Blog
March 5, 2025
Embracing Startups: A Winning Strategy in the Age of AI
Tal Segalov
Co-Founder & CTO
Solid's CTO & Co-Founder, Tal Segalov, makes the case for enterprises' embrace of startups to keep up with the breakneck pace of AI innovation.
We are living through an extraordinary era — our speed of technological change is outpacing the speed of adaptation of management mechanisms in large organizations. This is especially true for anything AI-related. LLMs and their applications are evolving so rapidly that a 1-year RFP and selection process will likely result in choosing an outdated solution. This is the main learning from Thomas Friedman’s great book “Thank you for being late”.
The Need for an Experimentation Funnel
In this environment, companies must change their selection process to be an experimentation funnel, instead of a pre-qualification and selection of a single winner. Adopting a "fail fast, scale fast" mindset is crucial. This involves experimenting with various AI solutions, quickly identifying those that show promise, and rapidly scaling them up to achieve enterprise-wide impact and value.
Characteristics of Winning AI Technologies
What constitutes a winning strategy in this fast-paced age of AI? The technologies that succeed must be:
- Agile: Solutions need to change quickly, often, and pivot into new spaces as technology evolves. This agility enables a solution provider to offer competitive products even when the market and underlying technology change dramatically (anyone said GPT-5?).
- Measurable: Quickly measurable KPIs are essential to assess the impact of the AI solution and determine its value to the business.
- Integrated: The AI solution should be compatible with existing business systems and processes to ensure smooth integration and minimize disruption.
- Scalable: Start small, test quickly, and reach a conclusion on the value. When a solution shows promise, scale rapidly. Delaying can result in losing value and ending up with a scaled but outdated technology. The window of opportunity to gain a competitive edge has significantly narrowed.
Why Startups Are the Answer
Now, ask yourself: who in the market is Agile, Metric-driven, Integrated with existing platforms, and built to scale fast? The answer is Startups. Startup success is tied to the ability to pivot quickly and decisively to leverage new market opportunities. They measure everything possible to gauge impact, integrate with existing systems to avoid building from scratch, and scale rapidly when the course is right. The only way to harness AI technology in today’s market is by moving really fast. If it takes you a year to build the solution based on GPT-3.5 Turbo, you will be out in the market only when GPT-4o is already available, and some nimble player is already competing with your solution based on a superior technology. The fastest, most agile player around is the Startup.
Adopting the Antifragile Approach
Startups do pose a higher risk threshold that many enterprises are not accustomed to. This is why I advocate for adopting the “Antifragile” approach, as outlined by Nassim Taleb in his excellent book by the same name. Antifragile systems benefit from shocks, randomness, and volatility. Instead of building one big pillar that may be strong but will eventually break under enough pressure, you should use many small experiments. Some will fail, but the winners are much better suited to face the headwinds you are experiencing.
Conclusion
By embracing startup AI solutions and adopting a "fail fast, scale fast" approach, companies can become Antifragile. This enables them to harness the speed and power of AI to drive innovation, gain a competitive advantage, and stay ahead in the rapidly changing business landscape.
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