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How to build a SaaS startup on the AI platform shift
Executive overview
Every major SaaS category — CRM, ERP, CMS, HCM, BI — has been disrupted by each platform shift: CD to cloud, then mobile, now AI. Incumbents are slow to adapt; startups that move fast get acquired or become the next giant.
The winning approach is not to rebuild a full platform. Build a system of intelligence that sits on top of existing platforms, adds 10x value on one workflow, then expands.
The AI platform shift is the best time in a decade to start a SaaS company — if you pick the right entry point.
The five core SaaS categories
- CRM — $76B market; manages sales and customer relationships
- ERP — $54B; enterprise resource and operations planning
- CMS — $24B; content management and web publishing
- HCM — $26B; HR and people management
- BI — $32B; business intelligence and analytics
- Every platform shift re-opens all five categories to new entrants
How platform shifts play out
- CD/server → cloud: Salesforce wasn't the first CRM, it was the first cloud CRM
- Incumbents (Oracle, Siebel) were forced to follow — or lose
- Mobile shift repeated the pattern; large company PMs couldn't move fast enough
- Without a shift, founders could only compete by niching down (e.g. CRM for real estate)
- AI is the next shift — and potentially the most disruptive yet
Three ways to add AI value (system of intelligence)
- Pull data from one or more existing platforms into your product
- Couple with an LLM or proprietary model to generate net new value
- Choose a value-add mode:
- Predictions — surface insights from combined proprietary and platform data
- Automation — collapse multi-step workflows into one action
- Agents — replace human tasks entirely (still early, but coming fast)
Land and expand strategy
- Don't ask customers to migrate critical infrastructure to a two-person startup
- Solve one workflow 10x better than the native platform
- Amass users, then expand to adjacent workflows
- Over time, grow into a full platform contender
Acquisition as an exit path
- Incumbents have money but slow product teams
- They buy startups already integrated into their ecosystem
- Platform shifts are when acquisition activity peaks — be the obvious buy
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