Hey friends, TGIF! ☕️

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about why some AI startups seem unstoppable while others quietly fade away.

And the answer, I’ve realized, rarely comes down to funding, team size, or even technical brilliance.

It comes down to focus.

The most resilient founders don’t try to do everything.

They pick one small, painful problem — one no one else is paying attention to — and solve it with such obsessive clarity that it becomes their unfair advantage.

That’s what I call the AI wedge — a narrow but defensible insight that lets you enter a crowded market through a door the giants never noticed.

And once you’re in, your wedge becomes a moat — sharpened by feedback, trust, and data only you can access.

Today, we’re exploring:

• What exactly an AI wedge is — and how it quietly reshapes competition

• The hidden advantage of focus over scale in the AI era

• Real stories from Jasper, Perplexity, and Rewind — and how small beginnings became billion-dollar businesses

• A 5-step framework to identify, validate, and scale your own wedge (even as a solo builder)

• How to spot wedge opportunities in sectors like healthcare, legal, and finance

• And why every enduring AI company starts by solving one narrow pain before expanding outward

I’ll be honest — this week’s edition made me rethink what “starting small” really means.

If you’ve ever felt the pressure to do more, this one’s a reminder that precision often beats scale.

Let’s dive in.

— Naseema Perveen

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