Great Startups Don't Create Demand. They Organize It.
One of the biggest misconceptions about startups is that they have to create entirely new markets.
In reality, that's incredibly difficult.
Changing human behavior is expensive. It takes years of education, massive marketing budgets, and a lot of patience. Even then, success isn't guaranteed.
More often than not, the strongest startups take a different approach.
Instead of convincing people they need something new, they identify behavior that's already happening and make it dramatically easier.
That's a subtle difference, but it's one that shows up across very different industries.
AI Doesn't Need More Tools. It Needs Better Infrastructure.
Artificial intelligence isn't lacking adoption anymore.
Businesses of every size are experimenting with AI to automate work, improve customer experiences, and make better decisions.
The challenge isn't convincing companies to use AI.
It's that most organizations are assembling their AI stack one product at a time.
Identity lives in one system.
Payments happen somewhere else.
Automation relies on another platform.
Governance and compliance are separate again.
The result is a collection of disconnected tools that rarely work together as well as they should.
Edet Corp takes a different approach.
Instead of building one more AI application, the company is building the operating system underneath them. Its platform is designed to provide shared infrastructure—identity, payments, governance, orchestration, and common data—so businesses and developers don't have to rebuild those foundations every time they launch something new.
Rather than creating demand for AI, Edet is trying to remove the friction that slows adoption after businesses have already decided they want it.
Communities Already Exist
The same principle applies to community platforms.
Queer communities have always organized events, supported local businesses, built professional networks, and created spaces for connection.
What's been missing is a central place where all of those interactions can happen together.
Instead, people bounce between social media, messaging apps, ticketing platforms, dating apps, and separate marketplaces.
Abracadabra+ isn't introducing people to the community.
It's reducing the number of places they have to look.
As more people join a single platform, the experience naturally becomes more valuable—not because demand suddenly appears, but because existing demand becomes easier to serve.
Learning Has Never Been the Problem
Education offers another example.
People consume podcasts during commutes, watch educational videos before bed, save articles they'll probably never finish, and bookmark courses for "later."
The desire to learn is already there.
Ironically, having unlimited information has created a different problem: knowing what deserves your attention.
That's where platforms like Readversity stand out.
Instead of adding even more content, the goal is to help learners navigate what already exists with more structure, clearer progression, and a better overall experience.
The opportunity isn't producing infinite information.
It's making information usable.
The Pattern
At first glance, these companies couldn't look more different.
One is building AI infrastructure.
One focuses on community.
One focuses on education.
But they're solving the same kind of problem.
People already want AI to work seamlessly.
People already seek meaningful communities.
People already want to learn.
None of these companies are trying to create those desires.
They're removing the friction that gets in the way.
As software becomes easier to build and AI continues lowering the barriers to entry, that may become one of the most valuable competitive advantages a company can have.
Making something people already want dramatically easier is much harder to replicate.
That's why I think the next generation of great startups won't necessarily create new demand.
They'll simply organize the demand that's already there.
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