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How This AI Veteran Is Building a Market of One in Industrial Automation

Perfect timing is rare in technology. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Dave Copps revealed how his company Worlds is riding an extraordinary wave of market demand for industrial AI automation. After building and selling two AI companies, Dave’s latest venture is growing at 270% annually by solving a critical problem: helping industrial giants automate their physical operations when there are “15.5 million more jobs than there are people to fill them.”

But this didn’t happen by accident. Dave’s journey offers a masterclass in deliberately positioning for emerging market opportunities while avoiding the common trap of trying to be everything to everyone.

Building a Market of One

Dave’s go-to-market philosophy centers on what he calls “building a market of one” – a two-pronged approach that has shaped Worlds’ success.

The first prong focuses on product differentiation. As Dave explains, “We saw out in the market were a bunch of point solutions, like computer vision companies, digital twin companies, camera companies with AI, all these narrow functions.” Instead of adding to the noise, Worlds built an open platform where “cameras, IoT sensors, people process, it all comes together and it’s joined together in space and time.”

The second prong involves business model innovation. Dave shares how they upended traditional pricing: “Everybody else charges for data. We said, how do we do that? Well, we move all the data compute to our customers’ cloud. Our only cost is people costs. Because we’re using their cloud, they already pay for their bandwidth…So now our cost went down to zero. So we created a flat fee pricing model.”

This dual focus on product and business model innovation has created a powerful competitive moat. As Dave notes, “If your product and the way you deliver it are both unique, then you’ll create a market of one.”

Evolving with the Market

Perhaps most striking about Worlds’ journey is how their vision has expanded through what Dave calls “brilliant scope creep.” The company started with computer vision but quickly realized bigger opportunities.

“We keep getting this wonderful scope creep,” Dave explains. “We’ll solve all the problems of computer vision in the early days. But then it’s like, hey, well, we don’t know where things are happening. So why don’t we create live digital twins?”

This led to Worlds developing 4D models that capture entire industrial environments in real-time. As Dave describes it: “We capture the world in 2D with cameras and sensors, but then re-express it live inside of a 4D model. So that 4D is time, so X, Y and Z plus time.”

This evolution hasn’t been random – it’s been driven by deep customer needs. Industrial companies are “growing faster and larger than they ever have before,” Dave notes. “Their ability to observe and analyze and affect operations at scale is really becoming untenable.”

Scaling Through Strategic Partnerships

Now facing explosive demand, Worlds is evolving its go-to-market approach again. Dave reveals they’re in discussions with major systems integrators who can help scale the technology: “These large systems integrators right now, they’re looking for something like this or looking for platforms that they can build a business around.”

The timing appears perfect. As Dave explains, “Every single company that they’re dealing with is working on digital transformation. The world is changing right now, and the physical world and the digital world are collapsing together.”

Looking ahead, Dave envisions a future where humans can simply talk to their industrial environments: “Having a conversation with the technology, the machines, about your environment…and being able to build AI’s with your voice.”

For founders navigating similar high-growth trajectories, Dave’s journey with Worlds demonstrates the power of building a truly differentiated market position while remaining nimble enough to evolve with emerging opportunities. It’s a reminder that sometimes the best go-to-market strategy isn’t about competing in existing categories, but creating entirely new ones.