Henrik Werdelin has spent over the past 15 years helping entrepreneurs build big brands like Barkbox through his Studio Startup Predict. Now, with his new business based in New York AcrossHe bets that AI can help him escalate this process from “dozens of” newly established businesses annually to “hundreds of thousands” of aspiring business owners.
The timetable definitely feels right. Mass redundancies in various industries have left many workers to review their careers, while AI tools have significantly reduced the obstacle to building digital products and services. At the center of this Venn chart is Werdelin’s latest venture, with his promise to help “everyday entrepreneurs create AI Million Dollar companies” without requiring technical skills.
Werdelin’s journey from Prehype to Audos reflects the broader transformation that is happening in entrepreneurship right now. At Prehype, the focus was in collaboration with the founders of technology to build traditional newly established businesses, the species that could raise millions and target billions of dollars.
Now, he tells TechCrunch: “What we are trying to do is get all this knowledge, all the methodology we have created during the years of building all these big companies and we are really trying to democratize it.”
The idea is that “everyday entrepreneurs” may feel a shift, but they may not be willing to experiment with so -called AI agents or know how to approach customers. Audos is more than happy to help them, to supply these people with AI tools to build advanced products using natural language and exploiting their social media algorithms to find their customers.
“Facebook and many of these platforms. They are just incredible algorithms. And they are incredible in calculating [how to reach your customer] If you set a group of customers, “says Werdelin, who founded Audos with Prehype Nicholas Thorne’s partner.
The approach seems to work. Audos helped start “low hundreds of” businesses from launching it, with its customers discovering the platform via Instagram ads asking “Have you ever thought about starting something but I don’t know where to go?” Among them, says Werdelin, he is a car engineer who wants to help people evaluate repair excerpts, a person selling “after death logistics”, virtual swing golf coaches and AI nutritionists. In a report with the eye in billions of dollars, or so -called unicorns, he calls these groups of one and two “Donkeycorns”.
Everyone went through the same process: they clicked on Audos’s advertising, the AI agent started a discussion to understand the problems that these people want to face and who they want to serve and, when satisfied with the answers, their Audos got them as far as possible.
In terms of yields, Ausos operates in a fundamentally different model than traditional accelerators or business capital. Instead of receiving a share capital, the company receives 15% income from businesses that help start. In return, the founders reach up to $ 25,000 in funding, access to these business development tools fueled by AI and help distribute (again, mainly through advertising social media).
“We don’t get any shares in their business,” says Werdelin. There is not much point. “We do not believe that these companies could ever be sold,” he says. “What we are really inspired by Mom and Pop stores that are the backbone of our society.”
The share of revenue continues indefinitely, similar to the platform charged by the Apple App Store. For the founders, this means giving up a significant part of their revenue in time – a 15% cut that could cost businessmen hundreds of thousands of dollars over time. Some will undoubtedly see this compromise as it is worth it. Others may question whether the long -term cost justifies the benefits.
Audos’s value proposal raises other questions, given how fast the landscape changes. While Werdelin emphasizes the help of founders to build relationships with customers, it is not clear how much this AI agents work can really handle. There is also the issue of differentiation. As Werdelin easily recognizes, “the world is full of these tools” and improve quickly. What happens when entrepreneurs can access similar AI capabilities without paying permanent revenue tax?
Audos VCs are not heard about these scenarios. True Ventures led Audos’s $ 11.5 million seeds, with partner Tony Conrad explaining the call to a zoom call this week. In addition to confidence in Werdelin and Thorne, says Conrad, “I think there are only many and many people” who could hug the opportunity to work with a platform like Audos.
Conrad draws on the exit of Instagram $ 1 billion with just 13 employees, suggesting that AI could allow even more leverage, even if Audos – who employ only five people completely – do not hunt unicorn. As Werdelin explains, “what we follow here is the millions of people who can create millions of dollars or half -million dollars who are real and change life.”
He adds Werdelin separately from why he rotates the Audos: “What we are trying to do is understand how you make a million companies that make a million dollars [in annual revenue]. This is a trillion turnover business. ”
In 2025, it doesn’t sound crazy. Expanding the benefits of entrepreneurship to people who traditionally have no access to starting funds or technical skills is an increasingly urgent proposal, as traditional employment begins to feel less and less stable.
“We believe that there must be someone who comes out and really helps these smaller businessmen who are building something that is not business,” says Werdelin. “We believe that the world is better with more entrepreneurship.”
The other Audos investors include offline venture and Bungalow Capital, along with many high-profile angel investors-Niklas Zennstrom and Mario Schlosser.
Picture above, from left to right, co -founders of Audos Nicholas Thorne and Henrik Werdelin.
