You Do Not Need a New Idea: Why Simple, Focused Products Win in Early-Stage GTM
How AI founders can break out in crowded markets by serving a specific buyer with a dramatically simpler experience
Yesterday I had a conversation that has been stuck in my head.
It was with Xiaoyin Qu (heyBoss AI).
She has the kind of resume that usually signals a big swing at a brand-new frontier:
Facebook and Instagram product roles. Stanford MBA. A previous startup that took off during COVID. A sizable fundraise. An exit.
On paper, you expect the next company to be something futuristic in AI or a new software category.
Instead, she is building something deceptively simple:
an AI-powered product that creates and manages websites for small businesses.
Yoga studios. Auto detailers. Tax consultants. Neighborhood shops.
People who are not debating model architectures.
People who are not browsing Product Hunt.
People who just need something that works.
At first glance, you might think:
“Do we really need another website builder?”
But that is exactly the point.
Sometimes it is not about inventing something new.
It is about doing something familiar better, faster, and cheaper for a very specific buyer…especially in early-stage founder-led sales.
The “I just need this to work” economy
If you talk to small business owners long enough, you hear the same story:
They hire someone to help build a website
They go back and forth for weeks
They struggle to explain what they need
The site works… kind of
And they still have to manage hosting, SEO, updates, email, everything
It is not a “new” problem.
In fact, it is one of the most mature and crowded markets in software.
Wix.
Squarespace.
WordPress.
Webflow.
But the small business owner is not thinking in categories or TAM slides.
They are thinking:
“Can someone just handle this for me so I can get back to running my business?”
That is where her product stands out.
You answer a few questions.
The AI generates your site.
They host it.
They update it.
They handle SEO.
They manage ongoing content.
All at a price point that makes sense for someone with a thousand other responsibilities.
The technology is not the story.
The simplicity is.
The trap founders fall into in GTM
Most founders proudly pitch:
We are faster.
We are cheaper.
We are smarter.
But then they aim that message at everyone.
Tech companies.
Agencies.
Enterprises.
SMBs.
Anyone who will take a meeting.
The math on the slide looks exciting.
The TAM looks huge.
The conversations feel promising.
But nothing sticks.
“Better, faster, cheaper” only works when:
The problem is painful for your specific buyer
The language feels familiar to that buyer
The alternatives are clearly worse for that buyer
This is what I appreciated about Xiaoyin’s approach.
She started broad.
Then she paid attention to who stayed.
Not tech workers.
Not product managers.
Not AI hobbyists.
The sticky segment was everyday business owners who do not have the time, technical fluency, or patience for complex software.
Once she saw that, everything clicked.
Crowded markets look different from the inside
People assume crowded markets are impossible to enter.
But once you zoom in on the buyer, the picture changes:
Their problems are different
Their workflow is different
Their expectations are different
Their friction points are different
From the outside, it looks like “another website tool.”
From the inside, it becomes:
“Finally, something built for my life.”
That difference does not show up on a competitive matrix.
It shows up in retention.
It shows up in referrals.
It shows up in founder-led sales cycles that actually convert.
The founder-led sales angle
Right now, most of their growth comes from:
Social posts
Word of mouth
Virality
Light inbound
Classic early-stage founder-led selling.
And here is what I liked the most:
She is not chasing the shiny segment.
She is not pitching AI to every tech leader in Silicon Valley.
She is going to the group with the clearest pain and the simplest story.
This is something I see every day in my own research with hundreds of early-stage founders.
You do not need a new category.
You do not need a breakthrough model.
You need:
The right buyer
The right story
The right level of simplicity
When you get those three things right:
Messaging gets sharper
Referrals increase
You stop mistaking curiosity for intent
You stop running pilots that were never real
Because you are no longer trying to be everything to everyone.
You are trying to be obvious to someone.
What this conversation reminded me about GTM
A lot of founders believe their advantage must be differentiation at the product level.
But many of the strongest opportunities in 2025 look exactly like this:
Familiar problem
Mature market
Clear alternatives
Overlooked audience
A dramatically simpler experience
We talk a lot about moats in GTM.
Sometimes the moat is the buyer you choose.
Sometimes it is the simplicity of your experience.
Sometimes it is how deeply you understand the life of the person you serve.
That is extremely hard to copy.