We don’t need VC funding to start 90% of software companies now.
Let’s thank the massive VC funding in AI platforms and infrastructure for subsidizing SaaS and startup software companies, enabling them to do amazing things with minimal investment.
Beyond the AI hype and early experiments, AI is delivering practical efficiency, speed, and value to bootstrapped SaaS founders to do more with less.
Here’s what I’m seeing that’s working great in growth-stage SaaS, and there’s no going back:
1) AI is really helping serious devs create better software faster and cheaper.
There’s a lot of hype around AI for coding, but it’s totally clear that experienced developers who leverage practical AI tools and techniques can move at least 2X+ faster than before, with better quality. Soon to be 4X+.
So the problem isn’t slow coding anymore. It’s quality and deep product/customer understanding. Slow coding isn’t a moat anymore.
2) AI is clearly helping software companies do more with less.
Most of the 50 SaaS founders I work with say their teams are doing significantly more than they did last year. They don’t need to hire as many people to grow at the same rate.
That’s across everything – operations, marketing, product, sales, accounting, etc. These were already software-powered and automated, so the AI productivity boost is on top of that.
3) Software founders are getting savvier faster with AI.
The basic knowledge of the SaaS game is now available, in context, to any software founder anywhere in the world.
We need fewer advisors, consultants, experts, investors, and even books to learn how we can drastically improve our results this year.
There is a limit to the “great” expertise that GPTs can offer, but the floor for detailed basics is 10x higher for new founders. This is a big deal.
4) AI is helping savvy founders create truly great customer experiences.
Yes, there is AI slop and AI faking and AI hype. But when serious founders get beyond that and double down on truly improving customer experience and differentiated value, magic can happen—no outside funding needed.
This is more than just adding an AI feature. It’s helping to deeply understand customers, serve them 5x better, do new things for customers that change their lives, speed up roadmap delivery, and reduce bugs.
5) It’s changing how founders see their end game
Most bootstrapped and lightly-funded SaaS founders tell me that “I want to grow my company to 30 (or 50 or 100 employees) and then it won’t be as much fun for me anymore as a founder. I’ll sell it then–at $5M or $10M ARR.”
But AI can change this math. Founders can get to $10M with fewer employees and less “organizational friction.”
AI isn’t simple, easy, or free. And there are tons of overcooked hype.
But it’s working and changing the game for practical SaaS founders.
