5 Practical Tips for Kicking off an AI Startup

Author(s): Luhui Hu

Originally published on Towards AI the World’s Leading AI and Technology News and Media Company. If you are building an AI-related product or service, we invite you to consider becoming an AI sponsor. At Towards AI, we help scale AI and technology startups. Let us help you unleash your technology to the masses.

AI is dramatically changing the world. It’s no longer news or a concept in movies. It’s an effective tool that can be seen or used in everyday life.

With the rise of artificial intelligence, many startups have come up with new ideas for using this technology to solve real-world problems. This post will discuss the top 5 tips for kicking off your AI startup.

1. Vet the founding team

Before you build your AI startup, it’s essential to ensure that your founding team is on the same page from a technical standpoint. It’s not just about having complementary skill sets; it’s also about ensuring that everyone involved is passionate about solving the problem to be addressed by your company and has a clear understanding of what needs to be done to accomplish this task.

2. Don’t neglect customer discovery

Customer discovery is one of the most critical steps in startup development. It’s also one of the most overlooked, but it doesn’t have to be.

When building a product for customers, you need to understand their problems and needs before anything else. This means asking questions and not being afraid to do so. Don’t be scared to ask for feedback on an early iteration of your product or service; there’s nothing wrong with taking time to iterate and ensure your product works as well as possible before launching into full-scale production!

3. Determine your competitive differentiator

This question is one of the most important decisions you’ll make in your startup’s formation, yet founders often overlook it. You will have difficulty gaining market without a unique offering that sets you apart from your competitors.

It’s essential to do this step before launching because once you’re out there and gaining traction, customers will see right through any attempts at pretending that your company is something other than what it is — and if they don’t like what they see under the surface, they’ll leave for another option.

4. Focus on a niche market

When you choose a niche market, it becomes easier to identify your target customers. You can focus on building a product that solves their problems, and they will be more likely to pay for your product.

If you are not sure where to start, here are some potential markets:

• AIGC (AI-Generated Content) Applications: Generative AI is becoming more and more realistic and efficient. Now it’s the rocket launch area. With foundational large-scale models, these applications will change the ways for design, code, artificial content, games, photos, videos, and more.
• Applications with Predictive Analytics: It’s time to unify BI and AI. Data analytics and Big Data are not just about BI. Predictive analytics is a trend to integrate AI into BI. Today, every company is data-driven. The feature of predictive analytics will be essential to any business.
• AI Edges: Amazon Alexa is one of the AI platforms for IoT and edge. AI edges are filled with opportunities to develop. For example, smart homes, smart yards, smart furniture, etc.

5. Start small with a minimum lovable product (MLP)

The first step in launching your AI-powered startup is to start small. A minimum lovable product (MLP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and build the foundations of your business model. It should be built fast, tested with real users, iterated, and improved based on customer feedback.

As you develop your MLP, you will learn more from AI-powered solutions — information that will help you build future product versions. This process is known as a “lean” startup because it focuses on getting products into customers' hands as quickly as possible before scaling up operations later if needed.

The best AI startups know how to focus on their customers and avoid getting lost in the hype of AI.

The best AI startups know how to focus on their customers and avoid getting lost in the hype of AI.

In an industry still developing, it’s easy for new companies to get sidetracked by all the hype around AI. As a result, they lose sight of what matters most: their customers. Any startup company must understand its target audience and how it will make money from them as early as possible without getting distracted by other factors.

In a Nutshell

If you’re thinking of starting an AI company or startup, these tips are sure to help guide you along the way. You don’t need to be an AI expert or even have any experience with coding at all! Remember that success comes from what matters most in your industry — finding customers who will buy your product or service.

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5 Practical Tips for Kicking off an AI Startup was originally published in Towards AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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