Two devs turned basement crypto miners into $120M ARR AI cloud platform.

Runpod started when Zhen Lu and Pardeep Singh's Ethereum mining became "boring" in 2021. Instead of selling their $50K GPU setup, they pivoted to AI hosting.

Key metrics:
• $120M ARR (4 years post-launch)
• 500K developers
• $20M seed (Dell + Intel Capital)
• Bootstrapped to $24M before funding

The playbook:
• Repurposed mining rigs → AI servers
• Posted on Reddit: "Free GPU time for feedback"
• Beta users → paying customers in 9 months
• Hit $1M revenue, quit day jobs
• Revenue-share partnerships (no debt)
• VC found them on Reddit

Takeaway: Sometimes the best distribution is the simplest.

Source: TechCrunch

Brewed by Startup Beaker.