Amplitude at SXSW: Our AI Cookout for Startups

AI was the talk of the town at every pitch, panel, and party during SXSW 2026—yet the most powerful moments were profoundly human.

Those moments took center stage at Amplitude’s AI Cookout, where we brought Texas BBQ and AI insights to founders who were hungry for answers. How do startups find their competitive edge in an AI-saturated market, when what used to take a team of experts, venture backing, and major infrastructure can now be built with a laptop and a large language model (LLM)?

To explore this question, we invited four Y Combinator-backed founders who built and sold AI companies to discuss their experiences:

• Eric Kim, Co-founder and CTO of Inari, acquired by Amplitude
• Frank Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Inari
• Kemel McKenzie, Co-founder and CEO of Stylo Network
• Yana Welinder, Founder and CEO of Kraftful, acquired by Amplitude

This candid conversation provided tactical frameworks to evaluate problems, validate demand, and uncover signals, all while encouraging founders to focus on what machines can’t imitate: taste, context, and judgment.

(L to R) Moderator Shessvy Kelly, Sr. Solutions Engineer at Amplitude, and speakers Kemel McKenzie, ​Eric Kim, ​Frank Lee, and Yana Welinder

Taste: It’s not just for BBQ

Agentic AI accelerates execution and acts as a force multiplier for lean teams. But while AI lowers the barrier to building, it raises the bar for differentiation. “Taste and speed are your moat,” Yana Welinder reminded the audience.

Taste refers to the combination of human intuition that guides thousands of strategic and creative micro-decisions, turning a usable product into an enjoyable product. AI models are trained to optimize for patterns in data and value what already exists, whereas humans have the aesthetic and intellectual sensibility to create new experiences.

“If everyone has access to the same models, the moat is not the model. The moat is the product experience you wrap around it, your speed of learning, and how much faster you grow than everyone else.”

SXSW attendees listening to the founder panel during Amplitude’s AI Cookout fireside chat

Context: Read between the lines of code

AI agents are fundamentally changing how founders, even non-technical ones, can access and use data to improve their products. However, context is key to analyzing nuanced feedback that a prompt can’t capture.

Kemel McKenzie reflected on the early days of creating an MVP: “If only we had run A/B testing surveys on our waitlist, we would have saved six months of time and resources.” Contextual intelligence is based on lived experience, whereas AI lacks situational awareness, operating on tokens.

“When building a product that people need or want, a continuous feedback loop between your users and the development lifecycle is critical. Focus on your demand signal.” Achieving that alignment between data and signals helps founders surface insights from the noise and maintain momentum.

A founder in the audience excitedly asks speakers for tips on building startups in the age of AI

Judgment: If I don’t use it, who else will?

Founders make judgment calls with incomplete information and real consequences all the time, in novel situations where AI is weakest. When competitors can copy your speed and distribution, sometimes the best way to differentiate your product and instruments is to just build for yourself.

Frank Lee and Eric Kim noted that dog-fooding helped make sure their product worked, but also made them focus on the things that set it apart: curated datasets, signal engineering, and opinionated design.

That in turn strengthened their go-to-market strategy, their data flywheel, and their customer relationships—all things that are much harder to replicate. The panel of founders also mused that this is a clear opportunity for new AI companies: vertical AI for industries overwhelmed with fragmented workflows and unstructured data.

SXSW founders discussing the future of AI after the fireside chat

The BBQ: Building real connections

The best breakthroughs happen in community spaces like SXSW, where creators, builders, and innovators make their own serendipity.

Between smoked brisket and iced tea, startup founders laughed at the existential threat of AI and exchanged stories only those who survived trials by fire could relate to. As AI transforms the tech landscape, one thing remains truer than ever: innovation requires a human touch.

To everyone who joined us for the AI Cookout, thank you for showing up, asking hard questions, and staying for seconds. The next chapter of AI is being written right now, and we are excited to help founders build at the speed of startups.