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Ask HN: How do I handle that my AI SaaS idea can be copied and out-executed?

2 points by _DeadFred_ ↗ HN
I have an AI SaaS concept, but realistically once I launch someone with more resources and a bigger team could copy it and out-execute me. I'm solo, so I can't compete on scale. How do others in this position deal with that? Is it just about moving fast, building a community, and hoping to stay ahead?

5 comments

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yieldcrv
By accepting that you only need enough subscribers to support your lifestyle.

Forget the billion dollar capital infusion and exit.

Aim to get a couple thousand subscribers paying $8/month and its $24,000/mo

what do you really need? be honest. sell the business to someone at a 10x multiple which means 10 years of $24,000/months at once.

launch multiple passive and SaaS businesses.

_DeadFred_
This is kind of my plan. I have 3 so far targeting different needs. 2 close enough functionality wise I can reuse most of my work. But one needs to be 'real' enough for people to use it because it comes with an expectation of lasting persistence.
byoung2
If your SaaS is just a wrapper around an API call to AI, then it can be copied easily. But if you offer more than that (e.g. integration with other services, partnerships, etc), then that's your secret sauce.
_DeadFred_
That's the problem. I can only leverage one of my ideas using partnerships. The others are easily copyable conceptually so if I'm building it and finding someone in those areas to partner with I'm nervous they would just roll their own versions.
byoung2
Consider the two following ideas:

An AI powered grocery shopping app where you put in all of your favorite recipes, and AI will break it down into grocery shopping lists and send it to Instacart.

An AI powered concierge that will plan an entire night out (e.g. dinner reservations, ride share, concert tickets, etc., and the whole time it works in the background automatically, like paying your restaurant bill and requesting your next Uber, and even requesting a Taskrabbit tasker to deliver flowers to your constantly updating location) or even a whole vacation (e.g. hotel, tours, restaruant reservations, and Uber rides that magically show up just as your tour ends).

The first idea is easily copied by Instacart because the secret sauce is just AI, the second is more complex because you need to partner with all of the various on demand apps like Uber, Taskrabbit, Opentable, or whatever, so the secret sauce is not just AI but the integrations. It will be harder to copy this one