Austin Yang✌️

Hey Product Twitter! If you like my s̵h̵i̵t̵p̵o̵s̵t̵ quick takes, feel free to subscribe to my blog for longer thoughts: austinyang.co This year I will write more about: - B2B SaaS - Product growth (where GTM meets product) - More nuanced PM topics

Eng: "I don't code anymore. I just write PRD" PM: "I don't write PRD anymore. I just prototype." Designer: "I don't prototype anymore. I just code in prod." What?

@brodie66656 @softr_io Maybe it should just be kept like this

@IamAustinYang @softr_io too good 😄

Hmmm, just launched @softr_io AI Co-builder yesterday, but it has already went rogue...

This looks like a true-crime documentary opening scene

I'm probably in the minority here, but reading emails has just never been a big problem that requires any tech solution. But that's just me though

@zachtratar I think people who say they "hate" slack/email/zoom actually just hate the feeling associated with having to use those tools.

When people say they want Superhuman for Slack, what do they mean? What features would it have or not have? What flows would you want it to be great at? My current assessment is that it sounds like a good idea, but Slack is not a terrible app in-of-itself, so where's the alpha?

This works better

"We're AI native company. Marketers can edit websites and PM/Design can build interactive prototypes." Brotha have you been living under a rock for the past 10 years?

Neo's remote operators getting summoned for a task

@figma feature request: Add a "Conclusion" feature to comment threads. Conclusion should be highlighted in a thread, and there should be a filter for threads w/ conclusion + a way to generate a note from conclusion w/ 1 click (linked to original thread)

@jasonlk Is there even any pure "traditional" SaaS anymore?

Who Will Buy The SaaS Companies? We’re sitting on a problem many don’t want to talk about: the traditional SaaS exit playbook is breaking down. Even for very, very good SaaS companies. For years, it was predictable. Build to $20M-$50M ARR, maintain decent growth, buyers would come. PE would write checks. Strategic acquirers would see tuck-ins. Not anymore. 💸 The VC Money Has Gone to AI In H1 2025, AI companies attracted 58% of global VC (64% in the US). AI funding hit a $377B annualized run rate—already exceeding 2023’s full-year total. Average AI deal size: $35.9M, double the prior year. For traditional SaaS? Mega-rounds collapsed from 147 deals in 2021 to just 21 in the 12 months through mid-2025. 🥶 PE For Traditional SaaS Has Cooled Significantly Q1 2025 saw 210 enterprise SaaS M&A deals—but total value dropped 24.8% to $29.1B. Five deals accounted for half the value. Thoma Bravo remains active but brutally selective. After 600+ acquisitions, Orlando Bravo says he’s “working the hardest I’ve ever worked in 30 years.” They’re only buying category leaders with AI integration and paths to 40%+ EBITDA. Exit multiples have reset hard. Software companies are selling at 15x EBITDA, not 25x. You need real operational improvement. 🤖 Corporate M&A Is All-In on AI Strategic buyers have one mandate: AI capabilities. AI M&A jumped 20% last year and is growing another 32% in 2025. The biggest deals? Synopsys’s $35B acquisition of Ansys, Cisco’s $28B acquisition of Splunk, HPE’s $14B acquisition of Juniper. All for AI. 🤔 The IPO Bar Is Brutally High You need $400M+ ARR growing 30-50%+ to have a shot. Klaviyo IPO’d at $600M growing 57%. Rubrik at $780M growing 47%. Public markets don’t want your $200M ARR, 35% growth company. 🔮 What Happens to the “Pretty Good” SaaS Companies? There are hundreds of solid SaaS companies at $20M-$100M ARR, growing 25-40%, with good retention. These are *good businesses*. From 2012-2023, they had clear exit paths. Now those paths are blocked. 🤷‍♀️ What Should You Do? Get profitable. Invest in AI capabilities, but they have to move the needle. Fake or performance AI copilots that don’t reignite growth don’t really help. Expect no more funding. In fact, expect no exit per se. Take any decent one that comes. And … back to the grind.

@noelcetaSEO @levelsio @cheepo2109 >It just means the AC will run longer and harder to try and get to your desired temperature. Yeah that's kinda the goal...

@levelsio @cheepo2109 Keeping the AC at 18°C vs 22°C makes no difference in the temperature of the air coming out of it. It just means the AC will run longer and harder to try and get to your desired temperature. Unless you want really cold temp for sleep, this shouldn't make a big difference.

I just came back from Paris We stayed in a nice Airbnb in Le Marais (rly nice neighborhood thank you @cheepo2109) Of course the AC was broken, so we called and they did come to fix it in the living room but bedroom AC just didn't work (not so nice for sleep) But then last 2 days we stayed in in Sofitel for shopping What's funny was every where in the hotel they had these environmental awards and signs showing how ECO they were, as if it's a positive thing, because immediately I know if you're eco things are going to suck as a customer The AC in the hotel was of course locked to 21.5°C/71°F minimum, which to be fair is a slight improvement from the usual 22°C/72°F minimum in European hotels, but still not 18°C/65°F which is default in the rest of the world and would be more reasonable I guess 0.5°C cooler is progress? Have we made progress? Is this eu/acc? 🇪🇺

@frantzfries A lot of non-designers never use it as default tbh

It does seem increasingly unlikely that Figma remains the default way UI is designed

@IamAustinYang That’s because you were still in your little ding dong era

I went to Little Ding-Dong Science Theme Park and everyone knows you

New rule: If you say "who needs GUI when you can chat with AI" ...you are not allowed to use map, spreadsheet, or even click on any buttons, including ones to open your browser. If anything you do is not voice or text-based then I don't want to hear this stupid take

@Jobvo The after almost certainly don't meet min contrast for accessibility either

This is what poor design masquerading as good looks like. The after only looks good from a distance, but is worse in readability.

@joulee Aside from familiarity, a lot of these complex animations, unique colors/font choices, funky layouts are simply not that functional. Was surprised when I first realized just how many people find them distracting and hard to read

Why do all saas websites grow less creative and more boring over time? It used to puzzle me until I went through it myself: 1. 0-1: your website tries to appeal to top talent. Creativity stands out. 2. 1-10: your company tries to appeal to early adopters. Creativity stands out. 3. 10-100: your company tries to win over people who wear collared shirts / dress shoes to work. You match what they know and trust.

@jlinbio @akothari Humans have been cooking their own food for thousands of years, but the restaurant industry is still bigger than ever 😁

@IamAustinYang @akothari Yes, but the lower the barrier to entry, the lower the margins on average. You could do cool stuff with SaaS and make money, but if AI is good enough to copy it, then your margins quickly go away.

So... SaaS is dead, right?

@jlinbio @akothari Everyone can make a sandwich and restaurant is still a thing.

@akothari I guess so? if anyone can code anything, it becomes difficult to get people to pay for a simple service supply >> demand