Ethan Mollick: 'sell picks and shovels' is the wrong lesson for AI startups
emollick · x · 2026-10-30
Ethan Mollick argues "sell picks and shovels" is the wrong lesson for AI startups: the Gold Rush analogy is weaker than the Industrial Revolution. Gold is a single pile that runs out; machines keep making everything cheaper, and far more people got rich using new machines than building them.
For every Boulton & Watt (steam engine makers, his NVIDIA analogy), there were a hundred firms like General Amalgamated Hosiery Corporation that did at least as well — the opposite of Gold Rush dynamics.
Related event: Mollick: The Real AI Startup Lesson Is Using Machines, Not Selling Shovels(3 posts)→
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