Automation

Marco shares his vision for the future, where AI and automation transform work and society.

Agents Everywhere: Predicts a future dominated by AI agents.
Startup Advantage: Believes smaller teams have an advantage due to personalization and ownership.
AI-Driven Development: Suggests AI may eventually build agents autonomously, but human agency and ownership will remain crucial.
AGI and Cognitive Entities: Envisions a future with autonomous cognitive entities that emulate human cognition.
Abundance and Creativity: Foresees a life of abundance where humans can focus on creativity and entertainment.
Human-Made Goods: Predicts a premium for human-made goods.
Raw Materials: Highlights the continued importance of raw materials and land.
Proprietary Data: Emphasizes the value of proprietary data for training AI models.

San Francisco and the Tech Scene

Marco explains his decision to move to San Francisco, highlighting the concentration of talent and innovation.

Innovation Hub: Sees San Francisco as the epicenter of future technologies.
Talent Density: Emphasizes the high concentration of talented individuals.
Community and Vibe: Highlights the supportive community and inspiring environment.
Visa Challenges: Acknowledges the difficulties of obtaining visas for international team members.

Advice for Aspiring Founders

Marco offers advice to aspiring founders, emphasizing action, learning, and the power of belief.

Build and Sell: Focus on building a product and selling it.
Action and Iteration: Take action, iterate quickly, and pivot based on feedback.
Magnificent Times: Emphasizes the unprecedented opportunities for learning and building.
Agency and Belief: Highlights the importance of agency and believing in one's ability to achieve anything.
Everything is Built by People: Quotes Steve Jobs, emphasizing that everything around us was built by people no smarter than us.

Synthesis/Conclusion

Marco Kramer's story is one of relentless action, rapid iteration, and a deep belief in the power of AI to transform the world. From early ventures in Minecraft to selling SoftGen and building Cortex, he demonstrates the importance of embracing new technologies, taking risks, and focusing on building and selling. His vision for the future, where AI agents automate vast swaths of work and humans focus on creativity and innovation, is both inspiring and thought-provoking. His emphasis on agency, the ability to take action and shape one's environment, is a key takeaway for anyone looking to make their mark in the age of AI.