$10M ARR in 60 days with context engineering

Xiankun Wu built Kuse to $10M ARR in 60 days with zero VC funding and zero advertising. He reveals the context engineering framework that 99% of AI builders miss, the Threads growth hack (intern army + hundreds of accounts), and why MVO (Minimal Viable Output) beats MVP for AI products. Full Writeup: https://www.news.aakashg.com/p/xiankun-wu-podcast Transcript: https://www.aakashg.com/context-engineering-is-the-secret-how-kuse-hit-10m-arr-in-60-days-without-vc-funding/ ---- Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:19 - Why Prompts Fail 5:23 - $10M ARR in 60 Days 7:23 - Hidden Story: Design Agent Pivot 9:07 - Threads Growth Strategy 11:28 - Ad Start 12:20 - Threads Accounts Demo 17:06 - Visual Context Engineering 20:10 - The Mom Analogy 22:12 - RAG vs Fine-Tuning vs Prompt Engineering 26:26 - MVO Before MVP 31:43 - Ad Start 32:48 - Demo: Creating PRD in Kuse 44:43 - Advice for AI Founders 56:12 - Outro ---- 🏆 Thanks to our sponsor: Reforge: http://reforge.com/aakash ---- Key Takeaways: 1. Context engineering beats prompting - One prompt won't work. Like hiring someone who knows nothing about your company—impossible to get results in 5 seconds. Accumulate context, build knowledge base, let AI know you over time. Combines system prompts, user prompts, memory, and RAG. 2. The Mom analogy - Your mom knows your preferences, goals (grow taller for basketball), what makes you happy. She doesn't need detailed instructions. That's context engineering. AI that knows you creates better results and positive loops. 3. Threads growth hack - Created hundreds of accounts posting use cases daily. Zero ad spend. Why it works: Threads gives traffic generously, less crowded than X, no creator hierarchy. Result: 3M impressions/month, hundreds of daily visits. Targeted Taiwan/Hong Kong markets. 4. MVO before MVP - Traditional: Feature → PRD → Design → Ship. Xiankun's way: Get model output right FIRST. Use RAG, prompting, fine-tuning for Minimal Viable Output. Then productize. "If no desired outputs, don't spend time productizing." 5. Visual context engineering - Use spatial tools: draw squares, graphs, sketches. AI understands spatial relationships. Unlike ChatGPT where files disappear, Kuse gives 2D space to store/reuse. Graphic operating system for AI that compounds. 6. The pivot story - Started as design agent. Users uploaded documents instead. Knowledge base usage far exceeded design. Pivoted to horizontal knowledge-based AI. Listen to your users. 7. Why X sucks for growth - Structured creator hierarchy. Can't farm traffic without famous connections. Good for VC fundraising, terrible for user acquisition. Threads and Instagram are underserved with real users. 8. Compounding context power - Regular chatbots: one-off, context disappears. Kuse: processes files when you're away, pre-prepares everything. Like having ingredients ready vs ordering each time. Each interaction improves. 9. Trading company origin - Co-founded YC company, created trading company, made money, funded Kuse with profits. Built without VC pressure. "Entrepreneurship is a game of focus." Building without chasing VC gives fresh perspective. 10. Future vision: productivity playground - "Not building productivity tool, building playground." When AI takes jobs (2030-2040), people need fulfillment. Kuse is amusement park where people pretend to work, feel satisfaction. Going to pure pleasure, not efficiency. ---- 👨‍💻 Where to find Xiankun Wu: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xiankunwu/?originalSubdomain=hk Threads: https://www.threads.com/@kusehq?hl=en Company: https://www.kuse.ai/ 👨‍💻 Where to find Aakash: Twitter: https://www.x.com/aakashg0 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aagupta/ Newsletter: https://www.news.aakashg.com #contextengineering #aipm #kuse #startupgrowth #productmanagement ---- 🧠 About Product Growth: The world's largest podcast focused solely on product + growth, with over 200K+ listeners. 🔔 Subscribe and turn on notifications to get more videos like this.

