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Instinct's invite-only personal AI assistant is reportedly growing roughly 10% a day

In a conversation with founder Noah Shinn, the interviewer says Instinct has spent nothing on marketing. They also discuss why the personal AI assistant has no app and how users learn to trust it with a credit card.

Robert ScobleRS
Patrick OShaughnessyPO
scott belskySB
38 Sources, 12d ago, first seen 12d ago

TLDR

The interviewer describes Instinct as an invite-only personal AI assistant growing roughly 10% a day without marketing spend. His conversation with founder Noah Shinn covers why it has no app, how users learn to trust it with a credit card, safety and security, buying compute months ahead of exponential demand, and the company's business model.

Combined views

2.6M

38 Sources, first seen 12d ago

5.7K likes394 comments6K saves451 reposts

Combined views

2.6M

38 Sources, first seen 12d ago

5.7K likes394 comments6K saves451 reposts

Sentiment

Positive72.2%27.8%Negative

Based on 59 sentiment-bearing replies from 55 accounts across 2 conversations.

Featured Source

Sentiment

Positive72.2%27.8%Negative

Based on 59 sentiment-bearing replies from 55 accounts across 2 conversations.

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38 Sources

Patrick OShaughnessy@patrick_oshagMy conversation with Noah Shinn (@noahrshinn), founder of Instinct. Noah is building a personal AI assistant. It's still invite only, has spent nothing on marketing, and is growing roughly 10% A DAY. This is his first long conversation about the company. We discuss: - Why Instinct doesn't have an app - Buying compute months ahead of exponential demand - How users learn to trust it with a credit card - Safety and security - Agents coordinating with other people's agents - Instinct's business model - Apps built on consumer inertia - and more Enjoy! Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 4:11 What people are using AI agents for 15:07 Rethinking travel, reservations, and the internet 22:43 Trust, privacy, and personal data 27:50 The business model behind Instinct 38:04 How existing businesses will adapt 47:55 Designing a personal assistant people love 53:15 Growth, compute, and competing with Big Tech 1:11:44 What’s next for Instinct and personal AI12d
Jim O'Shaughnessy@jposhaughnessyExcited to listen to this one!12d
JC Bahr-de Stefano@jbahrdestefanoSick get by @patrick_oshag + cool to hear from @noahrshinn Got to learn more about Instinct: - $1B+ in annualized transaction volume while still invite-only, growing 10% a day w/ $0 on marketing (apparently people selling their invites on eBay for $300) - 50% of that is travel - 40% of users hand the agent a credit card w/in 3 weeks, + those who share anything sensitive retain at 80% - Goal is to stay free for life + monetize via a blanket take rate on txns, paid by merchants for distribution - Compute needs are effectively 2xing every week, new capacity takes months to come online + buying on short notice costs 3-4x, so Noah spends ~40% of his time on compute 🤯12d
Sheel Mohnot@pitdesiRT @jbahrdestefano: Sick get by @patrick_oshag + cool to hear from @noahrshinn Got to learn more about Instinct: - $1B+ in annualized tr…12d
Clifford Sosin@CliffordSosinFor a long time, I’ve been trying to describe to people how ai agents will transform business and technology but the conversation has been mostly theoretical. This interview with Noah Shinn about instinct finally puts the conversation into fact with a real product that does these things today.12d
Noah Shinn@noahrshinn@patrick_oshag and I had a great conversation a few days ago. We talked about: - Instinct’s high-craft, user-centric, and minimalist approach to product-building. - Our exploding invite-only program that ensures that every new user is onboarded by a close friend or family member. - How the internet will be transformed over the next 1-2 years when the majority of users stop using apps or websites. - A few of my personal goals in terms of the experience I’d like to deliver to users. Thank you Patrick!12d
Anish Acharya@illscienceGood conversation, notes: - Approaching $1B in transaction revenue; 50% is travel - After 3 weeks, 40% have shared a credit card - 80% retention rate for people who have shared a credit card - Focused on achieving higher-order objectives like establishing trust and having the user’s back versus being a “task accomplisher” - Biz model: blanket transaction fee - Trying to figure out pricing power in terms of take rate and value provided to the merchant through distribution. - Bounds are between payment networks on the low end and the App Store on the high end - How adversarial will businesses be to agents? It depends on what percentage of revenue is driven by the user’s attention on the platform versus transaction completion - Hope is that the incremental volume driven by the headless service will be greater than the compression from being intermediated - At the limit, demand is initiated by Instinct - Product philosophy focused on understandability vs. capability - 10% of people invite someone daily - One way to drive cost improvements is to batch workloads that can be done asynchronously - On the other side, proactivity consumes compute that the user didn’t explicitly ask for - On balance, estimates that these two imply an order of magnitude more compute for personal agents than coding agents - Product improvements coming include full-duplex voice and voice recognition to validate identity - Software will collapse and be generated in real time - Seeing some small businesses run Instinct-native, focused on higher-order objectives like maximizing revenue - Broadly, this represents a path for future direction: achieving higher-order objectives - Less than 50% of traffic is iMessage - Capital-intensive business and focused on using the money to ensure that the product can be free for now12d
Chad Byers@chadbyersClarity of thought 🎯12d
Jeff Weinstein@jeff_weinsteinI’ve gotten to work with Noah and the Instinct team closely over the last months (they use Link)—sharp, ambitious crew. A great interview and fun data shared: - $1B+ yearly run rate transaction volume (growing 10% a day) - 50% of spend is travel - 40% of users add a credit card12d
scott belsky@scottbelskyand becoming pretty clear, @noahrshinn and team are some of the greatest minds in the agentic era of product. couldn't be more excited about what they are brewing...12d
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    38 Sources

