Welcome folks! 👋

This edition of The Product-Led Geek will take 5 minutes to read and you’ll learn:

• Why product-market fit has become an increasingly fast-moving target.

• How to think about implementing perpetual reinvention strategies

• Which businesses can better weather the storm of constant market change.

Let’s go!

TOGETHER WITH YOUR BRAND

I’m now accepting newsletter sponsorship bookings for H2 2025.

Reach over 7700 founders, leaders and operators working in product and growth at some of the world’s best tech companies including Paypal, Adobe, Canva, Miro, Amplitude, Google, Meta, Tailscale, Twilio and Salesforce.

Please support our sponsors!

GEEK LINKS

GEEK OUT

Product-Market Fit Is Now a Fast Moving Target

If you run a B2B SaaS company, at some point you’ve probably felt the ground shifting under your feet.

It used to be that if you found PMF, you could ride that wave for years.

You’d double down, scale, optimise.

Maybe some complacency sets in.

Those times are over.

AI, and especially LLMs, have changed how software gets made, how fast it evolves, and who gets to compete.

The result is something we haven’t seen before in SaaS: Nobody gets to rest.

Product-market fit isn’t a finish line.

(It never was).

It’s a checkpoint you keep racing past, over and over, hoping you’re still on the right track.

But now those checkpoints are much closer together than ever before.

Let’s break down why this is happening.

New Entrants Everywhere

First, the number of new SaaS products launching right now is insane.

It’s never been easier to build something that looks impressive.

LLMs and other AI tools have dropped the barrier to entry so low it’s basically gone.

You can build a decent MVP in a weekend.

Even non-technical founders can launch AI-based products now (though beware - there be dragons).

What does this mean?

Every niche that used to have a handful of players now has dozens.

Some are just wrappers around ChatGPT, but some are genuinely useful, and they’re all fighting for attention.

It’s like the App Store gold rush, but for every SaaS vertical you can imagine.

This makes it harder to stand out, even if you have real traction.

The noise level is higher.

The features that made you unique six months ago are now built into someone’s open-source repo.

2. Incumbents Aren’t Sleeping

If you thought the big SaaS companies would get steamrolled by all these startups, think again.

They’re moving faster than ever.

The fear of being replaced is real, and it’s a great motivator.

Look at what’s happening:

• Incumbents are shipping AI features at a pace that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

• They’re buying AI startups, integrating LLMs into their platforms, and spinning up new products in months instead of years.

• They have distribution, brand, and (often) data advantages - so once they decide to move, they can catch up quickly.

This means you’re not just racing against other startups.

You’re also up against giants who can copy or buy their way into your territory.

3. The Platform Itself Is Eating Your Use Case

The foundation models themselves keep getting better.

And every time they level up, they impinge on - and sometimes swallow - whole categories of SaaS.

A few years ago, building a tool to summarise meetings, write emails, or sort support tickets required lots of code and clever engineering.

Now, one prompt to an LLM does the job as well or better.

The baseline keeps rising.

Each new model release threatens to wipe out another batch of “AI-powered” SaaS point solutions.

It goes beyond features being copied.

Features are becoming free.

If your product is just a UI on top of an LLM, you’re living on borrowed time.

The Implications for Product-Market Fit

In the old days, PMF was a milestone.

You’d find it, then focus on growth.

Maybe you’d have to reinvent every few years, but you got periods of stability in between.

Now, the window where you have PMF is shrinking.

Sometimes it lasts a year.

Sometimes six months.

Sometimes less.

The next LLM release, or a big incumbent move, or a new startup can make your core feature obsolete almost overnight.

The old playbook - find PMF, scale, optimise - doesn’t work anymore.

The only way to survive is to make reinvention part of your operating system.

What Perpetual Reinvention Looks Like

So how do you adapt? Here’s what I see working:

1. Shorter Build Cycles. Teams are shipping new features every week, not every quarter. If you’re not learning from customers and shipping constantly, you’ll quickly fall behind.

2. Shorter Customer Feedback Loops. You can’t afford to wait for advisory board meetings. You need real-time feedback - usage data, frequent direct conversations, anything that tells you when customer needs are changing.

3. Modular Products. If your architecture is rigid, you’ll struggle to adapt quickly. You need to be able to swap in new AI models, integrate new workflows, and kill features that have become commodities.

