Founder quits ₹75 lakh tech job, loses all startup customers after AI disrupts first product - Storyboard18
Founder quits ₹75 lakh tech job, loses all startup customers after AI disrupts first product - Storyboard18
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Founder quits ₹75 lakh tech job, loses all startup customers after AI disrupts first product
Founder quits ₹75 lakh tech job, loses all startup customers after AI disrupts first product
Fridayy AI co-founder Khyati Thakur said ChatGPT and Google AI rendered the startup's first product irrelevant, forcing the company to pivot after losing every customer within 30 days.
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September 12, 2026, 10:16:01 IST
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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 sai