Instead of selling software to traditional industries, a more defensible approach is to build vertically integrated companies. This involves acquiring or starting a business in a non-sexy industry (e.g., a law firm, hospital) and rebuilding its entire operational stack with AI at its core, something a pure software vendor cannot do.

Instead of building a daily-use "toothbrush" product and searching for monetization, a more powerful model is to start with a high-value, profitable transaction (like a mortgage) and work backward to build daily engagement. This inverts the typical Silicon Valley startup playbook.

After a decade of abundant "growth capex" building new infrastructure, the economic pendulum is swinging towards "maintenance capex." This creates a massive, overlooked opportunity for technologies that service existing assets, like predictive software, acoustic sensors, and remote repair robots.

Instead of building AI models, a company can create immense value by being 'AI adjacent'. The strategy is to focus on enabling good AI by solving the foundational 'garbage in, garbage out' problem. Providing high-quality, complete, and well-understood data is a critical and defensible niche in the AI value chain.

In a new, high-risk category, betting on infrastructure ('shovels') isn't necessarily safer. If the category fails, both app and infra lose. But if it succeeds, the application layer captures disproportionately more value, making the infrastructure a lower-upside bet for the same level of existential risk.

Unlike other tech verticals, fintech platforms cannot claim neutrality and abdicate responsibility for risk. Providing robust consumer protections, like the chargeback process for credit cards, is essential for building the user trust required for mass adoption. Without that trust, there is no incentive for consumers to use the product.

Unlike SaaS startups focused on finding product-market fit (market risk), deep tech ventures tackle immense technical challenges. If they succeed, they enter massive, pre-existing trillion-dollar markets like energy or shipping where demand is virtually guaranteed, eliminating market risk entirely.

While fast-moving, unregulated competitors like FTX garner hype, a deliberate, compliance-first approach builds a more resilient and defensible business in sectors like finance. This unsexy path is the key to building a lasting, mainstream company with a strong regulatory moat.

Most consumer fintech products—payments, personal loans, investing—are merely means to an end. The ultimate goal for most consumers is achieving generational wealth, which is fundamentally tied to homeownership. This reframes the entire fintech ecosystem as a funnel leading to the housing market.