AI startup Town founder on surviving big labs: plan around customers, not OpenAI
KateClarkTweets · x · 2026-11-06
At WSJ Tech California, Town CEO Julien Ghenez addressed the question every AI app founder gets: what stops OpenAI, Anthropic or Google from crushing you?
His answer: don't plan around what the labs might build—plan around customers. Three principles:
- Use the best model for each job: Town routes each task to whichever lab currently does it best; a lab can't make that call against its own model.
- Stay on the customer's side: no competing with users, no training on their data.
- Build for the 90%: most people at work aren't tinkerers who'll spend a weekend setting up an agent—they need an assistant that's useful on day one.
He admits competing with suppliers is risky, but argues customer focus is the more durable moat.
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