Ask HN: Anyone else finding it impossible to find a lead investor?

It's funny that they keep repeating the saying "be greedy when others are fearful" and "microsoft was founded during a recession". But when the time comes to act, they're waiting for someone else to be greedy first.

Hammer on the product alignment problem first, and be sure to use some reasonable barrier to entry that will prevent others from doing it later. The primary problem right now with AI startups is that what they are doing isn't defensible and they aren't showing clear ways they can defend their position moving forward. By having good product/market alignment and a means to build up data (from interactions) that can be used to train later, you might be able to sell this better to the VC.

Having been through this already, I can tell you that "being an alternate solution to a large market" looks completely different than "we're entering a new market with this cool thing that solves cool problem". Be sure to find differentiating factors that resonate well with product fit and adoptability, and go out and find the problems you can solve with a little bit of code and some simple explanations.