Why a startup just dumped Claude for DeepSeek
ai startup lindy replaced claude entirely with deepseek, saving millions in unsustainable costs. it signals a shift where price-performance beats brand loyalty as cheaper models erode anthropic's margins.
ai startup lindy completely ceased using anthropic's claude in favor of the chinese deepseek model, hosted domestically, saving millions in annual operating costs. ceo flo crivello stated that api expenses had surpassed the company's payroll, making the original stack unsustainable and necessitating the move to survive. this decision underscores a growing trend where ceos prioritize cost efficiency, leveraging the aggressive pricing of models like deepseek or glm-5.2 over the marginal quality gains of premium western models. anthropic now faces intensified pressure to lower prices or risk losing market share to high-value alternatives as clients realize agentic workflows burn through tokens too quickly to ignore the bottom line.