SaaS in the AI Era: What Changes, and What Doesn’t

There’s a lot of noise today about AI — what it will change, what it will destroy, and what it might create. It feels like one of those moments in technology where everyone is trying to outpredict the future. In my experience, the truth is simpler: building a great company has always been hard, and it will stay hard, no matter how many new tools, models, or acronyms we invent.

I’ve spent my life building companies. I started ISS back when cybersecurity barely existed as an industry. I’ve built others since, served on public boards, and had the privilege to work alongside some of the best operators in the world. Through every wave — dotcom, cloud, mobile, SaaS, and now AI — the companies that endure aren’t the ones who chase trends. They are the ones who master the fundamentals, adapt with discipline, and stay relentlessly close to their customers.

The fundamentals haven’t changed.

In fact, I carry a simple framework that I always return to — what I call the Timeless Rules of SaaS Company Building.

You need a great team — not just resumes, but a collection of people who share conviction, resilience, and the ability to adapt without losing their sense of direction. Early-stage companies win or lose on the quality of their teams long before they win or lose on the quality of their technology.

You need early customer wins that matter — customers who believe in your value, who are willing to bet on you not because you discount the most, but because you solve something critical for them. Validation is not a press release; it’s a customer who renews, expands, and tells others.

You need to prove you can scale efficiently — not simply grow at any cost, but grow intelligently. Top-line growth fueled by unsustainable burn is not a victory. It’s a deferral of reality. Building efficient growth engines from the beginning is not a constraint; it’s a competitive advantage that compounds over time.

And you need to operate in a market where structural tailwinds, not temporary noise, create sustainable opportunity. Chasing fads is easy. Finding secular shifts that can carry a business forward for a decade or more is harder — and essential.

Beyond these fundamentals, certain truths remain immutable across every technology era. Culture still matters more than any feature set. The best technology in the world cannot survive a culture that fractures under pressure. Metrics still matter more than marketing decks. Vanity metrics and glossy narratives might win short-term attention, but real companies build by measuring what matters, adjusting in real time, and staying brutally honest about progress. Execution still beats ideas — every single day.

It’s easy to be distracted by new technologies, new buzzwords, and new investment cycles. But the reality remains: Companies are built through disciplined, deliberate execution — quarter after quarter, year after year.

That was true in the early days of enterprise software. It’s true in the cloud era. And it will be true in the AI era, too.

Today, AI is reshaping many of the mechanics behind building a software company.
Products are evolving from static systems of record into dynamic systems of intelligence — systems that not only store and manage information, but analyze it, learn from it, and act on it in real time.

Customers are beginning to expect not just automation, but true anticipation: experiences that proactively surface insights, recommend actions, and reduce friction before it even appears. The standard for what constitutes a “good” product is rising fast — and customers are unlikely to lower it again.

The pace of product development is collapsing. Real-time telemetry, AI-assisted code generation, and continuous learning loops are dramatically shortening the distance between idea, implementation, and feedback. Release cycles that once took months are now measured in weeks or days. The companies that build the internal muscle to operate at this speed — without losing coherence or quality — will define their categories.

And as this acceleration compounds, companies that learn faster — about their customers, their markets, and themselves — will outperform those who merely move faster.

In the age of AI, speed without learning is just acceleration toward irrelevance.

There’s a slide I shared that captures these shifts clearly.

If you are not thinking about how AI affects your product architecture, your go-to-market engine, and your operational rhythms, you will find yourself outpaced by those who do. In this sense, AI is not optional. It is table stakes for the next generation of SaaS.

Yet the lesson is not that AI replaces the fundamentals. It amplifies them.

AI is not simply another technology cycle; it is an inflection point in how software companies will be built and scaled. The better analogy comes from manufacturing: from the era of handcrafted automobiles — slow, artisanal, prone to defects — to the rise of the moving assembly line, and ultimately to today’s AI-driven precision robotics.

The companies that thrive in every era are not those who automate for automation’s sake. They are those who use new tools to reinforce the fundamentals: better design, tighter operations, greater reliability, and deeper customer trust.

AI offers SaaS founders the same opportunity.

It will accelerate product cycles, sharpen customer insights, and drive operational efficiencies across every layer of the business. But it will reward discipline, not just deployment.

Nowhere will this matter more than in cybersecurity.

Security buyers — CISOs, architects, operators — are among the most discerning buyers in technology. They demand outcomes, not promises. Proof, not predictions.

Founders building cybersecurity companies today must master both sides of the equation: the timeless disciplines of company building, and the thoughtful integration of AI where it drives real impact. AI will reshape the threat landscape, accelerating both attacks and defenses. It will change how security operations are built, scaled, and automated. But it will not change the foundational expectations of clarity, resilience, and trust.

Teams still matter.
Culture still matters.
Execution still matters.

These disciplines cannot be automated. They must be earned, reinforced, and protected.

AI will change the landscape. It will accelerate the pace of innovation, shift customer expectations, and redefine what operational excellence looks like. In many ways, it may prove to be the most profound technological wave of our lifetime — reshaping how companies are built, scaled, and sustained.

But even the most powerful wave cannot build a vessel. It only tests the one you have already built.

The companies that will define the next decade will not be those who chase AI features the fastest. They will be those who master the fundamentals first — and then use AI intelligently to deepen their strengths, extend their reach, and scale their impact.

AI does not replace the work of building a company. It magnifies it. It punishes fragility and rewards discipline.

The challenge — and the opportunity — is the same as it has always been:

Build something that lasts.