SaaS is About to Change in 2026 (and nobody even realizes)

After bootstrapping three SAS companies to over 30 million in combined ARR with tiny teams and zero funding, I can tell you with complete certainty, SAS is

about to change in 2026. And most

founders have no idea what's coming.

Today, I want to go over my biggest predictions for 2026 and explain what you need to do to stay ahead of these massive shifts. So, number one, AI and

massive shifts. So, number one, AI and SAS become indistinguishable. The LLM or large language model is the biggest technological breakthrough since the internet. And the truth is the quality

internet. And the truth is the quality of the output you get from an LLM is 100% correlated to your ability to prompt it. But less than 1% of people

prompt it. But less than 1% of people will ever become great at prompting LLMs or even have an interest in it. So a

whole other internet will be built on top of the LLM. It will be software that prompts the LLM in a very specific way to get incredible output and actually do work for you. That's what software is

becoming and anyone building anything will be building some version of this in 2026. This is how AI and SAS become

2026. This is how AI and SAS become totally indistinguishable. My number two

totally indistinguishable. My number two prediction is AGI is not achieved, not even close. Despite all the

even close. Despite all the anxietyinducing up into the right graphs about how fast we're moving towards it, my personal view is that the big breakthrough already happened. That

breakthrough was the LLM. When I say AGI, I mean artificial intelligence that's much smarter than humans and can do everything we want done much faster and much better. The kind that

effectively wipes out all jobs. We're

nowhere close to that. My thesis is a whole other type of AI will have to be developed to achieve anything like that.

LLM technology is getting better quickly, but we're nowhere near this universal high-income world of infinite abundance from robotics and AI. That's

what we're led to believe by some of the AI companies and their graphs. but it's

not reality. Number three, an AI native version of every legacy incumbent app is launched. There's an old way of using

launched. There's an old way of using software and there's a new AI native way of using software. The old way is you set up a decision tree that performs steps of a workflow and everybody goes

through the same steps and you have a database and the software helps you take action on that database. Think HubSpot

workflows or Clavio workflows. Now the

new way is you give your software training documents. You tweak its voice.

training documents. You tweak its voice.

You give it guidance on how to respond to things and then you watch it work and then you go back and improve the training you gave it. I run two AI native apps on our website. One is deli

which is a clone of me and the other one is Finn which is intercom's tool that we use for support. So for that type of app which is AI native you train a vertically specific LLM. You let it work

you monitor it and then you improve it after the fact. AI native versions of every app that could work this way and currently doesn't are coming. Number

four, incumbent apps will glue AI on top of their apps and call it AI blank for blank. Like AI agents for marketing, AI

blank. Like AI agents for marketing, AI agents for sales, the AI admaker. You

have to call yourself an AI company now just from a marketing perspective because it's so hot. If you don't, you're not going to sell anything. If

you're an incumbent, you have this weird problem where you can't just kill your entire business by building the AI native version of it. So, you see a lot of people gluing AI on top of their existing businesses. Here's an example.

existing businesses. Here's an example.

An app that helps you make B2B contact lists using filters. They put a chat GPT box on top. You type in the list you want and then it just takes you inside of the app with some filters

pre-selected. That's AI glued on top of

pre-selected. That's AI glued on top of a legacy app. The AI native version would be a chat interface where you'd say the list you want and then it renders the list while you're talking back to the chat to edit the list with

text instead of filters. Number five,

more founders build in public and they do it past 100 million ARR. I think I helped set the tone for founders building in public. People have seen so much upside that once you started doing it, keep doing it even after 100 million

ARR. And when you're starting out,

ARR. And when you're starting out, getting attention is the hardest thing in the world. Everything's working

against you. If you can get people to follow your journey, that's an inexpensive way to capture their attention. Even more important, it gets

attention. Even more important, it gets them emotionally invested in what you're doing and it gets them talking to other people about what you're doing. More and

more founders are going to do it and they're going to continue doing it even at huge revenue numbers. Number six is cold email gets even harder. This

trend's been happening for a long time and it's a two-sided problem. On one

side, the clay smart lead and instantly economy has made sending unbelievably high volume personalized emails so easy.

Everyone's doing it now. On the other side, spam filters keep getting better as AI gets better. As conversion rates go down, the only response is to send more volume, which just perpetuates this

horrible issue. Eventually, Spray and

horrible issue. Eventually, Spray and Play will stop working, but it hasn't stopped working yet. Even if conversion rates are 1 in 300 sends on a demo or positive reply, that's getting worse by

3x in 2026. And by the way, this is exactly why I built RB2B. Instead of

blasting cold emails to strangers, you can identify who's already visiting your website and reach out while they're actually warm. You can try it for free

actually warm. You can try it for free by clicking the first link in the description. Number seven, we'll see the

description. Number seven, we'll see the first 100 million ARR 10erson startup.

