内容来源：https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/ai-cloud-startup-runpod-hits-120m-in-arr-and-it-started-with-a-reddit-post/

内容总结：

AI托管平台Runpod四年创收神话：从车库矿机到年化1.2亿美元的逆袭之路

四年前，两位前康卡斯特程序员卢震（Zhen Lu）和帕迪普·辛格（Pardeep Singh）在自家新泽西州地下室用矿机捣鼓出了一项新业务。如今，他们共同创立的AI应用托管平台Runpod已实现年化1.2亿美元营收，客户覆盖从个人开发者到年耗资数百万美元的《财富》500强企业团队。

这段创业故事始于2021年底。当时，二人花费近5万美元购置显卡设备进行以太坊挖矿，却因收益不佳且过程"枯燥"而陷入困境。恰逢加密货币网络升级将终结挖矿模式，为安抚家人并盘活硬件资源，他们凭借工作中积累的机器学习经验，将矿机改造为AI服务器。

"当时处理GPU的软件堆栈简直糟糕透顶，"卢震回忆道。正是这种开发者视角的痛点洞察，催生了Runpod平台——一个强调高速运算、灵活硬件配置（含自动配置的无服务器方案）并配备API等开发工具的AI应用托管平台。

2022年初，毫无创业经验的二人选择在Reddit的AI技术社区发帖，以免费算力换取测试反馈。这个原始策略意外奏效：九个月内，他们辞去工作并实现100万美元营收。随着ChatGPT引爆AI热潮，平台用户通过Reddit和Discord社区持续增长，但家庭服务器模式很快遭遇瓶颈——企业客户拒绝在"地下室服务器"运行业务。

正当他们通过与数据中心收入分成艰难扩张时，转机接连出现：戴尔科技资本合伙人拉迪卡·马利克通过Reddit帖子主动联系，在首次通话中耐心指导风投逻辑；Hugging Face联合创始人朱利安·肖蒙因使用产品后通过客服聊天主动接洽，最终成为关键天使投资人。

与其他由矿商转型的云服务商不同，Runpod坚持不提供免费服务、不承担债务的 bootstrap（自举）模式。直至2024年5月AI应用热潮全面爆发，这家提前两年布局的先锋企业终于获得戴尔与英特尔风投部门联合领投的2000万美元种子轮融资，参投方包括纳特·弗里德曼等业界领袖。

目前Runpod已覆盖全球31个区域，服务50万开发者，客户名单涵盖Replit、Cursor、OpenAI、Perplexity等明星企业。面对AWS、谷歌云等巨头及CoreWeave等垂直对手的竞争，卢震将平台定位为"以开发者为中心的下一代基础架构"："程序员正在转变为AI智能体创造者，我们的目标是成为这代软件开发者的成长土壤。"

随着平台进入A轮融资筹备阶段，这对凭借技术嗅觉与时代机遇闯出一片天的创始人，正在证明"产品够硬、时机够巧，用户自会到来"的创业法则。

中文翻译：

四年前创立的AI应用托管平台Runpod，其年度经常性收入已达到1.2亿美元——联合创始人陆臻（Zhen Lu）与帕迪普·辛格（Pardeep Singh）向TechCrunch透露。

他们的创业历程堪称传奇，印证了"产品过硬、时机凑巧，成功自会到来"的道理。据创始人讲述，这段故事包括：自主实现超百万美元营收；因戴尔科技资本合伙人拉迪卡·马利克（Radhika Malik）在Reddit上注意到相关讨论而获得2000万美元种子轮融资；以及因Hugging Face联合创始人朱利安·肖蒙（Julien Chaumond）主动通过客服聊天联系表示正在使用产品，从而收获另一位关键天使投资人。

一切始于2021年末。当时同在康卡斯特担任企业开发人员的两位好友觉得，他们的业余爱好已不再有趣。他们曾在新泽西州各自的地下室里搭建用于生成以太坊的专用计算机设备。虽然成功挖到少量加密货币，但远不足以收回投资。加之随着备受瞩目的"合并"网络升级到来，挖矿时代即将终结。

