Founder Parlays 2008-Era SEO Skills and ChatGPT Into a 17-Person Overseas Business
gefei55 · x · 2026-09-16
A tech lead shares his overseas-entrepreneurship journey — a full arc from rock bottom to turnaround:
- 2018: lost contracts one after another — declined a consulting trip to Yunnan's Hongta Group and got blacklisted, then a ¥100k medical-website project collapsed when the client's Japan business failed; cash flow broke and he had to borrow money, with his father wiring ¥100k to bail him out
- Late 2018: joined his former boss's company to lead a tech team, working until 10pm, and "lay low" through the pandemic years
- Dec 2022, ChatGPT's launch was the turning point: website building in the AI era, combined with SEO skills from 2008, out-earned his salary
- Oct 2023: quit to go solo, growing to 17 full-time employees today — bigger than his former employer's company; this Mid-Autumn Festival he sent mooncakes and red envelopes to the whole team
Key takeaway: the combo of old skills (SEO) plus the new wave (AI content production) made the indie webmaster playbook profitable again in 2023–2026, scalable into a real overseas business.
Related event: Tech lead turns 2008-era SEO skills into a 17-person startup after ChatGPT(2 posts)→
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