This is happening. We're going to hear about it very loudly. AI proficiency is moving through the rank and file. At the

beginning of 2025, people were sort of using chat GPT. And by the end of 2025, people were really good at using AI across the org. more and more people are learning how to use AI to make their

jobs easier and more efficient and skilled people plus AI crushes the old model of just adding more people. Number

eight is we're going to see a massive uptick in bootstrapped solo tiny niche SAS as software becomes easier and easier to build. The number of apps increases by orders of magnitude.

Several zeros are going to be added to the number of new apps that get created in 2026. If it costs almost nothing to

in 2026. If it costs almost nothing to build software and takes almost no time, your goal for that software can be much lower. If you're a 20-year-old who wants

lower. If you're a 20-year-old who wants $5,000 a month because you just want to live in Thailand, and it only costs $500 bucks to build an app, you can find a very small niche that wants to pay a low amount through content, Reddit, and a

bunch of other channels. That's a viable life. Now, in the past, it wasn't viable

life. Now, in the past, it wasn't viable to have a goal of $5,000 a month for software because it cost a million dollars to build your app. As you take the cost of building software to close to zero, more paths to the one-man tiny

solo bootstrap niche SAS open up. The

economics finally work in the age of AI.

Number eight is we're going to see a massive uptick in zombie SAS. I can

think of a whole class of companies that raise money between 20 and 2022. They

raise way too much money at way too high valuations at unbelievable revenue multiples. They're not growing anymore.

multiples. They're not growing anymore.

Many are even shrinking. This is the scale stage. I'm talking about maybe

scale stage. I'm talking about maybe like 50 to 300 million in revenue.

They're worth less than the amount of money they raised and they're just zombies. They're completely stuck.

zombies. They're completely stuck.

Everyone has their eyes closed, holding hands, pretending the world is different than it is. There's a tiny segment of incredibly valuable SAS companies still today. It's super sticky. It's mostly

today. It's super sticky. It's mostly

AI. It's low churn, high growth, super large tan. Almost no other companies are

large tan. Almost no other companies are worth anywhere near what they used to be valued at. No one has incentive to sell

valued at. No one has incentive to sell their businesses. investors and founders

their businesses. investors and founders don't have incentive to sell the businesses for the actual clearing price because it's lower than the money that went in. So, zombie companies just go on

went in. So, zombie companies just go on existing forever and they're slowly getting destroyed and lapped by these new AI companies. Number 10, aggregate revenue grows while teams shrink. I saw

this with my team this year. AI

proficiency is moving through the team.

Unless you're a hyperrowth company, you're probably seeing that you can increase productivity with the same or fewer team members. Skilled people plus AI crushes that model before it, which

was just adding more people. Both

extremely skilled and entry- level.

Aggregate revenue grows across the board while teams shrink. AI didn't take your job, but someone using AI did. Number

11, LinkedIn DM spam botnetss become unbearable. This is going to be the next

unbearable. This is going to be the next shoe to drop. It's already kind of spammy in LinkedIn inboxes, and an AI and automation tools will make the LinkedIn inbox the next place where you see tons of spam. Number 12, building

audiences on LinkedIn gets even harder.

It's proven that LinkedIn content really works for early stage B2B companies. And

let's say there's a new format that everyone starts using because it works.

As everything moves faster by the day, one format gets adopted and then something new becomes a breakout thing.

Then everyone uses that new breakout thing. AI is going to make it easier to

thing. AI is going to make it easier to recognize what that new breakout thing is. It's going to be easier to emulate

is. It's going to be easier to emulate and that makes breaking through that much harder. Number 13, YouTube becomes

much harder. Number 13, YouTube becomes a top two channel for earlystage B2B.

Some people are just starting to crack this and it's not going to be a thing like a big YouTube channel, but there's real value in creating one video a week and getting 3,000 to 5,000 people to watch it. If they're in your ICP and

watch it. If they're in your ICP and it's very niche content, then that attention is incredibly valuable. It

creates a whole different type of parasocial relationship and emotional investment than a post text does. As

more people learn how to do this, YouTube will emerge as an important channel for earlystage B2B. Number 14,

AI products that generate UGC propel startups to 9 figure ARR. Clay is a perfect example of this. Lead gen

agencies brag about how smart they are in the clay tables they build. It

creates an amazing funnel because clay content is the best thing the agency can post about for their engagement. It's

where the agency gets most of their customers and it helps Clay. You see

this also with Cursor, Lovable, and Gamma. Whenever people brag about these

Gamma. Whenever people brag about these amazing generative things they made with AI on social media, it creates a viral loop for whoever created that software.

Designing products to capture this phenomenon will be something we see a lot in 2026. Number 15, simple products that cut through the noise. Features are

being built faster than companies can educate their teams or users on them. As

vibe coding becomes a thing, we're going to see more vibecoded absolute messes.

If it only takes five minutes to add a feature, there's going to be infinity features in every app. Unless the

designer of the app has incredible judiciousness about keeping things as simple as possible. You'll notice when things are kept simple because that app will break through. Everything else

turns into vomit because it has way too many features. Incredibly simple and

many features. Incredibly simple and beautiful products will break through.