"更糟的是，几个月后就觉得这太无聊了。"陆臻坦言。据估算，两人曾说服妻子允许他们各投入约2.5万美元用于这项爱好。他们深知家庭和睦取决于能否为这些GPU找到新用途。

由于在工作中接触过机器学习项目，他们决定将矿机改造成AI服务器。这甚至发生在ChatGPT和DALL-E 2问世之前。

改造过程中，"我们亲眼目睹处理这些GPU的软件堆栈有多糟糕。"作为开发者，他们找到了渴望解决的问题。Runpod由此诞生——"因为我们感觉在GPU上开发软件的实际体验简直是一团糟。"陆臻如此描述。

2022年初，他们准备好分享成果。Runpod作为AI应用托管平台，主打高速响应、易配置硬件（含自动配置的无服务器方案）以及API、命令行界面等开发工具。2021年时，平台仅支持Jupyter笔记本等少数工具。随之而来的难题是寻找测试用户。

"作为初次创业者，我们完全不懂营销。"陆臻回忆道，"于是我想，干脆发到Reddit上试试。"他们在几个AI主题板块发帖，提供免费AI服务器使用权换取反馈。这一策略奏效了：测试用户转化为付费客户。九个月内，他们辞去工作并实现百万美元营收。

自主增长之路

但新问题接踵而至。"运营六个月时，企业用户提出：'我想在你们平台运行实际业务，但不能依赖私人地下室里的服务器。'"两位新泽西出身的创始人从未考虑向风投融资，转而与数据中心建立收益分成合作以扩大容量。但这种模式压力巨大，创始人必须保持超前规划。

"如果我们没有GPU，市场和用户态度就会转变。一旦他们看不到可用资源，就会转向别处。"辛格解释道。与此同时，随着ChatGPT面世，他们在Reddit和Discord上的用户群持续扩大。

风投机构也在积极寻找投资标的。马利克通过Reddit联系他们进行了首次风投会议，但陆臻当时并不懂如何向投资人推介。"拉迪卡在第一次通话时就提供了极大帮助。"她向陆臻阐释了风投的思维方式，并承诺保持联系。

与此同时，陆臻需要维持自负盈亏的业务。"近两年时间里我们没有任何外部资金。"因此Runpod从未提供免费服务层级，即使利润微薄也坚持收支平衡。与其他由加密货币矿商转型的AI云服务商不同，他们坚决拒绝负债经营。

到2024年5月，AI应用热潮席卷之际，两年前布局开发者AI托管的幸运决定开始收获回报。平台已拥有10万开发者用户，并获得由戴尔与英特尔旗下风投机构共同领投的2000万美元种子轮融资，纳特·弗里德曼（Nat Friedman）和肖蒙等知名投资人也参与其中。

此后他们未再进行融资，但凭借现有业务基础，正计划开展健康的A轮融资。目前Runpod已拥有50万开发者客户，涵盖个人开发者至年投入数百万美元的《财富》500强企业团队。其云服务覆盖全球31个区域，客户包括Replit、Cursor、OpenAI、Perplexity、Wix和Zillow等企业。

尽管面临AWS、微软、谷歌等云巨头以及CoreWeave、Core Scientific等行业专项服务的激烈竞争，Runpod以开发者为中心的平台定位形成了独特优势。他们认为编程不会消失而是进化，程序员将转型为AI智能体的创造者与管理者。

