The Startup Ideas Podcast
The best businesses are built at the intersection of emerging technology, community, and real human needs.
Build Hardest Thing First
When AI tools enable new capabilities, start with the most ambitious/difficult version of what you want to build rather than incrementally working up to it
Decision Rule
Ask 'what is the hardest thing I can build in this domain?' and start there, using AI capabilities to attempt things that would be impossible manually
How It Works
AI tools remove traditional scaling constraints, so starting with ambitious scope can differentiate from incremental competitors while AI capabilities remain underexploited by market
Failure Modes
Overestimating AI capabilities and building unusable complex systems
Ignoring basic user needs while focusing on technical ambition
Creating scope creep that prevents shipping anything
Building complexity that can't be maintained without AI assistance
Example Decision
“Taylor choosing to build end-to-end video editor from scratch rather than simple video trimming tool, winning first place by tackling the hardest version of the problem.”