AI is killing B2B SaaS • Hacker News Board

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#341

Post by Bewelge » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 12:26 AM UTC

overfeed wrote: post #255

mym1990 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are certainly closer now to being able to prototype and go to market faster with a product. In one weekend is a little much but I think its hard to deny that building will continue to expedite. What most developers don't think about is that the marketing, sales, customer service are all non-trivial parts of the business/product and all require legwork that is more than just sitting at an IDE. The nail in the coffi…

> We are certainly closer now to being able to prototype and go to market faster with a product. What are the higher-order effects when anyone can do this, and *aaS becomes a market for Lemons?

It's not a market for lemons. We can share info about the lemons and all choose to use the good ones. There's no information asymmetry.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#342

Post by GorbachevyChase » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 12:27 AM UTC

overfeed wrote: post #255

mym1990 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are certainly closer now to being able to prototype and go to market faster with a product. In one weekend is a little much but I think its hard to deny that building will continue to expedite. What most developers don't think about is that the marketing, sales, customer service are all non-trivial parts of the business/product and all require legwork that is more than just sitting at an IDE. The nail in the coffi…

> We are certainly closer now to being able to prototype and go to market faster with a product. What are the higher-order effects when anyone can do this, and *aaS becomes a market for Lemons?

If you can gin these things up in a weekend then why would you bother with a monthly subscription model for software? The only valuable part is the specification and possibly the hardware to run it. If I were a CTO trying to save money I might pay for the labor to develop good specs, but I would prioritize getting out from under software companies with a rent seeking models and 80 to 90% margins

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#343

Post by thallavajhula » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 12:28 AM UTC

I was reading through the article and waiting for the key info to drop, but nope. It never did. It seemed like marketing fluff. If anything, vibe coding may eliminate some of the B2C SaaSes, but not B2B. If you think an enterprise is going to vibe code a B2B offering that they pay millions for, you're out of your mind.

Here's my general mantra regarding AI: NEVER take suggestions about AI from people who have a vested interest in it. CEOs of companies that train and offer LLMs, Authors of Books about LLMs and AI in general, etc.

This may come off as an unpopular opinion, but this is how I felt after listening to Steve Yegge recently. He has a new book about Vibe coding and he goes on in the interview/podcast to say that the best programmers he knows in the world (the ones better than him and maybe even the top world class programmers), would be equivalent to those of interns in an year, if they don't start vibe coding or use AI. I respect the guy, but damn, this is just peak delusion. He didn't even say it as a hyperbole, he meant it.

According to popular CEOs of companies training LLMs, 2024 was supposed to be the year that would eliminate the need for Junior and mid-level engineers. 2025 happened. Now, we are in 2026.

So yeah, I'm never taking advice about AI from these people ever again.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#344

Post by torginus » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 12:32 AM UTC

thallavajhula wrote: post #343

I was reading through the article and waiting for the key info to drop, but nope. It never did. It seemed like marketing fluff. If anything, vibe coding may eliminate some of the B2C SaaSes, but not B2B. If you think an enterprise is going to vibe code a B2B offering that they pay millions for, you're out of your mind. Here's my general mantra regarding AI: NEVER take suggestions about AI from people who have a veste…

> Here's my general mantra regarding AI: NEVER take suggestions about AI from people who have a vested interest in it

I get where you're coming from, but let's say you're talking to a HVAC installer, and he recommends you a system to get - I'm sure there's financial self-interest on his part, but I do like to think that he knows quite a bit about what he does, and believes what he's selling is genuinely good stuff (and has reason to), even if he oversells it a bit.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#345

Post by cyanydeez » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 12:32 AM UTC

overfeed wrote: post #255

mym1990 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are certainly closer now to being able to prototype and go to market faster with a product. In one weekend is a little much but I think its hard to deny that building will continue to expedite. What most developers don't think about is that the marketing, sales, customer service are all non-trivial parts of the business/product and all require legwork that is more than just sitting at an IDE. The nail in the coffi…

> We are certainly closer now to being able to prototype and go to market faster with a product. What are the higher-order effects when anyone can do this, and *aaS becomes a market for Lemons?

It means the same: random lottery of mass, with everuone else failing.

American capitalism hides the depressing fact that rarely does the best succees.

