20VC: $1BN ARR in 18 Months; The Untold Story of Higgsfield | Spending $4M Per Month on Models | Why Moats in AI are BS | Scaling a Content Team to 150 People with Alex Mashrabov

Alex Mashrabov (0:00)

My parents told me that I must get to the United States because this is the place where technology matters. By the age of 19, I was able to get to top three in the world in competitive programming. Actually, it took us 18 months from one million to one billion. For Cursor, it took 24 months. On average, at Higgsfield, person on the team spends over $10,000 a month on various models. So, internal usage of models a month is over 4 million. It just caught a guy who spent over $30,000 in a week on Astra Model. Many people spend over $10,000 in a week.

Harry Stebbings (0:37)

Higgsfield. This is the story that no one has told in startups yet. The company has just hit a billion dollars in revenue. It is the fastest growing company in consumer land to hit this milestone. It even surpassed Cursor. And guess what? The travesty. No one has covered this story. This company is built with 300 people out of Kazakhstan. It is a complete anomaly. And you don't know about it. Alex, the founder, is an incredible genius. One of the most talented computer programmers competing in competitions from a super, super early age. And then building a company that he sold to Snap for over $160 million.

Now, Higgsfield, rumored to be raising it an $8 billion price, has just crossed a billion in revenue. This is the story that you don't know, that you need to know. But before we dive into the show today, founders face a different set of challenges at every stage of growth. For Sid Shait, co-founder and CEO of D-Matrix, JP Morgan delivered the guidance and expertise to help navigate what came next. He credits JP Morgan's high touch approach with supporting D-Matrix as it grew and expanded internationally. Whether you're in the early days or expanding into new markets, JP Morgan helps startups navigate complexity with real confidence, offering personalized guidance and deep sector expertise. Find out how JP Morgan helps founders at jpmorgan.com/growwithoutlimits.

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Alex Mashrabov (3:50)

You have now arrived at your destination.

Harry Stebbings (3:52)

Alex, I am so excited for this, dude. We were talking downstairs, and I said, I don't think the Higgsfield journey has been told before. And it's an amazing journey. So thank you so much for joining me today.

Alex Mashrabov (4:04)

That's a very special opportunity for us. Thank you for having me. Obviously, your story is inspiring as well, like how social media has become like an elevator for you, opportunity to create fund and so on.

Harry Stebbings (4:15)

It's very kind of you to say. I do just want to go back though, because you're not the Stanford, Silicon Valley, born and bred engineer.

You were a competitive programmer in Kazakhstan. Can you just take me back? How did you first find and fall in love with computers and become a programmer so early?

Alex Mashrabov (4:34)

First, you need to understand where I come from. My father is from Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is a country in Central Asia, where if a family of five people makes $1,000 a month, it's considered to be wealthy. It's not very high standards of living, unfortunately. But both my parents are professors of mechanical engineering.

Since I remember myself, since I was eight, my parents told me that I must get to the United States, because this is the place where technology matters. So, my mother had to work three jobs, because basically my education was to compete in programming competitions all the time, and to go to various educational camps where I could learn from the best, like certain data structures, algorithms, and so on.