The story of the #1 trending GitHub repo on earth Alright, here’s the wild and hilarious story of Shaw, the open-source dev who went from coding next to his bed to creating AI16z, the AI-powered DAO that changed everything. Picture this: Shaw, $100k in debt, living in a tiny bedroom with his wife and three roommates. His desk was jammed next to their bed, and every night he’d code until 3 a.m., pushing on this open-source framework he believed in. His wife? Stressed. Shaw? Relentless. One day, Shaw stumbled into the world of DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). Through sheer internet chaos, he met this guy named Skely (yes, a literal skeleton avatar), who convinced him to dive deeper. Shaw started experimenting with building AI characters, using his framework to create some weird but genius stuff. Then came the moment. Over lunch, Shaw and Skely joked about creating an AI-powered venture fund, like a16z but completely run by AI. They laughed until their ribs hurt and called it “AI16z.” It started as a meme—until Shaw went home, generated a waifu image (as one does), and asked Skely, “Think we can raise 420.69 SOL?” Skely, without missing a beat, said, “Yes.” Shaw hit launch. The project sold out in 25 minutes. People freaked out. Developers began using Shaw’s framework everywhere, launching their own AI agents. But not everyone was thrilled—some accused him of scamming, others of being too chaotic. Through it all, Shaw kept building, unfazed. Fast forward a few weeks: AI16z hit a $100M market cap, then $500M, then $2B. Shaw went from coding in his bedroom to flying around the world, meeting devs who were inspired by his work. He built the #1 trending open-source framework on GitHub—and the best part? It all started with a skeleton shitpost and a waifu meme. Shaw’s story proves that sometimes, the weirdest ideas turn out to be the ones that change everything. Hashtags: #product #productmanager #productmanagement #startup #business #openai #llm #ai #microsoft #google #gemini #anthropic #claude #llama #meta #nvidia #career #careeradvice #mentor #mentorship #mentortiktok #mentortok #careertok #job #jobadvice #future #2024 #story #news #dev #coding #code #engineering #engineer #coder #sales #cs #marketing #agent #work #workflow #smart #thinking #strategy #cool #real #jobtips #hack #hacks #tip #tips #tech #techtok #techtiktok #openaidevday #aiupdates #techtrends #voiceAI #developerlife #cursor #replit #pythagora #bolt #wild #true #2025 #ai16z #agentic #future #story - @nate.b.jones