I co-founded Leap Motion years ago - a hand-tracking technology company. Apple tried to acquire us twice, and I said no both times. That experience taught me the value of staying independent.

The Vision for Midjourney

When I started Midjourney, I had a clear philosophy: AI should expand human creativity, not replace it. We're not trying to create photorealistic images that can be mistaken for photographs. We're unlocking the creativity of ordinary people.

Building on Discord

We made an unconventional choice - building Midjourney as a Discord bot instead of a traditional website. This created a community-first experience where users could see each other's creations and learn together.

Profitable From Almost Day One

I told The Register in August 2022, just weeks after our open beta launch, that we were already profitable. No VC money, no runway concerns. Just a product people loved and were willing to pay for.

Bootstrapping a Billion-Dollar Business

By staying bootstrapped, we could focus on the product and community rather than investor returns. We grew to millions of users organically through word of mouth.

• Open beta: July 12, 2022
• Profitable: August 2022 (within weeks)
• Users: 15M+ Discord members
• Outside funding: $0