OpenAI 'Sherlocks' Meeting Notes & Search Startups—Founders Pivot from Wrappers to Actual Moats

Dr. Hernani Costa's recent article explores the impact of OpenAI on start-ups, particularly with the introduction of native document search and meeting-note tools in ChatGPT. This development has raised concerns among investors and founders, who wonder if OpenAI's advancements will render their businesses obsolete. OpenAI's CEO had previously stated that start-ups building "thin wrappers" around the base model would struggle to compete as the model improves. However, experts argue that specialization, proprietary data, and domain-specific problems can still provide a competitive edge. Venture capitalist Ashu Garg identifies patterns in surviving start-ups, including focusing on high-value workflows and instrumenting everything to feed private data loops. The article highlights the evolving landscape of AI strategy, with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google navigating the trade-off between being neutral infrastructure providers and chasing high-margin verticals. As of June 2025, the platform wars are far from settled, but are driving founders to innovate and raise their game.