Customers Buy Outcomes, Not Models
Entrepreneur Office Hours - Issue #322
Inside the Office
A student founder demoed their product for me in office hours recently. Before we talked about the user, the problem, or the workflow, they led with this: “Our product is powered by ChatGPT.”
That was the problem. Not because ChatGPT is bad or the demo was weak. But because they were leading with the enabling technology instead of the value.
So I asked: “Who is this for?”
The founder paused and started explaining the technology again. How the prompt worked. How the model responded. Why the outputs were strong. But the explanation kept returning to the same place: the model itself.
That’s the trap. Founders are understandably excited by what these systems can do. The technology is moving fast. The demos can feel magical. And in the middle of all that momentum, it becomes very easy to mistake technical capability for product value.
But customers buy outcomes, not AI models.
Nobody wakes up in the morning hoping to use ChatGPT. They wake up hoping to get something done. Finish the report. Respond to the email. Analyze the data. Make the lesson plan. Write the code. Understand the material. The model is not the destination. It is, at best, part of the route.
That distinction matters more than a lot of founders realize.
When you build around the model, you often end up with something that feels like a demo. It can be impressive for five minutes, but it leaves the user with a quiet question: what, exactly, is this helping me do?
The strongest AI products do not win because the model is technically interesting. They win because they fit into a real workflow and remove real friction for a real person. They save time. Reduce effort. Improve quality. Lower anxiety. Increase clarity. The model may be doing the heavy lifting under the hood, but that’s not the thing the customer is buying.
Once I explained all this, the conversation in office hours started to shift. We stopped talking about what the model could do and started talking about where a user was actually stuck, and, as a result, the product got much clearer. The founder moved toward a specific use case for a specific person with a specific problem.
The model didn’t change, but the product direction did.
That’s the lesson I hope more founders internalize right now. AI can absolutely enable a product. It can create leverage, unlock speed, and make new experiences possible. But the real shift happens when a founder stops asking what the model can do and starts asking what a specific user is struggling to get done.
Customers buy outcomes, not AI models.
The founders who understand that will build things people actually want to keep using.
-Ryan
Worth Your Time
Admittedly, the specific subject matter of this podcast might not interest you, particularly if you’re not deep in the creator space. It discusses logistics around building and operating engaged online communities.
So why am I sharing it with all of you?
Well, even if you don’t bother listening, the fundamental premise of the episode is worth paying attention to. That premise goes something like this:
In the age of AI, live experiences are becoming more valuable, so entrepreneurs need to start shifting their resources toward offering more opportunities for live experiences.
I’m pretty sure we can all feel the increasing value of live experiences. Every time we see a video and find ourselves asking, yet again, “Is this real?” we get nudged toward wanting more things in our life to engage with in realtime so we know they’re human.
This push toward IRL is going to impact all aspects of entrepreneurship. For example, will live webinars become significantly more more valuable for lead generation than recorded webinars simply because they’re “real”?
Anyway… I don’t quite know the implications of this prioritization of the “real” just yet, but I know it’s happening, and I know it’s worth paying attention to. And, by sharing this podcast, hopefully I’ve got you thinking about it, too.
Tools We’re Tinkering With
Editor’s note: All resources suggested in this section are based on our opinions. These aren’t affiliate promotions and we don’t generate commissions.
Welp. It’s official. This week I broke up with ChatGPT and moved to Claude. Lots of people I admire in the AI space had been talking about making that shift for any number of reasons, and this week convinced me it’s my time to move on to something new.
But breakups are hard even when it’s the right thing to do. And just like a bad ex, the worst part is losing your shared memories. I was not looking forward to starting from scratch with Claude. Luckily unlike with human exes, I was thrilled when I learned I can transfer memories from Chat to Claude by following a few steps. Onwards and upwards!
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