4. Willingness to Cannibalise. You have to be ready to kill your own features before someone else does. If you see a better way to solve the problem - even if it nukes your existing product - you need to be prepared and able to move.

The Hard Truth

Most SaaS companies - even successful ones - won’t become the next Salesforce or Microsoft.

That’s okay.

But if you want to survive, you need to pick your strategy with intentionality.

Some companies will try to become platforms, betting big on new interfaces or workflows.

Some will focus on a small niche and be the best at it, even if that means selling or merging when the time is right.

Others will become portfolios, spinning up new products as old ones get commoditised.

The only thing you can’t do is stand still.

The market won’t let you.

But that raises an interesting question: Are some businesses better positioned to handle this constant change?

Are there any safer harbours in this storm?

I do believe that some businesses with strong network effects are more resilient than others.

The strongest positions may be in fundamental business infrastructure:

• Payment networks (like Stripe): Each new merchant and bank makes the network more valuable

• Supply chain platforms: More suppliers and buyers create compound value

• API platforms (like Twilio): Developer adoption creates deeper technical dependencies

• Data networks: Where each customer's usage improves the product for everyone else (like Cloudflare's security rules or fraud detection systems)

These are the pipes and plumbing of modern business.

But history tells us that even the seemingly strongest of positions aren't permanent.

Remember when everyone thought Windows had an unbreakable grip on computing? Then mobile changed everything.

Or when Oracle's database position seemed impenetrable? Then cloud happened.

Today's paradigm shifts are happening faster:

• Crypto threatens traditional payment networks

• Decentralised protocols could replace API platforms

• AI might reshape how entire supply chains work

• Open source models could commoditise proprietary data advantages

The strongest network effects don't make you safe.

But they do buy you time.

The trap will be waste that time feeling secure instead of using it to evolve.

The real advantage of a strong position isn't that you get to rest.

It's that you get to reinvent yourself from a position of strength.

Think of moats as temporary shelters, not permanent fortifications.

Your job isn't to defend them forever - it's to build new ones while the old ones still hold.

What to Do (Frequently - On an Ongoing Basis)

1. Map your core features. Which ones could an LLM or an incumbent kill tomorrow?

2. Talk to your best customers. How are they actually using AI in their workflow? What are they trying to automate next?

3. Watch the new model releases. Are they making your product (or parts of it) obsolete?

4. Evaluate your network effects. Are they real or superficial?

   • Do new users/organisations actually make your product more valuable for others?

   • Are your integrations creating genuine technical dependencies?

   • What unique workflows are you enabling that others can't easily replicate?

5. Build your data advantage. In a world where AI models are commoditised:

   • What unique data are you capturing from user interactions?

   • How are you using cross-customer insights to improve your product?

   • What proprietary datasets could you be building through normal usage?

   • Are there network effects in your data collection?

6. Build (temporary) moats while you run. Even as you're shipping features:

   • Can you create more cross-organisation dependencies?

   • Are there adjacent workflows you could connect?

   • Could you become the system of record for something valuable?

7. Decide: are you going to double down, pivot, or start building something new alongside your existing product?

Conclusion: Reinvention Is the Job Now

The B2B SaaS market is in a state of permanent flux.

PMF isn’t a destination; it’s a fast moving target.

To win, you have to build reinvention into your company DNA

See the change coming and move fast enough to stay ahead.

It’s not comfortable.

But it’s the reality.

And for people who like building, it’s never been a more interesting time.

THAT’S A WRAP

Before you go, here are 3 ways I can help:

Take the FREE Learning Velocity Index assessment - Discover how your team's ability to learn and leverage learnings stacks up in the product-led world. Takes 2 minutes and you get free advice.

Book a free 1:1 consultation call with me - I keep a handful of slots open each week for founders and product growth leaders to explore working together and get some free advice along the way. Book a call.

Sponsor this newsletter - Reach over 7700 founders, leaders and operators working in product and growth at some of the world’s best tech companies including Paypal, Adobe, Canva, Miro, Amplitude, Google, Meta, Tailscale, Twilio and Salesforce.

That’s all for today,

If there are any product, growth or leadership topics that you’d like me to write about, just hit reply to this email or leave a comment and let me know!

And if you enjoyed this post, consider upgrading to a VIG Membership to get the full Product-Led Geek experience and access to every post in the archive including all guides.

Until next time!

— Ben