Verticalization is emerging as a key defensibility in the AI era, driven by lessons from the rise and fall of the ChatGPT wrapper company between 2023 and 2024. Seed-stage startups are now pitching comprehensive, vertically integrated visions adapted for high-value verticals, small teams, and AI-first thinking, such as an AI-first law firm or owning the entire supply chain. The first wave of founders built on top of ChatGPT for tasks like copywriting or legal research, charging subscriptions. Jasper, a poster child, raised $125 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in 2022, but within a year revised its 2023 ARR forecast down by at least 30%, conducted layoffs, and saw both co-founders step down. Wrapper companies that built single-task tools on foundation models bet the models would stay static, but agents changed that. Frontier labs began productizing their models; Anthropic grew its revenue run rate from a $14 billion run rate announced in January to crossing $47 billion in annualized revenue this May, largely driven by enterprise demand, with tools like Claude Code and Claude Design that would have been wrappers two years ago. The "AI for X" framing turned out to be a temporary advantage, and companies building generalist agents without network effects or vertical expertise may struggle.