Number 16, and this is kind of macro, the US dollar loses another 10% of its value. Elon Musk and Donald Trump

value. Elon Musk and Donald Trump promised to contain and reduce government spending and exercise austerity. The opposite happened. If

austerity. The opposite happened. If

those guys can't do it when they have full control over the judicial, executive, and legislative branches, it's literally never going to happen.

Every government in every company is going to run deficits increasingly large forever. All paper currencies are going

forever. All paper currencies are going to get torched and a 10 to 12% equity gain in the S&P is not actually keeping you ahead of prices rising. But rich

people feel great about it because on an absolute basis, it seems like their portfolio gained a lot. I also think interest rates will stay high forever.

Number 17, consumer spending decreases as the non% get hammered. Rich people

are doing great. They're going to keep doing great. For non- richch people,

doing great. For non- richch people, it's getting harder every day. Inflation

continues to outpace growth in wages. AI

plus tariffs absolutely hammer your average Joe. Meanwhile, I joke that all

average Joe. Meanwhile, I joke that all these rich people are listening to the All-In podcast and think everything's great and that AI and humanoid robots are going to save the world. Everything

is great for anyone who listens to the All-In podcast. The 1% is completely

All-In podcast. The 1% is completely oblivious to what's happening to everybody else. Number 18, people rally

everybody else. Number 18, people rally behind universal high income despite it being nonsense. This idea of universal

being nonsense. This idea of universal high income assuages AI fear, but we have this horrible human quality where we evaluate our situation on a relative basis. If I have 20% less than all my

basis. If I have 20% less than all my friends, I feel poor no matter how much we all have. If I have 20% more than all my friends, I feel rich no matter how much we all have. There's no way to even

that out. This idea that universal high

that out. This idea that universal high income would make us not work and help us not work is nonsense. The likely

scenario, rich people with tons of skill who control or are amazing at building AI get unbelievably rich and everybody else keeps getting punished and feels poor every day. Number 19. The price of

fixing anything at your house goes up another 25%. The value of knowledge work

another 25%. The value of knowledge work is going down with AI. The values of fixing real things is going up as knowledge work value goes down. In

affluent neighborhoods especially, expect prices to keep climbing. Number

20, Tesla pushes true self-driving. And

I think they're going to do it without government approval. Tesla will push a

government approval. Tesla will push a version that allows you to actually work while driving long distances or sitting in traffic. I think that Elon's going to

in traffic. I think that Elon's going to do this because they're so close right now. and he loves to either ignore laws

now. and he loves to either ignore laws or change them. Number 21, Alpha School's AI taught homeschool program explodes in popularity. Alpha is in Austin and a few other big cities. It's

an entrepreneurial focused monastery style curriculum. Kids are only in

style curriculum. Kids are only in school 2 hours a day and then they're doing other things besides school the rest of the day. Here's the big breakthrough. Alpha is making this all

breakthrough. Alpha is making this all available remotely. There are

available remotely. There are supervisors, but their curriculum is taught with AI and it's actually better than traditional school. And what we don't realize is homeschool is already incredibly popular. I think this is

incredibly popular. I think this is going to explode. Number 22, we're going to see an exponential increase in off label micro doing of GLP1s. The public's

going to realize that diet cleanup fixes a thousand other things related to public health. A bunch of people in my

public health. A bunch of people in my social circle are already doing this.

They're taking a tiny dose of Ozic and it cleans up their diet so much that there's a dramatic increase in all of these other health related things and people are feeling great. Maybe there's

some huge negative downside down the road, but the compounding effect of mega diet cleanup over decades, especially in America, where the food is terrible, will outweigh it. Number 23. We

increasingly hear that Riad is the next Dubai. And we're wondering why we're

Dubai. And we're wondering why we're hearing it. Apparently in Saudi Arabia,

hearing it. Apparently in Saudi Arabia, they're really going for it right now.

They're trying to grow their economy by bringing in smart and ambitious people, and they're trying to invest in everything. They're very tech forward

everything. They're very tech forward and AI forward. So, we'll see how it goes. Number 24. I moved to Aspen and

goes. Number 24. I moved to Aspen and pushed the lifestyle business to the extreme. I'm moving with my family on

extreme. I'm moving with my family on January 4th and I want to prove to founders the idea that you can run a successful tech company from literally anywhere. I'm proving that the lifestyle

anywhere. I'm proving that the lifestyle business model works at scale. It will

be very interesting to see how many of these predictions come true. Now, as

LinkedIn gets noisier, cold email gets harder, and attention gets more expensive, you need to capitalize on the attention you're already getting. If

someone visits your website, that's intent. And my tool RB2B tells you

intent. And my tool RB2B tells you exactly who that person is, their name, LinkedIn profile, and company so that you can follow up while they're still thinking about you. To start using RBDB

for free, just click the link below.

There's no credit card required. It's

free. So, click the link below and try it. And if you want to see my full

it. And if you want to see my full course on how to grow a SAS company, then watch this video.