Dootchi's unfiltered-AI bet: 4.2M downloads in 3 months, then App Store delisting
Beijing-built AI companion pitches itself as Emochi's unrestricted alternative; ~4.2M Play downloads by 2026-04-20, US #8, then App Store removal
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2,072 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDScope's AI-inspection bet: EF-born London startup raises $20M led by Index Ventures
EF-founded Scope bets AI workflows, not inspector replacement, fix TIC's manual reporting; $20M led by Index Ventures, 9x ARR growth.
Read the caseMonarch Tractor: autonomous EV-tractor bet ends in 2026 shutdown, Caterpillar buys tech
Monarch raised $251M to build 'driver optional' electric tractors, shipped ~500 units, then shut down in April 2026 and sold its tech to Caterpillar.
Read the caseDualShot Recorder: a squirrel creator's vibe-coded app hits #1 paid App Store in 12h
LA squirrel-video creator Derrick Downey Jr. built DualShot Recorder with Claude in 3-4 months; it hit #1 on the paid App Store in 12 hours and held it 8 days.
Read the caseWorld Labs bets 3D 'spatial intelligence' is AI's next platform with Marble
World Labs ships Marble, its first commercial world model — image or text to editable 3D worlds — then raises $1B with Autodesk, AMD and Nvidia.
Read the caseJack & Jill bets two AI hiring agents replace job boards; $20M seed, 49k candidates
London startup pairs a candidate agent (Jack) with an employer agent (Jill), taking 10% only on successful hires; $20M Creandum-led seed.
Read the casebeehiiv's 0%-cut newsletter bet: Morning Brew alumni near $50M revenue
Ex-Morning Brew team founded beehiiv in 2021 betting independent newsletters beat social feeds; ~$46.5M raised, 40K+ MAUs, ~$50M 2026 revenue forecast.
Read the caseFast's $124M one-click checkout bet died in April 2022 after a $102M Stripe-led round
Fast bet one universal login could make checkout one click everywhere; $124M raised, ~$600K 2021 revenue, shut down April 2022, engineers hired by Affirm.
Read the caseBot Company bets LLMs can teach a home robot chores; $150M at $2B, then an Airbnb lawsuit
Ex-Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt's The Bot Company raised $150M at a $2B valuation to build an LLM-trained home robot, then faced a lawsuit over secret Airbnb tests.
Read the caseAplazo bets in-store BNPL becomes Mexico's default payment; 15k merchants, Walmart
Aplazo digitizes Mexico's installment habit for the 89% without credit cards: 15,000 merchants, $223M online volume, Walmart exclusivity
Read the caseStatus AI's $17M bet: AI role-play, not feeds, is the next social network
NYC nine-person startup where users live inside AI-generated worlds hit 1M users in 19 days and 13M worlds, then raised $17M from top VCs.
Read the caseNova Fusion bets compact FRC fusion beats tokamaks for AI power; ¥2.4B in 16 months
Shanghai startup Nova Fusion raised ¥2.4B across three rounds in 16 months betting FRC-SMR small modular fusion can power AI data centers before tokamaks can.
Read the caseGeuneullo bets shade-routing wins Korea's heat: solo student app hits App Store #1
Solo SNU student built an app that routes walkers through shade; 20,000 signups in one day, then Korea's #1 free app as heat peaked in August 2026.
Read the caseTarsi bets paid-upfront beats freemium; #1 PH App Store in 48h, $20K month one
Solo Filipino dev's $4.99 offline-first budget app tops Philippine App Store paid+finance charts in 48 hours and makes ~$20K in month one
Read the caseAtum Works bets 3D nanolithography, not shrinking, extends the chip roadmap
Atum Works bets 3D-printing chips at wafer scale with 100nm resolution beats stacking 2D layers; YC Spring 2025, TechCrunch's 'next Nvidia' pick.
Read the caseVector Legal bets an AI-native law firm makes startup legal work affordable
AI-native law firm plus software: founders self-serve formation and filings, senior lawyers step in for big rounds; $5.19M seed from Base 10 and YC.
Read the caseRoboDock bets depots, not cars, are autonomy's bottleneck; retrofit robots for AV fleets
YC W26 startup's robot arms plug in chargers and run inspections at EV/AV depots, no rebuild; Forbes W26 pick; ~$900k/yr labor per depot.
Read the caseiLovePDF: no-investor PDF tool hits €20M+ revenue, among world's 50 most-visited sites
Marco Grossi started a PDF utility as a personal fix in 2010; by 2024 it did €20M+ revenue with no investors and 850M users a year.
Read the caseAparta bets home co-ownership unlocks housing; TechCrunch SB200 nod, four Nordic markets
Norwegian Aparta (ex-HILI) builds Europe's first regulated home co-ownership platform; TechCrunch SB200 2026, four Nordic markets
Read the caseOutbid.lol bets companies pay to top a public leaderboard; $120K bids in 48h
A German indie dev built a one-field pay-to-rank board in 3 hours; within 48 hours it drew 1M+ visitors, $120K in bids and dozens of clones.
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