@CMhOeNnExY: Let me introduce our AI startup: a small team where every member brings years of experience from top-tier tech giants, …

Let me introduce our AI startup: a small team where every member brings years of experience from top-tier tech giants, with no fixed salaries—yet we’re still hustling together with full passion every day. Because in just a few short months, we turned a cloud server costing 68 bucks a year into a million in profit—a whopping 14,700x ROI. Yesterday, a friend in the group just couldn’t wrap their head around it and hit me with three soul-searching questions: 1. Why would folks from those top-tier tech giants join a startup with no steady income? 2. Don’t they factor in the opportunity cost? 3. Am I just riding the wave of layoff bonuses? I thought about it and told him: If you’ve already validated a promising business model, built trust and alignment, and have ready-made operations and resources at hand—then just go for it, and the money will follow. Why not? In today’s domestic market, a chaotic mix of sharks and minnows, sitting on the sidelines would be the real fool’s move. We all want to pull off something big; we’re all desperate to rewrite our life trajectories; we all crave doing meaningful work that leaves a mark. So, short-term gains aren’t our goal anymore. On top of that, I’m compelled to divvy up the lion’s share of the company’s revenue to the team and set aside just enough for operations—I take the small slice. The company account is fully transparent, all spelled out in the contract. With that in mind, it’s not so surprising, right? I know full well that one person’s time and energy are finite. I could code, handle ops and biz dev, source resources for sales—but this massive AI market is too vast for one person to devour. It needs more top talent. If we don’t scale the pie, pocketing the cash changes nothing in my life—just three meals a day and a good night’s sleep. But if we grow it together, a single bite of meat can feed us all. For me, it’s not just about that bite—it’s the sense of accomplishment and the friendships forged. That’s the real stuff I’m after. I even asked them: Should we take some VC funding from those knocking on our door to cover costs and steady cash flow? They know the game too well and don’t want to cheapen their sweat and results with that model. Taking a salary is an employee mindset; boldly sharing the spoils is the entrepreneur’s way. Everyone’s sharp these days. A P8-level pro won’t grind as a workhorse, but plenty would jump into a proven model to scale it bigger as co-founders. Too many folks miss this: Helping others is helping yourself. Snuffing out someone else’s lamp doesn’t light your own; blocking their path won’t speed yours up. Hyperliquid’s 11-person team raked in over $900 million in profit in a year. We, in mere months, are trying zero-cost bootstrapping again. A 68-buck-a-year cloud server straight to a million in profit. If they can do it, why not us? Are dukes and generals born to the throne? We’re riding the wind, flowing with the momentum. Things will only get better—this is the inevitable rhythm of the cycle. If more friends are curious about our AI venture, hang tight—it won’t be long before the brand meets you all 👀 Finally, “You’ve got to learn to share”—that’s the big life lesson I picked up at 26.