35 Startups That Broke the Internet35家席卷互联网的初创企业
How the fastest-growing startups of 2024-2025 went from zero to millions
in users and revenue -- without traditional marketing budgets.2024-2025年增长最快的初创企业如何在没有传统营销预算的情况下
从零增长到数百万用户和收入
Varsity Tech — Marketing Research市场营销研究 — February 2026
Ranked by velocity to revenue milestone. These are historic growth rates.按收入里程碑达成速度排名。这些是历史级增长速率。
Every viral startup maps to one of these proven playbooks.每家病毒式初创企业都对应某种经过验证的策略
Cluely
Manufactured outrage at industrial scale工业化规模制造争议
Turbo AI, Cal AI, Submagic, Poppy AI, Syllaby
Creator armies and $5 CPM influencers创作者大军与$5 CPM网红
Cursor, Gamma, Perplexity, Decagon
Zero marketing spend, product excellence零营销支出，产品卓越
Pieter Levels
10-year compound of radical transparency十年极致透明的复利效应
Lovable
GitHub stars as distribution engineGitHub星标作为分发引擎
Bolt.new, Devin AI, Adam, Alby Churven
One tweet or demo changes everything一条推文或演示改变一切
HeadshotPro, Aragon AI
Programmatic SEO and guerrilla Reddit程序化SEO与游击式Reddit营销
Pranjali, FloweAI, GetASAP, Gumroad, Mercor
Young founder narrative as distribution年轻创始人叙事作为分发渠道
Pika Labs, ElevenLabs, Jenni AI, Speak
User-discovered use cases drive growth用户发现的使用场景驱动增长
"Cheat on Everything" — manufactured outrage at industrial scale."欺骗一切" — 工业化规模制造的争议。
Roy Lee (21, suspended from Columbia) built a content machine:
1. Tagline "Cheat on Everything" triggers moral outrage
2. 700 clippers repost viral content across 100+ accounts
3. 1 viral video x 100 accounts = 20-30 viral reposts
4. 1,500+ unpaid UGC videos from fans and critics
5. $15M Series A from Andreessen HorowitzRoy Lee（21岁，被哥伦比亚大学停学）打造了一台内容机器：
1. 标语"欺骗一切"引发道德愤怒
2. 700名剪辑师在100多个账号上转发病毒内容
3. 1条病毒视频 x 100个账号 = 20-30条病毒转发
4. 来自粉丝和批评者的1,500+条无偿UGC视频
5. 从Andreessen Horowitz获得$15M A轮融资
Roy went on a date using Cluely's AI to feed him lies about his age and art knowledge. The video hit 7.8M views and thousands of reshares. His Columbia suspension became a PR event itself.Roy用Cluely的AI在约会中向他提供关于年龄和艺术知识的谎言。该视频获得了780万次播放和数千次转发。他被哥伦比亚大学停学本身也成为了一个公关事件。
Manufactured controversy works IF your product does something genuinely polarizing. Scale through distributed creator armies, not in-house teams. But Roy himself warned: "Viral hype alone isn't enough" — you need real PMF behind the noise.制造争议是有效的，前提是你的产品确实具有两极化特质。通过分布式创作者大军来扩展，而非内部团队。但Roy本人也警告过："仅靠病毒式炒作是不够的" — 你需要在噪音背后有真正的产品市场匹配。
Creator armies + $5 CPM micro-influencers = scalable organic growth.创作者大军 + $5 CPM微型网红 = 可扩展的有机增长
1. Start with founder content (zero followers, daily posts for 10 days)
2. One video goes viral through pure volume
3. Recruit 50-150+ micro-influencers at $5 CPM
4. Scale with affiliate army (30% lifetime commission)
5. VAs manage campaigns end-to-end1. 从创始人内容开始（零粉丝，连续10天日更）
2. 一条视频通过纯数量走红
3. 招募50-150+微型网红，$5 CPM
4. 通过联盟大军扩展（30%终身佣金）
5. 虚拟助理端到端管理推广活动
You DON'T need an existing audience. Submagic started with zero followers.
$5 CPM micro-influencers beat celebrities on ROI every time.
Teach affiliates ONE replicable content format for consistent quality.
