It seems like anyone with an idea that includes even a brief reference to A.I. is finding their way into investor pockets to launch the machine-assisted version of any task you can think of — from A.I. for coders to A.I. for pets, the possibilities seem limitless right now.
Which, of course, means that everyone reading those kinds of stories can come up with a passable idea for a brand new, never-before-thought-of A.I. startup. And get rich.
Those people are coming to me for advice a lot right now. And that’s fine. I don’t hate this kind of thing. But I gotta warn you, there’s nothing new here.
High-tech spawns a gold rush every few years. It was the gig marketplace before A.I,, then crypto before the gig marketplace, then mobile before crypto, then social before mobile.
And I mean it goes all the way back to the wheel. Like, the actual wheel.
But again, this is not a bad thing. In fact, I’m a huge fan of the democratization of technology that allows a non-technical, usually more business-oriented founder to get their ideas into the arena of high-tech entrepreneurship.
If you’re coming to me asking me if you should try to build out your high-tech idea as a non-technical founder, I’m rooting for you.
But here’s what I don’t want you to do.
Until recently, democratization of tech meant that anyone who could scrape together about $50,000 could hire people to build the tech they envisioned.
That’s not a ton of people, but believe me, it was far too many people.
Because $50,000 only got them part of the way from their idea to a market-viable high-tech startup. Unless the founder’s idea was extremely prescient, and unless every last decision the founder made was correct, that $50,000 usually dried up before the first paying customer was acquired.
That’s $50,000 lost. I’ve seen it dozens of times, and by the time the story gets told to me…
