We’ve been talking a lot at USV about the rebel alliance—the alternative to big model reliance—and the opportunities it creates for builders of the agentic stack. But the result of a strong rebel alliance also means we’re at the entrance to a bubbling and awesome agentic consumer explosion built on top of this new set of open tools and foundations.

Michael Mignano

@mignano

For the first time in ~3 years, it feels like the AI table has been flipped over. Yes, the labs and hyperscalers will have the highest chance of resetting it before everyone else, given their vast capital, frontier model, and compute advantages.

But there is now a window for a

935

2:57 PM • Jun 15, 2026

The opportunity to create breakout new apps and platforms is happening and it won’t all be controlled by the big incumbents. 

Why? 

1/ increased competition at the model layer—both by the big closed models and open source options rapidly increasing share— means builders have choice and can bake them off each other to get the cheapest and best options for intelligence. Competition leads to choices and ecosystems on top.

2/ the rebel alliance tool kit of harnesses, orchestrators, etc is giving super powers to agentic app builders to create faster and better. 

3/ we are learning once again that big cos can pick their spots but not do everything, at least not at the same time. Long live the builder coming at it from the edge with new ideas, no organizational burden, fresh hustle, and creative chops.

4/ consumer appetite for the new and useful and fun and creative only grows, particularly in moments of dramatic change. Trial is at a high.

We have a perfect storm for new apps and agentic experiences, particularly when a tool or action can lead to a network effect (an old truth that hasn’t changed.)

Weirder the better. More fun the more interesting. Let’s go.