Janis Zech

AI commoditizes automation and intelligence, which means that saas companies (which historically either automate stuff or present stuff as 'insights' on 'dashboards') will face an insane amount of competition and thus their racketeering adjescent seat based pricing will crumble. that said I tend to see a lot of ecom bro's or PE saas guys on linkedin with hot takes that are like 'nah uh, have you tried it, its too hard'. and I think thats also right! but I think its only right for a short period of time. the chart below focuses largely on enterprise, where the legacy saas companies' tam is big enough to warrant a legit effort by a new entrant, and more likely, the in house tech teams are strong (or egotistical) enough to try to bring it in house. the ecom guys and the PE guys tend to focus on the long tail and on blue collar businesses.... operators that are, mostly, too dumb, too ideological, or too busy to try to vibe code something. so yeah, *today*, I think its more likely that some of the thousands of developers at capital one bring a saas tool's functionality in house or that a team in india copy/pastes it for 1/20th the cost than I think that a dude with a room temp iq selling white label Chinese slop on Shopify is going to vibe code a new sms delivery tool. but thats today. tomorrow is coming fast.

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How Do We Measure the Health of an Economic Ecosystem? We often measure success through familiar metrics: Revenue. Valuation. User growth. These matter. But when building economic ecosystems, they only tell part of the story. The deeper question is: How healthy is the ecosystem around the company? A strong ecosystem isn’t defined by one successful startup. It’s defined by how many participants can grow within the system. Especially in emerging markets, better questions might be: • How many vendors gain consistent market access? • How many young people move from learning to earning? • How many SMEs integrate into formal supply chains? • How many institutions collaborate instead of operating in silos? These signals reveal something deeper than growth. They reveal coordination capacity. In fragmented environments, growth can look impressive but remain fragile. In aligned ecosystems, growth becomes durable. Africa’s next generation of platforms may not win by simply optimizing transactions. They will win by expanding participation. The real advantage may not be controlling markets. It may be enabling ecosystems. What metrics do you think best reflect a healthy economic ecosystem? #OpenWealth #EconomicReform #EcosystemThinking #AfricaRising

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My COO Luca Wetzel and I have a 90 minute c-level meeting every week. Even if it’s just the 2 of us. Even if “nothing happened.” Even if we’re busy. It HAS to happen - here’s why: For context, this is basically the L10 meeting from EOS. The idea is to start at 50,000 ft and slowly zoom in: • share headlines + updates • go through KPIs/scorecards • track rocks (big initiatives) • issues to discuss/solve Some weeks it doesn’t feel like going through all this will provide much value. If there are 100 small fires burning, the motivation is to put those out first. We can save the big questions for later… The problem is, “later” can become another week, another month… suddenly it’s the end of the quarter and we haven’t met any of our goals. Just this 1 meeting per week stops that from happening. How we run ours: 1. Go through the company scorecard We got the template from Ryan Deiss and adjusted it to meet our needs. It covers all company metrics - financials, forecasts, etc. - and shows us how we’re actually doing beyond day-to-day deliverables. ___ 2. Discuss initiatives/bottlenecks Our main initiative right now is improving our service standards across all projects. We’ve added full funnel support to help our clients execute our entire GTM playbook. Now we’re updating our fulfillment structure, bringing in new leadership positions, and making sure we provide an even better service to all of our clients. ___ 3. Go over the issues list Each, Luca and I, have our own document that we prepare beforehand, in which we write down every detail that needs discussion. The goal here is to address potential friction points or elephants in the room. Identify. Define. Resolve. Follow up with people where needed. This is how we prevent disagreements and ensure internal politics don’t take over the business. — Without a weekly check-in, I can easily convince myself nothing is wrong. This meeting is what keeps us aligned. If everything is fine, then great. If not, we’ll catch it, and we’ll talk it through. Looking forward to the next one, Luca Wetzel 💆🏽

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Faster content. Cheaper outbound. Is that actually winning you the buyer? Christian Reichert, CRO at Shiftmove, doesn't think so and he's bringing that case to the ARRtist AI Summit 2026, where he's hosting a roundtable on: "The AI Efficiency Trap: Why Faster Content and Cheaper Outbound Won't Win the Buyer". Every GTM team is chasing the same efficiency gains right now: more emails, more content, more volume, all powered by AI. But efficiency and effectiveness aren't the same thing. If your outreach gets cheaper and faster while buyers get more selective and skeptical, you're optimizing for the wrong metric. Join his roundtable to unpack where the AI efficiency trap is already hurting GTM teams, and what actually wins the buyer instead. 📅 October 8, 2026 📍 ARRtist AI Summit, Berlin 🎤 Roundtable: The AI Efficiency Trap: Why Faster Content and Cheaper Outbound Won't Win the Buyer See you in Berlin!

