Oct 19, 2026 · 39 min · 9 segments
What does it take to build a company that wins when AI lets almost anyone build a great product? Dan Albaum talks with Dave Lambert, Founder & Managing Director of San Francisco–based Right Side…
Dan AlbaumHostSo, you know, even just to form my company, you know, wasn't such an easy, easy path.
And you work with so many of these very, very early stage companies as part of your investment group.
What are some of the biggest challenges or hurdles that you're seeing founders having to deal with right now?
Well, I think right now, particularly in the tech world, the biggest challenge is just the rapidly changing changing landscape of AI and how it's completely rewritten what it's like to build products.
You can build just incredible products much more quickly and cheaply than ever before.
And the downside is that your product isn't your moat anymore like it used to be.
You're going to have a lot of competitors in almost anything you do because lots of people can build products quickly.
And then there's just questions about what's viable in today's world and what business models are going to be sort of disintermediated by future improvements of AI models.
I mean, as part of that, with kind of the leveling of the playing field, so to speak, because more competitors can come in more rapidly, it's harder to create that impenetrable defense around something you've built because that may be gone.
Does that put more of a premium back then on the differentiator being around the strategic focus, some of the leadership things? Actually, interestingly, some of the human leadership components to what makes a company versus just looking at the product and technology?
Well, I think, I mean, interestingly, it's always been the case that sort of execution is what wins long-term.
I think, you know, particularly in the tech world and particularly with technical founders, there's been a misnomer often that we run across that founders sort of feel that the best product wins.
What usually happens, the dynamic that has historically been there is that there's this sort of invisible line and your product has to from a quality and value perspective, has to be over that for you to be in play.
And then whichever companies build a product that's over that, it's usually the one that executes sales and marketing the best, is the winner, not necessarily the best product.
So, you know, even just to form my company, you know, wasn't such an easy, easy path.
And you work with so many of these very, very early stage companies as part of your investment group.
What are some of the biggest challenges or hurdles that you're seeing founders having to deal with right now?
Well, I think right now, particularly in the tech world, the biggest challenge is just the rapidly changing changing landscape of AI and how it's completely rewritten what it's like to build products.
You can build just incredible products much more quickly and cheaply than ever before.
And the downside is that your product isn't your moat anymore like it used to be.
You're going to have a lot of competitors in almost anything you do because lots of people can build products quickly.
And then there's just questions about what's viable in today's world and what business models are going to be sort of disintermediated by future improvements of AI models.
I mean, as part of that, with kind of the leveling of the playing field, so to speak, because more competitors can come in more rapidly, it's harder to create that impenetrable defense around something you've built because that may be gone.
Does that put more of a premium back then on the differentiator being around the strategic focus, some of the leadership things? Actually, interestingly, some of the human leadership components to what makes a company versus just looking at the product and technology?
Well, I think, I mean, interestingly, it's always been the case that sort of execution is what wins long-term.
I think, you know, particularly in the tech world and particularly with technical founders, there's been a misnomer often that we run across that founders sort of feel that the best product wins.
What usually happens, the dynamic that has historically been there is that there's this sort of invisible line and your product has to from a quality and value perspective, has to be over that for you to be in play.
And then whichever companies build a product that's over that, it's usually the one that executes sales and marketing the best, is the winner, not necessarily the best product.
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