Bootstrapping an AI Startup to $10M from Boise, Idaho: Christian Perry, CEO of Undetectable AI (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get to the exciting Undetectable AI story. What was going on in your mind? What problem did you want to solve, knowing that ChatGPT was taking off around you?

Christian Perry: As ChatGPT gained momentum and AI adoption accelerated, it felt like the world changed overnight. Suddenly, this new technology existed, and everyone was talking about it.

We initially focused on AI detection — technology designed to determine whether content was generated by AI. These tools analyze linguistic patterns, digital fingerprints, and, in some cases, embedded watermarks to distinguish AI-generated content from human-written content.

We built an AI detector and quickly realized that many large companies were cracking down on AI-generated content. Google announced it would penalize websites with excessive AI content, calling it spammy. Social media platforms began limiting AI content used for engagement farming. Email providers even started flagging AI-generated content as a spam indicator.

Our first approach was to license the detection technology to schools and partner with companies struggling with too much AI-generated content impacting their platforms or user experience. However, that model didn’t scale as we hoped.

We didn’t raise any outside funding. Undetectable AI was fully bootstrapped using revenue from our previous venture, ChatterQuant.

Sramana Mitra: Who’s “we”? Was it the same co-founder from ChatterQuant?

Christian Perry: Yes, I started Undetectable AI with the same co-founder. He’s no longer with the company — it’s now just me and a few team members who joined very early on.

Eventually, we pivoted from detection to what we call “humanization.” The idea was to make AI-generated content usable — especially for individuals and small businesses. We believed in the technology, but if people couldn’t use it effectively for writing emails, social media content, or blogs, it wouldn’t actually help them.

So, our goal became helping people continue to use AI while avoiding the downsides — by generating text that sounds more human, doesn’t look like it came from an AI, and isn’t flagged by platforms like Google.

Sramana Mitra: Who was your target market — small businesses or enterprises?

Christian Perry: We started with small businesses, and that’s still the majority of our user base. We also white-label our API to other companies that have their own email marketing tools or blog-writing platforms. Many small companies license our API and use it as an upsell for their users.

Sramana Mitra: You started this in 2023, correct?

Christian Perry: Yes, that’s correct.

Sramana Mitra: What is the price point of the product?

Christian Perry: On average, our entry-level subscription starts at about $20. We use usage-based pricing and are constantly A/B testing to find the sweet spot — whether that’s pricing levels or credit amounts. Sometimes we test things like unlimited credits at different price points to see what drives conversions.

Sramana Mitra: But how do you manage fluid pricing? That’s tricky to scale.

Christian Perry: It can be, but we manage it well. On our public pricing page — where most of our individual users purchase — we test different price points. For enterprise deals, we do custom negotiations through our sales team, so that’s handled separately.

Some of our earliest users are still on $10/month plans. We didn’t raise their prices even as new pricing tiers came out. Interestingly, we’ve seen similar conversion rates at higher prices. We manage different tiers using Stripe products.

Having a larger team helps. If a customer reaches out and says, “Hey, my friend got this deal — can I get it too?” — we’re happy to accommodate them.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Bootstrapping an AI Startup to $10M from Boise, Idaho: Christian Perry, CEO of Undetectable AI
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