Had a great meeting with Akmal Paiziev, the founder of New Max and Numeo AI. Akmal is one of the biggest inspirations for why I moved to Silicon Valley.
Since I arrived in Menlo Park a few weeks ago, the density of meaningful conversations I've had has been extraordinary. In Miami, I might have one or two founder-level conversations a week. Here, it's multiple per day. The concentration of talent, ambition, and capital in the Bay Area is unlike anywhere else in the world.
Akmal and I talked about the current state of AI product development. The consensus is clear: in 2026, building the product is the easy part. Code is cheap. Intelligence is abundant. The hard part — t...
Akmal and I talked about the current state of AI product development. The consensus is clear: in 2026, building the product is the easy part. Code is cheap. Intelligence is abundant. The hard part — the part that separates winners from everyone else — is distribution.
His advice resonated deeply: don't try to build a marketplace from scratch. Start by solving one specific, painful problem for one specific segment. Own that niche completely. Then expand into an ecosystem.
This is the kind of insight you get from a 30-minute coffee in Palo Alto that would take months of trial and error to learn on your own. It's why physical proximity to other founders still matters, even in the age of remote work and AI.
The 2026 reality is this: code is cheap, intelligence is plentiful, but attention and distribution are the most expensive resources. If you're a founder of a tech company, you're missing out big time by not being here. The conversations alone are worth the move.
Sardor Akhmedov
Originally posted on Telegram @akhmedovco