"我们的目标是成为新一代软件开发者的成长基石。"陆臻如是说。

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英文来源：

Runpod, an AI app hosting platform that launched four years ago, has hit a $120 million annual revenue run rate, founders Zhen Lu and Pardeep Singh tell TechCrunch.
Their startup journey is a wild example of how if you build it well and the timing is lucky, they will definitely come.
The story includes bootstrapping their way to over $1 million in revenue; landing a $20 million seed round after VC Radhika Malik, a partner at Dell Technologies Capital, saw some Reddit posts; and gaining another key angel investor, Hugging Face co-founder Julien Chaumond, because he was using the product and reached out over the support chat, the founders tell TechCrunch.
It all began in late 2021 when the two friends, who worked together as corporate developers for Comcast, decided the hobby they were doing wasn’t fun anymore.
They had built setups of specialized computers used to generate Ethereum in their respective New Jersey basements. While they did successfully mine a bit of the cryptocurrency, it wasn’t enough to pay back their investment, they said. Plus, mining was going to end after the much-ballyhooed network upgrade called “The Merge.”
On top of that, it was “boring” after a couple of months, Lu said.
But they had talked their wives into letting them spend a good $50,000 on the hobby between them, they estimated. Lu and Singh knew that home harmony depended on finding a way to use those GPUs.
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Add yourself to the Disrupt 2026 waitlist to be first in line when Early Bird tickets drop. Past Disrupts have brought Google Cloud, Netflix, Microsoft, Box, Phia, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, and Vinod Khosla to the stages — part of 250+ industry leaders driving 200+ sessions built to fuel your growth and sharpen your edge. Plus, meet the hundreds of startups innovating across every sector.
The devs had been engaged in machine learning projects at work, so they opted to convert their mining rigs into AI servers. This was before ChatGPT, even before DALL-E 2.
As they repurposed the rigs, “We were seeing how really god-awful the software stack was for dealing with these GPUs,” Lu said. As developers, they found a problem they wanted to solve.
Runpod was born “because we felt that the actual experience of developing software on top of GPUs was just hot garbage,” Lu described.
A few months later in early 2022, they were ready to share what they had built. Runpod is a platform for hosting AI apps, emphasizing speed, easily configured hardware (including a serverless option that automates configuration), and dev tools like APIs, command-line interfaces, and other integrations.
Back in 2021, they only had a few such integrations (like support for popular web app tool Jupyter notebooks). The next problem: finding beta testers.
“As first-time founders, we didn’t really know how to market or how to do anything,” Lu recalled. “So I’m like, all right, let’s just post on Reddit.”
So, they posted in a couple of AI-oriented subreddits. The offer was simple: free access to their AI servers in exchange for feedback. It worked. They landed beta customers, which led to paying customers. Within nine months, they had quit their jobs and hit $1 million in revenue, they said.
Bootstrapping growth
But that led to another problem. “Six months in, business users were like, ‘Hey, I want to actually run real business stuff on your platform. But I cannot run it on servers that are in people’s basements,” Lu said.
It had not occurred to the New Jersey founders to raise capital from VCs. Instead they formed revenue-share partnerships with data centers to grow capacity. But it was stressful. The founders needed to stay three steps ahead.
“If we don’t have the GPUs, the market sentiment, the user sentiment changes. Because when they don’t see capacity from you, they go somewhere else,” Singh described.
Meanwhile, their user base was growing on Reddit and Discord, especially after ChatGPT launched.
VCs were also on the prowl for investments. Malik saw them on Reddit and reached out, their first VC call. But Lu didn’t know how to pitch to an investor. “Radhika was super helpful, even at the first conversation,” he said. She basically explained to him how a VC thinks and told him she’d stay in touch.
Meanwhile, Lu had a business to run that had to pay for itself. “It was almost two years where we really didn’t have any funding,” he said. So Runpod never offered a free tier. It had to at least pay for itself, even if it wasn’t throwing off much profit. Unlike other AI cloud services that began as crypto miners, these founders refused to take on debt, they said.
By May 2024, with AI app fever spreading, their lucky decision to launch AI hosting for devs two years earlier was paying off. Their business had grown to 100,000 developers, and they landed a $20 million seed deal co-led by the VC arms of both Dell and Intel, with participation from big names like Nat Friedman and Chaumond.
They haven’t raised more money since but are now planning to, armed with a business that, they believe, should command a healthy Series A.
Today, Runpod counts 500,000 developers as customers, ranging from individuals to Fortune 500 enterprise teams with multimillion-dollar annual spend, the founders said.
Their cloud spans 31 regions globally and counts customers like Replit, Cursor, OpenAI, Perplexity, Wix, and Zillow as users.
Competition is also fierce. Devs have all the major clouds to choose from (AWS, Microsoft, Google), plus plenty of industry-specific choices like CoreWeave and Core Scientific.
But they also see their place in the world a bit differently — as a dev-centric platform. They don’t see coding ever going away but changing. Programmers will become AI agent creators and operators.
“Our goal is to be what this next generation of software developers grows up on,” Lu said.