Why I'm still building a SaaS company in 2026(vincentchan.vc)
vincentchan.vc
Why I'm still building a SaaS company in 2026
https://www.vincentchan.vc/why-im-building-a-saas-company-during-the-saaspocalypse
4 comments
I think your insight is spot on. We're already starting to see the shift towards "hard/deep tech". My observation is that investors are scrambling away from pure software plays and LLM wrappers, and more towards foundational tech or infrastructure.
IMO that's still "tech moat" thinking. The real moat nowadays is GTM traction, and "creativity/taste". All software can be copied, but the creation of new concepts/solutions and trends, is still uniquely something that requires a deep understanding of the "WHYs" and "HOWs" as I've described in my writing.
IMO that's still "tech moat" thinking. The real moat nowadays is GTM traction, and "creativity/taste". All software can be copied, but the creation of new concepts/solutions and trends, is still uniquely something that requires a deep understanding of the "WHYs" and "HOWs" as I've described in my writing.
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The economies of scale and the diversion of focus away from their differentiators mean it won't make sense outside of marginal cases (it will of course add pricing pressure to software solutions though).
But what I think will happen is software is going to drift more towards a consulting arrangement.
The reduced cost of fresh builds is going to make it timely and economical enough for companies to hire consultants specialised in their niche, which maintain their own suite of custom software which they then integrate into those companies themselves.
I think we're seeing initial signals of this with the surging of the (goofy named) "forward deployed engineer" role.
Of course this is not as scalable as the classic SaaS play, and those multiples are going to be harder to get. One hopes this will in turn redirect more VC funding into hard tech.