why does cursor have $100m ARR then?

I read the first one when it was posted here too and I don't get their point. It's a lot of words, but what are you trying to say?

I think what they're saying is that Cursor makes money because it's a good editor in general that integrates AI well, not just because of the fact that it uses AI.

If you just slap a ChatGPT backend onto your product, your competitors will do it too and you gain nothing without some additional innovation.

The article heavily emphasises the point that having the "smartest" AI isn't a moat, it's the experience and integrations that build the moat. That's exactly why Cursor is more popular than Aider.

TFA is saying that it's your product that matters, as always, and that using AI can't be your moat since everyone has access to AI.

It seems cursor did a bunch of things right, from choosing to base it on an already popular editor, to the vision and specific ways they have integrated AI, to the flexibility of which models to use. No doubt there was some "early mover" advantage too.

Certainly the AI isn't their moat since it's mostly using freely available models (although some of their own too I believe), and it remains to be seen how much of a moat of any kind or early-mover advantage they really have. The AI-assisted coding market is going to be huge, and presumably will attract a lot more competition.

I'm old enough to remember when the BRIEF (basic reconfigurable interactive editing facility) editor (by Underware) took the world by storm, but where is it now?

Any other former BRIEF users/fans out there ?!

> why does cursor have $100m ARR then?

First mover advantage.

They are not safe against Microsoft, who have the resources to copy every feature that Cursor has into VS code and can afford to offer it for "free" for a very long time and Microsoft also has access to the exact same models as Cursor.

So not only that tells you there is no moat, but offering the best tools and models for free is exactly what Microsoft's modern definition of "Extinguish" is from their EEE strategy.

This makes sense. Cursor makes money therefore they are the only AI code editor

An alternative phrasing is “you can’t build a moat with an AI model”. Which Cursor exemplifies by way of supporting 10 different models and adding more all the time.