These are expensive because ChatGPT is expensive. If you really can’t tell the difference between competitors they must compete on price so they aren’t taking a fat slice of profits either.

Even if they were doing the same thing as the others but developing their own model with a better cost structure that would be innovative.

To that they have to get some money together somehow, probably from investors. Two steps up from a pitch deck is a pitch deck and a prototype that got some customers. So there you go.

If I were trying to pitch to a VC though I would be thinking of a plan that is going to make a lot more money, that could justify an enterprise value of $50M at the very least based on conservative multiples. So they have to have something better than “dominate some small area” such as being able to replicate that success for a large number of small areas.