We're building new supertools but relying on old networks to spread them. Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Substack: these networks act like a Distribution Commons — like cultural utilities carrying new products and behaviors into the mainstream. Reviews, screenshots, demos, and launch videos spread faster than the product alone. This is how... See more
It’s a brutal tradeoff: chase the models or build the moat. It’s incredibly hard to do both. Building a startup has always been described as “flying the plane while building it.” In the AI era, the laws of aerodynamics keep changing mid-flight too.
One solution: borrow existing infrastructure when you can’t do it all from scratch.
Now, popular AI-native tools like ChatGPT, Cursor, and Midjourney expand individual capacity exponentially . This extends to hardware like Meta's new Ray-Ban glasses for hands-free AI assistance. They’re all what I see as supertools (in many respects a new breed of prosumer tool). These products still benefit from network effects — but not the... See more