You Built a Tool. Where’s the Moat?

In the early stages of any tech shift, it’s easy to obsess over the innovation—faster models, better APIs, smarter predictions. But lately, a pattern’s emerging: most AI tools don’t fail because the tech isn’t good. They fail because no one sticks around. We’ve seen this before. During the NFT boom, countless projects launched with high production value, but when the hype faded, only a few survived. The ones that did—early DAOs, open-source collectives—endured not because of a better roadmap, but because of a committed base that believed in the mission and brought others in.

Some AI projects today feel like they’re heading down the same path. A launch tweet, a few hundred signups and then silence. Unless the product becomes part of something larger—a movement, a shared belief, or even just a space where users feel like contributors—it quietly dies.

Would love to hear from others building in this space:

• Is community a distraction, or a pillar for what you’re building?

• If you’ve invested in it, what’s worked for you?