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# I Work at an AI Startup
- URL: https://www.churnispeaks.com/notes/i-work-at-an-ai-startup/
- Published: 2026-04-29T17:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-29T17:00:00.000Z
- Description: Tell me what you do, why it matters and who it's for. Everything else is a pitch deck.
- Author: Churni Bhattacharya
- Tags: AI, Product, #note, #Import 2026-09-25 22:45

I live in the Bay Area. When you ask people what they do, a remarkable number of them say, "I work at an AI startup," and they say it like that answers the question.

It used to be enough of an answer. But it does not answer the question today.

Tell me more. What business problem are you solving? What is your solution? What does your customer's situation look like before they find you, and what does it look like after?

Those questions tell me something. "I work at an AI startup" tells me you have a pitch deck.

People do this with products, too.

"We're the Cursor of wealth management." "We're the ChatGPT of \[industry\]."

And then you think you've said something meaningful. In reality, you've just borrowed someone else's identity because building your own felt harder.

Steve Jobs was famously insufferable about this.

He knew exactly what Apple was and what it wasn't, and he was unapologetic about both.

From the outside that looked like arrogance. From where I sit, it looks like the only way to build a product that actually means something.

Tell me what you do, why it matters, and who it's for. That's the pitch - everything else is noise.

*First posted on LinkedIn, April 29, 2026.*