5 Years, 12 Pivots
4 months ago
- #pivot
- #BAML
- #startup
- Co-founders navigated 12 pivots over 5 years without hating each other.
- Initial pivots included an online coding bootcamp, interactive Twitch ads, SDK for multiplayer games, and more, all without success.
- Entered YC with Gloo, a voice-first Slack/Discord competitor, but lacked founder-market fit.
- Post-Gloo, pivoted through ideas like Clerk for API Keys and AI-powered drive-thrus before settling on custom embeddings.
- Despite growing revenue with custom embeddings, felt uneasy and pivoted again to BAML, a programming language for LLMs.
- BAML faced initial skepticism but gained traction with features like type safety, easy debugging, and multi-language support.
- By 2025, BAML saw significant growth, including 7k GitHub stars, 2.4k Discord members, and adoption by Fortune 500 companies.
- Future goals include reaching 10,000 Weekly Active BAML developers and introducing Turing completeness.