Short: 24yo, Thiel Fellow, sold 2 startups (last one I scaled to $52m valuation, raised $3m and sold it to toptal.com) ------ Long: Hey, I'm Nik Shevchenko, founder of fundplatform.io (sold) and WeLoveNoCode.com, launched in 2020 to accelerate product development through no-code solutions and sold to toptal.com in 2023. With a background in developing over 15 no-code applications, I drive quick product deployment to meet business objectives. My leadership was shown in hiring more than 100+ team members and in securing more than $3 million seed funding Based in San Francisco, I prioritize team-building and talent acquisition. I am actively engaged in staffing, recruiting, and leading dedicated teams towards achieving innovative solutions in the tech industry. My core skills include: - No-code platforms (Bubble, Adalo, Zapier, Webflow, Tilda, Airtable, Notion etc.) - Project Management - Product Management - Staffing and Recruiting - Fundraising and Financial Management - Team Building and Leadership - Problem-Solving and Troubleshooting - Robotics, VR/AR What do I like: Recruiting, VR/AR, robotics and longevity but open to anything else where I can bring value My motto: Be smart enough to look for smart people, because you are not the smartest. Positions: Founder at Omi AI (2024 - Present), Thiel Fellow at The Thiel Foundation (2023 - Present), Founder at WeLoveNoCode (2020 - 2023), On Deck Scale Fellowship at On Deck (2022 - 2022), Founder at Fund Platform (2017 - 2020), Became a 500 Startups Alumni at 500 Startups (2019 - 2019) Skills: Business Management, Strategy, Management, Fund, Trading, development, Hiring, Lean Startup, Business Strategy, Fundraising Recent Posts: Created a list of $80k+ in bounties that you can solve If you are - interested in ai wearables - learning to code - OR trying to get a job this is the best way to learn and get into the community of builders Need to bring 2 devs from India and Vietnam to the US for 2 weeks, asap Please recommend a B1/B2 agency with lowest decline rates 🥺🙏 I’m excited to announce that Omi AI has raised $2m from Tim Draper, Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi, and others! Few words from me: — Less than a year ago, we started building Omi with a simple goal: create the most powerful AI wearable to enhance human intelligence. Today, I’m thrilled to share that we’ve raised $2 million to take this vision even further. We’re grateful to welcome Tim Draper, 468 Capital, Embedding VC, and the Dropbox co-founder to our cap table, alongside some of the best angels in AI, hardware, and open-source. Thanks to the thousands of developers and early adopters building with us, we’ve seen incredible growth since launch: - Omi’s open-source ecosystem now has 6,000+ developers and 250+ apps built in just months. - Our AI wearable is live and shipping—and the demand is only growing. - We’re pushing the boundaries of brain-computer interfaces (BCI)—with plans to ship the first BCI developer kit this year. This is just the start. Along with this fundraise, I’d like to share a few major updates: 🔹 New AI Hardware, New Era Our next-gen consumer device is coming—with a focus on real-time AI assistance, seamless integrations, and a mind-blowing user experience. 🧠 Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) Are Here Omi isn’t just about voice AI—we believe in the future of thought-powered computing. This round will help us ship our first BCI developer kit, allowing builders to experiment with AI-driven neurotech. 🏆 We’re Building an Elite Team The best technology is built by the best people. We’re hiring top-tier AI engineers, hardware builders, and software devs to push the limits of what’s possible. 🚀 Join Us If you’ve built consumer hardware, AI models, or mind-blowing projects, we want you on board. 👉 The fastest way to join? Contribute to our GitHub. Every engineer we’ve hired started by building first—find a bounty, submit a PR, and if it’s great, we’ll hire you. 📩 Want to build the future together? Email me at nik@basedhardware.com. This is just the beginning. Read the full story and find our open roles here: https://lnkd.in/gMBkfY9S — Nik Omi AI has just raised and we have room for small checks. If you: - know many great devs, or - know how to build consumer apps, or - know how build BCI, or - want to work with us Send me a DM Just closed a great investor for Omi AI More updates soon 🚀 8k+ of my linkedin connections got automatically removed if we know each other and got disconnected, please let me know! introducing omi. thought to action. order now at https://omi.me You can now create AI replica from any X profile I replicated Elon Musk and asked what drugs he is on Try yourself: http://omi.me/personas In the future, every person you know will have a fully synced AI persona in Omi AI omi.me hasn’t launched yet, we will launch on January 8th, 2025 It will be the most beautiful device out there that will change your life. If you don't buy it, I will step down as a CEO If you’re a journalist or influencer and want early access before the launch, just DM me or email nik@basedhardware.com If you think it's a necklace, you are wrong. It’s not what you think My condolences to the family Vitalik Buterin trying out Omi AI's necklace