18/06/2026
How I’d start an AI company today if I had to do it all over again in 2026.
90% of AI startups still fail in their first year.
Worse:
60–70% of “AI wrapper” startups are sitting at exactly $0 in revenue.
Not low revenue. Zero.
Here’s the brutal test I’d run before writing a single line of code:
if OpenAI or Anthropic shut down your API key tomorrow, does your company die with it?
If yes, you didn’t build a business, you built an unpaid distribution arm for someone else’s model.
Swipe through for the 5 decisions I’d make differently this time:
→ Pick a vertical so narrow it feels uncomfortable (not “AI for healthcare”: patient intake for single-doctor clinics)
→ Build a real moat: proprietary data, deep workflow integration, owned distribution — not a thin layer on GPT
→ Price for outcomes, not seats. Per-seat SaaS is dying. $2T is already gone.
→ Stay lean. Solo founders are running $3M+ ARR companies with a $300/month agent stack instead of a payroll
→ Know exactly what VCs are checking for now because “we use AI” doesn’t cut it anymore
The bar is higher than it’s ever been.
But the opportunity is bigger too, 53% of all global VC funding is flowing into this category right now.
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