"Venture Capital is a wrapper over people who actually have money"
"NVIDIA is a TSMC wrapper"
"Netflix is a AWS wrapper"
Mic drop by Perplexity Co-founder & CEO Aravind Srinivas 🎤
Basically, we're all just wrappers at different levels.
Interdependency is the rule, not the exception.
We're now seeing startups breaking ARR growth records that could easily be categorized as wrappers on the LLM application layer.
It's all about value.
Kyle Poyar recently highlighted how Yaakov Carno tried the most viral AI products he could get his hands on.
Here are the surprising patterns he found (summarized by Kyle):
1️⃣ Their AI doesn't feel like a black box.
Pro-tips from the best:
- Show step-by-step visibility into AI processes
- Let users ask, “Why did AI do that?”
- Use visual explanations to build trust.
2️⃣ Users don’t need better AI—they need better ways to talk to it.
Pro-tips from the best:
- Offer pre-built prompt templates to guide users.
- Provide multiple interaction modes (guided, manual, hybrid).
- Let AI suggest better inputs ("enhance prompt") before executing an action.
3️⃣ The AI works with you, not just for you.
Pro-tips from the best:
- Design AI tools to be interactive, not just output-driven.
- Provide different modes for different types of collaboration.
- Let users refine and iterate on AI results easily.
4️⃣ Let users see (& edit) the outcome before it's irreversible.
Pro-tips from the best:
- Allow users to test AI features before full commitment (many let you use it without even creating an account).
- Provide preview or undo options before executing AI changes.
- Offer exploratory onboarding experiences to build trust.
5️⃣ The AI weaves into your workflow, it doesn't interrupt it.
Pro-tips from the best:
- Provide simple accept/reject mechanisms for AI suggestions.
- Design seamless transitions between AI interactions.
- Prioritize the user’s context to avoid workflow disruptions.
➡️ The TL;DR: Having "AI" isn’t the differentiator anymore - great UX is.
As noted by e.g. Brian Halligan (co-founder of HubSpot), a lot of folks have been negative on the application layer of AI.
We've heard for the past two years how the "LLM wrapper applications" will get disrupted by the LLM's.
I think you could argue that back in 2006, when e.g. HubSpot was founded and SaaS was exploding that all SaaS startups were "database wrapper applications."
The industry blossomed by adding data, workflow, great UX/UI, integrations and deep domain expertise on top of those databases.
I think LLM application layer companies will thrive by adding data, workflow, great UX/UI, integrations and deep domain expertise on top of the LLMs.
What do you think?
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