I'm building Subtrax — a tool to track SaaS + AI spend for small teams. This week I found out my closest competitor is backed by Y Combinator. Here's what I learned about competing as a solo founder—from Pakistan—against a funded team 👇 When I started, I thought I was early to "FinOps for AI." Then I found SuperPenguin—a YC-backed team doing almost exactly my headline feature: tracking @OpenAI / @AnthropicAI API spend. First reaction: gut punch. Then I actually studied them, and it sharpened how I think about my own product: → They sell to engineers (install an SDK). → I sell to founders + finance (forward an email, sync QuickBooks — zero code). → They track AI spend only. → I track ALL software + AI spend in one place. → They're a dashboard. I'm building the approval + governance layer on top. The lesson: a funded competitor doesn't mean you're dead. It usually means the problem is real enough that someone raised money to solve it. Your job isn't to copy them — it's to find the buyer they can't serve. So I'm doing the unsexy thing now: talking to real people instead of building in a cave. If you run a team using @OpenAI or @AnthropicAI— How do you track that bill today? Spreadsheet? A tool? Nothing? Genuinely want to learn. Reply or DM. #buildinpublic #AI #startups #FinOps

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