Introduction

Startups keep chasing the dream of becoming huge platforms, but the real power might come from simply being good at creating useful knowledge.

What's the problem it solves?

Most founders think the only winning move is to become a big platform that aggregates tons of data. This article argues that this belief is wrong and shows why you might be better off focusing on being a strong producer of unique knowledge instead.

Quick Summary

Startups today usually build on top of big AI models like ChatGPT. They write clever prompts and build agents around them, hoping these prompts will give them an edge. But this edge fades fast. Other companies use the same models, prompts leak, and smarter models make your prompts less useful.

To fix this, founders try to add more context. They connect to everything: Slack, Notion, email, tickets, docs, you name it. The idea is simple. If your agent sees more data, it can work better. But everyone else starts doing the same thing. Every product tries to collect the same signals and then sell that context to others. Soon, every tool is both giving and taking context from each other. The whole system becomes one giant loop.

The article points out that this race to become a platform may not matter as much as we think. When every tool shares and reuses context, you do not get a clean chain of producer to distributor to consumer. Everyone becomes everything. What really stands out is the tool that creates new knowledge. Not the one that only collects it.

Key Takeaways

• Clever prompts alone are not a real advantage. They fade fast.
• More context looks like the solution, but every company is doing the same thing.
• The platform dream creates circular systems where everyone reuses everyone else.
• The winners might be the tools that create new ideas, not the ones that aggregate.
• Being a strong producer of unique knowledge can beat trying to be a giant platform.

What to do

• Focus on creating unique knowledge your users cannot get from others.
• Do not rely only on prompts or connectors as your moat.
• Treat context as fuel, not as your final product.
• Build features that learn something new from user data, not just store it.
• Stop chasing the platform dream and make your product the smartest node in the system.

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