For a startup founder, finding a new business idea can sometimes be easier than knowing what to do when the original one stops working. One tech entrepreneur has described how the rapid rise of AI tools forced her company to abandon its first product after its entire customer base disappeared.
Khyati Thakur, co-founder of Fridayy AI, said the product became obsolete as ChatGPT and Google AI changed the market around it. The startup went from having customers to losing all of them in just 30 days.
The setback came after Thakur had left a technology job that paid ₹75 lakh a year to build the company. Rather than close the business, she and her team spent the next seven months searching for a new direction. They then spent another nine months developing a new product.
Fridayy AI now works on tools that allow small businesses to build online stores, prepare product catalogues and create marketing material with the help of AI.
The company is still navigating financial pressure. Thakur said its runway is now “thinner than I would like”, while B2B sales can take three to four months to close. The startup is also looking for investors who understand its idea and are prepared to fund it.
Thakur’s account of the experience focused as much on the uncertainty of running a company as on the product failure itself. She said founders can spend much of their time questioning the decision to give up the security of a salary.
“Most days you’ll feel stupid for not choosing a monthly paycheck,” she wrote.
Yet the prospect of abandoning a company after investing years of effort can be difficult, she said. Founders may keep looking for another opportunity to make the business work, even when there is no clear answer on whether continuing is the right decision.
“You’ll want to give it one last shot, hoping this time it works,” Thakur wrote.
She said the purpose of sharing her experience was not to put people off entrepreneurship, but to show the level of conviction it can require. “The thrill of building something of your own is inexplicable,” she wrote.
Thakur said she would still value the experience even if Fridayy AI were to end. The process, she said, had taught her more than a conventional job could and had allowed her to build something that, for a period, supported other people’s livelihoods.