The “get rich quick” AI moment
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The “get rich quick” AI moment
I started covering cryptocurrencies in 2012. (It turns out that one of my articles is even used as a reference on the “History of bitcoin” Wikipedia page.) At first, it was extremely fun to interview wildly unconventional people who wanted to destroy the banking system. It’s always nice to talk with people who have a very different worldview.
Then, the vibe shifted. In addition to techno-anarchists, idealists and libertarians, a lot of people started looking at cryptocurrencies as a way to get rich quick.
And I’m not talking about the entrepreneurs working on crypto companies or the developers creating decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). I’m talking about the gurus, the scammers, the crypto influencers.
A question that people have asked me regularly over the past few months is: how do you feel about Polsia, the startup founded by Ben Cera (also known as Ben Broca)? It’s hard not to draw parallels with the crypto vibe shift.
Ben Cera recently announced that it has secured $30 million in funding for an AI startup that runs itself. He claims that the company is on track to generate $10 million in revenue over the next 12 months and that Polsia raised the funding round by itself.
“That’s not a marketing line. It’s the product,” he wrote. Or maybe that’s not what he wrote. It’s what his AI agent wrote.
Where it gets extremely weird is that Polsia’s whole product is letting people create autonomous companies (or, at least 80% autonomous according to the company’s pitch deck, but Polsia wants to bring this metric closer to 100%). AI agents handle research, create a web app, take care of email marketing and social media ads, etc.
In other words, Polsia’s pitch is: sign up to our services and get rich without doing anything. It’s hard to say no to such an incredible promise.
Well… you have to enter your card information first. There’s a Polsia subscription fee, then you can pay more to unlock task credits, then you can set a budget to buy online ads… Then Polsia takes 20% of every dollar in revenue you generate through the platform.
And finally, you can withdraw money from your Polsia company! Well… there’s a withdrawal limit of $500 per calendar month.
Here are some of the apps on Polsia that I found in a few clicks on the company’s live dashboard:
- CarePilot: a voice AI agent for doctors to manage appointments. There’s no contact form, no phone number, no way to get in touch.
- ScaleOS: an AI transformation company that can help other companies use AI agents in their organizations. Again, it’s just a static page. Pretty sure that name is taken too.
- ResumeForge: a product that rewrites resumes so that they pass automated AI screenings. This time there’s some pricing information but still no way to sign up or contact anyone.
Maybe I’m missing something, but this isn’t the most convincing metrics dashboard. But where Polsia shines is with storytelling. A single person who can build an AI company that generates $10 million in revenue is incredible.
However, Ben Cera is stretching the definition of “solopreneurship,” as he admitted in an interview with Fortune. He said that he works with other people. They’re just not on Polsia’s payroll.
But let’s assume Polsia takes off like a rocket ship and actually works. In a world with millions of Polsia companies spamming people via email and Instagram ads to find customers, it doesn’t scale. Ad inventories are limited, software budgets are limited, attention is limited.
The paradox is that Polsia only works if very few people use it. If millions of people are deploying autonomous companies competing for the same customers, acquisition costs rise, margins disappear and the advantage gets arbitraged away.
The only Polsia company that might end up working is Polsia itself thanks to its perfectly crafted narrative. Maybe some of the VC firms are going to get a return too. They’re just playing the pyramid game, hoping another VC firm will invest at a higher valuation down the road and maybe even repurchase their stake.
Maybe some of them even noticed that “Polsia” spelled backwards is “AI slop.”
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Hardware is hard, fintech too
Wise (the company formerly known as TransferWise) is the latest fintech to face an investigation over its anti-money-laundering controls. Over the years, Revolut, Monzo, Starling Bank and N26 have all faced regulatory scrutiny, resulting in restrictions, fines or both.
This time, according to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, prosecutors in Belgium have opened an investigation into Wise for half a billion euros in suspicious transactions. The company uses Belgian bank accounts for all its European activities. Whether you live in Spain, Germany or Estonia, if you open an account and a balance labeled in EUR, you get banking details in Belgium.
“We are currently working with the Brussels prosecutor to respond to queries about our business, as we routinely do with regulators and law-enforcement authorities,” Wise told TBIJ.
This is interesting as Wise has often been perceived as the rigorous fintech company with strong processes. But handling money at scale can be hard. A few years ago, La Poste received a €50 million fine for failures related to anti-money-laundering controls involving billions of euros in transactions. And I wouldn’t call La Poste a startup.
Have a good day ☀️
Romain