Bhutan's first AI startup is seven college kids in a dorm
restofworld.org
restofworld.org
For context, google search puts the average monthly Bhutan salary at ~200 USD.
When you land in Paro airport be sure to look out to the right, this is one of if not the most challenging landings in the world. Check out the approach https://community.infiniteflight.com/t/a-guide-to-the-paro-a...
Be sure you are aware of the tourist fee, aka. sustainable development fee, $100 per day I believe right now. If Barcelona implemented the same I don't think the locals would have to resort to water pistols on the Ramblas.
Do visit the Tiger's Nest, be ready for long walks, if the weather is rainy be very careful about some of the trecks, torrents are dangerous.
Apart from this, if you like spicy food and the feeling that somehow all the other tourists forgot to come, go for it!
> “One of the main challenges we face is the inability to access international payment platforms such as Stripe and PayPal. Additionally, we do not have access to cloud servers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud to host our AI models, which is crucial for reducing costs and improving the quality of our AI,” said Dendup. Many of these services are not available in Bhutan, “making it impossible for us to even open an account,” he said.
Hard to tell exactly what they are building from this article.
As a complete aside I enjoyed their about us section: https://www.nomindbhutan.com/#aboutus
It seems to be mostly chatbot integrations and development. I think it is difficult to judge for anyone in a western country, what challenges they are facing regarding services not being offered in their country.
You’re misleading people and your clients. If you can’t even secure your API endpoints and tokens, how do you plan to work on AI or anything advanced? Bhutan’s "Best AI R&D Company"? Really? What AI R&D have you done? Just slapping a GPT wrapper on something doesn't make it R&D. And calling yourselves the best while failing to secure a basic route? Even non-CS students can manage that nowadays.
You guys are hyping things that are not groundbreaking—it’s just a simple API call. Maybe one day you’ll actually run your own LLMs, and I genuinely hope you do. But until then, stop mislabeling yourselves. Be honest about what you’re doing. If you ever achieve something real, no one will be able to criticize you. But right now, that label of Bhutan’s Best AI R&D Company is a joke.
And as for your cheap shot at me, let me correct you: I don’t work for the government, and what I earn or what I do is none of your business. You have no idea what I work on or what I’m capable of. I don’t go around misleading clients or hyping up my work. So, you don’t know me well enough to question my skills or capabilities. Personal attacks? That’s a weak move. Maybe spend your time better—like securing your service instead of trying to insult someone who pointed out your flaws. And the reason I took so long to reply? I have more important things going on that make a real impact. I had honestly forgotten about this until a colleague pointed it out.
Also, what's this I hear about each of your team members working 9 hours a day? That’s 63 hours a week for all seven of you—how does it take so long to do what little you're doing? Maybe that’s something you should reflect on instead of letting a few good things inflate your ego.
Here’s a tip: Don’t let early success go to your head. Stay humble, be professional, and, above all, be honest. It’s clear from your replies that you’re taking this personally, but that’s what happens when you’re not transparent about what you’re doing and people start calling you out on it.
See you around and Best of Luck!