The Ultimate Startup Underdog Story

Picture this: two founders, $30,000 in credit card debt, sleeping on borrowed mattresses, literally days away from total collapse. Now fast forward to $100K in revenue in FIVE DAYS and a $2.8M seed round led by a16z. This isn’t a movie plot – this is Rork’s actual origin story.

“We were complete underdogs. We were really running out of money really soon.”

Daniel Dhawan, Rork Co-Founder

The Tweet That Changed Everything

February 24, 2025. The day everything changed. When investor Matt Shumer dropped this atomic bomb of a tweet:

“My jaw just DROPPED. Rork lets you create entire iOS apps just by describing them! Zero. Code. Required. This changes everything for app development.”

Matt Shumer, OthersideAI CEO

Result? 1 million+ views. Investors flooding their inboxes. $350K committed that same day.

The Brutal Grind Behind the Glory

Don’t mistake this for overnight success. This was their third startup together. The war stories are legendary:

• Dhawan sleeping on a YC founder’s floor mattress during fundraising
• Burning through savings from previous ventures
• Watching competitors go viral while their product wasn’t ready
• Running up $15K credit card debts each to keep servers running

The Pivot That Saved Everything

When competitor Lovable went viral, they almost gave up. Then came the genius pivot:

“We are the Lovable for Expo. The Lovable for React.” – Levan Kvirkvelia

They doubled down on mobile app creation – a space 10x harder than web development – and dominated it.

The Speedrun to Millions

When a16z’s Andrew Chen came calling, Dhawan played it perfectly – mentioning another term sheet already in hand. Chen responded with a16z’s legendary hustle:

• Fast-tracked due diligence
• Competitive offer within days
• $5M in partner credits thrown in

“Daniel and Levan are highly technical polymaths who deeply understand mobile development and distribution, which has allowed them to build a fantastic platform quickly.”

Andrew Chen, a16z General Partner

Where They Are Now

Two months post-viral tweet:

• $550K ARR and climbing
• Dhawan finally in his own apartment (no more floor mattresses!)
• Preparing for a16z’s Speedrun program starting July 28

Moral of the story? In today’s startup world, one perfect moment can change everything. But you’ve got to be ready to capitalize like hell when it comes.