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I Built An $85M AI Startup in 5 Months (here's my playbook)

Chris Donnelly

243,855 views

Want to learn how Google describes your company → https://www.searchable.com/free-visib...

Plus, if you'd like to learn how to grow a personal brand in 2026, download my free growth bible here → https://growth.chris-donnelly.co.uk/2...

Five months ago, Searchable didn't exist. Today, it's at $3 million in ARR and valued at $85 million.

This is the fourth time I've built a business past 8 figures, across four different industries and four completely different products.
Everything in this video is repeatable.

I'm going to walk you through the exact 7-step playbook I used to find the idea, validate it, get our first customers, and build a product people are desperate to buy.

We're going to cover:

Why, when founders say "there are no competitors for my product" is a terrible thing.
The two-number equation that tells you whether your idea could ever reach $100 million
The conversion technique that converts 50–70% of people
What Monzo's founder taught me about building MVPs
The three skills every founding team needs

Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:40 - Where to find Co-founders
03:14 - How to validate your idea
07:50 - How to build your audience
09:10 - Why you need a waitlist
10:30 - How to build your MVP
12:45 - Design an Early access deal
14:40 - Build a content machine
17:50 - Set up a lead magnet
19:20 - Launch & what's next

Follow Me:
Instagram → Instagram: chrisdonnellyofficial
LinkedIn → LinkedIn: donnellychris

20 Comments

@MagnataChris 5 days ago (edited)

Hello, I’m from🇧🇷 Brazil. I follow your content and it has helped me a lot; I’m currently developing my startup and am very excited, and your content helps me on this journey.

@kuantize 2 months ago

As someone who has built a software business, raised a ton of money, and failed after 9 gruelling years, leaving me bankrupt in the process a lot of this advice is not only sound, but the template to winning. If I ever did another business I would follow these lessons very closely.

@xenofonofathens 2 weeks ago

10/10 content. Direct and educational. Congratulations on your success and thank you for sharing your playbook.

@MTS1738 2 months ago

This is genius level marketing 👏

@izuchukwuemmanuel8987 3 months ago

I watch a ton of really insightful entrepreneurship content, but this one video tops it all. You covered multiple concepts I used to see over multiple videos, and more, all in one video. Invaluable to say the least!

@NuneNune-g9i7x 2 weeks ago

The way you present is very impressive I really appreciate the effort.

@MuhammadShahid-mv9yv 3 weeks ago

This really hits home. I come from biotech/pharma and data analytics, and lately my brain has been exploding with startup ideas. What’s crazy to me is how fast you can actually test an idea now. With agentic AI, you can research the market, build something, put it out there, and see if people actually want it, without a huge team or a ton of money. Coming from biotech, where things can take years, this kind of speed is honestly refreshing. Now my biggest problem is figuring out which idea to go all in on 😂

@Freedomwitj 2 weeks ago

i have this exact mindset and its actually insane yes

@santanaegonsalves 1 month ago

Chris you're a gem, thanks

@sadlifts 3 months ago

thanks you so much chris for sharing this helps me find a answer for question I'm looking for past 6 hours ❤

@makeaniiimpactYT 4 weeks ago (edited)

Thank you for putting UX and ui first and exactly what we are seeing with so many products.

They all look like ai slop, nothing stands out and many are thinking that their design / UX is good enough to be successful.

When distribution gets people to your product (and with ai, if you have basic marketing, you should be able to find software to do <x>, so I don't think distribution is the moat...maybe for viral physical product)

If your software looks like avg slop and doesn’t solve a problem or a competitor has less friction/better UX, users will just move from your product, to theirs.

@GreaterAndSharper 2 months ago

Chris, one of the few videos that's engaging till the last second. Full of value that's articulated brilliantly throughout the video. All the best for you and your team on the next iteration.

@tothemaxyy 2 months ago

Thanks Chris! Really useful video, just launched our MVP. Happy to see we’ve followed CODE to a tee. Road to $100M begins

Excited to see what the future brings for you, subscribed!

@efmani7483 2 months ago (edited)

This is clean and valuable. Thank you!

@MaycolAtaucuriQuispe 2 months ago

You are my inspiration, my friend, you and the great team you formed

@paddockfinance 3 months ago

This video made me rethink my approach to my business. Great content!

@kona744 1 month ago

As a serial entrepreneur who has struggled learning the rope of creating a successful software business I can tell you that this video is an excellent starting point to build a consumer business. The product market fit and testing aspect in the early stage is key to success and nicely summarized as "CODE" in this video. No traction, pivot early. Uncertain value, test test test, because scaling a bad business is just accelerating value destruction and you and the investors will pay a dear price for it..

@RenoCalayo 2 months ago

Today is my first day of engaging here in yt. and sooner and later i will start uploading my first ever content. And i want to tell you , thankyou for making this video . this make me more inspired .

@pablohurford 2 months ago

This guy! 🔥🔥
I just scored my start-up plan against your playbook and got 7/10. Pretty stoked on that!
I don't have the success history; this will be the first scaling exercise for me. MVPs ready to launch. It's going to be an exciting 12 months... for all of us!

@matheus.mor3ira 3 months ago

I appreciate a lot what you're doing.
I watch a lot of business videos, but in one video you gave so much value to the audience that it's impossible to ignore.

This is the video that so much people are looking for. Thank you very much, Chris Donnelly.