Portuguese entrepreneur João Ferrão dos Santos created an online company with the help of the AI-powered platform ChatGPT and the idea went viral in less than a month.
The entrepreneur has achieved more than 100,000 euros of investment and sales of more than 12,000 euros since he created the company aesthetic clothing at the end of March, exclusively following the instructions given by ChatGPT.
“At first, it was supposed to be a 30-day experience,” João Ferrão dos Santos told Lusa, in an interview in Los Angeles. The idea came from a Jackson Fall tweet about asking ChatGPT to build a profitable company with a very low start-up capital of just $100.
“I saw that idea and had an almost childlike curiosity,” explains the entrepreneur, who has been working in startups for ten years. “If I really start building a company around this idea, what will the journey be like?”
The manager gave instructions to ChatGPT, with $1,000 seed capital, and the system did the rest: suggested an on-demand online t-shirt printing business, with a Shopify store and logistics provided by Printful, and came up with the name and logo concept T-shirt designs are made by Artificial Intelligence generative models.
“In two hours I had a business idea, a logo and 2,500 euros of start-up capital,” said João Ferrão dos Santos, explaining that some of his friends wanted to invest.
The experience went viral when the businessman wrote a text on his personal LinkedIn account explaining the idea. “The algorithm took that and recommended it to everyone for a week,” he said. The publication already has more than five million visits.
“We launched the store in four days, we sold 10,000 euros worth of T-shirts in the first five days. All through my publication on LinkedIn”, summarized the manager. Sales already exceed 12,500 euros and contracts have already been signed for an investment of 120,000 euros, with more in the pipeline.
“As soon as the round ends, we look at the budget and define the future together with our CEO, ChatGPT, who approves all decisions,” he stressed. João Ferrão dos Santos describes his role as that of a “human co-founder.”
As two of the friends who initially invested are Danish, the company’s headquarters have opened in Copenhagen and are already attracting the attention of Danish consulates in the United States, where João Ferrão dos Santos intends to move in the coming months.
In May, the Portuguese executive will be one of the speakers at an event for startups and investors from the Nordic countries in New York. He will also appear in a CBS News documentary on Artificial Intelligence, filmed in the East Coast city last week.
At the age of 34, João Ferrão dos Santos has a degree in Economics with a Master’s in Administration from the Nova School of Business and Economics. After working as a digital nomad for two years, he has spent the last few weeks in various parts of the United States and intends to move to the country.
Source: TSF