The "free vs paid" comparison format is universally effective.你不需要现有受众。Submagic从零粉丝起步。
$5 CPM微型网红在ROI上每次都胜过名人。
教联盟会员一种可复制的内容格式以保持一致质量。
"免费 vs 付费"对比格式是普遍有效的。
When the product is 10x better, it markets itself.当产品好10倍时，它会自己营销自己。
1. Build something so good people can't shut up about it
2. Free tier with natural upgrade pressure
3. Zero sign-up friction (try before committing)
4. Every output carries product branding (watermarks, links)
5. Users create all the content -- tutorials, comparisons, workflows1. 打造好到让人忍不住谈论的产品
2. 免费层带有自然的升级压力
3. 零注册摩擦（先试用再决定）
4. 每个输出都带有产品品牌（水印、链接）
5. 用户创造所有内容——教程、对比、工作流
Cursor spent $0 on ads and hit $500M ARR. The product IS the marketing.
Gamma's watermark turns every free presentation into an ad.
Perplexity spent 50x less than OpenAI on ads but grew faster per dollar.
This ONLY works when the product delivers a genuine "wow" moment.Cursor在广告上花了$0，达到了$500M ARR。产品本身就是营销。
Gamma的水印把每个免费演示文稿变成了广告。
Perplexity的广告支出比OpenAI少50倍，但每美元增长更快。
这只有在产品真正带来"惊叹"时刻时才有效。
10 years of radical transparency created an unstoppable distribution engine.十年的极致透明打造了不可阻挡的分发引擎。
Share everything: revenue, failures, code, decisions.
Every feature ship gets a tweet. Every milestone is celebrated publicly.
"12 Startups in 12 Months" challenge created initial audience.
PhotoAI hit $5.4K in first week because the audience was already built.
$0 advertising spend across ALL products, ever.分享一切：收入、失败、代码、决策。
每个功能上线都发推文。每个里程碑都公开庆祝。
"12个月12家初创企业"挑战创建了初始受众。
PhotoAI第一周就达到$5.4K，因为受众已经建好了。
所有产品，广告支出始终为$0。
Year 1-3: Build audience slowly, launch and kill projects fast
Year 4-6: Nomad List, RemoteOK become profitable
Year 7-9: 600K followers, every launch reaches millions for free
Year 10+: PhotoAI does $138K/month, each new product prints money第1-3年：缓慢建立受众，快速发布和淘汰项目
第4-6年：Nomad List、RemoteOK开始盈利
第7-9年：60万粉丝，每次发布免费触达数百万人
第10年+：PhotoAI月收入$138K，每个新产品都在印钞
Build audience BEFORE products -- distribution-first mindset.
Launch fast, kill fast. 12 startups in 12 months finds what works.
SEO + personal brand is a dual-engine flywheel.
Caveat: This takes YEARS of consistent content before payoff.在产品之前先建立受众——分发优先的思维方式。
快速发布，快速淘汰。12个月12家初创企业找到有效的方向。
SEO + 个人品牌是双引擎飞轮。
注意：这需要多年持续内容输出才能见效。
The fastest-growing GitHub repo in history became a $100M ARR company.GitHub历史上增长最快的仓库变成了年收入$100M的公司。
1. Released GPT-Engineer as open source on GitHub
2. Became fastest-growing repo in GitHub history
3. 50K stars = 300K developers experimenting and sharing
4. Pivoted to commercial web app (rebranded to Lovable)
5. Built "Launched" showcase with gamified leaderboard
6. Top 5 projects weekly win free credits1. 在GitHub上开源发布GPT-Engineer
2. 成为GitHub历史上增长最快的仓库
3. 50K星标 = 30万开发者实验和分享
4. 转型为商业Web应用（重新品牌为Lovable）
5. 建立"Launched"展示平台，配以游戏化排行榜
6. 每周前5名项目赢得免费额度
Open source = marketing. Give away the code, sell the hosted service.
GitHub stars = developer distribution. Each star is a potential customer.
Gamify sharing with leaderboards and credits.
18 people built $100M ARR -- focus on product, not headcount.
85% retention after first month proves the product delivers.开源 = 营销。免费提供代码，出售托管服务。
GitHub星标 = 开发者分发。每颗星标都是潜在客户。
用排行榜和额度游戏化分享。
18人打造$100M ARR——专注产品，而非人数。
首月85%留存率证明产品确实有效。
One tweet. One demo. One video. Everything changes.一条推文。一个演示。一个视频。一切改变。
One carefully crafted moment captures the internet's attention.
"World's first" or "never seen before" positioning creates news cycles.
Visual products go viral naturally -- people share impressive outputs.
