Six weeks after ChatGPT was released, I challenged myself to create a full startup, from the initial idea to the exit, in just one hour using ChatGPT - and succeeded! A few months ago I attempted to recreate my One Hour Startup project using an Autonomous AI Agent, aiming to shorten the startup creation time to just one minute. The results were far from spectacular: The Agent made elaborate plans and then set out to execute them, but there was much more planning than execution, and it tended to diverge from its original goal when working without supervision.
As an alternative to using Agents, I also tried to create the full startup in one shot using a single large prompt:
Suggest an idea for a startup that is innovative, based on deep technology, and can bring significant revenues. Create all the resources and documents for this startup including name, slogan, business model, pricing tiers, channels to market, competitive analysis, investor presentation, investor cover letter, org chart, job descriptions and interview questions for senior management, office lease agreement, product specification, detailed specification for a single feature of the product, python code for part of that feature, development plan, marketing plan, website structure, website content, blog posts, Facebook posts and Linked posts, list of potential acquirers, and M&A contract with one of the potential acquirers.
This attempt also failed - the content I got for each item was very thin, and included just some headlines and placeholders.
Still obsessed with creating a full startup with minimum effort, I recently tried another approach: I took all 50 prompts from my original One Hour Startup project, put them in a single large prompt, and preceded them with the line "Execute each of the following prompts one by one. Don't ask me anything, just continue until all prompts are executed." To my surprise, this worked! I managed to get good responses to most of the prompts, without having to intervene at all.
So here it is: The Mega-prompt for creating your instant startup! You are welcome to copy it, modify it, and use it without any limitation (attribution will be appreciated, however).
Execute each of the following prompts one by one. Don't ask me anything, just continue until all prompts are executed.
Give me 10 ideas for an innovative product or service that fills a real need in the market and can generate significant revenues.
Select the best idea from this list, which fills the most pressing market need and has the potential to reach the most significant revenues. What would be a good catchy name for a company that implements this idea?
Please suggest a few witty and whimsical slogans for the company
What could be the company's mission statement?
What potential business models could the company utilize?
What could be the potential tiers for a subscription-based model for the company, including the typical monthly subscription fees?
For the model of value-added reseller, which companies could the company partner with?
OK, now I need to approach investors. Please prepare the outline for the company's investor presentation.
Can you write an example of the market opportunity slide for the company's investor presentation?
Can you write an example of the competitive landscape slide for the company’s investor presentation?
Can you write a fictional team slide for the company's investor presentation?
Please write an executive summary document for the company which I can send to investors.
For the first investment round in the company, what would be a typical investment amount and how much equity should I give the investors?
Who would be typical investors that I can approach for the company's first investment round?
Can you give me examples of some angel investors that would be a good fit for the company?
Can you give me examples of family offices that I can approach?
What would be a typical org chart for the company?
Where can I source candidates for the company?
What would be the typical structure of the engineering team?
Write a job description for the CTO position which I can post on LinkedIn. Include the development platforms and programming languages which the CTO of the company should be fluent with and are relevant to the company’s product or service.
What questions should I ask a candidate when interviewing them for the job of the company's CTO?
What would be a typical salary range for this position?
What are some benefits and perks I can offer employees on top of their salary?
What would be a typical "welcome package" that I can give employees on their first day of work?
What are the best practices I can use for employee retention?
I need to rent an office for the company. Can you provide a draft of the office rental contract?
Which target market segments should the company initially approach?
What is the go to market plan for the company? How can it reach these customers?
How can the company’s product reach product-market-fit?
Write the spec for the company’s MVP.
Please provide a detailed specification for one of the features in the spec.
Please provide python code which implements two of the features in the detailed spec.
Regarding integration, which specific APIs should be used to integrate the company MVP with other online services or databases?
Please create a detailed schedule and task list for R&D and product that will enable bringing the company MVP to production in 6 months.
How many developers are needed to meet the schedule of MVP launch in 6 months?
How many lines of code do you estimate will be included in the company MVP?
What percentage of this code could be written by Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT?
Please create a detailed schedule and task list for marketing & PR that will enable the MVP launch in 6 months.
What should be the structure of the company’s website?
Please write the text for the home page of the company’s website.
Please write the text for the product page of the company’s website.
Please write the text for the "About Us" page of the company’s website, including a “team” section with fictional names and short bios for each executive.
Write a funny and whimsical blog post which talks about the current challenges in this market and how the company solves them.
Write 10 clever twitter posts that describe the product and link to the company's website.
Write 10 LinkedIn posts promoting the company’s product or service.
List keywords for a marketing campaign for promoting the the company’s product or service.
Write a press release for the product launch.
Which companies could potentially acquire the company? Please provide examples for such companies and include their HQ location and market cap.
Assuming the company reaches an annual revenue rate of $10M, what would be a reasonable acquisition price?
Write a contract between the first company in the list and the company for acquiring the company for the above price.
I tried this Mega-prompt with 5 different chatbots, and it worked quite well with all of them. Here are the links to those chat sessions:
I also tried the same prompt with Llama3 on Meta.ai (which doesn't allow to share chats yet), and got similar results.
You'll notice that all chatbots stopped providing output several times throughout the process, but continued after I wrote “continue”. Also, some chatbots refused to provide legal documents. In my opinion, Cohere Coral Command R+ provided the most comprehensive responses to all tasks, and I only had to write "continue" twice.
The bottom line: I managed to replicate last year's “One Hour Startup” project using just a single prompt that works everywhere. So enjoy creating millions of startups, and when you reach the exit, don’t forget who gave you this prompt...