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Re:Does AI make strong tech companies stronger? by AznHisoka on Monday December 31, 2018 @10:11AM (#18794771)
This is why I vehemently disagree with anyone that claims creating a startup is easier today than in the past.

Not only are the low hanging ideas saturated (ie website monitoring, brand monitoring, fitness apps), but the bigger ideas require a lot of data, and the big tech companies have the clear advantage.

Re:Does AI make strong tech companies stronger? by anongraddebt on Monday December 31, 2018 @01:24PM (#18796028)
I don't think it is any easier or harder. The difficulty remains the same.

Today, the web stack is much more accessible, and accessible to a much larger group of people. Indeed, a non-trivial number of its parts are relatively automated (e.g. Weebly). In 1995, it was only accessible to a much smaller group of people. Mobile app development will soon reach the same point. And yet, there are plenty of new technologies and ecosystems - to learn and creatively generate something from - that are inaccessible to people in the same way the web was in 1995.

Experiment until you find something people want that has a promising business model and tech model design. If you get traction, don't take investment from just anyone (I'm reminded of Amazon's VC arm working with Amazon to copy a portfolio companies' product, which then buried that startup). Etc. Etc. There are plenty of other early-stage strategic heuristics you can utilize to your advantage.

Perceived weaknesses or disadvantages can be the other-side of an actual strength or advantage.

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I want to emphasize this point more: often times, the lack of resources (whether financial, intellectual, etc.) is the setting of a creative breakthrough that generates the successful business model and tech model.

Re:Does AI make strong tech companies stronger? by dangoldin on Monday December 31, 2018 @10:56AM (#18795055)
I think creating a small/lifestyle startup is easier than ever since distribution/globalization is much easier but creating the next big thing is much more difficult.
Re:Does AI make strong tech companies stronger? by mattmg83 on Monday December 31, 2018 @01:54PM (#18796210)
That's the best phrasing I've read that reconciles these two beliefs (easier to build + saturation). Nicely and simply put.