SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.

Apr 12, 2026 14:52 · 5:06 · English · Whisper Turbo · 1 Oromo
This transcript expires today. Upgrade pour stockage permanent →
Index de lecture
Mostrando solo
0:00
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
The CEO of Microsoft got on a podcast and said three words that broke the internet.
0:05
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
SaaS is dead. That was December 2024. Since then, the entire SaaS stock index dropped 6.5%.
0:14
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
At the same time, the S&P 500 went up nearly 18%. And this gap is not coincidence. Something is
0:22
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
breaking and I want to explain exactly what it is because once you understand it, you will see
0:28
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
why this is either the worst time or the best time to be building software. All of this is depending
0:34
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
on which side of the shift you are on. So to understand what's breaking, you first need to
0:40
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
understand why SaaS worked so well for so long. Basically, the whole model was built on one simple
0:47
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
bet. Companies grow. They hire more people and more people means more seats. More seats means more
0:54
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
revenue. And all of this automatically without the SaaS company having to sell harder. So you land a 50
1:02
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
person company on your tool. They grow to 80. You just made more money in your sleep without doing
1:08
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
anything. And that cycle ran for 20 years. It made SaaS one of the most attractive business models
1:14
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
ever created. It had predictable revenue, high margins, low cancellations, and investors loved
1:21
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
it. The market rewarded it. But that cycle had one assumption baked into it. They assumed that head
1:28
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
count would always grow. And that assumption is now wrong. Companies are doing more with fewer people.
1:35
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
AI handles the work that used to require five hires. So instead of growing headcount, companies are
1:42
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
shrinking it or freezing it. Well, the output actually stays the exact same. Fewer people means fewer
1:48
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
seats and fewer seats means the whole cycle stops. And you can already see this in the data. The average
1:54
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
number of SaaS tools per company has been shrinking. Midsize companies cut their software stack by 29%
2:01
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
in 2025. Cancellations across the industry hit the highest level since 2019. Not because the tools
2:09
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
stopped working, but because companies are rethinking whether they need them all. And here is where it gets
2:15
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
worse for the big players. Their clients are now walking into renewal calls and threatening to build
2:21
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
their own version. The CFO looks at the vendor and says, you know what? Our developers can build this
2:27
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
themselves with the AI tools that we now have. So either give us 30% off or we walk and create it
2:34
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
ourselves. And that conversation is happening everywhere right now. The pricing pressure is actually just a
2:40
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
surface problem. The deeper issue is what Nadella was pointing at. His argument was this. Most SaaS
2:46
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
products are essentially just a database with a set of business rules coded around it. And those rules,
2:53
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
the logic that makes the tool useful, that's what companies paid for. That's what justified the price.
2:59
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
But those rules are now moving into AI agents. The thinking layer is separating from the product.
3:05
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
And once that happens, the database underneath becomes almost replaceable. IDC published research
3:11
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
saying that by 2028, per-seat pricing will effectively be obsolete. 70% of software companies
3:19
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
will be forced to completely rebuild how they charge. And that is not just a small adjustment.
3:26
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
That's a whole new game entirely. So here's the question. If that collapse, what actually wins?
3:32
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
The companies getting squeezed are the ones built on the old model. They have old infrastructure to protect.
3:38
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
Massive sale teams running the old playbook. Per-seat contracts they can't easily unwind.
3:43
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
They're just full-on defending something. The people in the best position right now are building from scratch
3:49
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
with nothing to defend. On top of the same AI tools that are pulling everyone else apart. The cost to build
3:55
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
a focused working software product has never been lower. What used to take a team of 10 and a year
4:01
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
of budget can now be shipped by one or two people in a few weeks. The tools that are killing the old SaaS
4:07
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
are the exact same tools making it cheaper to build the replacements. And what replaces it does not look
4:14
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
like a traditional SaaS. It's not a dashboard with 40 features most people never touch. It's a focused
4:20
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
product that solves one specific problem and charges based on what it actually does for you.
4:27
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
That's what works in this new environment. Small, specific and priced on real value. The irony of
4:33
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
this whole shift is that the same technology killing the old model is what makes building the new one
4:38
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
so accessible. The window to build something real without a big team or without a big budget has never
4:45
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
been wider than it is right now. So the question isn't whether SaaS as we know it breaks. It already
4:50
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
is. The question is whether you are watching it happen from the sideline or whether you take part.
4:57
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
Whether you are one of the people building what comes next. So if you are interested in building
5:01
S… Speaker 1 (SaaS Is Dead. Here's What Wins Next.)
SaaS make sure to like and subscribe. A lot of more content like this is in the pipeline.

This transcript was generated by AI (automatic speech recognition) This transcript was generated by AI (automatic speech recognition) This transcript was generated by AI (automatic speech recognition) Politique de l'AI

❤️ Love STT.ai? Diga a teus amigos!
Sommario
Click Summarize to generate an AI summary of this transcript.
Summarizing...
Ask AI About This Transcript - AoA
Pondo ndoa okoko na okoko na okoko na okoko na okoko na okoko na okoko na okoko na okoko na okoko na okoko.
Transcribe Another