The SaaS playbook is dead. What replaces it? | Andreas Goeldi, b2venture

Most founders think they can save their SaaS business by sprinkling AI on top. They're wrong. The entire playbook that powered the last two decades of software is being rewritten.

In this conversation on Follow the Gradient, Andreas Goeldi, Partner at b2venture and a serial entrepreneur with 30+ years in technology, breaks down how AI is fundamentally reshaping what software businesses look like, how they price, and who survives.

This is not a conversation about AI features or hype cycles. It is a clear-eyed examination of which business models are emerging, which are dying, and what separates the founders who adapt from those who get left behind.

We talk about:

• Why the traditional SaaS playbook with 80% margins is incompatible with real AI integration

• The shift from selling tools to selling outcomes, and why customers have always wanted this

• Two categories of AI startups that are almost guaranteed to fail

• How general-purpose agents are becoming the "Excel of AI" and eating niche products

• Why half of all developers refuse to use AI coding tools and what that means for their careers

• What happens to organizations when middle management layers start disappearing

This episode is less about what AI can do and more about what it forces you to decide. Andreas brings the rare combination of someone who built companies for two decades before switching to investing in them, and his frameworks cut through the noise with uncomfortable clarity.

Our biggest takeaways, including Andreas's reality check on where most founders are dangerously delusional about AI:

https://www.followthegradient.io/p/andreas-goeldi-podcast 

Where to find Andreas Goeldi:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agoeldi/ 

b2venture: https://www.b2venture.vc 

Blog (Innospective): https://innospective.net/ 

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00:00 Introduction

02:22 The biggest delusion in AI right now

04:55 Four buckets of AI business models

07:58 AI pricing in times of vibe coding

13:55 The real moats left in AI: data, regulation, and user experience

17:48 Two startup ideas you should never build right now

22:17 What existing SaaS founders must do to survive

25:49 Why middle management is about to disappear

33:01 How AI is transforming venture capital from the inside

37:11 Do startups still need VCs when four people can hit millions?

43:03 Rapid fire: thin wrappers, CTO hiring, and European quality