SaaStr 817: What Happens When AI Kills Your SaaS Growth? Live Q&A with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
episode
The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
48 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 16 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the opening context and why is AI reshaping SaaS growth?
Welcome to the official Saster Podcast, where you can hear some of the best Saster speakers. This is where the cloud meets.
Up today on the Saster Podcast? I've dropped everything. I'm here for two months just to learn. What do I do?
First of all If nothing else in in SF, there's endless meetups, hackathons. Like just ingratiate yourself in it so that the stress that Aaron's feeling, that Yamani's feeling, that you're feeling, that you're just acclimated to its new normal. I know it sounds silly, but it's not. Like adjust to the stress, right? Adjust to the pace. Adjust to the two X pace. Even me, like it's not the same, but even I'm working In terms of output, I'm working twice as hard me. As a year ago. And then, and again, this is only sort of helpful, right? I'm just trying to be a therapist. Meet all these people, hang out with more folks that are stressed out, right? But even if you don't really care about the content, socialize with the people that are stressed out, right?
And then figure out a way to work twice as hard. Ship features twice as hard. Make the product twice as good. Hey everybody, SAS for annual will be back May 2026, the world's largest SAS and AI gathering. For executives. Just as last May, we hosted 10,000 attendees with 68 VP level and above attendees, 36% CEOs and founders, and 25% were AI first professionals. It's the very best of S-tier attendees and decision makers that come to Saster annual and AI Summit each and every year. But here's the reality, folks: the longer you wait, the higher ticket prices get. They're cheap now. They're cheap, so just get them. Early lock in your spot today. Use my code Jason 100 for exclusive savings. Get your tickets at podcast.sasterannual.com or just use code Jason 100 when you check out.
See you there, Saster Annual and AI Summit 2026. It will rock. Thanks everybody for being here. We just have a tradition. This was a pretty good everyone have a pretty good day three? Yeah. So we don't have to do it, but usually we've had a a a a slightly quieter day three this year, which was probably our best. So I sort of did a tradition of it, trying to answer any questions we didn't get to over these days. But I will say in closing, like I I'm I'm really happy this year. I will tell you it it took me a while to reflect. But uh how many folks were here last year? Yeah. I mean last year you probably thought it was good. I actually thought it was the worst Saster ever. It had nothing to do with the production values were great.
It looked good. It was well done. But an Amelia and I agree in the vibe sucked. The vibe sucked. And it sucked because People thought we were in a downturn, they thought AI sucked. Well, there was a lot of woe is me. And I'd walk out and meet founders last year and half or executives and half would be like, Man, everything's terrible. I can't close anything. And it it really weighed on me the last 11.92 months. And man, the whole three days, it's been great. I I haven't had a single converse Debbie Downer conversation the whole time it is, right? And if you were here with Aaron Levy, he's like, I'm so Stressed but excited. That's how you should be. But yeah, it's hard, but you should be excited. So for what it's worth, I want to take questions.
But I'm reinvigorated with AI. I'm excited. You can see it in what I've done. And even just the tenure here, there's like the energy's so much more fun than last year. Last year I kinda had to put the smile on my face after. I'm like, we did it, it was great, but man, it's like uh there's a Debbie Downer vibe in B2B and it's behind us. So like I'm super excited. Not a single person I met here said, Oh, we're in a downturn. Life is terrible. I didn't end and thank God. I think they all stayed home this year. And uh I think they should either go get excited about AI and join something new or just just stay home. Stay home. I I don't know which one, but thank you everyone. It's it's been a delight for me and Amelia and the team this year.
Really, really great and total 180 from last year. So Thank you.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the opening context and why is AI reshaping SaaS growth?
0:01–5:34
2
How does Jason explain the shift from the classic triple‑triple‑double‑double growth model to today’s AI‑driven expectations?
5:34–12:14
3
Why are $100M‑plus SaaS companies hitting growth walls and what role does multi‑product strategy play?
12:14–18:46
4
What are the two main root causes behind the slowdown of high‑growth SaaS firms?
18:46–24:24
5
How have investor expectations changed—from billion‑dollar to trillion‑dollar outcomes—and what does that mean for founders?
24:24–31:12
6
What specific tactics should sales, marketing, and customer success teams adopt in an AI‑first world?
31:12–36:10
7
Why does brand still matter in the age of AI and how should companies adapt their branding strategy?
36:10–41:24
8
What final advice does Jason give founders about surviving and thriving as AI reshapes the SaaS landscape?
41:24–47:56
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
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