So many similar products after OpenAI, how do you build a competitive product as a startup?
Kevin Lu
8 replies
Funding, Product Competition, Time, and Talents are four major challenges for early-stage startups, and because there are so many similar ChatGPT products out there, it's challenging to make product competitive recently, do you have the same issue? How do you make your products distinctive from others?
Replies
Michael Gaylord@mjgaylord
Waitroom
AI is a feature not a product on it's own. This is how it went when apps became a thing - remember all the calculator apps. A lot of developers were just creating these apps to make a quick buck. There were very few business models and truly useful products behind these early apps. At the end of the day, the apps that delivered true value and solved real problems were the ones that succeeded.
I believe that AI needs to augment the user experience, not "be" the user experience. If you already have a product, think about how AI can make it better. What repetitive tasks can it eliminate? How can it speed up your user's workflow? How can it make the experience of using your product better?
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dotBRAND
@mjgaylord agreed!
It reminds me of the metaphor of hammer and hole: AI is like a hammer and a real market need is like a hole.
Waitroom
@dot_brand well yeah. I do, however, think that if as a tech startup you don't embrace AI in some form, you are going to be left behind. To use the mobile app analogy again. The companies that resisted creating their own apps got left in the dust.
dotBRAND
@mjgaylord That too, it's full of challenges and opportunities at the same time for startups!
Product Hunt
This happens with most new technologies; I feel, people are building out the things that they see others build (profile picture generators) simply because
1) they don't understand the technology deeply enough but are excited to build.
2) seeing others build and launch these means they can too.
Soon enough, we will be in a much more exploratory phase as technology catches up with peoples creativity.
dotBRAND
@aaronoleary truly, it’s like a hype and people are carrying a new tech to fill the need instead of find a need and fulfill it with a proper technology.
Times of moat are gone in a technology advance setting. Discussed this with some VCs last week and they 100% agree.
Your competitive edge is now more than ever with your customer relationship.
dotBRAND
@matthias_strafinger I feel the same! When things look alike, service becomes more important!