Minimum Viable Markets
One of the exciting elements of AI is it that it’s dropping the “minimum viable scale” across the board.
For markets historically constrained by a high-cost, human-labour-driven supply side (like law or financial advisory), it’s reducing the minimum viable scale of a profitable customer. Now the mainstream consumer can have access to services previously only available to the wealthy.
Similarly, it’s reducing the minimum viable size of markets. Historically, the resource requirement and risk associated with building software products meant that only meaningful TAMs could justify the capital commitment. Niche markets were untouched, because they weren’t big enough problems to solve.
That all changes with AI. I can vibe code something for <$100 within hours. All of the small edge cases and niches that never made sense before now do.
That will be a boon for all of us as consumers, and for the micro entrepreneurs that aren’t shooting for the moon with unicorn outcomes. You can build a very nice business off a small-ish problem these days.
Great, all round.