22-year-old college dropouts just raised $350M at $10B valuation in 2 years.

Mercor is an AI talent marketplace connecting 30,000+ contractors with labs like OpenAI and Meta. Contractors earn $85/hour average, platform processes $1.5M daily payments.

How it happened:
• Started as interview analysis service in dorm room (2023)
• Pivoted to AI talent marketplace after early traction
• Scaled to 400K+ candidate screenings via proprietary algorithms
• Capitalized when Meta bought Scale AI stake, creating competitor vacuum
• Expanded to 300+ employees, became neutral data-labeling partner
• Raised Series A $30M (Benchmark), then 5x valuation jump to $10B

Key metric: $85/hour average contractor pay vs industry standard $45-65.

Takeaway: Market timing beats perfect product. When competitors get sidelined, move fast.

Brewed by Startup Beaker.