This is an outline of slides for the seed-round fundraising.
Why do startups need to innovate? Why do growth techniques only work for specific products or services in a particular market? Why is there no such thing as a "business technology"?
The answer lies in the ==Anna Karenina principle==. Tolstoy observed that "happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," leading to this theory. However, business is the opposite. ==All successful companies are different: each successful company gains a monopoly in a field by solving a specific problem. All failed companies are the same: they did not escape market competition.==
If a startup simply copies the products or services of current industry leaders, lacks innovation, and targets the same market, people will not buy into it, as they may already be customers of the industry leader. If people's needs are already met by existing products, why would they buy the same thing twice?
I'm Tian Pan, an engineer-founder focused on agentic engineering — building autonomous AI systems and scaling engineering teams. I write practical guides on system design, technical leadership, and shipping with AI agents. Previously an early engineer at Uber, Brex, and IoTeX.
