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Does anyone else feel like a failure for not creating their own AI based startup yet ? I was playing with machine learning back in 2018 and I just lost interes

Does anyone else feel like a failure for not creating their own AI based startup yet ? I was playing with machine learning back in 2018 and I just lost interest. Now I'm past 30 and it's too late. Edit: The 30 line is in jest, but I definitely don't have the same drive anymore.

zkid18 3y ago
> Now I'm past 30 and it's too late. How. that's related to developing an AI startup?
singhrac 3y ago
Why is it too late? Plenty of founders are over 30. Even YC is happy to fund middle career founders rather than just college kids.
- 999900000999 3y ago
  That part's in jest. But I really don't have the same drive I did just a few years ago. I was actively on Twitter trying to reach out to VCs to pitch my ideas. Now I'm much more realistic, creating music and games just to create them. I still think I have an amazing idea that just needs some funding.
acjacobson 3y ago
It's the very beginning of the wave. 30 is quite young and if you know ML now is the time to give it a shot. It is not in any way too late.
DandyDev 3y ago
That seems a little dramatic, no? I joined an AI startup in 2021 as the first employee. Both founders were already older than 30 back then. One of them was even 35+ gasp. We raised $40M+ since then. No OpenAI like valuation but by no means bad I’d say! Especially for a European startup. Get yourself together and rise to the challenge!
- 999900000999 3y ago
  Okay. So I already have a somewhat AI powered project that based around music. I have the prototype and videos of it in action on YouTube. How do I realistically pitch this. I'm actually just looking for feedback at this point.
bigyikes 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman > Samuel Harris Altman > April 22, 1985 (age 38)
brcmthrowaway 3y ago
I think you missed the boat; if you have no high-falutin credentials you will be considered a bandwagon hopper chasing a gold rush, just like all the CRUD app hustlers creating a GPT wrapper.
bbor 3y ago
You do. I promise. Think how radically different different situations can make you feel, especially long-term situations. Then quit your job. What’s the worst that could come from taking a child’s advice on the internet?!
TrackerFF 3y ago
Hot take: To get a turbocharged AI company funded these days, you need: 1) A team with the right pedigree (HYPS / MIT / Berkeley / etc. Ph.D -> OpenAI / FAANG ML/AI research group) 2) The right VC and industry network. 3) A product that will scale to hundreds of millions / billions of users. There are plenty of ridiculously talented ML/AI researchers and engineers out there, that unfortunately lack the "correct" educational and professional background. They have cool product ideas, but lack the "billion user" scale. Those are the startups that get hit with peanuts, or simply don't get funded. While the "pro athletes" of the ML/AI world get billion dollar valuations for some cookie-cutter LLM, before they have a product at hand.

zkid18 3y ago

> Now I'm past 30 and it's too late. How. that's related to developing an AI startup?

singhrac 3y ago

Why is it too late? Plenty of founders are over 30. Even YC is happy to fund middle career founders rather than just college kids.

999900000999 3y ago
That part's in jest. But I really don't have the same drive I did just a few years ago. I was actively on Twitter trying to reach out to VCs to pitch my ideas. Now I'm much more realistic, creating music and games just to create them. I still think I have an amazing idea that just needs some funding.

acjacobson 3y ago

It's the very beginning of the wave. 30 is quite young and if you know ML now is the time to give it a shot. It is not in any way too late.

DandyDev 3y ago

That seems a little dramatic, no? I joined an AI startup in 2021 as the first employee. Both founders were already older than 30 back then. One of them was even 35+ gasp. We raised $40M+ since then. No OpenAI like valuation but by no means bad I’d say! Especially for a European startup. Get yourself together and rise to the challenge!

999900000999 3y ago
Okay. So I already have a somewhat AI powered project that based around music. I have the prototype and videos of it in action on YouTube. How do I realistically pitch this. I'm actually just looking for feedback at this point.

bigyikes 3y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman > Samuel Harris Altman > April 22, 1985 (age 38)

brcmthrowaway 3y ago

I think you missed the boat; if you have no high-falutin credentials you will be considered a bandwagon hopper chasing a gold rush, just like all the CRUD app hustlers creating a GPT wrapper.

bbor 3y ago

You do. I promise. Think how radically different different situations can make you feel, especially long-term situations. Then quit your job. What’s the worst that could come from taking a child’s advice on the internet?!

TrackerFF 3y ago

Hot take: To get a turbocharged AI company funded these days, you need: 1) A team with the right pedigree (HYPS / MIT / Berkeley / etc. Ph.D -> OpenAI / FAANG ML/AI research group) 2) The right VC and industry network. 3) A product that will scale to hundreds of millions / billions of users. There are plenty of ridiculously talented ML/AI researchers and engineers out there, that unfortunately lack the "correct" educational and professional background. They have cool product ideas, but lack the "billion user" scale. Those are the startups that get hit with peanuts, or simply don't get funded. While the "pro athletes" of the ML/AI world get billion dollar valuations for some cookie-cutter LLM, before they have a product at hand.