Controversy sustains attention (Devin's "will AI replace devs?" debate).一个精心策划的时刻捕获了互联网的注意力。
"全球首个"或"前所未见"的定位创造新闻周期。
视觉产品自然走红——人们分享令人印象深刻的输出。
争议维持关注度（Devin的"AI会取代开发者吗？"辩论）。
Bolt.new proves: one tweet CAN launch a company. But 7 years of infrastructure preceded it.
Invest in ONE incredible demo, not 100 mediocre ones.
Timing matters: Bolt waited for AI models good enough to make it work.
Even rejection can go viral (Alby's 7M views despite YC rejection).Bolt.new证明：一条推文可以推出一家公司。但此前有7年的基础设施积累。
投资于一个令人惊叹的演示，而非100个平庸的。
时机很重要：Bolt等到AI模型足够好才行动。
即使被拒也能走红（Alby尽管被YC拒绝仍获700万播放）。
Programmatic SEO and guerrilla Reddit marketing build durable growth.程序化SEO和游击式Reddit营销构建持久增长。
200+ programmatic city pages ("AI headshots in [City]")
Domain name matches search intent exactly
Target keywords with difficulty < 10-20
Affiliates drive 33%+ of revenue and generate backlinks200+程序化城市页面（"[城市]的AI头像"）
域名与搜索意图完全匹配
目标关键词难度 < 10-20
联盟会员贡献33%+的收入并生成反向链接
Guerrilla Reddit: posted on r/Tinder claiming he got a date using Aragon
Posted on TeamBlind: "Got a job using Aragon headshots"
Native-looking posts that don't read like ads
Layered SEO + affiliates for sustained growth游击式Reddit：在r/Tinder发帖声称用Aragon获得了约会
在TeamBlind发帖："用Aragon头像找到了工作"
看起来原生的帖子，不像广告
分层SEO+联盟营销实现持续增长
Domain name IS SEO. Layer channels: guerrilla (free) + SEO (scales) + affiliates (compounds). Aragon hit $10M ARR with 12 people and $0 funding.域名就是SEO。分层渠道：游击式（免费）+ SEO（可扩展）+ 联盟营销（复利）。Aragon用12人和$0资金达到$10M ARR。
The next wave of AI startups that broke through via pure virality.通过纯病毒式传播突破的下一波AI初创企业。
These AI-native startups share a common thread: jaw-dropping demos that spread organically on social media. Waitlists and invite-only access create FOMO. Developer communities and power users become unpaid evangelists. No ad spend needed when the product demo IS the marketing.这些AI原生初创企业有一个共同点：令人惊叹的演示在社交媒体上自然传播。候补名单和仅限邀请的访问制造FOMO。开发者社区和核心用户成为无偿布道者。当产品演示本身就是营销时，不需要广告支出。
The founder narrative IS the marketing. Young + exceptional = irresistible press.创始人的故事就是最好的营销。年轻 + 卓越 = 无法抗拒的媒体报道。
Young founder = automatic media coverage. Each accomplishment compounds.
Sahil's "Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company" essay became one of the most-shared startup essays ever.
Prestigious programs (Thiel, YC) are marketing channels, not just accelerators.年轻创始人 = 自动媒体报道。每项成就都会复利叠加。
Sahil的"反思我未能建立十亿美元公司"文章成为史上分享最多的创业文章之一。
知名项目（Thiel、YC）是营销渠道，而不仅仅是加速器。
The story IS the marketing for early-stage startups.
Client logos are the most powerful B2B marketing (Mercor: OpenAI, Meta, Tesla).
Revenue before fundraising creates the strongest narrative.
Reframing failure as intentional sustainability creates a powerful narrative.故事就是早期初创企业的营销。
客户Logo是最强大的B2B营销（Mercor：OpenAI、Meta、Tesla）。
先有收入再融资能创造最强叙事。
将失败重新定义为有意识的可持续发展，能创造强大的叙事。
Let users discover use cases you never imagined. The community IS the moat.让用户发现你从未想象过的使用场景。社区就是护城河。
Product output IS the marketing (Pika: every AI video is shareable).
Release to prosumers first, discover unexpected use cases, then sell enterprise.
ElevenLabs didn't plan "Harry Potter by Balenciaga" -- users found it.
