The third AI gold rush: selling AI customer-acquisition tools to builders
thethirstgame · reddit · 2026-11-01
A Reddit essay maps three AI gold rushes: everyone builds apps with AI, builders discover nobody buys, and now companies sell AI-powered customer acquisition to those developers — with OpenAI monetizing ads on Free/Go tiers. The author argues the third group has the best business model (selling hope to sunk-cost builders) but is already late, and whimsically predicts fourth and fifth waves of nested shovel-selling.
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