The Second Act - Magazine - Page 42
LEARNINGS
OVER EARNINGS
In most cases, entrepreneurs
choose their latest venture
deliberately. Vaughn DiMarco's
journey to his second venture, X
Machina AI, was more gradual and
required a bit of experimentation.
Written By
BRITTANY HAMBELTON
A
fter winding down his first startup, he decided
he wanted to build on some of the analytical
skills he picked up studying engineering and dive
deeper into the world of data.
He had a few one-off contracts, which eventually evolved
into a data science consulting business.
From there, he iterated through a few products before
participating in Next AI in 2018. "Coming out of Next AI,
I decided that I wanted to skip the zero-to-one process
and started looking for a bootstrapped product that
already had traction AND that someone was looking to
sell," he says.
"This was the early days of the product hunt and indie
hacker movement, but there were a few marketplaces
starting to get traction."
VAUGHN DIMARCO
VP Growth & Value Creation, XMachina AI
Next AI, 2019
4 2 | GRIT MA GA Z I NE