Some personal tips for international founders looking to start an AI company in the US:
- Do B2B, not B2C. The odds of building a breakout B2C service as a non-US founder are very slim
- To find the best B2B opportunities, you need deep understanding of a specific industry. There are three main ways to get that:
1/ You spent a long time working in the industry
2/ Find a cofounder who spent a long time in the industry
3/ Take on client work and learn the industry from the inside - I recommend #3 whenever possible, even for the founders with industry experience – chances are, their work might have been only focused on a small part of the value chain, and industry practice might be different here in the US
So in short, I think starting with a service business doing client work is a great way to define customer problems and come up with a great product idea, especially for non-US founders.