How do you build a successful AI company in today's landscape? Do you go broad and build a horizontal platform for everyone, or do you go deep and create a vertical solution for a niche market?

In this episode, Dheeraj Pandey and Amit Prakash dive into one of the most critical strategic challenges facing founders today. They explore the paradox of needing broad context for AI to be intelligent, while also requiring sharp focus to find a buyer.

The discussion covers everything from distribution models (Product-Led Growth vs. Sales-Led Growth), the role of founder bias, the rise of the citizen developer, and why the most successful AI companies of the future, like the most effective leaders, will need to be "T-shaped."

Key Topics & Chapter Markers
[00:01:28] Welcome & Summer Recap
[00:08:04] Introducing the Core Theme: Breadth vs. Depth in AI
[00:10:28] The Technologist's Dilemma: Building a Horizontal Platform vs. a Vertical Solution
[00:12:05] The Paradox of AI: Needing Broad Context for Narrow Problems
[00:15:00] The Persona Problem: Building for a Builder vs. an End-User
[00:27:21] Go-to-Market Models: PLG vs. Forward-Deployed Engineering (SLG)
[00:32:40] Founder Bias: How Personal Ambition, Laziness, and Experience Shape Strategy
[00:42:55] The Hourglass Model: Let Chaos Reign, Then Reign in the Chaos
[00:49:19] Why Every SLG Company Must Have a PLG Motion to Prevent Churn
[00:50:21] The "T-Shaped" Metaphor for People and AI Products
[00:51:30] Context and Memory: Prompt Engineering vs. Fine-Tuning Models
[01:01:20] Finding Your Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) vs. Total Addressable Market (TAM)
[01:04:40] The Power of "Unreasonable Hospitality" in Customer Focus
[01:06:00] Teaser for the Next Episode: A Deeper Dive into MCP vs. A2A Protocols
Hosts:
Dheeraj Pandey: Co-founder and CEO at DevRev, formerly Co-founder and CEO of Nutanix. A tech visionary with a deep interest in AI and systems thinking.

Amit Prakash: Co-founder and CTO at ThoughtSpot, formerly at Google AdSense and Bing, with extensive expertise in analytics and large-scale systems.

Follow the Hosts:
Dheeraj Pandey:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpandey
Twitter - https://x.com/dheeraj

Amit Prakash:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amit-prakash-50719a2/
Twitter - https://x.com/amitp42

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Have questions, comments, or ideas for future episodes? Email us at [email protected]

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