AI-native startups could challenge large SaaS companies

AI-native software startups founded in the past two or three years could replace or significantly outperform public software companies that employ thousands of traditionally organized engineers. The prediction characterizes the current period as a “golden age of software.”

Teams of roughly 20 people could potentially do work comparable to that of a much larger engineering organization, with each employee producing the equivalent of about 100 engineers’ work. Newer startups are also expected to avoid legacy practices associated with the ZIRP era and out-execute SaaS companies that do not adopt the same approach.

The forecast is for a major, potentially “epic” turnover across the software industry.