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AI is killing B2B SaaS

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Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#611

Post by mooreds »

wjnc wrote: post #555
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…

My firm has partially transitioned through this curve. We went went from "fully externally supplied" systems, to an architecture that combines "externally supplied" (core functionality) with "low code" about 6 years ago. I would argue (as a financial manager) that that lead to a more flexible and more affordable architecture. A funny mixed bag problem arose though: the curve of business demands grew harder than that…

> All insourced code is future maintenance expenditure. You need to balance that to the benefits.

I love this perspective. I feel like the pendulum has swung too far back to "it's easy to build, it'll be easy to support". But to be fair, it was probably too far the other way a few years ago: "it was easy to buy, it'll be easy to have them support it".

Other than trial and error, how do you think about pricing out maintenance costs for insourced code vs purchased functionality?

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#612

Post by SecretDreams »

bawolff wrote: post #369
SecretDreams wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lots of people have really great ideas but very few actually commit to execution. This is true when you had to work hard for those ideas. Now you have LLMs. It means more people can sling a lot more crap at walls with fewer barriers to entry.

Good execution doesn't get easier with an LLM.

That is why I said "throw crap".

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#613

Post by mooreds »

solaire_oa wrote: post #462
mbesto wrote: post #136

1. This isn't rooted in data but anecdotes "One Series E CEO told me that they’re re-evaluating the quarterly renewal of their engineering productivity software because they along with an engineer reimplemented something using Github and Notion APIs. They were paying $30,000 to a popular tool3 and they were not going to renew anymore." 2. These anecdotes are about tech startups spend, not your . Nor or they grounded…

It would be amusing if somebody parodied this article titled "AI is killing speculative articles about AI".

Not what you are asking for, but the Onion has some AI tips: https://theonion.com/tips-for-using-ai/

Fav tips:

- Give the AI restraints, like “Don’t tell me to kill myself as part of this stir-fry recipe.”

- Fact-check any information provided by asking the follow-up question “Are you sure?”

- Offset your water footprint by not bathing for 72 hours after each use.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#614

Post by halfcat »

laurentiurad wrote: post #594

What the authors of this kind of doomer-type articles do not realize is that B2B software companies have the data that their customers pay for, and they also have access to the AI tools themselves, meaning they can accelerate in adding new features to their products, making them more competitive. It's a fallacy to consider the bad performance of software stocks as a definite sign that AI is going to replace them. One…

Claude Code doesn’t need to vibe code Figma. It _is_ Figma.

Take a couple screenshots of your legacy app, write a short paragraph describing it, and the web tool will give you a self-contained HTML file that’s a fully interactive mock-up.

But it’s still a mock-up. So software dev in general will be fine, it will evolve. But unless the AI companies run out of money and it turns out the $20/mo plan actually costs $1000/mo without VC subsidies, Figma is cooked.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#615

Post by mooreds »

falloutx wrote: post #79
jboggan wrote: post #27

I don't think it is killing SaaS. I have definitely had to extend my sales cycle when a potential customer vibe-coded a quick fix for a pain point that might have triggered a sale a few weeks earlier, but eventually the benefit delivered by someone else caring about the software as their entire mission really wins out over a feature here and there. If you are selling SaaS consider that a vibe-coding customer is valid…

Yeah I have been saying this since the start of vibe coding, Saas companies rely on their sales, who are good enough to sell ther products even in tougher conditions. Software costs for the companies is 100% tax deductible, and they spend a very little on it (Most of times its less than 1% of CapEx). Only reason to optimize this cost is if the Execs of those companies think you can sell the same product.

> Software costs for the companies is 100% tax deductible

Section 174 almost changed that, but was reversed last year.

https://www.goodwinlaw.com/en/insights/publications/2025/07/...

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#616

Post by gspetr »

kavalg wrote: post #512
kstrauser wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, I was hired by an enterprise that was many months into a giant backend rewrite. After wrapping my head around the many plans, I realized they were rewriting Django, badly. One weekend I prototyped the whole thing… in Django. It worked. It met the specs. It was a CRUD app with a REST API. I came in to work Monday morning, showed it off, and inadvertently triggered a firestorm. Later my boss told me not to do tha…

In the beginning of my career, I've been once told by my senior management that I should never again: 1. Optimize things so that they work 10 000 times faster because it makes us look incompetent (must be done slowly to show gradual progress). 2. Brag about such optimization (to stakeholders) without first synchronizing this with them (so they can brag proportionally to their pay rate :) ).

This is the prime example of Law 1 of Robert Greene's "The 48 Laws of Power": "Never Outshine the Master."

The core principle is to always make those above you - your bosses, mentors, or superiors feel comfortably superior.

If you display your talents too aggressively, you risk triggering their deep-seated insecurities, which can lead them to sabotage your career or remove you from your position.

Galileo Galilei handled this really well. When he discovered the moons of Jupiter he strategically named them after the ruling Medici family.

By making the discovery about their greatness rather than his own intellect, he secured their lifelong patronage.

However, if your superior is a "fading star" or is clearly about to fall, you do not need to be merciful. In these cases, it may be strategic to outshine them to hasten their downfall and position yourself as the natural successor.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#617

Post by joenot443 »

isk517 wrote: post #147
xhrpost wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of a blog post a while back saying that gigabit fiber at home would lead to everyone running their own email server.

There was no chance that everyone would be running their own email server, but if it wasn't for the lack of IPv6 adaptation a plug and go home email server solution would probably see a decent amount of use. I'd bet we'd already be seeing it as a feature in most mid-ranged home routers by now.

It's all about spam though, right?

Without some kind of federation or centralization, it seems hard to distinguish a hobbyist from a spammer if both of them are using a plug-and-go. Forcing that responsibility into the hands of Google, Zoho, and Microsoft seems like the best compromise, unfortunately.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#618

Post by podgorniy »

We will have to go through the stage of disillusionment of what AI is and understanding of what it is not. There is too much FOMO and too many stories driven by the heavy-AI-invested parties today to see thing clearly.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#619

Post by jacquesm »

It kills low hanging fruit SaaS that was always just some minor piece of functionality wrapped in a subscription model usually based on 99% open source and 1% actual contribution.

Re: AI is killing B2B SaaS

#620

Post by laurentiurad »

halfcat wrote: post #614
laurentiurad wrote: post #594

What the authors of this kind of doomer-type articles do not realize is that B2B software companies have the data that their customers pay for, and they also have access to the AI tools themselves, meaning they can accelerate in adding new features to their products, making them more competitive. It's a fallacy to consider the bad performance of software stocks as a definite sign that AI is going to replace them. One…

Claude Code doesn’t need to vibe code Figma. It _is_ Figma. Take a couple screenshots of your legacy app, write a short paragraph describing it, and the web tool will give you a self-contained HTML file that’s a fully interactive mock-up. But it’s still a mock-up . So software dev in general will be fine, it will evolve. But unless the AI companies run out of money and it turns out the $20/mo plan actually costs $100…

so many conditions need to be met to have Figma "cooked". Plus you forgot that the underlying LLMs need to get exponentially better, hard to do that without infinite VC money.
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