Introducing Omi Apps - like GPTs but better: 💰$10M committed to developer payouts 🎵 Gigabytes of real-time audio to play with 💸 First $10k dropping TODAY Time to build your own app. Join online apps hackathon and come to SF for free: omi.me/apps Who is the best person you know who can run and scale a consumer hardware startup as a CEO/COO? How to get #1 trending on Github: Ask your users to post about you on reddit 5-10 times and let them use the product for free in exchange To celebrate my 25th birthday I’m giving away 1000 Friend AI necklaces on my twitter! How to plan: 1. Headphones with focusing music 2. ⁠Go to a park, find a tree, climb on it 3. ⁠Write down everything that comes into your head for 3 hours 4. Execute 🙏 Recommend the best Shopify designers who specialize in conversion optimization We gave out Friend AI necklaces on Dreamforce conference to determine: 😎 Best/worst CEO of 2024 🤖 Best/worst AI product of 2024 💻 Best/worst hardware product of 2024 💼 Best/worst company of 2024 Here is what Salesforce community thinks: https://lnkd.in/etQ9v-Km Two upcoming hackathons in SF: Hardware hackathon this Saturday, September 14th: https://lu.ma/lfnfl48g Software hackathon in Berkeley, September 21st https://lu.ma/jley7j97 "Hardware doesn't scale" Just published a "Careers" page and there is only one question: Looking for recommendations for the best video producer for the new product launch video 🙏 Need someone who delivered 10m+ views budget $100k introducing Omi AI one AI companion app, hundreds of devices download now at omi.me Everyone I meet in-person is automatically added to my Notion CRM using Zapier: Everyone is surprised to hear that Based Hardware is only 2 people Why? After hiring 50+ people in WLNC, I understood that the company isn't necessarily successful if it employs many people. It's successful if it employs the best people So we decided to run an experiment and follow Mark Zuckerberg's rule: only hire people you want to work for It's been very hard to decline talent - very rarely you meet someone you want to work for - hundreds of people reached out but we weren't sure How to understand, who do you want to work for? You can recognize such people from the start: while everyone is yapping, these people get things done Let's get to the point: after 2 months of search, I'm excited to announce the first person who joined our team - Thinh Nguyen Thinh has helped Loship to become a Series-C startup and an amazing human being who recently also became a father! I asked Thinh: "what's the craziest fact about you"? Response: along with being an amazing engineer, he also "can drink 2 jars of alcohol" and here is the proof Don't you want to work for someone who can survive this? Hosting a Friend hackathon tomorrow in San Francisco, 11am $30k prizes Great project that helps humanity Open source Friend just got funded 2nd time - thank you to our investors! I promise: - We won't spend even $1 on a domain name - We will stay committed to open-source - We will build products that help humanity and not destroy it This weekend we gave 100+ Friend AI necklaces and 30+ openglasses to hackers and asked them to build smth cool Here are the coolest projects: https://lnkd.in/eD4CuGmE We are top-1 on Product Hunt Thank you everyone for your support! https://lnkd.in/eM8C8PRF Meet your Friend on Product Hunt today To celebrate the launch, giving 5 devices to 5 random supporters! - Upvote - Leave a comment Results on Monday https://lnkd.in/eM8C8PRF This weekend we gave 100+ FRIEND AI necklaces to the hackathon participants After seeing 12+ amazing demos, we selected 4 best teams, who will get $2k+ in credits and 10+ devices! Congrats! This hackathon skyrocketed our user numbers => we've crossed 2k FRIEND users! See you all next Saturday at the AI wearables hackathon! You can now chat with AI characters but 10x more personalized than Character.AI How? Friend Necklace by Based Hardware tells AI everything about me: It knows what I like, what I don't like, who I am, and much more And yes it's fully open-source. Links below Announcing a 2-day AI Wearables Hackathon with 100 AI necklaces and 50 Smart glasses Dates: July 27-28 Location: SF Come build the best AI applications & hardware integrations to win 15+ wearables https://lnkd.in/eTAAHaw7? Get all the hardware you need along with help from the best hackers We are looking for a hardware/design cofounder Everything achieved at Based Hardware was done with 0 hardware experience in 3 months Time to get to the next level. Looking for a cofounder, who: - Built any hardware - Sold 10k+ units OR raised 1m$+ OR had $1m+ revenue Email me at nik@basedhardware.com with your top-1 achievement We got to the first page of Indiegogo ! https://basedhardware.com We've fixed the supply problem and Friend is now available on Indiegogo with 20% discounts on Dev Kits. If you wanted to buy Friend but weren't sure, now is the right time => https://igg.me/at/friend Working on more options for tomorrow You can spend 0 minutes managing your calendar. Here is how my necklace does it automatically for me Ladies, watch this if you want to start your own company Link👇 Startup founder tip: before launch, put a "submit investor interest" button on your site You'll never