    Patrick OShaughnessy@patrick_oshagMy conversation with Noah Shinn (@noahrshinn), founder of Instinct. Noah is building a personal AI assistant. It's still invite only, has spent nothing on marketing, and is growing roughly 10% A DAY. This is his first long conversation about the company. We discuss: - Why Instinct doesn't have an app - Buying compute months ahead of exponential demand - How users learn to trust it with a credit card - Safety and security - Agents coordinating with other people's agents - Instinct's business model - Apps built on consumer inertia - and more Enjoy! Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 4:11 What people are using AI agents for 15:07 Rethinking travel, reservations, and the internet 22:43 Trust, privacy, and personal data 27:50 The business model behind Instinct 38:04 How existing businesses will adapt 47:55 Designing a personal assistant people love 53:15 Growth, compute, and competing with Big Tech 1:11:44 What’s next for Instinct and personal AI12d
    Jim O'Shaughnessy@jposhaughnessyExcited to listen to this one!12d
    JC Bahr-de Stefano@jbahrdestefanoSick get by @patrick_oshag + cool to hear from @noahrshinn Got to learn more about Instinct: - $1B+ in annualized transaction volume while still invite-only, growing 10% a day w/ $0 on marketing (apparently people selling their invites on eBay for $300) - 50% of that is travel - 40% of users hand the agent a credit card w/in 3 weeks, + those who share anything sensitive retain at 80% - Goal is to stay free for life + monetize via a blanket take rate on txns, paid by merchants for distribution - Compute needs are effectively 2xing every week, new capacity takes months to come online + buying on short notice costs 3-4x, so Noah spends ~40% of his time on compute 🤯12d
    Sheel Mohnot@pitdesiRT @jbahrdestefano: Sick get by @patrick_oshag + cool to hear from @noahrshinn Got to learn more about Instinct: - $1B+ in annualized tr…12d
    Clifford Sosin@CliffordSosinFor a long time, I’ve been trying to describe to people how ai agents will transform business and technology but the conversation has been mostly theoretical. This interview with Noah Shinn about instinct finally puts the conversation into fact with a real product that does these things today.12d
    Noah Shinn@noahrshinn@patrick_oshag and I had a great conversation a few days ago. We talked about: - Instinct’s high-craft, user-centric, and minimalist approach to product-building. - Our exploding invite-only program that ensures that every new user is onboarded by a close friend or family member. - How the internet will be transformed over the next 1-2 years when the majority of users stop using apps or websites. - A few of my personal goals in terms of the experience I’d like to deliver to users. Thank you Patrick!12d
    Anish Acharya@illscienceGood conversation, notes: - Approaching $1B in transaction revenue; 50% is travel - After 3 weeks, 40% have shared a credit card - 80% retention rate for people who have shared a credit card - Focused on achieving higher-order objectives like establishing trust and having the user’s back versus being a “task accomplisher” - Biz model: blanket transaction fee - Trying to figure out pricing power in terms of take rate and value provided to the merchant through distribution. - Bounds are between payment networks on the low end and the App Store on the high end - How adversarial will businesses be to agents? It depends on what percentage of revenue is driven by the user’s attention on the platform versus transaction completion - Hope is that the incremental volume driven by the headless service will be greater than the compression from being intermediated - At the limit, demand is initiated by Instinct - Product philosophy focused on understandability vs. capability - 10% of people invite someone daily - One way to drive cost improvements is to batch workloads that can be done asynchronously - On the other side, proactivity consumes compute that the user didn’t explicitly ask for - On balance, estimates that these two imply an order of magnitude more compute for personal agents than coding agents - Product improvements coming include full-duplex voice and voice recognition to validate identity - Software will collapse and be generated in real time - Seeing some small businesses run Instinct-native, focused on higher-order objectives like maximizing revenue - Broadly, this represents a path for future direction: achieving higher-order objectives - Less than 50% of traffic is iMessage - Capital-intensive business and focused on using the money to ensure that the product can be free for now12d
    Chad Byers@chadbyersClarity of thought 🎯12d
    Jeff Weinstein@jeff_weinsteinI’ve gotten to work with Noah and the Instinct team closely over the last months (they use Link)—sharp, ambitious crew. A great interview and fun data shared: - $1B+ yearly run rate transaction volume (growing 10% a day) - 50% of spend is travel - 40% of users add a credit card12d
    scott belsky@scottbelskyand becoming pretty clear, @noahrshinn and team are some of the greatest minds in the agentic era of product. couldn't be more excited about what they are brewing...12d
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