How Aiphrodite.ai Went from MVP to a Fast-Growing AdTech Startup in Just a Year

Hey Ground Zero fam! 🚀

Today, we’re bringing you the startup story of

• Founders: Abhivyakti Ahuja, Will Song, Thomson Yen

• Company: aiphrodite.ai, an AdTech that uses AI to predict which ad creatives, product imagery, and packaging will convert best.

• Location: Toronto

• Founded in 2023

You will learn: Founders journey’s key steps—from idea to scaling— with key insights on customer discovery, rapid iteration, and scaling their startup.

From UofT Dorms to AdTech Startup

These founders’ journey started in the dorms at the University of Toronto 7 years ago. They shared an unspoken desire to start a company, though they had no clue what it would be at the time.

Until about a year ago, Abhivyakti, Will & Thomson were still in the idea phase. Initially, they experimented with the idea of an influencer content prediction tool. They thought they could help influencers predict which content would go viral or perform best on social media. However, through countless conversations, they kept hearing the same thing from everyone: “marketers could use such insights for their ads”

That’s when they realized their real opportunity: brands were spending too much time and money A/B testing creative (ads, images, product packaging) with low accuracy (less than 20% significant results) and unreliable results.

Their solution - AI solution to predict which ad creatives will convert best and leverage data-driven insights to helps marketers skip the guesswork and get real insights into which visuals will drive performance.

🧠 Key Insights:

• Start with broad conversations and let the market ‘speak’. For them, it was influencers and marketers. Over time, they realized marketers had the bigger, more pressing pain point.

• Listen closely—your customers will tell you where the real opportunities lie & Don’t be afraid to pivot when a bigger problem reveals itself.

Early 2023 - Discovering the Real Problem 🔍

In the early days, they spent a lot of time in customer discovery. It wasn’t just about identifying any pain point. A big lesson they learned was that not all pain points are worth solving. Some problems are frustrating but don’t warrant a solution.

For example, brands were wasting time on A/B testing ads, hoping to find the best performer. But this process was slow and inaccurate. aiphrodite.ai realized that by solving this specific problem—providing data-driven creative insights—they could increase ROI for their clients.