Aakash GuptahostXiankun Wuguest

Nov 21, 202557mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: November 21, 2025
Duration: 57m
Channel: Aakash Gupta
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Xiankun Wu built Kuse to $10M ARR in 60 days with zero VC funding and zero advertising. He reveals the context engineering framework that 99% of AI builders miss, the Threads growth hack (intern army + hundreds of accounts), and why MVO (Minimal Viable Output) beats MVP for AI products. Full Writeup: https://www.news.aakashg.com/p/xiankun-wu-podcast Transcript: https://www.aakashg.com/context-engineering-is-the-secret-how-kuse-hit-10m-arr-in-60-days-without-vc-funding/ ---- Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:19 - Why Prompts Fail 5:23 - $10M ARR in 60 Days 7:23 - Hidden Story: Design Agent Pivot 9:07 - Threads Growth Strategy 11:28 - Ad Start 12:20 - Threads Accounts Demo 17:06 - Visual Context Engineering 20:10 - The Mom Analogy 22:12 - RAG vs Fine-Tuning vs Prompt Engineering 26:26 - MVO Before MVP 31:43 - Ad Start 32:48 - Demo: Creating PRD in Kuse 44:43 - Advice for AI Founders 56:12 - Outro ---- 🏆 Thanks to our sponsor: Reforge: http://reforge.com/aakash ---- Key Takeaways:
1. Context engineering beats prompting - One prompt won't work. Like hiring someone who knows nothing about your company—impossible to get results in 5 seconds. Accumulate context, build knowledge base, let AI know you over time. Combines system prompts, user prompts, memory, and RAG.
1. The Mom analogy - Your mom knows your preferences, goals (grow taller for basketball), what makes you happy. She doesn't need detailed instructions. That's context engineering. AI that knows you creates better results and positive loops.
1. Threads growth hack - Created hundreds of accounts posting use cases daily. Zero ad spend. Why it works: Threads gives traffic generously, less crowded than X, no creator hierarchy. Result: 3M impressions/month, hundreds of daily visits. Targeted Taiwan/Hong Kong markets.
1. MVO before MVP - Traditional: Feature → PRD → Design → Ship. Xiankun's way: Get model output right FIRST. Use RAG, prompting, fine-tuning for Minimal Viable Output. Then productize. "If no desired outputs, don't spend time productizing."
1. Visual context engineering - Use spatial tools: draw squares, graphs, sketches. AI understands spatial relationships. Unlike ChatGPT where files disappear, Kuse gives 2D space to store/reuse. Graphic operating system for AI that compounds.
1. The pivot story - Started as design agent. Users uploaded documents instead. Knowledge base usage far exceeded design. Pivoted to horizontal knowledge-based AI. Listen to your users.
1. Why X sucks for growth - Structured creator hierarchy. Can't farm traffic without famous connections. Good for VC fundraising, terrible for user acquisition. Threads and Instagram are underserved with real users.
1. Compounding context power - Regular chatbots: one-off, context disappears. Kuse: processes files when you're away, pre-prepares everything. Like having ingredients ready vs ordering each time. Each interaction improves.
1. Trading company origin - Co-founded YC company, created trading company, made money, funded Kuse with profits. Built without VC pressure. "Entrepreneurship is a game of focus." Building without chasing VC gives fresh perspective.
1. Future vision: productivity playground - "Not building productivity tool, building playground." When AI takes jobs (2030-2040), people need fulfillment. Kuse is amusement park where people pretend to work, feel satisfaction. Going to pure pleasure, not efficiency. ---- 👨‍💻 Where to find Xiankun Wu: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xiankunwu/?originalSubdomain=hk Threads: https://www.threads.com/@kusehq?hl=en Company: https://www.kuse.ai/ 👨‍💻 Where to find Aakash: Twitter: https://www.x.com/aakashg0 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aagupta/ Newsletter: https://www.news.aakashg.com #contextengineering #aipm #kuse #startupgrowth #productmanagement ---- 🧠 About Product Growth: The world's largest podcast focused solely on product + growth, with over 200K+ listeners. 🔔 Subscribe and turn on notifications to get more videos like this.

SPEAKERS

Aakash Gupta
host
Podcast host and interviewer covering AI product and growth; reads Reforge sponsor ad with a personalized “reforge.com/aakash” link.
Xiankun Wu
guest
Founder/operator behind Kuse, discussing “context engineering” for visual AI and how they reached $10M ARR quickly.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Aakash Gupta, featuring Aakash Gupta and Xiankun Wu, $10M ARR in 60 days with context engineering explores context engineering powers Kuse’s viral growth and rapid $10M ARR Prompts often fail because users expect perfect results without giving sufficient project background, so repeated tweaking is an expectation-and-context problem as much as a model-capability problem.

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