Rork’s Founders Went Viral, Raised $2.8M from a16z
▼ Summary
– Rork founders Levan Kvirkvelia and Daniel Dhawan went from financial struggle ($15,000 in debt) to generating $100,000 in revenue within five days after their app-building tool went viral.
– Their mobile app development tool, Rork, allows non-technical users to create apps via simple text prompts, gaining traction after a tweet by investor Matt Shumer went viral (1M+ views).
– A viral endorsement led to rapid investor interest, securing $350,000 in funding on the first day and eventually a $2.8M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun program.
– The founders pivoted from a web-coding tool to a mobile-focused product after competitors emerged, leveraging their expertise in mobile development to stand out.
– Within two months of the viral tweet, Rork achieved $550,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR), enabling Dhawan to move out of a friend’s apartment and stabilize financially.
The story of Rork’s founders reads like a modern-day entrepreneurial fairy tale—one where desperation, timing, and a single viral tweet turned near-failure into a multi-million-dollar success. Levan Kvirkvelia and Daniel Dhawan went from drained bank accounts and maxed-out credit cards to securing $2.8 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun program, all in a matter of weeks.
Their breakthrough came when an investor’s tweet praising Rork’s no-code mobile app builder went viral, racking up over a million views. The platform, which lets users create iOS apps with simple text prompts, saw immediate traction. But the founders were on the brink of financial collapse, having personally funded the AI infrastructure behind their product. Just as they neared their limit, a $100,000 investment from Austen Allred kicked off a cascade of funding, including backing from Hustle Fund, Founders Inc., and eventually a16z.
This wasn’t their first rodeo. Both founders had built successful mobile apps in their teens, but their previous venture—a Cursor-like coding tool for non-technical users—had stalled. When a competitor, Lovable, went viral first, they pivoted to mobile app development, a space they knew well. Then, another rival, Bolt, entered the scene. Undeterred, they launched the same day—and when investor Matt Shumer declared Rork superior, the floodgates opened.
Andrew Chen of a16z Speedrun, impressed by their technical expertise and rapid execution, fast-tracked an investment offer. Now, with $550,000 in annual recurring revenue and a spot in Speedrun’s July cohort, Rork’s founders have gone from sleeping on borrowed mattresses to leading one of the most talked-about startups in AI-powered development.
Their journey proves that timing, resilience, and a standout product can turn even the direst circumstances into a meteoric rise.
(Source: TechCrunch)
