🗞 What's New: GPT-4.5 has arrived. Is it worth the $ for founders?

Another day, another model:

• GPT-4.5 is here. It's unremarkable in most ways, but excels in one surprising area.
• Pieter Levels doesn't have a background in game development. Yet he used AI to build a viral flight simulator in a handful of hours.
• This bootstrapped founder struggled to gain traction when selling to investors. But a big pivot has helped him reach $10.5M ARR.

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After months of teasing, OpenAI finally launched GPT-4.5.

In Sam Altman's launch announcement he said that GPT-4.5 isn't a reasoning model and won't blow anyone's mind on performance benchmarks, but "it’s a different kind of intelligence and there’s a magic to it i haven’t felt before."

What "magic" was he referring to? After experimenting with the new model, we've found the answer: its writing ability.

So check out our writeup on the release. It includes side-by-side writing comparisons between GPT-4.5 and other models, as well as a full breakdown of what's new and what's "eww" about the latest iteration of ChatGPT.

Read the full article →

This issue is sponsored by Google Cloud

The future of AI isn't just about predictions – it's about building it. Google's Clouds Future of AI: Perspectives for Startups report gathers insights from leading minds like Amin Vahdat (Google Cloud), David Friedberg (Ohalo Genetics), and Chamath Palihapitiya (Social Capital).

Download the report.

Pieter Levels used AI to rapidly build a multiplayer flight simulator despite having zero game dev experience.

In just 7 days, the project:

• went mega viral after an Elon Musk retweet,
• survived a massive DDOS attack, and
• even started generating revenue through $30 upgrades.

As you can imagine, it attracted controversy alongside the praise. We covered the whole story here, including the tech, the product, the business model, and… the drama:

Read the full article →

• Me: "You hear GPT-4.5 dropped today?"
• My friend (who's outside of the tech bubble): "GPT-what? No."
• Me: "Perfect. Let's talk about anything else but that."

—@channingallen

When Denis Alaev's B2C fothinancial data analysis tool wasn't gaining traction, he made a crucial pivot:

Instead of analyzing data solely for investors, he began delivering it via API to businesses and consumers alike.

That decision transformed his bootstrapped side project into EODHD APIs, a project now generating $875K in monthly revenue.

Read his story on how finding the right business model — even through a major pivot — can unlock massive growth. Plus, learn the exact marketing channels and strategies that helped him scale from $0 to eight figures.

Read the full article →

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Special thanks to Yushavel Calderon for the graphic design, and to Michal Kankowski and James Fleischmann for contributing posts.

—Channing