17-person startup makes $28M a year as AI artifact cards sell 800K in three months
创业邦 · wechat · 2026-09-08
Wuhan-based Shiming Tech, with just 17 employees, generated 200M RMB revenue in 2025. Its "Mark Yin" artifact cards ($30 each) sold 800K+ units in three months, 95% to US buyers.
- Product: Cards modeled on relics like the Sword of Goujian; NFC/QR summons an AI digital persona that tells history and collects users' stories, with blind-box rarity mechanics; chosen as a WAIC official gift.
- Path: Founder Luo Biwen lost money for six years before pivoting in 2023 to museum AI guides—chosen by 70% of visitors in week one, now in 300+ museums including the Louvre and the Met.
- Efficiency: The company runs thousands of internal AI agents as digital employees; Luo recorded his life on a chest-mounted camera for half a month to train his own avatar. It also runs an agent-training platform, "Boarding a Shrimp."
- Radical plan: Going fully remote with only a server room—AI handles repetitive work, humans handle creativity and decisions.
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