AAI momentum is parallel to just buying lottery tickets and doing so with the belief that you know the real odds, so one can overwhelm with quantity of tickets.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#346

Post by cpursley » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 12:35 AM UTC

sdf2erf wrote: post #268

IhateAI wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, also if a SaaS costs, 10k a year, I promise its not not more cost effecient to pull your 10k a month engineer off their usual work to build and then maintain some vibe coded slope everytime an edge case occurs. Also many customers of SaaS have little to zero engineering staff, they are in construction, resturaunts, law offices ect. These takes are so assanine.

Is there a place on the internet where folks like yourself, who seemingly have a way to think economically congregate? I personally dont know of one, for which if I did, I wouldnt visit here anymore. So many takes on here are so lazy and simpleton that when you go a few levels deeper all the flaws get exposed.

Also interesting.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#347

Post by DangitBobby » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 12:36 AM UTC

x0x0 wrote: post #328

ytoawwhra92 wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not considering opportunity costs and buyers vs. users. If your senior developers can slap together something better than an expensive SAAS offering you want them directing that energy at your core products/services rather than supporting tools. And the people deciding to buy the expensive SAAS tools are often not the people using them, and typically don't care too much about how crappy the tool may or may not…

And it's never just the slapping together. it's the ktlo: a perpetual tax on your eng team for every thing they own.

No matter what it's a tax on your engineering team to keep it together. But the most brittle parts are always right at the seams. It's not as hard to sew together components when you can cut the cloth down to fit together. Who knows how it'll shake out.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#348

Post by thallavajhula » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 12:37 AM UTC

torginus wrote: post #344

thallavajhula wrote: post #343

I was reading through the article and waiting for the key info to drop, but nope. It never did. It seemed like marketing fluff. If anything, vibe coding may eliminate some of the B2C SaaSes, but not B2B. If you think an enterprise is going to vibe code a B2B offering that they pay millions for, you're out of your mind. Here's my general mantra regarding AI: NEVER take suggestions about AI from people who have a veste…

> Here's my general mantra regarding AI: NEVER take suggestions about AI from people who have a vested interest in it I get where you're coming from, but let's say you're talking to a HVAC installer, and he recommends you a system to get - I'm sure there's financial self-interest on his part, but I do like to think that he knows quite a bit about what he does, and believes what he's selling is genuinely good stuff (a…

True. That's the case with almost any commodity in life. That's why I was specific about AI.

The difference is, in other sectors, there's no fear-mongering. If you don't use their HVAC, it's fine. Your job isn't getting replaced. The air you breathe in your home isn't going to be fully polluted. You have other options.

With AI though, there's no middle ground. You either use their tool and become extremely successful (so much that you don't know what to do with that much success) or you're out of a job and become obsolete in like the next 3 seconds.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#349

Post by fluidcruft » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 12:39 AM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #199

bandrami wrote: post #162

It's a tale as old as time that developers, particularly junior developers, are convinced they could "slap together something in one weekend" that would replace expensive SAAS software and "just do the parts of it we actually use". Unfortunately, the same arguments against those devs regular-coding a bespoke replacement apply to them vibe-coding a bespoke replacement: management simply doesn't want to be responsible…

This vibe-coding-will-replace-SaaS insanity is the new crypto-will-replace-fiat-money insanity.

I don't think it will replace SaaS but I do think it can replace the need for a lot of the consultant work that goes around configuring and integrating the SaaS. It will be much easier to have a spec that defines how things need to be configured and the machines can implement it (using the SaaS as tools). Frankly this is the most annoying part. It's not that the B2B stuff can't do whatever, it's that it never gets implemented in ways that aren't a pain in the ass because it's all handled by people who aren't actually using them.

I really don't think it's not going to become "these prompts are specs" and then you have processes of reviewing implementations. It's one thing when you have randos building stuff and they leave etc. Having stored prompts and managed code that uses tools is a different beast.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#350

Post by eek2121 » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 12:41 AM UTC

I am kind of hoping that AI will kill the startup grab for money TBH. Too many wannabe CEOs I've met in the past 2 decades have gotten rich thanks to a lucky pitch without a clear path to a viable product. At least 6 of those I know did so at the expense of developers that accepted equity over cash...and the developers wasted a ton of time and 2 even were briefly homeless as a result...and none of them live in California.

Hopefully wannabe senior leadership will try and take advantage of AI without taking advantage of developers, because most of us just want to write code and build something great.