I think it's focus? Anthropic seemed to double down early on being more business/prosumer focused. While OAI, Gemini, Grok, etc were also doing various side quests like image generation, Anthropic seemed to only focus on 1 thing, and that seemed to pay off
The moat is Windsurf’s custom LLM and the ops around it (training pipelines, fine-tuning, infra).
Codeium (Windsurf’s parent) started as a GPU optimization company, so they have deep expertise there. Unlike most agents that might just wrap OpenAI/Claude/etc Windsurf’s own model powers its code edits, not external API calls.
That’s where the defensibility is. better in-house models + efficient infra = stronger long-term moat
IMO you don’t need to build a full app or company. You could just build a series of niche sites or properties. If your code solves a specific pain point really well, wrap it in a simple front end or paid API and let people use it.
Some possible ideas:
Micro SaaS: Turn it into a one-page tool (log parser, file cleaner, PDF transformer) with Stripe and add rate limits. People pay for simplicity.
Paid API: Use RapidAPI or Plain.com to expose it. Charge per hit or via metered billing. Maybe even a slackbot for some of these would make sense.
Productized utility: Sell it as a $49/month “done-for-you” service to whatever niche audience would benefit (dev teams, SEO people, lawyers, etc).
Digital bundle: If it’s CLI or script-based, package it up with a guide or demo on YouTube and sell on Gumroad.
You’re not necessarily building a startup, and that’s fine! just something useful enough for strangers to pay for which is more than enough
As someone with terrible handwriting but decent cursive, i think cursive provides a better structure for achieving cleaner penmanship compared to non-cursive writing. My theory is that cursive’s consistency of soft, flowing loops rather than a mix of abrupt angles and disconnected lines helps create a more uniform result.
I also remember teachers telling you when writing cursive to seldom lift your hand from the page. I think that act of keeping your pen on the page for most of the writing process encourages a smoother and more natural flow, reducing the chance of jerky, uneven strokes
Most of the responses in this thread remind me of why I don't typically go into the comment section of these announcements. It's way too easy to fall into the trap set by the doomsday-predicting armchair experts, who make it sound like we're on the brink of some apocalypse. But anyone attempting to predict the future right now is wasting time at best, or intentionally fear mongering at worst.
Sure, for all we know, OpenAI might just drop the AGI bomb on us one day. But wasting time worrying about all the "what ifs" doesn't help anyone.
Like you said, there is so much work out there to be done, _even if_ AGI has been achieved. Not to get sidetracked from your original comment, but I've seen AGI repeatedly mentioned in this thread. It's really all just noise until proven otherwise.
Build, adapt, and learn. So much opportunity is out there.
I am not a doctor, but Modafinil is great. Similar effects to that of Adderall/Ritalin (increased focus, elevated mood, etc) but no major comedown or withdrawal type symptoms.
Can get with a prescription or found easily online. Would highly recommend it.
for anyone who has been in Startup School and successfully gone through it, would you say it's best to have a Startup that is a "product" instead of say a service-type business?
For example, I am working on a side-hustle that is more of a service that sells a product, versus a traditional app/SaaS app. So I'm wondering if Startup School is more geared towards product/app businesses than a typical service-type business.