“None of us is moving fast enough with AI.” This was said by a very AI-forward SaaS founder who is already transforming his product, team, and business this year.
He said it to other savvy SaaS founders in one of my Practical Founders CEO Peer Groups this week. We all agreed.
AI technology is advancing faster every week.
There are useful, practical applications of AI that make sense in every area of our businesses and products.
Not AI to fake it and say you are doing AI.
Not AI to create slop content, crap code, or more work for humans to chase vanity metrics.
If you are a practical bootstrapped software founder, you don’t have to play the AI performance game for your investors.
You can move faster with AI, both testing and shipping, for the right reasons.
Not because you are panicked by the hype and headlines. Or because you think it all works right now or it’s easy.
You can still be very optimistic about what’s happening with AI in your business right now and what will be possible soon.
You move faster with AI because you can see where you can deliver 2X or 5X the value to your customers. And your customers can see it too.
You move faster with AI because your best employees can be much better. And your junior employees can be 2 or 3 times more productive. And your AI employees can do work you never paid anyone to do before.
You move faster with AI because you can see how you can grow faster next year without adding employees.
You move faster with AI because you know that code will no longer be an easy moat, and you’ll have more competitors nipping at your heels next year.
Can you move faster with AI than your customers?
Sometimes, but they will eventually catch up, and you need to be there. What they really want is a better solution to their actual problems. Don’t think they love your current SaaS solution as much as you do.
Can you move faster with AI than your employees?
Founders should be leading the AI charge, by example. Bring your team along and don’t accept “AI isn’t useful for me.”
None of us is moving fast enough with AI right now to build amazing software businesses.
