How Omneky Built Product-Market Fit During the AI Winter: A Lesson in Long-Term Vision vs. Market Timing

Building in emerging technology markets isn’t just about being right – it’s about surviving long enough to be proven right. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Omneky founder Hikari Senju shared how they built product-market fit during a period when AI was largely considered overhyped and underdelivered.

The Conviction Challenge

“I thought that generative AI would be a massively huge thing,” Hikari recalls of his 2018 decision to found Omneky. “I knew that if this technology is exponentially improved by a couple of magnitudes, the applications are pretty ginormous in a variety of industries.”

But conviction alone doesn’t build successful companies. The challenge was maintaining that vision while building a sustainable business during a period of widespread market skepticism.

The Sustainability First Strategy

Rather than burning through venture capital waiting for market validation, Omneky took a different approach. “We had structured the company in a way where it was profitable and had good mortgages and good cash flow from very beginning,” Hikari explains. This early focus on sustainability proved crucial for their long-term vision.

The strategy involved three key elements:

1. Build Revenue Before Scale “We definitely were making money very early on,” Hikari notes. “We had a good business and we had good margins from the very beginning, partly because were profitable within the first year.”
2. Focus on Infrastructure Instead of chasing the latest AI capabilities, they invested in lasting competitive advantages. “Building data integrations with all these different ad networks and platforms take time. Not anybody can get access to these ad networks,” Hikari shares.
3. Iterative Technology Adoption “Initially when we launched the product, it was just GPT-1 and stock images,” Hikari explains, describing their progression through various AI models to their current technology stack.

Converting Skepticism into Advantage

Rather than viewing market skepticism as a barrier, Omneky used it as validation of their timing. “By definition you become a successful entrepreneur because you saw an opportunity before anyone else did,” Hikari notes. “And so therefore, by definition, they spent the first couple of years being rejected.”

This perspective helped maintain focus during challenging periods. Instead of trying to convince skeptics, they concentrated on building product value. “Just consistently communicating to the market that we are the leading generative AI company for advertisers year over year. Not really deviating from that message has helped.”

The Market Evolution

The strategy paid off when market sentiment shifted. “The market started to understand the messaging and the value problems we’ve been communicating consistently for the past several couple years,” Hikari explains. When ChatGPT launched and validated generative AI’s potential, Omneky had already built the infrastructure and customer relationships needed to capitalize on the opportunity.

Lessons for Founders

For founders building in emerging technology markets today, Omneky’s journey offers crucial insights:

1. Build sustainable revenue early – it buys time for your vision to materialize
2. Focus on durable competitive advantages beyond the core technology
3. Use market skepticism as validation of timing rather than a source of doubt
4. Maintain consistent messaging even when the market doesn’t understand

The key is creating enough runway to survive until market validation arrives, while continuously improving your product and maintaining unwavering focus on your vision. As Hikari concludes, “What these generative models enable and empower is that kind of leverage for brilliant visionaries. They don’t need necessarily to raise tons of venture to get their products out.”