I monitored network traffic, decompiled code, and traced API calls for 200 funded AI startups. 73% are running third-party APIs with extra steps. OpenAI dominates, Claude is everywhere, and the gap between marketing and reality is staggering.
Love to see someone doing a sanity check on the hype and showing their work. I get founders being nervous about their competitive edge when every OpenAI demo day or Google announcement seems like it commoditizes another swath of the industry. This lesson can't be repeated enough (and applies broadly outside of AI startups as well):
The tech stack doesn’t matter as much as the problem you solve. Some of the best products I found were “just” wrappers. They had incredible UX, solved real problems, and were honest about their approach.
Private article, but the author includes a Medium gift link in the article itself.