Post #338

The AI Startup Playbook: What's Actually Working in 2026 Cursor ($2B revenue, 30 people). Lovable ($100M, 45 people). Harvey (half of top US law firms). These winners share one pattern: • Pick a vertical with high stakes, not horizontal "ChatGPT for X" • Own the workflow, not the model (sit on top of frontier models) • Sell outcomes, not features (replace specific tasks with numbers) • Start narrow, earn retention before expanding (130-200% NDR) • Price for value, not tokens • Stay small and use AI to run your own company • Match GTM to category (bottom-up or top-down, not both) • Build defensibility on purpose (data, embedding, distribution, switching costs) • Move now—the easy window is closing The founders winning in 2026 are not building models. They're building workflows. https://featherflow.com/blog/the-ai-startup-playbook-what-s-actually-working-in-2026 #startups#founders Brewed by Startup Beaker.