I think for kids coming out of university, going against the grain might be one of the most valuable things you can do. The essential skills of critical thinking, problem solving, intuitive and linear thinking, and improvisation are not going anywhere. AI is a very impressive technology but it also is one that steals valuable mental exercise from its users. I can't say that eschewing AI will lead to a successful startup but I have a good feeling that connecting with other people who want to do things the hard way and then doing it will be an extremely valuable experience this early in your tenure. If this AI trend does continue, this will give you and your friends a leg up on those who didn't put in the hours.
Ask HN: Would a startup for young creatives who reject AI be feasible?
11–20 of 21 posts
Re: Ask HN: Would a startup for young creatives who reject AI be feasible?
#12There absolutely is a market - anti-AI sentiment among creatives isn't going away. Like any other "purity" branding, it's a real commitment and severely limits your future ability to pivot.
I don't know of anyone in the VC or traditional incubator communities who has an appetite for this. And the groups who are an ideological fit don't have the funds to be worth pursuing.
It's a niche. Like most niches, there's the opportunity to prosper, but yeah - bootstrapping (or angel-bootstrapping if you're lucky and have a personal connection) is pretty much the only way to go here.
Re: Ask HN: Would a startup for young creatives who reject AI be feasible?
#13I am worried about the attitude of incubators, VCs, and investors in general. Would the lack of AI be a nonstarter for most outside investors?
In general, they don’t care about AI or not AI.
They care about the possibility of 100x returns.
This means they care about the possibility of exponential growth.
Most businesses grow linearly at best.
Good luck.
Re: Ask HN: Would a startup for young creatives who reject AI be feasible?
#14I think for kids coming out of university, going against the grain might be one of the most valuable things you can do. The essential skills of critical thinking, problem solving, intuitive and linear thinking, and improvisation are not going anywhere. AI is a very impressive technology but it also is one that steals valuable mental exercise from its users. I can't say that eschewing AI will lead to a successful star…
Very insightful and encouraging words, thank you!
Re: Ask HN: Would a startup for young creatives who reject AI be feasible?
#15Non-AI-assets: yup, this is sensible. AI is a signal of being unconcerned about being seen as a cheat, absence is good. Non-AI-code: forget it, you won't be able to avoid it in your libraries, and you won't write the whole engine from scratch. It's possible to write a whole modern engine without it, but you won't, you'll spin wheels chasing features and never ship.
This is a very flimsy argument to say a vibe coded one-shot Claude app is equivalent to actually hand-made Django app hosted on a Linux system that runs systemd which used Claude PR reviews.
People don't care about your entire dependency chain, see how little the most valuable FOSS libraries recieve in donations or sponsorships compared to end-user apps. They care about how well put together your own app is, which we know AI use changes for the worst (which some argue is worth it for momentum).
As long as your dependencies aren't outright dysfunctional (see rsync debate), it's concensus to disregard AI use there.
Re: Ask HN: Would a startup for young creatives who reject AI be feasible?
#16Anti AI startup is definitely feasible but it also depends what you mean by anti AI , the thing is most people who know what they are doing and mostly tech people refuse the use of AI because it feels like they're cheating. But most consumers donot care about that , they just care about convenience.
The hype around AI is definitely captivating because of so much it is able to do, Anti AI definitely stands out because of so much AI stuff going around but the startup needs to be still good,
For example: if you just make a game company saying you never use AI that's not very convincing for anyone to play the games. People don't care about whether you used AI or not most of the time , they care about the game.
But if you start a company claiming to make a AI less smartphone with extra privacy that's something people might like because AI is literally EVERYWHERE right now.
I'm not very good at examples but you get my point
Re: Ask HN: Would a startup for young creatives who reject AI be feasible?
#17Anti AI startup is definitely feasible but it also depends what you mean by anti AI , the thing is most people who know what they are doing and mostly tech people refuse the use of AI because it feels like they're cheating. But most consumers donot care about that , they just care about convenience. The hype around AI is definitely captivating because of so much it is able to do, Anti AI definitely stands out because…
I don’t agree about the “people don’t care that your game doesn’t have AI” part. Games that have AI disclosure have significantly worse sales on Steam than ones who don’t.
Re: Ask HN: Would a startup for young creatives who reject AI be feasible?
#18Anti AI startup is definitely feasible but it also depends what you mean by anti AI , the thing is most people who know what they are doing and mostly tech people refuse the use of AI because it feels like they're cheating. But most consumers donot care about that , they just care about convenience. The hype around AI is definitely captivating because of so much it is able to do, Anti AI definitely stands out because…
It may not be true that “most people who know what they’re doing” aren’t using AI. It’s infiltrating into every big company, thousands of very skillful people are all-in blasting out tons of code and work with it. I’m not saying that’s good or bad, just stating the view from industry is: heavy use often encouraged.
Re: Ask HN: Would a startup for young creatives who reject AI be feasible?
#19The purity angle is the whole product, so the first pivot kills it. That's why it's a bootstrap play, not a VC one.
Re: Ask HN: Would a startup for young creatives who reject AI be feasible?
#20I work both in the creative arts (currently phd candidate in music and CS, run a jazz night, author of open source music hacking tools) and in the bowels of the tech investment world (diligence practitioner for a company that assesses for PE investment).
Two things: Whether the anti AI slant would work is a marketing question. I happen to think it will, but we are all famously terrible at answering marketing questions until it's hindsight. The only way to know is to start small and find out if your slant resonates.
IMHO, this will absolutely, 100%, need to start bootstrapped and have a plan that involves NEVER giving up more >= 50% ownership. Which can definitely be done, and I've even helped PE firms invest (minority) in these companies. I've seen some fantastic ones. Investors expect you to just do whatever seems like the easy money now, and they are all fucking breathless over AI everywhere right now, to sometimes an astonishingly stupid degree.