Futurist Founders Seem Set To Rule

The technology industry is still reeling two weeks after the introduction of OpenAIs custom GPTs, which enable anyone to produce software in minutes using AI. There are many takes floating around about how “GPTs are the new Apps.”

For me this is the least interesting way to think about what has just happened. It seems to me that being able to write software is no longer a competitive advantage. This will be a change with profound implications.

Startups will be forced to think further and further out in order to gain any advantage. Any business primarily rooted in “bits and bytes” can now be immediately invalidated by a competitor spending a few minutes talking to custom GPTs.

Said another way:

The biggest competition for most startups is now AI, not other startups. As a result, building in the physical world may be a form of competitive advantage for the next few years.

Get ready to build

Flying cars, airships, jet packs, biodomes, satellites, robots, rockets, life science innovation and more. Expect to see more and more physical world innovations in coming years. And expect venture capital to follow founders wanting to build (in the real world).

Marc Andreessen of a16z foretold this moment in his 2020 essay "It's time to build." Looks like conditions are set to evolve in favor of this vision.

Key enabling factors for Futurist Founders

Futurist Founders have a number of tailwinds behind them which include the following:

• Generative AI will make the design and simulation, testing of complex mechanical systems instantaneous in coming years enabling an entire host of robots, vehicles, structures and other exotic creations
• AI will help to design and coordinate supply chains to source and help streamline the manufacturing of materials
• Advancements in battery and space technologies
• The emerging “Space <> Media” complex in Los Angeles (more on this in a bit)
• The rapid decline in the viability of software and SaaS business models as GPTs can instantly clone any web business, which will incentivize investors to look elsewhere

Another potential consequence of this:

There will be a premium on entrepreneurs who are able to “look ahead” further than their contemporaries and design further into the future. Having a much bigger, more complex vision for the next few years will be necessary to outpace software productivity enhancements being shared across competitors instantly by AI.

There will also likely be a premium on founders who are able to combine a much greater "skill stack." Where previously it might have been sufficient to be good at software, marketing, design and business development -- It seems that founders with a much broader range of skills will be empowered to build much more sophisticated enterprises.

Los Angeles May Be A Surprise Winner

I recently saw a tweet suggesting that something interesting is happening in Los Angeles, which has long been a center of space technology development and media.

After thinking about it, I began to feel that Los Angeles may have exactly the critical combination of factors which you would want to kick off the next space age:

• Access to a deep bench of creative and artist talent (movie industry)
• Proximity to Mexico who are emerging as a major manufacturing partner due to geopolitical trends
• A thriving game industry
• A thriving space industry

Put these elements together and you have a potential for an explosion of futuristic robotics, drone, space exploration and futuristic vehicle design startups.

The game and media entertainment complexes will provide the artwork and designs and the space industry will build the robots.

Closing Thoughts

This seems like a unique moment in time, perhaps where new avenues of creativity and innovation will be possible which have been mostly under explored for the last 80 years.