Internet Amazed As Two Brothers Build 1.8 Billion Dollar Empire Using AI: 'I’ll Just Clone This Business Model'

Imagine a company that does $3 million in sales every single day. Now, imagine that company only has two employees.

Meet Matthew Gallagher. He didn’t graduate college. He grew up in motels and cars. He moved to LA to be an actor. But in 2024, he decided to play a different role: the Solo Founder.

As per a report in the NYT, with just $20,000 and a suite of AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok), Matthew built Medvi, a telehealth startup. The AI did the coding. The AI built the ads. AI handles the customers. AI monitors the margins. This is how in just 14 months, Medvi went from $0 to a projected $1.8 billion in revenue. To put that in perspective: Hims & Hers has over 2,400 employees to reach similar numbers. Matthew just has his brother, Elliot.

No VC funding. No board of directors. Just 100% ownership and a feedback loop that never sleeps.

The internet is divided between awe, skepticism, and ethical debate. “if even half of this is true… that’s a glimpse of what AI first companies will look like 👀,” wrote one user, itinerating how the future is lean and quite mean. There is also merit in the argument that AI could potentially turn founders into successful entrepreneurs. As another X user put it: “Proof that AI is turning solo founders into billion-dollar machines.”

Another user clarified how building such a big business with just two people wasn’t the news peg that deserved attention. “”Everyone fixates on ‘2 employees.’ The real story is the growth loop. AI ads + AI support = infinite iteration on acquisition and retention. He tests 1000 ad variants while a normal team debates one brief. $20K wasn’t the moat. Speed of the feedback loop was.”

Another ofcourse, there were people willing to try this out for themselves. “”Awesome. I’ll just clone this business model. Get back to you guys in a month,” wrote another user. And that comes with its own pitfalls. “If two people can be a company with AI that quickly than they won’t be worth that much for long and this won’t be a sustainable thing because everyone is gonna be able to do it,” commented one user.

As with any business, there were skeptics in the chat too: “This sounds impressive, but numbers like $1.8B with just two people should raise serious questions. Healthcare, payments, compliance, logistics, none of that runs on “just AI.” Something doesn’t add up.Something is being hidden. If an investigation begins, the truth will come out,” pipped another reader.