AI Startups: It's Time for a History Lesson
As consumers lose patience with half-baked AI products and empty marketing claims, smart startups will get back to brand building basics.
You've been there. An exuberant social media post grabs your attention with a "game-changing" AI tool that just launched 5 minutes ago.
"Wow," you think. "This could make my job a zillion times easier."
You visit the website. Scan the headlines, confirming the magical powers this tool will bestow for a mere $14/month. You sign up. Take it for a spin.
And feel like you just got suckered.
Maybe it's glitchy. Inaccurate. Or just plain average.
But either way, it doesn't do what it said. And you're back to reality. Another empty promise from an overzealous AI startup.
I've been there too. In fact, through 30 years in the marketing game, I've never seen so much sizzle without the steak. I get it. AI is a work in progress for every brand, big and small, new and old. And it'll only get better. But misleading claims have somehow become the norm. With consumers somehow expected to overlook the letdowns.
If this is where marketing is zigging in the AI era, startups would do well to zag.
The brands that thrive tomorrow won't be the ones slinging hype and peddling empty promises. They'll be the ones earning trust.
Déjà Vu All Over Again
I’ve observed countless hype cycles, from the dot-com boom of the late 1990s (and its subsequent bust) to the flood of mediocre social media tools that promised to “flip the script” on consumer engagement. Cooler heads eventually prevail. After the dot-com crash, marketing evolved into something new: slow, steady, educational, and trust-based. The era of Inbound Marketing. Marketers realized that screaming “This is the next big thing!” isn’t half as effective as building brand equity by delivering value and earning trust.
HubSpot led the inbound charge. They championed helpful content, lead magnets, educational videos, and the iconic “growth funnel” that turned strangers into customers and customers into evangelists. For a while, it felt like the most genuine approach to marketing since the days of Tupperware parties—build an audience, give them something useful, gain their trust, and the sale will take care of itself.
Then came ChatGPT. Suddenly, the entire startup ecosystem got starry-eyed, thinking they could replicate that level of stratospheric success overnight on the back of AI. Old-school inbound marketing? Ehhh… too slow. Now's the time for big claims, big press, big illusions of the next big AI breakthrough. In the dot-com boom, the pot of gold was there for the taking if you simply added ".com" to your brand name. In eerily similar fashion, startups are now plastering "AI" across their marketing and dropping the mic.
The Problem?
Half-baked products, overpromised and underdelivered. Maybe startups are rushing to market to steal attention before competitors get there. Maybe they're under pressure from investors. Maybe they're just delusional. But customers aren't stupid.
All I need is one spin with a new tool.
A video generator that produces hallucinations after I wait 5 minutes for a 10-second clip.
A chatbot that tells me it can't answer my simple question.
An AI-powered content curator that doesn't return anything useful.
These products are wasting my time. Not earning my trust. In fact, they're collectively chipping away at the credibility of all the other startups out there making similar claims of game-changing productivity.
Even HubSpot itself. The MarTech giant, once the gold standard of inbound, rolled out new AI features last year with frenzied fanfare. Meanwhile, user feedback is all over the map (in my opinion, they are “hit or miss” at best). And certainly not what you'd expect based on the confident headlines wallpapered across their website. Will HubSpot recover from any poor reviews? Of course. They have billions in capital and two decades of loyalty built up with customers. But for startups with no brand equity, no raving fans, no moat? I'd caution heavily against using this playbook.
I’ve been around long enough to know that genuine success isn’t about one big promise. It’s about day-to-day trust. The inbound revolution taught us a crucial lesson: if you lead with “help,” you earn the right to eventually sell. But that approach requires patience. Something in short supply in the AI gold rush.
The Path Back to Sanity
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 30 years as a marketer, it’s that brand wins. Not features. Not price. Not bells and whistles. But every company needs a brand promise. A brand narrative. A brand culture. Brand trust. That’s where inbound marketing returns as the steady voice of reason. In a world gone mad with AI mania, inbound principles are more relevant than ever:
Acknowledge Limitations
Seth Godin famously says it’s better to be honest and useful than dazzling and dishonest. AI is complicated. Be transparent. Let your marketing highlight exactly what your product can do and what it can’t. What you're working on next. The brand that does this stands out in a sea of overstated puffery.
Educate Relentlessly
The inbound playbook succeeded because it taught potential buyers before asking for anything from them. For AI, that means highlighting industry use cases, user guides, behind-the-scenes dev insights, or interactive demos that genuinely help. Show how you handle data, reduce bias, or mitigate “hallucinations.” Treat your audience like collaborators, not gullible marks.
Build Trust Over Time
Viral success is tempting. But if you want longevity, you need 1,000 loyal fans more than 100,000 curious lookers. Kevin Kelly was right. And if your AI product is truly valuable, word-of-mouth from a small base of satisfied adopters will be far more useful than bad press with a side of churn.
Learn from HubSpot’s Evolution
Even as HubSpot pivots, notice that they still rely heavily on user trust. Their half-baked AI launches might tarnish some brand luster, but they’re doubling down on educational content, community, and product iteration behind the scenes. For them, inbound remains the foundation. If you’re a startup, replicate that sense of user-first focus, rather than trying to mimic the marketing claims.
Back to the Future
Like the internet boom, the AI revolution will transform the startup landscape. But we saw startups collapse under the weight of hype back then. And we'll see it again. The path to success is paved with real relationships built with customers. Rooted in candor, value, and respect for the problems they need to solve.
If you’re an AI startup reading this, consider stepping off the hype treadmill and taking this history lesson to heart. Stand out by choosing honesty over hyperbole, educating your audience, and delivering incremental but meaningful gains. That’s exactly why inbound marketing worked. And AI doesn't change that.
Thirty years in, I’ve learned that marketing fads come and go, but trust never goes out of style. Make that your guiding principle, and you'll differentiate. And, in the AI era, differentiation is worth its weight in gold.
