How a Single Bottle of Wine and a Simple Price Check Can Turn Into a Conversation About the Future of Technology, the Fate of Startups, and Where True Value Is Born Today. These reflections are shared by Ruslan Gafarov, entrepreneur and founder of the San Francisco Innovation Hub.
Last weekend, we went out for brunch at friends’ place. These gatherings are always special — you want to show up with something worthy, to show that you value the moment. At our home, we have a small but carefully curated wine collection. Alina likes collecting rare bottles, saving them “just in case.” And well, the moment had come.
We pick a bottle, check it on Vivino. Scan it — the rating is there, but no prices. Seemed like a routine check, nothing special. But I got curious: what if we could make this even simpler? A few seconds in ChatGPT, and I can see both the rating and the current price.
Here’s the surprising part: Vivino is a huge company — 300 people, offices in Copenhagen and San Francisco, $220 million in investment. Yet the task people open their app for, GPT solves faster. At that moment, the conversation at the table turned to the host, who works at OpenAI. He said a simple but important thing: every new model update has the potential to “kill” hundreds of startups. Not because they’re bad, but because the logic of the market changes.
In the past, a specialized service could survive by doing one thing better than anyone else. Today, one update of a universal model can cover an entire category of tasks. People stop switching between apps — they work with a tool that already knows them, remembers past tasks, automatically fills in data and forms.
This is where new value is born: not in the number of features, but in how the tool interacts with you. The longer you use it, the more precise the results. The fewer steps from request to finished solution. And this is not just convenience — it’s a new level of efficiency.
We sat at the table, talking about wine, technology, and the future of apps. But in reality, the conversation was about what changes the way we work, think, and make choices. In a world where universal agents can handle complex tasks for you, it’s crucial to understand: value is no longer in the service itself, but in how it becomes your reliable assistant, a part of your work and everyday life.
