The founding team's initial venture was an AI agent for Alzheimer's patients. Despite its personal meaning, they recognized that long clinical trial cycles made it commercially unviable. They pragmatically spun off the core technology to create GetVocal, targeting enterprise pain points.

Faced with a tough M&A market, many profitable software startups are not seeking a discounted exit. Instead, they are using their capital reserves to "hold" their position while actively "accelerating" their integration of AI. This strategy aims to increase their future acquisition value by aligning with the market's new priorities.

A new startup strategy involves acquiring traditional businesses and dramatically increasing their margins by integrating AI. This approach requires a unique blend of M&A, operational change management, and AI expertise, differing from typical venture-backed company creation.

Airtable, once valued at $11.7B, was acquired by Bending Spoons for an enterprise value of $1.285B. This outcome, where late-stage investors barely recoup capital and common stock holders get little, highlights the harsh reality of the SaaS market correction for even well-funded unicorns.

The acquisition of Airtable might not have included its promising AI business, HyperAgent. The company was split just before the deal, suggesting the sale was a strategic move to shed the legacy business and focus capital and talent on a new AI-native direction, completely changing the deal's interpretation.

A powerful go-to-market strategy is for an AI company to buy a legacy business (e.g., a debt collector) with existing clients but declining revenue. This allows the startup to bypass the difficult early sales process, immediately deploy and refine its AI, and use the acquired firm's client roster as a launchpad.

Before its acquisition by Bending Spoons, Airtable spun out its AI unit, Hyper Agent. This move allows the core team to focus on a new high-growth venture with fresh capital, shedding the slower-growth legacy SaaS business. It's a clever way to recapitalize talent and technology from a disappointing exit.

Supabase, founded before the AI boom, found exponential growth by becoming the default database for agentic AI products. This shows a powerful strategy for pre-AI companies: instead of pivoting entirely to AI, they can 'co-attach' their existing product to a new AI-driven workflow, capturing immense value from the tailwinds.

Established software leaders should not try to innovate on all new AI technologies organically. A more effective strategy is to let the VC community fund early-stage bets, then use strong balance sheets to acquire the proven winners and integrate them into existing platforms, as Salesforce has done.