Ask These Questions Before Starting An AI Startup

Jordan Fisher is the co-founder & CEO of Standard AI and now leads an AI alignment research team at Anthropic. In his talk at AI Startup School on June 17th, 2025, he frames the future of startups through questions rather than answers—asking how founders should navigate a world where AGI may be just a few years away. He surfaces the big questions startups should be asking in the age of AGI: Should you even start a company right now? What happens when software becomes commoditized? How do you build trust as teams shrink and AI takes on more responsibility? Chapters: 0:00 – Why He's More Confused Than Ever 2:00 – Should You Even Start a Startup? 5:00 – Planning Beyond the Next Model 8:00 – Will Software Be Commoditized? 11:00 – Building AI-Native Teams 14:00 – Trust, Security, and Agents 18:00 – Auditing & Guardrails 21:00 – Alignment & Economic Pressure 24:00 – Data, Defensibility, and Hard Problems 28:00 – Neutrality and Control 32:00 – Changing the World vs. Just Making Money 36:00 – Build Something People Want (and Need) 39:00 – Audience Q&A