The Creator-Led SAAS Revolution - This is Not Advice #5

👋 Hello friends,

As I start to really get a grip on the suite of tools, especially vibe coders such as Lovable, Bolt, Replit, and how good they are getting, I've been thinking about what this looks like in 5 years.

What does the world of work look like?

Actually, 5 years is looking too far into the future. It may be this year or next.

The Corporate Canary in the Coal Mine

Microsoft just laid off six thousand people last week. At Shopify, employees must now explain why automation can't be used before asking for additional resources, like more staff or time.

This trend from big corporates will continue, mass layoffs across industries seem inevitable as companies realise how much they can automate.

Universal Basic Income is an interesting solution, but as we know, governments move at a glacial pace. The market won't wait for policy to catch up.

My Prediction: The Great Unbundling

I believe we're going to see a reduction in massive companies with massive teams. In their place: a sea of tiny companies with just a handful of employees leveraging a full tech stack.

We're already seeing this pattern with automation-native companies. Look at revenue per employee at places like Midjourney, it's absolutely wild compared to traditional software companies. Midjourney has just 49 employees and brings in $4.1M revenue per employee, while Dell sits at $885,000 per employee.

Let's Get Specific: B2B SaaS

This transformation is particularly interesting in B2B SaaS, which has been on my mind lately.

Why should a CRM software cost thousands of pounds a year? (I have a specific one in mind, but won't name names 😉).

If Apple needs a CRM, they don't licence one from Salesforce. They build one tailored to their specific needs.

Why shouldn't SMBs do the same? Currently, they can't, they lack the technical knowledge and the time. But advanced no-code tools are about to flip that script entirely.

Soon, it will be cheaper to build, manage, and own your internal tools than to pay for expensive licences.

Imagine if Lovable released templates where you could start with a basic CRM and then customise both the frontend and backend to better suit your company, all for £30 a month rather than thousands. No-brainer, right?

Maybe it's a stretch to expect everyone to build all their own tools. So maybe we will just have lots more smaller providers competing with the big boys. Thousands of small, niche-focused tools targeting specific industries and use cases, each with a handful of employees and razor-sharp focus.

The Creator Connection

By now you're probably thinking, "I thought this newsletter was about the creator economy."

Allow me to bring it all back around.

In a world with thousands of small software providers all doing similar things, what's the difference maker? Awareness and distribution.

And that's where we enter the age of Creator-Led SaaS. Software that's:

• Cheap to build and run (thanks to AI)
• Free to distribute (thanks to the creator's platforms)
• Built by people with audiences who trust them

This is all just a thought I've been exploring. If you see it differently please send me an email I'd love to hear it!

Until next week,
Jonny

P.S. I know some of these emails may come across as sponsored by Lovable. I promise they aren't 😂. The thing just blows my mind.