Geographic focus (Speak: Korea first) beats spreading thin globally.产品输出就是营销（Pika：每个AI视频都可分享）。
先向专业消费者发布，发现意想不到的使用场景，然后卖给企业。
ElevenLabs没有计划"Balenciaga版哈利波特"——用户自己发现的。
地理聚焦（Speak：先韩国）胜过全球铺开。
ElevenLabs: $50 CAC with 40x LTV. Product virality makes this possible.
Each viral moment REVEALS a market you didn't know existed.
Voice Library / community content creates a moat competitors can't copy.
Pick ONE market and dominate before expanding (Speak: Korea then Japan then world).ElevenLabs：$50获客成本，40倍LTV。产品病毒传播使这成为可能。
每个病毒式传播时刻都揭示了一个你不知道存在的市场。
语音库/社区内容创建了竞争对手无法复制的护城河。
选择一个市场并主导它，然后再扩展（Speak：先韩国，然后日本，再全球）。
Specific playbooks we can steal, each proven by a real startup.我们可以借鉴的具体策略，每个都由真实初创企业验证。
1. Clipper/Affiliate Army剪辑师/联盟大军 — Recruit 50-100+ creators, 30% lifetime commission, give them one replicable format.招募50-100+创作者，30%终身佣金，给他们一种可复制的格式。 (Cluely, Submagic, Cal AI)
2. "Made With [Product]" Watermark"由[产品]制作"水印 — Brand every free-tier output. Web-native sharing maximizes discovery.为每个免费层输出添加品牌。Web原生分享最大化发现。 (Gamma, Lovable)
3. Guerrilla Platform Posts游击式平台帖子 — "I got [result] using [product]" on Reddit/forums. Native storytelling, not ads."我用[产品]获得了[结果]"发布在Reddit/论坛上。原生叙事，而非广告。 (Aragon AI)
4. TikTok-First + Founder ContentTikTok优先 + 创始人内容 — Fresh account, daily posts, 10 days. One WILL go viral. Then scale.新账号，每日发布，坚持10天。一定有一条会走红。然后扩展。 (Submagic, Turbo AI)
5. Open Source as Marketing开源即营销 — Release core tech as OSS. GitHub stars = developer distribution.将核心技术开源发布。GitHub星标 = 开发者分发。 (Lovable)
6. Programmatic SEO程序化SEO — Generate 200+ pages for location/category variants. Target difficulty < 10.为地点/类别变体生成200+页面。目标难度 < 10。 (HeadshotPro, Aragon)
7. One Polished Demo一个精致的演示 — Invest in one incredible demo. "World's first" positioning. Launch on X.投资于一个令人惊叹的演示。"全球首个"定位。在X上发布。 (Bolt.new, Devin AI)
8. Micro-Influencer Network微型网红网络 — 150+ niche creators at $5 CPM beats 5 celebrities. VA-managed.150+垂直创作者，$5 CPM，胜过5个名人。由VA管理。 (Cal AI, Gamma, Jenni AI)
9. Geographic Focus地理聚焦 — Pick ONE market, dominate it, then expand. Local insights = unfair advantage.选择一个市场，主导它，然后扩展。本地洞察 = 不公平优势。 (Speak)
10. Build in Public公开构建 — Share revenue, failures, decisions. Build audience BEFORE product launch.分享收入、失败、决策。在产品发布前先建立受众。 (Pieter Levels, Gumroad)
Where each strategy falls on the speed-to-revenue and cost axes.每个策略在速度和成本轴上的位置。
27 startups proved these playbooks work. Now it's our turn to pick, adapt, and execute.27家初创企业证明了这些策略有效。现在轮到我们选择、调整和执行了。
Guerrilla Reddit posts
"Made with Varsity" watermark
TikTok founder content
One polished demo游击式Reddit帖子
"Made with Varsity"水印
TikTok创始人内容
一个精致的演示
Micro-influencer network
Affiliate/clipper program
Programmatic SEO pages
Student ambassadors微型网红网络
联盟/剪辑师计划
程序化SEO页面
学生大使
Build in public (10-year play)
Open-source components
Community-first moat
Product-led virality公开构建（十年计划）
开源组件
社区优先护城河
产品驱动病毒传播
The common thread: 95%+ organic growth, $0 traditional ad spend, product excellence first.共同主线：95%+有机增长，$0传统广告支出，产品卓越为先。
Let's pick 3 tactics and go all-in. Speed wins.选择3个策略，全力以赴。速度制胜。
Varsity Tech — Marketing Research市场营销研究 — February 2026