A decade ago I founded a startup in the Big Data and Cloud wave. I’ve spent the last two years close to the AI wave. What strikes me isn’t how different they are — it’s how precisely the sequence rhymes. Four lessons I paid for the first time, plus a companion on pricing.
- I’ve Seen This Wave Before — The flagship: two waves, the same sequence, four lessons that carry over.
- Start With the Problem, Not the Wave — The wave supplies capability. It never supplies direction.
- Being Early Is Not an Advantage — Early means you fund the market’s education — and someone else harvests it.
- Services Before Product-Market Fit — Get paid to learn the problem, then productise the part that repeats.
- When Your Partner Ships Your Product — Partner as if it’s permanent; build as if it isn’t.
- What Do You Charge for a Data or AI Platform? — Seat, consumption, compute, outcome — and the cost floor SaaS never had.
