← Colors of Web3 & Entrepreneurship31 mar · 1 h 09 min

Building AI for the "Third Nation" — 6M Users, $10M ARR from Singapore | Bruce Yang, Agnes AI

Building AI for the "Third Nation" — 6M Users, $10M ARR from Singapore | Bruce Yang, Agnes AI31 mar1 h 09 min

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In this episode, we sit down with Bruce Yang, co-founder and CEO of Agnes AI, a homegrown AI company from Singapore that has already amassed over 6 million registered users and reached $10 million in annual recurring revenue all within less than a year of launching. Bruce shares how his team built a cluster of cost-efficient AI models that deliver near state-of-the-art performance at one-tenth the cost, making advanced AI accessible to the 99% who are currently locked out by paywalls and infrastructure gaps. Bruce takes us through his journey from a scholarship student arriving in Singapore at age 15, to studying math and computer science at UC Berkeley, building LinkedIn's first subscription product, launching a "Snapchat before Snapchat" social media startup in Silicon Valley, and eventually returning to Singapore to pursue a PhD at NUS right as the generative AI revolution exploded. That unique combination of startup grit, big tech experience, and academic depth fuels his bold vision for Agnes AI. The conversation goes deep into Bruce's thesis on the AI geopolitical landscape: why the world cannot afford a US-China duopoly in AI, and why Southeast Asia and the rest of the emerging world need their own sovereign AI capabilities a "third nation" in the AI race. We also explore how Agnes AI leverages post-training on open-source models, their agentic routing architecture, the future of SaaS in an AI-agent world, and Bruce's advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: keep your ego low, fail fast, and become an adaptive learner.⌛ Timestamps:00:00:00 Episode intro & guest introduction00:01:06 Bruce Yang's introduction and Agnes AI overview 00:02:26 From China to Singapore to UC Berkeley 00:03:19 Working at Microsoft and LinkedIn 00:04:06 Startups experience in Sillicon Valley00:05:03 The PhD program that eventually led to founding Agnes AI00:07:21 The time when he built a social media startup challenging Facebook00:09:56 Fundraising lessons and speed as essence for consumer apps00:12:01 Hobbies of Bruce00:15:24 Agnes AI founding story00:17:58 Building cost-efficient models with post-training 00:21:50 Live product demo: research, slides, and character AI 00:35:54 AI inclusion and the "third nation" vision 00:42:06 Challenges facing Agnes AI: educating investors in emerging markets 00:47:17 Enterprise solutions and Model as a Service (MaaS) 00:50:42 Future of Gen AI, SaaS disruption and AGI predictions 00:56:38 Diminishing returns, GPU costs, and the road ahead 01:01:50 AI models training themselves — the evolution cycle 01:04:14 Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs 01:07:04 Where to follow Agnes AI 01:08:02 Episode outro and next episode preview Follow Agnes AI:Web app: https://agnes-ai.com/Download on App Store: https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/agnes-ai-your-daily-copilot/id6746299015Download on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sobrr.agnesAgnes AI LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agnesaisapiensAgnes AI Twitter/X: https://x.com/agnesai_sapiens Our social media: Crypto card guide: cryptocardguide.comTwitter/X: x.com/ColorsofWeb3podLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/colors-of-web3-entrepreneurship If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to stay updated on our upcoming episodes with industry experts and innovators in the Web3 and Entrepreneurship spaces. Thank you for listening!