Stan founder builds Stanley AI tool in 14 days

Stan cofounder John Hu and a cofounder built Stanley, an AI content assistant for creators, in 14 days. The LinkedIn version launched in June 2025 reached $200,000 in annual recurring revenue within six weeks and later passed $1 million ARR, with both versions contributing $3 million ARR to Stan. The story highlights that AI-assisted prototyping can quickly validate narrow workflows, but production teams require data hygiene, evaluation, and maintainable systems for revenue-dependent features.

Business Insider reported July 8, 2026, that Stan cofounder John Hu and a cofounder built Stanley , an AI content assistant for creators, in 14 days . The report says the LinkedIn version launched in June 2025, reached $200,000 in annual recurring revenue within six weeks, and later passed $1 million ARR, while both Stanley versions contributed $3 million ARR to Stan. For practitioners, the important lesson is that AI-assisted prototyping can validate narrow workflows quickly, but production teams still need data hygiene, evaluation, and maintainable systems once revenue depends on the feature.