“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” — Bill Gates
This is Part 3 of my series on the collapse of the traditional software industry.
This is Part 2 of my series on the collapse of the traditional software industry. In Part 1, How “Vibecoding” and The Outcome Economy Are Killing the SaaS Dinosaurs, I explained how AI is making software production free. Today, let’s talk about why your pricing model is about to bankrupt you.
Let’s start with a bedtime story that is currently keeping the General Counsel of a $10 billion company awake at night.
In June of this year (2025), a developer named Michael Luo (known online as “AzianMike”) decided he was tired of paying DocuSign $15 a month to sign three PDFs.1 He didn’t complain on X (formerly Twitter).