GP @Xfund visits Beta; Heeyo.ai raised from OpenAI|Beta Weekly Brief 9/16

Founder Story Behind Heeyo: Insights for Early-Stage Founders from Xiaoyin’s Entrepreneurial Journey

September 13, 2024

Xfund’s Playbook to Startup Success

Join us for an exclusive episode with Xfund, a top venture capital firm backing startups like SpaceX. In this event, you will learn strategies to secure your first $1M in funding with insights from Brandon Farwell, General Partner at Xfund, who helped build a portfolio of 150 companies during his time at DFJ and Rothenberg Ventures.

Register here.

📝 Lessons Learned

I recently spoke with Xiaoyin, the founder and CEO of Heeyo.ai (its recent seed round backed by OpenAI and StoryHouse Ventures). Before establishing Heeyo, she was the CEO of Run the World and a Product Manager at Meta. Here are some valuable takeaways for founders, particularly in the tech and AI sectors:

  • Leverage Market Timing: Adapt quickly to market shifts to meet rising demand. Xiaoyin’s success with Run the World stemmed from recognizing the need for virtual conferences during the pandemic—a timely response to an urgent problem. Stay aware of external trends and adapt quickly to shifts that could create demand for your product or service.

  • Create Purpose-Driven Solutions: Your startup’s mission should stem from personal experiences or values. Xiaoyin’s AI education platform, Heeyo.ai, was inspired by her own struggles, shaping a product that offers personalized learning tools to solve real-world issues.

  • Build and Demonstrate Essential Startup Skills: Learn critical startup skills outside corporate environments, like securing funding, customer acquisition, and product positioning. Presenting strong traction and projecting confidence in your business value, as Xiaoyin did, makes you more attractive to investors.

These insights reflect the importance of identifying timely opportunities, developing tailored products, and mastering the softer skills of entrepreneurship.

📰 Big News

OpenAI has introduced the o1 series, its most sophisticated AI models to date, which are designed to excel at complex reasoning and problem-solving tasks. The o1 models, which use reinforcement learning and chain-of-thought reasoning, represent a significant advancement in AI capabilities.

OpenAI has made the o1 models available to both ChatGPT users and developers through various access tiers. For ChatGPT users, the o1-preview model is accessible to subscribers of the ChatGPT Plus plan, offering advanced reasoning and problem-solving capabilities.

🧰 Beta 6-week Pre-Acceleration Program

Looking for support to kick off your new project? Check out the Beta 6-week Pre-Acceleration Program.

We help first-time and early-stage founders like you build MVP, get the first paid user and secure funding.

Want to be featured in an upcoming newsletter? Reach out to me at [email protected], or connect with me on LinkedIn.

See you next week.

Cheers,

Fei