Last year, a two-person team shipped an AI app in 48 hours. It attracted 500 users in its first week. Within three months, it was gone.

That story repeats every week now. The tools have changed the game: AI-assisted development environments, no-code platforms, and automated infrastructure pipelines mean anyone can go from concept to live product in days¹. But as the build gets faster, something counterintuitive happens — winning gets harder.

In contrast, companies in hard-to-enter spaces — where technical complexity, regulation, or capital requirements slow the build — often find that once they’re in, the path to scaling and sustaining advantage is far more straightforward.