AI Is Picking the Lock on Platform Giants

Let's start with Bytes because this is the one that genuinely made me sit up.

A Bay Area startup, 10 people, pre-seed, no war chest.

They've built an AI native food ordering platform that lets diners order directly through ChatGPT for a flat dollar per transaction.

No 15% commission.

No 30% commission.

A dollar.

And they've already signed up 300 Bay Area restaurants.

One operator running 13 locations says 65% of his orders now come through bytes versus 25% from DoorDash.

Think about what that means for his margins.

DoorDash's response? They sent threatening letters to Bay Area restaurants in August, claiming some listings were unauthorized and hinting the whole thing might be illegal in certain states.

Here's my take.

That letter is the sound of a platform that built its empire on owning the interface between you and your dinner, suddenly realizing the interface is moving.

When AI becomes the way consumers interact with services and we are closer to that than most people in this industry want to admit platforms like doordash don't just lose commission revenue they lose their billion dollar ads business they lose their ability to upsell you the sponsored burrito they lose the choke point And DoorDash sending threatening letters to mom and pop restaurants is exactly the kind of move a giant makes right before a smaller, faster thing makes them look slow.

I've watched enough software cycles to know when the incumbents start lawyering up at a pre-seed startup, they're not acting from strength.

That letter isn't a warning.

It's a tell.

Watch this space very closely because what Bytes is doing to food delivery, something similar is coming for every platform that monetizes the space between a customer and what they want.

Let's start with Bytes because this is the one that genuinely made me sit up.

A Bay Area startup, 10 people, pre-seed, no war chest.

They've built an AI native food ordering platform that lets diners order directly through ChatGPT for a flat dollar per transaction.

No 15% commission.

No 30% commission.

A dollar.

And they've already signed up 300 Bay Area restaurants.

One operator running 13 locations says 65% of his orders now come through bytes versus 25% from DoorDash.

Think about what that means for his margins.

DoorDash's response? They sent threatening letters to Bay Area restaurants in August, claiming some listings were unauthorized and hinting the whole thing might be illegal in certain states.

Here's my take.

That letter is the sound of a platform that built its empire on owning the interface between you and your dinner, suddenly realizing the interface is moving.

When AI becomes the way consumers interact with services and we are closer to that than most people in this industry want to admit platforms like doordash don't just lose commission revenue they lose their billion dollar ads business they lose their ability to upsell you the sponsored burrito they lose the choke point And DoorDash sending threatening letters to mom and pop restaurants is exactly the kind of move a giant makes right before a smaller, faster thing makes them look slow.

I've watched enough software cycles to know when the incumbents start lawyering up at a pre-seed startup, they're not acting from strength.

That letter isn't a warning.

It's a tell.

Watch this space very closely because what Bytes is doing to food delivery, something similar is coming for every platform that monetizes the space between a customer and what they want.