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Benchmark, Sequoia, and Coatue invested; the 14-person invite-only app reports $1 billion in annual transaction volume.
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Instinct raised $1B at a $10B valuation, from Benchmark, Sequoia, Coatue They have 14 employees. Most of the new money will go toward compute, which CEO Noah spends 40% of his time acquiring. They are growing 10% a day, had $1B of transaction volume, 50% of which is travelRead original on X
A list of surprising and mind-boggling stats from this conversation: - $1B+ a year in transaction volume (still invite only) - Growing 10%+ A DAY and has spent zero dollars on marketing - 40% of users shared a personal credit card with Instinct within 3 weeks - Compute demand is doubling roughly every week - At 5 to 8% daily growth over the months it takes to bring new compute online, Instinct would reach about 100 million users - On Instinct's own A/B tests, it matches Opus 5 performance at a fraction of the cost - Noah spends about 40% of his time on compute - Buying compute at the last minute costs 3 to 4x more - Background work runs on setups that are 3x, 5x and 8x more efficient on the same compute - 50% of Instinct's transaction volume is travel - Instinct plans to take a cut of…Read original on X
Instinct has raised a $1 billion Series C at a $10 billion valuation, TechCrunch reports. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Coatue.Read original on X
A few thoughts on Instinct (been waiting for consumer AI): - Simplicity is clearly the north star (a prestige product philosophy, Apple-esque) - This is the new interface for commerce, and likely where all their money gets made. - Invite-only consumer growth naturally draws Clubhouse comparisons. It’s a good proxy for the Silicon Valley story arc, but far more solo utility and less social/media network - We’re still deep in unlocking personal superpowers via AI, long phase of tool before network (fits my “Self is the Platform” AI thesis from last yr) - And yet, this could be the first multiplayer consumer AI product to truly scale. ‘Trusted Person Network’ is a great use case and starts with family & close friends, like Life360 (what I’ve called Social Utilities). - Meta is coming,…Read original on X
I’ve gotten to work with Noah and the Instinct team closely over the last months (they use Link)—sharp, ambitious crew. A great interview and fun data shared: - $1B+ yearly run rate transaction volume (growing 10% a day) - 50% of spend is travel - 40% of users add a credit cardRead original on X
Instinct just raised $1B at a $10B valuation, one month after it was valued at $2.5B.Read original on X
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