Founders waste time seeking tactical solutions for growth plateaus. The real breakthrough comes from correctly diagnosing the root cause. Once the specific reason for the plateau is identified—of which there are only a handful—the necessary actions become clear.
While still a necessary channel, depending on SEO for the vast majority of new customers is increasingly risky. The channel has become extremely crowded, partly due to AI-generated content. Founders must diversify their acquisition channels to build a more resilient business.
AI chat interfaces recommending a shortlist of tools will accelerate market consolidation, concentrating power in a few top brands. For bootstrappers, this makes building a brand essential. This is achieved not by expensive 'brand marketing' but by creating a product so good that users advocate for it.
Ambitious bootstrappers should reconsider building horizontal SaaS products. These broad markets are now flooded with well-funded, AI-first competitors, creating intense headwinds that cause bootstrapped companies to plateau hard in the low-seven-figure ARR range.
The generic 'technical vs. non-technical co-founder' debate is outdated. A successful SaaS founding team, regardless of size, must possess or commit to learning four core skills: marketing, sales, product, and development. This provides a clear framework for assessing team composition.
The core value proposition of no-code platforms—building software without code—is being eroded by AI tools. AI-assisted 'vibe coding' makes it much easier for non-specialists to build internal line-of-business apps, a key use case for no-code, posing an existential threat to major players.