Sheryl Sandberg-backed Flint wants to use AI to autonomously build and update websites

Summary

Sometimes, you can only spot what’s wrong when you’ve been part of the process for a while. That was the case for Michelle Lim, who, while running Warp’s growth marketing effort earlier this year, realized that the company wasn’t updating its website quickly enough. She noticed that potential customers were asking ChatGPT and other AI bots all kinds of questions about Warp’s offering, but the information they sought, such as how the product compared with a newer competitor, wasn’t available on the startup’s website. Lim felt that this content gap would become even more critical as next-generation AI agents begin actively crawling the internet to gather intelligence for users. It was clear that Warp needed to add more content, but making and uploading each additional web page was a time-consuming task involving a design agency and multiple people across different departments. “Marketers just can’t wait one month for design and development teams to build the page,” she told TechCrunch. “With AI engines, you need to be producing content a lot faster than before to capture your consumer demand.” Lim, who had long planned to launch a startup, recognized that this was fast becoming a problem that needed solving. So, in March, she co-founded Flint, an AI platform that lets you set up websites that update themselves. Joining her in the effort was Max Levenson, an engineer who previously led the simulation and infrastructure teams for autonomous vehicle startup, Nuro. On Tuesday, Flint emerged from stealth mode with $5 million in seed funding. The investment was led by Accel, and saw participation from Sheryl Sandberg’s fund, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, and existing backer Neo. Flint’s goal is to create websites that continuously optimize themselves, perform their own A/B tests, and dynamically learn from both visitors and market trends, such as a sudden interest in a specific keyword. Flint also aims to generate pages customized to each visitor, much like how Amazon...