Ask HN: Help choosing path to an AI company
I’ve been looking to start my own business and here are now two possibilities to pursue that goal:
1) Partner with an already in motion software consultancy.
I had a meeting with the company owner (ex work colleague) some days ago, the company has like 30 employees and they develop traditional software products. He asked me if I was willing to join the company as a partner in order to build an AI division inside the company, focused on building AI products. None of their current employees have experience with this type of technologies.
I’m interested but I’m not quite sure that the company will be able to focus on two different lines of work, with different life cycles and different development metodologies.
Do you think that the proposal makes sense?
Do you have experience doing something like that or know a similar case from the web?
What would you do if you were in my position to approach this kind of job?
2) Build my own AI company.
I’ve also been talking with a potential (and also technical) partner about the possibility to build an AI company from the ground. The idea would be to sell end-to-end products, but starting as a consulting company to bootstrap and gain different industries use cases seems to be a logic decision.
I’m thinking that we can work together with the company described on (1) where my potential company builds the AI product and (1) builds the mobile/web app, consuming our product through an API.
Does that sounds feasible or is there a major flaw that I’m not considering?
Do you think it could be a good approach or is there a better way?