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Hey there,
I don't normally email Greg's Letter on Monday, but with all this DeepSeek news, we had to break protocol because this probably affects you.
DeepSeek just proved the 'worthless' GPT wrapper startups are actually the ones with real moats.
A week ago, nothing was more LOW status than being a 'GPT wrapper' startup.
But I think we're learning that's DEAD wrong. Turns out they were just early to the only game that matters
While DeepSeek, Meta, Anthropic and Microsoft battle over benchmark scores, these 'wrapper' companies have been quietly building the only moat that matters: interface loyalty.
Because of how big owning the LLM is for national defense and the economy, the next breakthrough model is always 2 weeks away. DeepSeek launches today, someone else drops a better one tomorrow.
But getting millions of people to make your product part of their daily workflow - that's the real barrier to entry. ChatGPT didn't win because it had the best model. It won because it was dead simple to use. And I think it has staying power because of that.
This is why all those AI startups we dismissed are actually positioned to win. They're not competing on model performance - they're competing on being the default way humans interact with AI.
Frontier models are becoming commodities. User habits aren't. While everyone obsesses over the next architecture breakthrough, the real game is being played in the interface layer. The moat isn't in the model - it's in being the tool people reach for without thinking.
Technology advantage is temporary. Interface lock-in is forever.
Keep shipping those wrappers, my friends.
In 2006, everyone thought the money was in selling servers. Then AWS said 'actually, we'll give you infinite servers for pennies.' Instant distribution overnight.
The biggest companies weren't server manufacturers - they were apps like Airbnb, Uber, Netflix. Companies that used cheap servers to solve real problems.
The same flip is happening with AI models. DeepSeek is just the beginning. Soon, frontier models will be basically free. Im just making the assumption they will be free at this point, to be honest.
And just like AWS, the biggest winners won't be model providers. They'll be the 'wrapper' companies solving specific problems really well:
- The Airbnb of legal contracts
- The Uber of sales outreach
- The Netflix of content creation
The more commoditized these models get, the more valuable great wrapper products become. Because when everyone has access to the same powerful models, the differentiator becomes understanding specific user problems deeply.
Pick any industry that hasn't been transformed by AI yet. Build the simplest possible interface for one specific workflow.
That's your AWS moment. Cherish it.
If you're looking to design and build an AI wrapper, AI agent, AI startup, our design firm LCA is the leading AI interface agency. We work on your favorite AI apps. If you're a scale-up or fortune 500, reach out to chat.
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#1
Amen.
#2
Really cool to see what agents can do for getting more organic traffic to your website. You can leverage this technology by hiring BoringMarketing.com
#3
Touché.
#4
Highly caffeinated? Thats me (and maybe you?) doubling down on AI wrappers.
Thank you for reading Greg's Letter. I hope you it got your creative juices flowing. You can forward this email to a friend that might benefit.
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Until next week.
Be well,
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Greg's Letter by Greg Isenberg
