If you started a company two years ago, many assumptions are no longer true

Post by operatingthetan » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 8:08 PM UTC

thekuanysh wrote: post #38

operatingthetan wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a 60-ish year old serial startup CEO who never coded. Now he's running teams of Claude Code agents which he used to build a healthcare platform by himself which he is now selling. He's already wealthy, just doing it for fun. This skill set is the bare minimum for a startup founder today. Going to VCs with a 2 year outdated deck with no AI functionality or plans or tool use is unimaginable.

Yeah I get what you're saying. Sounds like this guy is driven, smart and savvy then? Definitely a bleeding edge minority who goes where the puck is. As to my original point I'll go and say that 95/100 of business owners out there in the world don't have any idea about Claude Code, Codex or anything of that caliber. It's too early. By the time that group gets to it there'll be tools tailored to their needs, not a term…

Post by thekuanysh » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 8:14 PM UTC

operatingthetan wrote: post #41

thekuanysh wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I get what you're saying. Sounds like this guy is driven, smart and savvy then? Definitely a bleeding edge minority who goes where the puck is. As to my original point I'll go and say that 95/100 of business owners out there in the world don't have any idea about Claude Code, Codex or anything of that caliber. It's too early. By the time that group gets to it there'll be tools tailored to their needs, not a term…

>95/100 of business owners out there in the world You keep returning to this which is a strawman of my argument. From the start I have been talking about technical startup founders, which is also the subject of the blog post.

Post by operatingthetan » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 8:15 PM UTC

thekuanysh wrote: post #43

operatingthetan wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>95/100 of business owners out there in the world You keep returning to this which is a strawman of my argument. From the start I have been talking about technical startup founders, which is also the subject of the blog post.

You on the other hand keep assuming that startup founders, even in SV are technical enough to envision AI or can change the thesis of their business on a whim of technology change that has been introduced less than a year ago. It's not realistic. Businesses have systems, people, obligations, legacy, etc.

Post by operatingthetan » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 8:28 PM UTC

thekuanysh wrote: post #46

operatingthetan wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the blog post? It seems like you may be missing a lot of context here. I'm not assuming anything, that is my argument. I think you could do a better job countering it than pointing at the status quo of every business in the world. lol. Me: 'cutting edge startups should use cutting edge tools' You: 'every business in the world isn't using cutting edge tools!'

It's not about the status quo. It's about the speed of change and focus. While I'm all in on building custom agentic loops and building extensions for my pi I have enough bandwidth and xp to see that it's quite easy for business people to be focused on the matters that are completely non-technical. That plus plain sunk cost fallacy and blind denial ofc.

Post by amazingamazing » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 8:56 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #13

amazingamazing wrote: post #10

Not if you’re launching a startup based in the real world. Tell me how AI will make a laundromat business DoA? If your business is selling services at 40% margin that are entirely digitally based, then maybe you’ll need to cut some margin, sure.

A laundromat isn't a startup in that sense. There's no potential for exponential growth. A VC would never give you money to open a laundromat, you'd go to a bank and get a business loan for that.