Ben Dupont

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan recently said that in about 25% of current YC startups, AI is writing 95% of the code. We’re in the endgame now — the marketing game. If building becomes faster and cheaper thanks to AI, the hardest part — and the key to success — will be how you position, brand and distribute. Here’s what I’m seeing: #1 Focus on niche markets: Go after $10M–$100M markets. Startups backed by traditional VCs usually skip these because they’re not aiming for a $1B market.But with AI, you can build quicker and leaner — which makes smaller markets not just viable, but strategic. #2 Build something that spreads on its own: You need a product with word-of-mouth energy — something that feels so cool, unique or personal people just share it.Think: lovable.dev, arcads.ai #3 Don’t stop at generic AI use cases: Support agent, email agent, sales agent — they’re good starting points, but crowded already. Use them as a playground, then go deeper. #4 Think ahead: what will AI agents need? When AI agents start running more and more workflows, they’ll need tools, data, services — their own ecosystem. Start building for them, not just for humans. (And no, not generic infra or monitoring — that’s already owned by the big players.) #5 Models will be commodities: So your edge? Marketing, UX, positioning, brand, niche. Just my 2 cents — what do you think?

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🚨 The battle for the future of software is no longer about who can write code fastest — it’s about who owns the data and context to power AI. Generative coding agents and tools from Anysphere, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf Cognition and poolside are commoditizing software development. In this new era, context is king and data is the moat. Winners will be those who: 1️⃣ Embed deeply into workflows to capture rich, high-fidelity data 2️⃣ Engineer context precisely at inference time 3️⃣ Reinforce models through usage, not static prompts Legacy SaaS vendors face eroding moats. AI-native apps with data flywheels and contextual intelligence are rising fast. 👇 Full article in the comments. If you’re building in this space, I want to hear from you. Thank you to Jeff Haynie, Jason Warner, Çağla Kaymaz and Vedant Agrawal for providing input and feedback on this article! #AI #Software #VC #DeveloperTools #ContextIsKing #FutureOfWork

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Why do freelancers tell us so much about new tech trends? - With an average of 4 hours of training per week, they are pioneers in the adoption of new practices and technologies. - For their part, companies call on them when they haven't (or haven't yet) developed cutting edge expertise in-house. 𝗠𝗮𝗹𝘁’𝘀 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 leverages data from 200,000+ freelancers and millions of project searches on Malt. Trends captured by the report derive directly from thousands of companies using Malt to build real-world tech solutions. What do we learn?  ↗️ 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 - 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲: AI projects more than tripled in 2024 and demand for RAG even grew x17 in 2024! ↗️ 𝗟𝗼𝘄-𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲/𝗻𝗼-𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸, fuel by synergies with AI: demand grew 40% in 2024. ↗️ 𝗦𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀, who tend to adopt EU cloud and open LLMs. ❌ 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁: despite growing awareness of AI’s energy footprint, we haven’t seen a meaningful increase in demand for green tech skills. Download our full report: https://lnkd.in/eJi_TMwQ #AI #Cybersecurity #Cloud #Sovereignty #TechTrends #DigitalStrategy #LowCode #OpenSource #GreenTech #FreelanceTech #MaltTechTrends

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