What Can You Do When OpenAI Ships Your Roadmap? | Disrupt 2026

It's a scenario more and more AI founders know well: you build a product, and then a rapidly evolving giant like OpenAI launches a competing feature. At Disrupt 2026, Michel Tricot of Airbyte, Rob Toews of Radical Ventures, and Linda Tong of Webflow explored where defensibility actually exists for AI startups and what founders can do when the ground shifts beneath them. The panel examines the strategies that separate companies that survive platform competition from those that don't, from deep workflow integration to proprietary data and customer relationships that are hard to replicate. They also discuss how founders should think about positioning when a major player enters their space. For anyone building in AI, this session offers a realistic look at moats, timing, and the moves that matter when your roadmap suddenly belongs to someone else. Subscribe to TechCrunch for more Disrupt 2026 coverage.