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Agentic Systems: Raw Markdown Has No Value, Orchestration Does
Agentic Systems: Raw Markdown Has No Value, Orchestration Does
 ### Garry Tan@garrytan
For agentic systems founders and dev tools founders:
People do not want to pay for raw markdown and they shouldn't have to.
But they may pay for orchestration, hosting, updates, collaboration, portability, analytics, and managed execution.
These can be great businesses.
Mar 20, 2026, 8:50 PM View on X
140 Replies
48 Retweets
1,017 Likes
50.5K Views  Garry Tan @garrytan
One Sentence Summary
Garry Tan advises AI agentic systems and dev tools founders that users won't pay for raw markdown but will pay for orchestration, hosting, updates, collaboration, portability, analytics, and managed execution.
Summary
This tweet offers practical business advice for founders building AI agentic systems and developer tools. Drawing from his experience as Y Combinator's CEO, Tan makes a clear distinction between commodity outputs (raw markdown) and differentiated value propositions (orchestration, hosting, updates, collaboration, portability, analytics, and managed execution). He emphasizes that while users shouldn't have to pay for basic markdown, they are willing to pay for the operational infrastructure and tooling that makes AI systems practical and scalable. The high bookmark count (189) suggests this advice is being saved as a valuable reference by the target audience.
AI Score
88
Influence Score 314
Published At Yesterday
Language
English
Tags
AI Agents
Developer Tools
SaaS Business
Startup Advice
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