Introduction

In today's rapidly evolving entrepreneurial landscape, startups are the driving force behind innovation and progress. Generating creative and groundbreaking startup ideas is a crucial step towards building successful ventures. However, coming up with fresh ideas can be a challenging task. But fear not! In this article, we'll explore the exciting world of artificial intelligence and learn how to build a Startup Idea Generator API using Python, Flask, and Cohere's command-nightly model

Understanding Language Models (LLMs)

Language Models are a type of artificial intelligence model designed to understand and generate human language. LLMs, or Large Language Models, like GPT-3 and Cohere's command-nightly model, are some of the most powerful language models available. They are trained on massive datasets containing diverse language patterns, enabling them to comprehend the intricacies of grammar, context, and semantics.

AI language models, such as Cohere's command-nightly, have revolutionized natural language processing. These models are trained on vast amounts of data and can generate human-like text given a prompt. The command-nightly model, in particular, is designed for creative text generation, making it perfect for our Startup Idea Generator API.

Setting Up the requirements( Flask,Cohere)

Flask, a lightweight Python web framework, provides the backbone for our API. It enables us to define routes, handle HTTP requests, and serve responses. By setting up a Flask app, we create a solid foundation for building our Startup Idea Generator API. I am assuming you already have a virtual environment installed and have gotten an API Key from Cohere platform (get an API key Here).

pip install cohere
pip install flask

create a file named app.py (could be any reasonable name) this is the python file that runs our app. Add the following code :

from flask import Flask,request,jsonify
import cohere
import os 

app =  Flask(__name__)
co = cohere.Client("YOUR-API-KEY")

@app.route("/generate-idea",methods=["POST"])
def generate_idea():
    data = request.get_json()
    startup_industry = data.get("startup_industry")
    creativity =data.get("creativity")

    idea_prompt = f""" 
        Generate a startup idea given the industry. Here are a few examples.
        return the generated ideas in the numbered list
        --
        Industry: Workplace
        Startup Idea: A platform that generates slide deck contents automatically based on a given outline

        --
        Industry: Home Decor
        Startup Idea: An app that calculates the best position of your indoor plants for your apartment

        --
        Industry: {startup_industry}
        Startup Idea: 
    """

    response = co.generate(model="command-nightly",prompt=idea_prompt,temperature=creativity,k=0,stop_sequences=["--"],max_tokens=500)
    startup_idea = response.generations[0].text
    startup_idea = startup_idea.replace("\n\n--", "").replace("\n--", "").strip()
    return jsonify({"generated idea":startup_idea})

@app.route("/generate-name",methods=["POST"])
def generate_name():
    data = request.get_json()
    startup_idea = data.get("startup_idea")
    creativity = data.get("creativity")

    name_prompt = f"""
        You will be given a startup idea in form of strings, Your task is to come up with very good and creative name that portrays the business model in the startup idea.

        Startup Idea: {startup_idea}
        Startup Name:"""

    response = co.generate(model="command-nightly",prompt=name_prompt,max_tokens=100,temperature=creativity,k=0,stop_sequences=["---"])
    startup_name = response.generations[0].text
    startup_name = startup_name.replace("\n\n--", "")
    return jsonify({"generated name":startup_name})


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(debug=True)

In the code above, we have two endpoints both using Cohere's "generate" endpoint and command-nightly model. One for generating startup ideas, This takes in the industry we are trying to build in and also takes in the creativity( this specifies the level of randomness for the model response ). The other endpoint suggests a name for the idea after it has been generated by the first endpoint. Both endpoints take in a prompt which specifies the task the model is supposed to perform, max_tokens which specifies the amount of tokens to be used by the model, temperature which is the creativity mentioned earlier and a stop sequence. The endpoints then return the response in a json format .

Testing our endpoints with Postman

testing the generate startup ideas endpoint
Testing the generate name endpoint

I have copied one of the ideas generated by the generate_idea endpoint over and I expect the generate_name endpoint to suggest names for that particular startup Idea.

Conclusion

In this article, we explored the power of Cohere's specialized command-nightly model, designed for creative text generation. By understanding its capabilities and applications, we successfully built a Startup Idea Generator API using Python and Flask. The command-nightly model's ability to generate contextually relevant and creative responses empowers entrepreneurs and innovators to unlock their creative potential and discover exciting startup possibilities.

Glory Kolade