need money again You can now get a good-looking AI necklace for $69.69 I love trying out new tech. I have been holding off on buying the various AI devices until Adam Cohen Hillel and Nik Shevchenko joined forces to create Friend. An inexpensive ($29) open source AI wearable where the casing is 3D printed. I was the 96 backer on kickstarter to which they sold out with 712 backers, and made almost $50k in just a few weeks. What I like about it so far: -no fluf. Their packaging was cost effective and sustainable (simple QR code and cardboard). -clear use case. Taking voice notes that you can review later. It is not trying to be a million things. -easy to use. The hardware has one button, on/off with a light to show when it’s on. And a charging port. -The software app is intuitive. I never felt loss or unsure what to do next. Day 1 and I like it. Good job Based Hardware team! DECIDE HOW YOUR AI WEARABLE SHOULD LOOK We received 20+ submissions for the FRIEND design contest And instead of us designing smth weird, we want you to decide the future of AI wearables Choose what you want to wear and Vote on the best design here => https://lnkd.in/em9TYQFT You can now turn any glasses into AI smart glasses for just $20 It will record your life, remember people names, count calories, live translate, and much more Ant it's fully open source. Link 🔽 Excited to announce a Based Hardware Residency in SF on June 1st, 2024 Residents will have access to workbenches, hardware equipment (3D-printers, tools, etc.), and mentorship Great opportunity to fly to SF and build with the best Just fill in the form 👇 Giving out a free FRIEND Ai wearable to a random person To participate, follow me on X and put a “I’m in” here in comments My x: https://lnkd.in/eUf5RrPr Results in on Thursday I have some personal and exciting news to share! I'm starting a new company, FunnelMind.ai!✨🎉🥂🔥 TLDR: We use explainable ML and AI to act like an X-ray machine, looking deeply into sales and marketing funnels to help mitigate wasteful spending. We point out who is buying, who is not and why. Which stage of the funnel is the problem and why? Is it a Marketing, Sales or Product problem? Please visit our website at https://funnelmind.ai and watch the *90-second video*. Let me know what you think in the comments! ---------------------------- Why? I first noticed the issue with the leaky funnel about 6-7 years ago. Ever since then, I have seen it recur quarter after quarter, where GTM teams work extremely hard but still struggle to meet their quarterly goals due to the leaky funnel. So, I decided to solve this myself. You see, at least 50% of all GTM budget (both programs and personnel) are wasted, but it's hard to pinpoint where and why. There are three underlying problems: 1. Users interact with Sales, Marketing, and Product before they buy. So even if you are an excellent Marketer, if the problem is in Sales or worse yet, has a Product-Market fit issue that not even Steve Jobs could sell, you are toast! This holds good for Sales teams and Product teams perspective as well. All 3-teams need to know what's going on in other teams as well. 2. GTM teams are stretched too thin. They own awareness, acquisition, conversion, MQL, pipeline, and even revenue, leaving them no time to address the leaky funnel. They do their best but generally end up baking-in inefficiencies in their budget and ask for bigger budget. But this leads to them becoming an extremely expensive cost-center, which is not a good thing. 3. The data is fragmented across numerous tools (CRM, Data Warehouse, Marketo, etc.), and the customer journey is equally scattered. Thus, ML is necessary to analyze it properly. Solution:. And that's why we built FunnelMind.ai. We connect to 200+ data sources, and train hundreds of customer ML models to identify leaks at **every** stage of the funnel. We also build different funnels for Sales, Marketing, Product(PLG) and Cross-Team funnels to go deep and identify where the problem is. But each company is unique, so we act as consultants + a SaaS company, crafting custom solutions for each one. We set up essentially everything for GTM teams like a co-pilot and send them weekly, monthly and quarterly reports with a ton of insights, suggestions and recommendations automatically. Best part, for a limited time, we are for the first 5 eligible companies, we'll set up everything for them and give them an initial report for free! 🤯🎉 If you liked what you read so far, please share it with your Marketing, Sales, RevOps, or Marketing Ops team, let's fix this leaky funnel together! ✨🙌🙏 Ask them to book a meeting here: https://lnkd.in/dakYK3H3 PS: Watch the 90-second video on https://funnelmind.ai Major announcements: - We got featured by Kickstarter - We are starting a company to ship faster Based Hardware - We got the first investor 🎉 - You can now become our GitHub sponsor More: Today I randomly posted an AI wearable project on Kickstarter In a few hours it overachieved the goal by 250% and blew up on twitter I’m excited to announce that from today, I’m working on FRIEND It’s an open source AI wearable that records, summarizes and gives feedback on your conversations It costs only $39 and allows anyone to build the apps they want Here is how it works: