Arjun Sahai

interview with @PayPal

@_adishj @ycombinator @motion_so One of the dopest launches I’ve seen in a while

introducing Motion, a video agent for tasteful motion design. this launch video was made entirely with Motion. 👇🏽 comment "MOTION" to get early access + free credits. tag @motion_so in any post on your X feed for a surprise. here’s how it works + examples (thread):

@gregisenberg @HardwareCody sound familiar?

THE CLEAREST PATH TO A $10M+ SOFTWARE EXIT in 2 YEARS (with AI and agents) building an agency right now is one of the most interesting business moves the productized agency had its moment in 2022. it collapsed because scaling humans is a nightmare. inconsistent output, people quitting, margins getting crushed. most of the founders (and creators) who tried it got burned and moved on but the thesis was right. the labor problem is just solved now with AI, claude code, openclaw etc. here's the actual playbook i'd run today: pick one painful deliverable for one specific buyer. like SEO content for e-commerce brands doing $1M+ but not "marketing." or like ad creatives for DTC brands spending $50k/month on meta. one thing. one customer. that's it then you build the AI workflow behind it. you're selling an outcome on a monthly retainer. $3-5k/month. 80%+ margins because your cost is compute and a few hours of QA "BuT tHaT'S nOt a BiG bUsInnesS" okay but you're still swinging for the fences because the agency IS the research and development for your agent SaaS every client is paying you to figure out what to automate. you're learning what breaks, what scales, what customers actually want. by month 4 you know exactly what to productize. you build the software on top of the workflow you've already proven works and already have customers paying for agency funds the agent SaaS. SaaS scales without the agency overhead. the clients become your first software customers now let's talk about what this actually looks like financially year 1: 10 clients at $4k/month. $480k revenue. 2 people. maybe $80k in costs including compute, tools, one part time VA. you're taking home $400k between two people while building the software in the background year 2: you launch the software. your 10 agency clients are the first to convert. they already trust you. they've seen the output. you charge $800/month for the software version. now you have recurring software revenue AND the agency still running year 3: agency is winding down or running on autopilot. software has 200 customers at $800/month. that's $1.9M ARR. 2-3 person team. 85% margins. you are now a very attractive acquisition target the exit math is interesting. SaaS at $1.9M ARR with strong retention trades at 5-8x revenue. that's a $10-15M exit for something two people built in 3 years starting with zero VC CAVEAT: Startups are hard. A lot needs to go right. But from a framework perspective, I think this probably the lowest risk, highest reward option for lots of of folks and most of the businesses cost $0 to start basically this is the most capital efficient path to a software exit that exists right now happy building

@caelin_sutch lmao maybe it's saying something about you

Crazy that iOS is so broken simple text search is nonfunctional on the health app

Second collison installation This time it's @arjsahai from @surfacelabs_ai Their entire team now does dev on Ardent clones I won't stop till every team in SF uses Ardent

Hmmm looks like edge runtime is globally distributed by default while fluid compute let's us choose a maximum of 3 regions on the Pro plan. Global availability is important here - but at the same the docs give the impression that fluid is being prioritized. Will need to compare edge rendering speeds vs using fluid

@arjsahai Let’s try. Has to be fixed anyhow

Just found a nasty bug: fetchCache = "default-cache" on a Next.js edge runtime page causes Vercel's fetch cache to get poisoned when a client disconnects mid-SSR stream (e.g. Framer embedding your page in an iframe). The page breaks for ALL visitors for ~2-4 min until the cache entry expires. Fix: remove the page-level fetch cache directive @rauchg this feels like a Vercel edge runtime bug happy to share a repro. I want to add the cache back...

@rauchg Started on edge for this route a while ago with very good performance. It's a pretty minimal route so didn't get impacted by edge limitations. But it's a good callout. Does fluid use the same cacheing as the edge functions? Even if we move, I'm guessing this bug will persist

@arjsahai Repro welcome, DMs open. curious: why not Node.js? Full support on Fluid, all the benefits of edge minus the limited runtime. Will significantly improve your DX

@caelin_sutch So cheeky

oh my god this is going to change frontend engineering FOREVER

@saharsh Insightful

@caelin_sutch Are websites art?

"Painters, illustrators, and sculptors manipulate the artifact directly—there is no abstraction, and visual feedback is immediate. Would we have any of our great works of art if the creators had to work with “rectangle.width = 17” instead of visible brushstrokes?*" #reducing_interaction" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">worrydream.com/MagicInk/#redu…

@caelin_sutch If you copy 15 different things I think it becomes your own

kinda crazy how easy it is to shamelessly rip off the UI of your favorite tools

youtube.com/watch?v=fIGXkh… @caelin_sutch

Every tech company these days seems to be AI first. I just realized I’m ALSO AI first. My name is Arjun SahAI…

@caelin_sutch @saharsh @MeerTarbani It's happening 🤖

@supabase Love your product but... any ETA on when my users can log in again?

Instead of using whatever generic Google Forms thing for demo signups on your homepage, you could use this form builder and it will actually increase your conversion by double digit % 🤯

.@surfacelabs_ai (YC S23) helps businesses turn ad clicks into more sales with high-converting lead forms (up to 40% lift), AI agents that automate lead qualification & engagement, and precise ad targeting with 1st-party data. ycombinator.com/launches/LAg-s… Congrats on the launch, @saharsh + @arjsahai!

If you're using Typeform for your signup flow, you're missing customizations that increase conversion by 70% Surface Labs (YC S23) is here to make it one-click for you. One of the founders previously got signup.snowflake.com to 80% conversion. ycombinator.com/launches/JMC-s…

@Toro_Seduto_ @ycombinator @surfacelabs_ai @saharsh Fixed! Thanks for the tip :)

@ycombinator @surfacelabs_ai @saharsh @arjsahai The link in bio to website of @surfacelabs_ai is not working. We are interested as a company monitoring bees 🐝

.@surfacelabs_ai (YC S23) is building intelligent forms to help businesses collect richer customer data and drive up conversion rates by enabling hyper-personalization at scale with AI. ycombinator.com/launches/JMC-s… Congrats on the launch, @saharsh and @arjsahai!