Somewhere between “we have PMF” and “we’re scaling” is the crowded graveyard of AI startups blindsided by the very platforms they built on. OpenAI, Anthropic, and others now operate as full-stack product companies with an unrivaled, panoramic vantage point. They can spot the lucrative workflows across thousands of apps and can ship those features to their own users with breathtaking speed. The hard-won differentiator you’ve been sweating over for months can vanish in a single release cycle. @JayaGup10 and I spoke with dozens of AI founders to distill a playbook for startups building durable companies in this reality. When your foundation becomes your competition: