Founder Spotlight: Dory Ai

When you talk to Pete and Ethan, one thing is clear: their raw talent and ambition as young founders. Our investment notes in April earlier this year regarded DoryAI as one of the many highly promising startup stories we had come across in 2024. DoryAI has gone on to see success at Build Club’s pitch competition in June which will soon send them over to San Francisco.

Last month, we got some of Pete and Ethan’s time to candidly discuss the obstacles they’ve encountered, the milestones they’ve reached, and the principles that underpin their work.

What's your story? Can you walk us through your journey to becoming co-founders of DoryAI? What inspired you to take this path?

Pete:

As someone passionate about acquiring new knowledge, I often struggled to find time for YouTube tutorials on topics that interested me. This led to the creation of Cliptutor, a tool I developed with a friend to enable more efficient learning from YouTube videos.

I connected with Ethan through LinkedIn and appeared on his podcast as a guest to share my experiences. Around this time, we pivoted from Cliptutor to something with broader educational applications. We chose DoryAI because it was easy to remember and share.

As students ourselves, we experienced learning challenges first-hand. Our vision for DoryAI is to enhance every student’s learning workflow, making it more efficient, engaging, and enjoyable.

Ethan:

After high school, I landed an AI engineering internship despite not being proficient in coding. After completing the internship and working on my own projects, I connected with Pete in December. He was developing a YouTube video chatbot.

In February, we began building our MVP for DoryAI and launched it within four weeks. Since then, we've been growing and iterating.

Collaborating with people of different skills has inspired me; Pete and I complement each other well. This partnership makes it feasible to embark on ambitious projects.

What was an unexpected challenge you've encountered, and how did you overcome it?

Ethan:

At the outset, we faced significant technical challenges in stabilizing our platform and dealing with network errors between servers. This was a new area for us, given our limited coding experience, but essential for platform reliability.

We sought help from fourth-year college students, other startup founders, and spent countless hours watching YouTube videos and reading Medium blogs. It took us a week of persistent effort to resolve these issues. This experience taught us the importance of community support and perseverance in problem-solving.

What has been the most memorable moment of the founder journey so far?

Pete:

For me, the most memorable moment was being accepted into the Build Club accelerator, Australia's first AI accelerator. This opportunity exposed us to inspirational people at various stages of their entrepreneurial journeys, including Y Combinator alumni and Google Maps co-founders. Interacting with diverse founders, investors, and mentors accelerated our growth mentally and technically.

What values or principles do you each hold dear that you would never compromise on in your business endeavours? How do these values align with the mission of DoryAI?

Both:

Having Fun: Sharing the highs and lows of the journey with a co-founder makes it more enjoyable and rewarding. Constant Learning: Progress comes from solving successive problems and learning from mentors and peers. Being Accountable: We navigate conflicts through an idea meritocracy, focusing on the best solutions devoid of emotion or bias.

DoryAI aims to transform learning into an exciting adventure by emphasizing enjoyment, continuous growth, and responsibility.

For another student founder just embarking on their entrepreneurial journey, what advice would you offer?

Pete: Maintain an experimental mindset, viewing unexpected results as learning opportunities. "Volume negates luck" – persist through trial and error, embracing failures as stepping stones.

Ethan: Start before you feel ready; learning happens faster when applied to real projects. Focus on high-leverage skills and impactful work to attract like-minded individuals and build strong connections naturally.

Learn more about DoryAI here