In addition to receiving specialized advice and useful insights from professionals in the field, participants in the 2024 program will have the opportunity to win $20,000 from Paddle for the best offering.

According to Paddle's SaaS Benchmarks Report, 46% of software companies integrated AI into their product in the previous year, indicating that more and more organizations are looking to AI to increase income.

The effort, however, goes well beyond creating instruments and solutions driven by AI. Rather, it concentrates on creating AI firms that are profitable and long-lasting. Paddle aims to help 50 AI-focused, innovative, and scaleable businesses by accelerating their growth and monetizing their AI technologies.

AI Launchpad was established in 2023, and the first winner of the competition was Virtual Staging AI, a platform that lets real estate agents digitally decorate photos of vacant rooms. The platform was chosen by a panel of judges.


The founder and CEO of Virtual Staging AI, the 2023 AI Launchpad winner, Michael Bonacina, talked about the experience, saying, "We were particularly impressed with Paddle's AI Launchpad program since it gave us access to a vibrant community of generative AI innovators. This is because you're all facing the same difficulties: how to develop a model, how to take on competitors like OpenAI, and how to get clients for a novel solution. It was therefore intriguing to learn about other people's perspectives on these issues.
 

"We started in March 2023, and by the time we applied to Paddle AI Launchpad in August, we were bringing in $20,000 a month." We implemented many of the things we'd worked on, like implementing annual plans, gaining a lot more customers, improving the product, and improving the checkout experience, and now we have a product that truly speaks to our customers. As a result, by the time the program ended in November, we had $200,000 in monthly revenue.

establishing the community of "Launchpaddlers"
 

In response to the 2023 program's success, Paddle has increased the amount of spots available. The "Launchpaddlers" group, a central location for Launchpad alumni to connect and exchange resources, will soon be exclusively accessible to participants. In addition to providing data, guidance, and customized material, this network will provide AI founders access to industry experts.

Karthik Puvvada, founder relations manager at Paddle, who has developed founder-facing education and community programs for multiple startups, will lead the hub. He stated, "I am excited to collaborate with the team to advance Paddle's AI Launchpad and assist SaaS founders in eliminating invisible obstacles that impede their growth."


"At Paddle, our goal has always been to help software sellers grow their businesses as quickly and efficiently as possible," said Christian Owens, the company's founder and executive chairman. In order to support a new wave of software innovators operating in one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, we founded the AI Launchpad.

"We're excited to grow this community and help more AI founders achieve faster growth and build long-term, healthy businesses after witnessing the impact the Launchpad had on participants in 2023."