Startups in 2025

Startups in 2025 won’t get away with bleeding cash for 5 years.

That playbook is dead.

The next generation of AI companies will be profitable by design—or they won’t survive.

VCs are no longer throwing money at every “AI + noun” idea with a demo. They’re asking real questions:

– What’s your path to revenue now, not in 2027?

– Can you acquire customers profitably without burning $1M/month?

– Are you a tool or a business?

Here’s what winning AI companies will do differently:

1) Build for narrow, high-value use cases—not “general intelligence.”

2) Charge from day one. Subscriptions, usage-based, outcome-based—just charge.

3) Focus on distribution advantages as much as models.

4) Use AI to enable profitable workflows, not just flashy demos.

5) Build products people will pay for without a VC subsidy.

Too many AI startups are optimized for pitch decks.

The next wave will be optimized for profit.