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Vignesh Kumar Vignesh Kumar is an Influencer

AI Advisor | Start-up Mentor | Tedx & Keynote Speaker | LinkedIn Top Voice '24 | Building AI Community Pair.AI | Director - Orange Business, Cisco, VMware | Cloud - SaaS & IaaS | kumarvignesh.com

⭐ 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭, 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 My startup mentoring sessions have become exciting lately. I’ve noticed a clear pattern with early-stage startups reaching out for guidance. They fall into two distinct buckets: 1️⃣ Those focusing on 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑨𝑰 into their products. 2️⃣ Those focusing on 𝑨𝑰 𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒔. The first group tends to dive straight into the tech. Their questions revolve around which AI models to use, what tech stack to build, or how to fine-tune and optimize their algorithms. It’s a highly tech-driven conversation from the get-go. The second group, however, starts differently. They begin with the use case—discussing the problem they’ve identified, the gaps in the market, and how they can solve it. Only after that do we explore if and how AI could add value. I find these 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 much more enriching. Why? Because we aren’t rushing to assume that AI is some magical fix. Instead, we invest time in understanding the problem and where technology, including AI, can act as an enabler rather than the solution itself. 🔑 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐩 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬: Focus on the problem your product is solving before jumping into tech discussions. It’s tempting to force-fit AI into every product just because it’s a hot trend. But trust me—if AI isn’t genuinely needed, it could end up consuming valuable resources and delaying your time to market. 𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝑨𝑰 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍. 🧠 #StartupMentoring #AI #TechStrategy #ProductDevelopment #UseCaseDriven #Innovation #AIInStartups

Savio D'Souza

Building at the intersection of Food and Technology | Helping Organizations and Individuals thrive in the Digital/AI age.

3mo

I echo this 100 pc. The obsession with AI being the answer to everything is mind numbing. Really good founders start with the second approach and most likely end up with the following three buckets. 1. No AI needed 2. AI + Non AI hybrid solution 3. Solved by AI. 1 and 2 are more common if the problem is thought from a first principles perspective.

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