What I Think The Future Of Startups Looks Like
The startup craze has reached its absolute peak. Over the past year or so, there's been a noticeable surge in capital deployed by venture firms eager to fund the next big juggernaut. More and more, emerging founders are launching companies that are "AI this" or "AI that" — or, more commonly, "Cursor for X" or "Lovable for Y."
However, we're approaching startups the wrong way. The reality is that there's no real need for yet another AI-powered calorie tracker, AI code debugger, or AI productivity tool. The market is oversaturated, and if a consumer truly wants an application, they can probably vibecode it themselves. We need to rethink how we approach startups.
Founders have become obsessed with applying AI to existing patterns instead of reimagining what's possible from the ground up. They need to approach the startup landscape from a first-principles, fundamental level. More importantly, the future of startups lies in building platform-level products.
Think about it: throughout history's gold rushes, it was never the miners who struck it rich, but the people selling the boots and shovels. Similarly, the ventures succeeding at the highest level in today's market aren't the AI-powered apps or tools—they're the platform-providers.
OpenAI alone reached a revenue of $12 billion in July 2025. Anthropic is estimated to have around $5 billion in revenue as of October 2025. And to really seal the point, xAI's revenue is estimated to be around $500 million.
The companies taking the lion's share of success in the current environment aren't the tools—they're the platform-providers.
In the end, the next wave of great startups won't come from building another AI tool or app—it'll come from building the infrastructure that enables everything else. The winners of this era will be the ones creating the platforms, not just the products. Those who supply the "boots and shovels" of the AI revolution will define the future of technology and everyone else will be mining in their shadow.