David Lin

This is @shawmakesmagic

- $100k in debt 70 days ago.
- Coding till 3am every night to pay rent.
- Turns a carzy idea into $2B+ AI project.

Here’s how an open source dev rewrote his life in 10 weeks — and is now building AI agents that's eating the world 🧵: 

@shawmakesmagic 1. The Idea (circa Oct 20, 2024)

Shaw replies to @truthterminal the original AI agent who blew up on X.

He toys with the idea of recreating Marc Andreessen as an AI bot.

https://x.com/shawmakesmagic/status/1847927962722562128

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal 2. The Inspiration

It all started with a reply to a joke:

Random: “Can someone resurrect DegenSpartan with AI?”

Shaw: “Yeah, I can do that.”

https://x.com/shawmakesmagic/status/1848176123022082063

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal 3. The Beginning

Shaw decides to recreate this crypto influencer using his tweets.

And thus, @degenspartanai was born.
https://x.com/shawmakesmagic/status/1848196567934615606

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal @degenspartanai 4. The "Scam" Scare

Some random guy (@elijah10T) accuses Shaw of scamming him after losing money on DegenSpartanAI.

After chatting for 2hrs on Google meets, Elijah decides Shaw is the real deal and invests 80 SOL (~$16K) into his project.

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal @degenspartanai @elijah10T 5. The AI Hedgefund

Shaw meets the creator of http://daos.fun for lunch (@baoskee)

They dream about a world where AI makes money for us.

They come up with Ai16z - like @a16z but with an AI as the investor.

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal @degenspartanai @elijah10T @baoskee @a16z 6. The Launch

Shaw envisions the first AI VC fund, fully managed by Marc AIndreessen (an AI).

He goes home and launches the project using an AI image: 

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal @degenspartanai @elijah10T @baoskee @a16z 7. Overnight Success

The project sells out in 25mins. 

They raise 420.69 SOL (~$88K)

This is the market cap now: 

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal @degenspartanai @elijah10T @baoskee @a16z 8. Instant Karma

Shaw didn't get any allocation for himself during the project pre-sale.

But Elijah from earlier (@elijah10T) decides to donate some of his shares to him after getting 16% of total allocation (worth ~$320M today).
https://x.com/shawmakesmagic/status/1850966309280108973

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal @degenspartanai @elijah10T @baoskee @a16z 8. Open Sourcing

Riding on the momentum of the launch, Shaw decides to release the framework he was silently building for 2 years.

He called it Eliza: An open source AI Agent framework. 

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal @degenspartanai @elijah10T @baoskee @a16z 10. The Challenge

Shaw writes that Marc AIndreesen (AI) will become the best VC in history.

Real Marc Andreessen sees this and posts about it on X:

https://x.com/pmarca/status/1850312932757770385

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal @degenspartanai @elijah10T @baoskee @a16z 11. Funding Research

Shaw uses this new attention to help fund non-profit research.

https://x.com/shawmakesmagic/status/1850744854361374871

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal @degenspartanai @elijah10T @baoskee @a16z 12. The Rise

Over the next 2 months, $ai16z grows from $0 to $2B in market cap. 

13. Conviction

Now people claim this is just a hype cycle.

But Shaw is convinced that this "meta" is the next big wave in Crypto + AI.

Most crypto natives already know all this ofc. But it took a normie like me many hours to catch up on all these tweets.
https://x.com/shawmakesmagic/status/1848350946499420328

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal @degenspartanai @elijah10T @baoskee @a16z I hope this helped someone understand a fascinating story in this new world. 

If so, would appreciate a like or repost so I can spend mo time doing more research projects like these :)

https://x.com/shawmakesmagic/status/1848301195984547885

@shawmakesmagic @TruthTerminal @degenspartanai @elijah10T @baoskee @a16z Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this, share it with someone and follow @davidlinjiahao for more.

I write about AI, startups, and other cool things that interest me :)