Startup Base 44 sold for $80 million 6 months after creation

Israeli developer Maor Shlomo sold his startup Base 44 to Wix company for 80 million dollars in cash. But the most interesting thing is not the amount. The startup was sold for this sum just 6 months after its founding.

This case sparked heated discussions about the concept of “solo unicorns”. These are companies created by 1 person and reaching a valuation of 1 billion dollars. Base 44 didn’t reach a billion-dollar valuation, and the founder wasn’t a solo entrepreneur in the full sense, still he employed 8 employees. But the story of his success is surprising.

During the six months of existence as an independent company, Base 44 attracted 250,000 users, reaching the mark of 10,000 users in just the first 3 weeks. According to Shlomo’s public posts on social media, the company was profitable and generated 189,000 dollars in net profit in May. And this even after covering high costs for large language model tokens.

Interesting point. All 8 employees will collectively receive 25 million dollars from the total deal amount as a “retention bonus”. 3 million dollars each.