In the age of generative AI, where the cost of creation has collapsed and anyone can spin up a halfway decent product, content stream, or marketing campaign, the most defensible advantage may well be taste.

Taste has always mattered. But today, it matters more than ever. Because when AI makes it easy to do everything, the ability to select, combine, curate, and elevate becomes a key source of value.

When doing is not a matter of the size of your team, knowing what to do becomes more important. 

When executing on an idea becomes easier, the value of unique ideas increases. 

When the cost of building a component drops, value accrues to combining components in systems to produce magical experiences.

When everyone has a tool to produce pretty good writing, having a voice is what differentiates great. 

When making is simple, making meaning is what matters.

Companies that Prioritize Taste

What does it mean to say a company or founder has taste?

As Lenny Rachitsky writes, “Taste is what tells you that the onboarding flow just feels wrong. And why.”

Taste is the ability to make product decisions that transcend pure utility—choices driven by aesthetic sensibility, cultural intuition, and a sharp point of view. 

In his article Good Taste Matters More Than Ever, Ian Bogost writes,

“Taste is the instinct that tells us not just what can be done, but what should be done. A corporate leader’s taste shows up in every decision they make: whom they hire, the brand identity they shape, the architecture of a new office building, the playlist at a company retreat. These choices may seem incidental, but collectively, they shape culture and reinforce what the organization aspires to be.”

At PodPlay, we take inspiration from companies where taste is a strategic differentiator and a moat, not just a layer of polish:

Common Characteristics of Companies with Taste

At PodPlay, we use the products of four of the six companies above daily and draw design inspiration from the others. 

The common characteristics of companies with taste are:

How PodPlay Builds with Taste

My Co-Founder Ilya Rivkin (CTO) is fond of saying “the right way is faster than the fast way.” Short cuts, quick hacks and hasty integrations come at a high cost if you are trying to build with taste. Having a strong point of view means balancing customer feedback with the requirements of building an intuitive and integrated system. 

Some examples of how PodPlay builds with taste:

• Restraint – Less is often more when it comes to user experience. A customer’s first experience of a club is often its app (this is why we say “your app is your front door”). PodPlay allows customers to browse anonymously and optimizes for minimal friction at account creation. 
• Point of View – We build for mobile first. No grid based calendars. Vertical rather than horizontal scroll. Quick filters and sliders that are easy on the eyes and minimize the number of clicks to accomplish a task. 
• Cultural Literacy – Branded apps powered by PodPlay are described as modern and sleek. Using club logos and color palettes allows for individual brand identity, at scale. 
• Craft + Utility – Our coach connect feature allows for discovery, coordination and payment in a few clicks. No need for texts, emails, or phone calls. Elegance that is functional.
• Curation – PodPlay is not the only video capture system in the market, but it is the only one fully integrated into a reservation system. No QR codes, no separate logins, no disjointed integrations. We live in a world where sharing experiences matters as much as having them. PodPlay allows players to capture and share without taking them out of the flow of the game. 

In a blog entitled Taste is the Key to Creating Exceptional Products Mehmet Perk writes:

“Taste is finely-tuned intuition for what differentiates good from great — and perhaps more importantly, the ability to explain why. Products that are built without a guiding vision might function, but they rarely inspire. They might solve a problem, but they don’t do so in a way that makes users excited or happy. They don’t create fans; they create users who tolerate them until something better comes along.”

At PodPlay, we want to inspire fans. To build something we are proud of. To create a product so good it generates word of mouth. 

To do so requires building with taste. AI doesn’t change the need for taste, it amplifies it. Whether in UI flow, architecture, brand recall, or emotional resonance—taste anchors trust and differentiation. 

The PodPlay Advantage

PodPlay gives venue operators all the tools they need to digitally manage a physical space - integrating video replays, automated scoreboards, and autonomous functionality with a reservation engine, event management, coach connect, membership module, and payments. 

Originally built to power PingPod, the network of futuristic autonomous ping pong clubs, PodPlay is now being used to manage venues across pickleball, padel, ping pong, golf simulators, racing simulators, soccer, hockey, baseball, and pool, with more experience verticals to come in the future.

If you’re interested in learning more, request a demo.