applied ai June 24, 2026 4 min read
Before You Build the Platform: The First Useful Thing AI Should Do
Early-stage teams building a matching network reach for the platform first — the dashboards, the accounts, the directory. The leverage is somewhere smaller and sooner: the one repetitive judgment call you're already making by hand.
What an early-stage matching network should automate with AI before building any platform — find the one expensive, repetitive judgment and ship that first.
Eli Wood
CEO, Black Flag Design