Forget "GPT-Wrappers": The Future of AI Startups is Last-Mile Delivery

(Above is Gemini’s attempt to turn the below article into an image… we’re not at AGI yet). The pace of innovation from foundation model labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google is staggering. Every new release expands the horizon of what foundation models can do out of the box, prompting the question: if the models can do this much, where is the opportunity left for startups? If you’re just competing on model performance, you’ve already lost. The opportunity for startups isn’t in building a better base model. The opportunity is in building the “last-mile delivery” service that gets the power of these models to the customer’s front door, packaged in a way they can actually use. This is the future of AI-native Application companies, which will almost certainly account for the vast majority of unicorns (and decacorns) being built right now. Many VC’s constantly focus on technical differentiation in startups, wringing their hands about how each specific company can possibly stand up to Ope

(Above is Gemini’s attempt to turn the below article into an image… we’re not at AGI yet). The pace of innovation from foundation model labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google is staggering. Every new release expands the horizon of what foundation models can do out of the box, prompting the question: if the models can do this much, where is the opportunity left for startups? If you’re just competing on model performance, you’ve already lost. The opportunity for startups isn’t in building a better base model. The opportunity is in building the “last-mile delivery” service that gets the power of