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Why We Love Open AI's ChatGPT

By Sacha Rose Uritis on May 25th, 2023 · 6 min read

If you're not sure what ChatGPT is, click here to learn more.


ChatGPT has been a hot topic lately with many startups and established companies (e.g., Microsoft Bing, Duolingo, Khan Academy, and Stripe) adopting its technology. Within just this past quarter, our data showed handfuls of startups using ChatGPT technology or similar: Symphony42, Corp., Use Context, Inc., VERB AI Inc., Pictory, Corp.(careers), Magical Tome, Inc., and Magic AI, Inc.


At FundedReport, we've been using Open AI's products since [2019], starting with GPT2 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 2), an open-source artificial intelligence large language model. Since ChatGPT was released about five months ago, we've found it to be a total game-changer for our business. Some are hesitant to accept the existence of ChatGPT or see it as "cheating." However, we believe that as long as it's used ethically and responsibly, there's no harm in using tools like ChatGPT to enhance productivity and efficiency.


Full Disclosure: FundedReport is a tiny, but mighty company of three. We all juggle many more things in our day-to-day: parenthood, consulting, and corporate gigs. FundedReport is our fun. So, if there are efficiency or quality improvements, we're definitely taking advantage.


Although this article focuses on all the great things about ChatGPT, it is NOT perfect - there are many ways ChatGPT has fallen short for our use cases. This has been a fun journey learning about ChatGPT and how we've been able to leverage it.


Here are our favorite ways we use ChatGPT (so far):



---~~ Let's Go! ~~---


For Research

Understanding Industries

Each week, we sift through our data of recently funded companies across numerous industries and determine if they're "interesting" enough to feature on our Monday Newsletter. However, it's impossible for our team to know every single industry intimately and determine if a company is truly doing something revolutionary. ChatGPT is a game-changer for us, allowing us to quickly expand our knowledge on niche topics and deliver great content to our readers at a low cost.

3D Metal Printing, for example, is something we know zip about. Fabric8Labs, Inc. appeared on a FundedReport recently receiving $52.8 million. That's a lot of money, but was it interesting? Sometimes websites will claim that what they're doing is "revolutionary" or "novel". But, how do we get to the truth?
Fabric8Labs website did not quite claim that what they were doing was novel, but I suspected it was. So, I asked ChatGPT: "What are the methods of 3D Metal Printing?" There are many apparently, though most use heating methods whereas Fabric8Labs chose not to do heating for sustainability purposes. So, I then asked ChatGPT: "What are methods that do not use heating?" Lo and behold, there were some types of non-heating 3D metal printing, but not as popular and not quite scalable. Well, Fabric8Labs claimed that their methods were scalable. Tada! Novel.


Here's the newsletter snippet featuring Fabric8Labs, Inc.:

Fabric8Labs, Inc.(https://fabric8labs.com/) Most 3D metal printing methods use thermal energy. This company has created a new method of 3D metal printing called Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM). Although there are other methods that don’t use thermal energy, they are not scalable. ECAM has a low carbon footprint while also being comparable in scalability and high performance to the traditional manufacturing methods, making this company worth every penny.


Two weeks later, another 3D Metal Printing company appears receiving $9.6 million: Sun Metalon, Inc. As their name suggests, they do use thermal energy. With my recent acquired knowledge, I was able to make the connection, compare, and write more interesting content than I would have had otherwise.


Here's the newsletter snippet featuring Sun Metalon, Inc.:

**Sun Metalon, Inc. (https://sunmetalon.com) (https://sunmetalon.com/careers) Two weeks ago we featured a company that received $52.8 million dollars on metal 3D-printing using Electrochemical Additive, NOT thermal energy. They claimed to have 90% reduction in greenhouse gasses with their method. Well, Sun Metalon, as their name suggests, does metal 3D-printing WITH heat. They are ultra-fast (500 times faster than conventional 3D-printing methods) and economical. Their vision is to localize metal 3D-printing.


I'm not an expert in 3D Metal Printing whatsoever. Regardless, my job is to serve our readers with interesting content. ChatGPT helps me expand my knowledge quickly, so I can make that delivery especially when it comes to niche industries.


Ironing Out the Details

There's a good balance between detailed and big-picture writing. Writing about a variety of industries can be difficult for the non-expert. Sometimes I know what would be interesting to know, but I don't actually have the answers.

  • "How much do Virtual Reality head sets cost?"
    We frequently come across companies creating apps for Virtual Reality experiences, but if you don't have a VR set, you can't use it. So, I was curious on how much they cost. This particular company recommended a handful of VR devices costing up to $600.
  • "What is the stick building process in regards to home construction?"
    Sometimes a website may not be built for the layperson (aka me). I could not find the definition of stick building on a company's website that constantly compared its process with it. The answer was actually what I suspected, but I wanted to be sure.
  • "What does FEU stand for in regards to shipping containers?"
    Many sites use uncommon acronyms and don't bother to define them. I try not to make the same mistake with our newsletters. In this case, FEU stands for forty-foot equivalent unit (i.e., a shipping container with its longest dimension being 40 ft).

For Efficiencies

Before we started using ChatGPT, I would spend hours reading through a company's website to understand what they do. This process could take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour depending on how well the content was written and how easy it was to navigate the website. If there were knowledge gaps, I would use Google's search engine to find answers, but this could be time-consuming and often resulted in too much overlapping information to sift through.


Now, with ChatGPT, we don't have to worry too much about how clear our query is - it can make inferences and remember what we ask it. Interacting with ChatGPT feels more like a conversation than a search.


To make our process more efficient, we use ChatGPT's API to summarize a company's information based on its website content. For companies we label as "interesting", ChatGPT gives us a summary paragraph so we can quickly brush up on the company and then (if necessary) navigate to the website with a more focused mindset to dig deeper. This not only saves us a ton of time, but also increases content quality and makes the process more enjoyable.


For Readability

My writing gets better over time, but I do not consider myself a trained content writer. So, sometimes I have ChatGPT edit my writing for better flow or a change in tone. Sometimes I can't pin a word that's on the tip of my tongue, so I describe it to ChatGPT, and it figures it out for me! Sometimes I use it to come up with better synonyms or phrases when I feel like my writing sounds boring or redundant. Sometimes, I use it to make my writing more concise (because honestly I'm very detail-oriented). Ultimately, the readers benefit! So, you're welcome. :)


We're very grateful for ChatGPT...our "office sidekick"...our "unpaid expert". It does so much for us, we may add it to our Team page!


We hope this article was insightful for you and gives you ideas on how you, too, can reap the benefits of ChatGPT.