At the MarginsEvery brand, from a scrappy startup to a Fortune 500, faces the same fundamental problem: How do you get discovered in a sea of consumer choices?
For decades, the answers shifted: first it was getting shelf space at brick and mortar retailers, then Amazon search as online sales took off around 2010. Then Google SEO. In every era, the challenge was the same — being visible in a world where gatekeepers decide who gets surfaced and who gets ignored. Now, the gatekeepers are AI agents.
AI is moving fast, but the business models behind it are even harder to decode. I’ve been spending time mapping out who the key customers are and how money flows through the system. Foundational providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc), wrappers (Harvey, Jasper, etc) — each plays a different role in the value chain, and investors and operators alike are still figuring out how to navigate the commercial landscape.
I’ve built and scaled growth models at companies like Newell Brands, Casper, Blue Apron, and Lime, and today I advise startups, investors, and corporates on how to navigate this shifting landscape. To cut through the noise, I created this AI Business Model Guide — a simple framework to understand where opportunities lie and where risks emerge.
If you’re building in AI or exploring partnerships, this guide is a starting point. The presentation is embedded below.