How do you choose which AI product to focus on?

Cory Janssen

Co-Founder · Altaml

Focus on Industry Pain

Cory Janssen says he focuses on mission-critical problems in specific industries, not globally scalable AI, since he can't win in the foundational-model arms race and industry knowledge/data can create an edge.

The answer starts at 25:26.

Eric Ries

Chair, LTSE Services · Long-Term Stock Exchange

Solve Real Problems

Eric Ries says the thing that distinguishes an entrepreneur is progress against solving somebody's problem and making their life better, since building itself is being genericized; he wants to see customers and revenue, not code output.

Sam Stephenson

Founder · Granola

Deliver Daily Value

Sam Stephenson says to judge what to build by whether the person actually gets daily value out of it, not just by shipping; he says the easier building gets, the more it matters to make something truly useful.

Euwyn Poon

Founder · Orbital - Space Data Centers

Choose the Difficult Path

Euwyn Poon says to do something that feels difficult, calling it a good barometer: company building should feel incredibly difficult, and if it feels easy it likely isn't the right thing.

Dan Martell

Founder & CEO · Martell Ventures

Where Pain Meets Edge

Dan Martell says to focus where pain meets edge — where the painkiller you picked overlaps with your unfair advantage, since pain alone is a market, edge alone is a resume, and the overlap is where the business is.

The answer starts at 11:20.

Arvind Jain

Founder and CEO · Glean

Target Overlooked Workflows

Arvind Jain says to pick a specific workflow the model companies will never prioritize and build the context and product around it, since he doesn't think model companies can meet even 10% of the market's needs.

Tara Seshan

Member of Product Staff · Openai

Build for the Near Future

Tara Seshan says to build for where the models will be in two to three months, because building for where models are now or where you think they'll be in a year are equally wrong.

Andrew Ng

Founder · Deeplearning.Ai

Talk to Customers

Andrew Ng says deciding what to build comes down to talking to customers, saying that gives founders, engineers and product managers a sense of taste and judgment on what to build.

Garrett Lord

CEO - Co-Founder · Handshake

Evaluate Tasks First

Garrett Lord says the first step is to evaluate the tasks you want to automate with AI and measure them, because that lets you iterate with model builders, improve agents or harnesses, and pick the right model.

Sam Altman

Chief Executive Officer · OpenAI

Follow User Behavior

Sam Altman says to follow user behavior over your roadmap, because the product people actually use beats the product you planned to ship.

Erik Allebest

CEO · Chess.com

Listen to Your Heart

Erik Allebest says to listen to your heart and think about what you want to see exist in the world rather than what the market says, though he adds you still have to listen to your customer and pivot if it isn't working.

John Brewton

Writer & Founder · Operating by John Brewton

Build What’s Newly Possible

John Brewton says the useful question is not which model launched this week but what can we build now that we could not build before; he wants Operating to answer that repeatedly.