Meet Noah Shinn: The 23-year-old college dropout whose viral AI assistant is emerging as a new challenger to Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta

At 23 years old, Noah Shinn is already a notable figure in the world of AI. He launched Instinct, an AI assistant startup, last year. Since inception, the company has seen remarkable growth. In August, Instinct raised $250 million for a $2.5 billion valuation, boosting its total funds raised to $350 million. Recently, Instinct secured an additional $1 billion in Series C funding, catapulting its valuation to $10 billion.

Despite being accessible only through invitation, Instinct has already processed over $1 billion in transactions annually, according to Shinn, who spoke on the Invest Like the Best podcast. The viral AI assistant is growing organically through word-of-mouth, with existing users even selling invites on eBay. Shinn mentioned that the company has spent no marketing budget so far.

Instinct is a free personal assistant that can interact with users via message or phone call. It launched in a private beta in February but opened in an invite-only beta last month. The tool has gained popularity among users who utilize it for planning events and canceling subscriptions, Shinn claimed on X. Instinct's founder believes the platform can streamline users' lives, especially in travel, which accounts for half of the billion dollars transacted through the platform each year.

The assistant learns users' preferences and stores them in its memory, enabling it to streamline booking processes for users in the future. Shinn noted that Muse, Meta's personal AI agent, has gained attention recently, but he remains focused on Instinct's potential. Meta's chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, has mocked Instinct on social media, but Shinn replied with a smiley face.

Muse has rapidly gained popularity, becoming the top free app on the U.S. App Store after just 12 days.