Insights

These are opinions, not instructions. Guides tell you how to do something; insights tell you what we think is true about starting a business right now, and what we're basing that on.

• Why most AI business ideas fail the first testThe failure is almost never technical.Most AI business ideas collapse at the same point: the founder can describe what the technology does but not who is currently paying for that outcome. The test that kills them isn't technical feasibility — it's naming a buyer, their current spend, and why they'd switch.
• Where AI actually changes small business economicsNot everywhere. In a few specific places, decisively.AI changes the economics of a small business wherever the work is high-volume, low-judgement and text-shaped — follow-up, drafting, sorting, summarising. It changes very little where the value is trust, physical presence or accountability. Knowing which side a business sits on tells you whether one person can now run it.