Bhutan's first AI startup is seven college kids in a dorm

https://restofworld.org/2024/bhutan-first-ai-startup/

by NDAjam • 2 years ago

77 22 2 years ago

restofworld.org

beezlebroxxxxxx• 2 years ago

As of June, NoMindBhutan had 150,000 ngultrum ($1,799 [USD]) in the bank

For context, google search puts the average monthly Bhutan salary at ~200 USD.

__rito__• 2 years ago

Yes, the money is extremely, extremely low. Even from an Indian subcontinent point-of-view. I didn't expect them to boast hundreds of thousands of USD, but they should have at least made 20k-30k USD.

Ugyen_Tech8• 2 years ago

Yeah, it's a bit more compared to our average monthly salary, but I'm not sure how much you understand our work and sacrifices to save up this $1,799. We've been running our startup without paying ourselves a single penny for 13 months straight, using our own pocket money for traveling and covering expenses the entire time. We've earned extra funds by developing websites for local people, and every bit of money we get from this goes straight into our bank account. That's how we've managed to save this amount. We have our goals, and getting external funds is like finding a unicorn here, so we want to reinvest in ourselves.

thaithrowawayy• 2 years ago

So fascinating, we have 7 college kids "struggling" to build an webapp using AI apis......

simonw• 2 years ago

Are they using APIs? It's not clear from the article, which mentions that many international cloud services are unavailable in Bhutan (presumably due to those companies not accepting payments from Bhutan residents).

“One of the main challenges we face is the inability to access international payment platforms such as Stripe and PayPal. Additionally, we do not have access to cloud servers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud to host our AI models, which is crucial for reducing costs and improving the quality of our AI,” said Dendup. Many of these services are not available in Bhutan, “making it impossible for us to even open an account,” he said.

Hard to tell exactly what they are building from this article.

airplanejane• 2 years ago

Looking at their website looks like they are building an integrated AI chatbot service - it's inserted via JS using wordpress / other plugin see: https://www.nomindbhutan.com/guide

As a complete aside I enjoyed their about us section: https://www.nomindbhutan.com/#aboutus

FinnKuhn• 2 years ago

I think this section of their website shows some examples of their work: https://www.nomindbhutan.com/#featuredbot

It seems to be mostly chatbot integrations and development. I think it is difficult to judge for anyone in a western country, what challenges they are facing regarding services not being offered in their country.

Ugyen_Tech8• 2 years ago

https://www.sherigai.com/

Ugyen_Tech8• 2 years ago

Yes sir, we are using APIs because we have no other option left. We have a few more products developed and ready to launch once we integrate with a payment gateway. The reason we are focusing on the chatbot is that it is the only sellable product in my country for our sustainability. So, at least from there, we can generate some revenue to run and build our other products. That's why we mostly showcase it on our website. If you are interested and want to know more, please contact me here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ugyentech/. I can give a live demo.

mindfullbhutan2• 2 years ago

They have used chatbase api and the funny part is their api key is exposed

ryanmcbride• 2 years ago

there are lots of different groups of 7 college kids operating at different levels all over the world.

Ugyen_Tech8• 2 years ago

maybe but Let these "different groups of 7 college kids" come to Bhutan and work where they can't even create Stripe or Azure accounts, where you can't pay on AWS or Google Cloud and need to run on free plans, where internet costs are among the highest in the world. I hope they can survive.

Ugyen_Tech8• 2 years ago

By the way, we are not "struggling" to build our web app; we are struggling to get access to cloud services and payment gateways.

Ugyen_Tech8• 2 years ago

Honestly, it doesn’t matter if it’s API or running your own LLMs—users don’t care, bro. What matters most is the user experience and the quality of the output. We wish we could also host our fine-tuned LLMs on the cloud, running all our products like this. Unfortunately, that’s just not possible where we are. So we’re left with using APIs.

KenArrari• 2 years ago

Alpha signal. Investing asap.

ilrwbwrkhv• 2 years ago

Bhutan looks so cosy. Would love to travel there.

polotics• 2 years ago

Been there.

When you land in Paro airport be sure to look out to the right, this is one of if not the most challenging landings in the world. Check out the approach https://community.infiniteflight.com/t/a-guide-to-the-paro-a...

Be sure you are aware of the tourist fee, aka. sustainable development fee, $100 per day I believe right now. If Barcelona implemented the same I don't think the locals would have to resort to water pistols on the Ramblas.

Do visit the Tiger's Nest, be ready for long walks, if the weather is rainy be very careful about some of the trecks, torrents are dangerous.

Apart from this, if you like spicy food and the feeling that somehow all the other tourists forgot to come, go for it!

DowagerDave2• 2 years ago

My immediate response was "7? Why does it take so many of them?" but after that it was about all the non-AI challenges they must be tackling.

Bhutan's first AI startup is seven college kids in a dorm

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