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A common mistake in AI pricing is confusing compute cost with economic value. A frequent question I get from founders is: How should we price AI agents? Tokens cost money. They impact gross margin and cash flow. So pricing discussions naturally start there. But that is the wrong starting point. Yes, AWS, OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI infrastructure providers charge by tokens and usage. That makes sense. They are infrastructure layers. Like cloud providers or mobile operators, they monetize general-purpose capacity. They accelerate everything, but they do not own a specific business outcome. A software company is different. You are not selling compute. You are selling a use case. You are selling a business outcome. Customers do not buy tokens. They buy economic acceleration. For AI to command meaningful pricing, it must materially shift the business's economic clock. The real value of AI is when it pulls forward the moment of outcome: Revenue recognized earlier. Risk eliminated sooner. Capital deployed faster. Decisions made in minutes instead of days. That is what expands willingness to pay. If you price like infrastructure, you cap your upside at compute cost plus margin. If you price like a software company tied to outcomes, you price against economic impact. When you materially shorten time to value, you are no longer competing on budget. You are competing against opportunity cost. And opportunity cost has no ceiling. If you are building an AI agent, the key question is not: “How many tokens does it consume?” It is: “How much economic time does it remove from the system?” Price against that. Evolution Equity Partners #AI #AIAgents #PricingStrategy #B2B #SaaS #Startups #VentureCapital #ProductStrategy #WillingnessToPay

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"The One Where a Famous VC Made Me Cry - And I'm Grateful": The year was 2002 (OK, Boomer!) My first startup (Chipshot) that we founded in our dorm rooms went from hot to not and shut down in 2000. The next startup (XDegrees) that I joined shut down 18 months later. I was 25 with a big ego and no money. One of our startup's VCs was a legendary investor. I pinged him to get career advice and he kindly accepted. I went to his office - incredibly a tiny little room with space for 2 uncomfortable chairs. I awkwardly sat and handed him my printed resume (remember kids - this was a LONG time ago...) [VC with no eye contact]: "Nick - I look at your resume and see... Chipshot: FAILURE... XDegrees: FAILURE... you'd better watch out or people are going to see you as a serial FAILURE. Go somewhere where you won't FAIL.” I politely thanked him and went back home. And bawled. There were some serious young man tears landing on my IKEA patio swing that night, people. Yet the next morning, I decided to listen to his advice. I cold emailed some already successful companies and ended up getting a PM job at one. I started on probably the most boring software product in the world, but at least it didn’t go out of business! Eventually I became a VP and GM and subsequently got to restart my dream of startups and founding companies. What do I take away from this? Well, none of us know the counterfactual. Maybe if I had ignored the investor’s 2002 advice, I would have gone on to start some epic trillion dollar company. Maybe. But 24 years later, I’m grateful that the investor had the guts to step beyond the bounds of politeness to share what he thought I needed to hear. And I work to be that candid (perhaps with a bit more bedside manner!) with others. Easier said than done.

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𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝗩𝗖𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰? Naval Ravikant says it bluntly: 𝗥𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲, not a rational one. Why? →Because investors don’t fund pitch decks… →They fund people they feel something about. Naval puts it perfectly: “𝗥𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀. 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂.” And emotional decisions never come from checklists. No one falls in love because someone is “pretty good” at a bunch of things. They fall in love because of ONE overwhelming trait. VCs are the same. According to Naval, startups win when they’re exceptional in at least one of the 4 things: 💎 1. 𝗔 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱-𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 Show you've done something extraordinary before starting this company. Signals > promises. 🛠 2. 𝗔 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗮𝘆 “𝘄𝗼𝘄” Don’t pitch with a half-built prototype and excuses. Investors are users — let them click, play, and decide instantly. 📈 3. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Nothing beats users who grow organically. “Give us money and then we’ll get customers” is the fastest way to lose a round. 🌐 4. 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 One investor → attracts two more. One respected advisor → credibility boost. Momentum matters more than founders think. Naval’s bottom line: 👉 You don’t need to be good at everything. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵. If you’re a startup raising in 2026, watch the full keynote. It will change how you fundraise → https://lnkd.in/gucXQ8-w 👉 Catch all the resources at Foundevo.com, your goldmine of startup and fundraising playbooks. Subscribe (FREE) → https://www.foundevo.com/ 👉 Follow CompareBizTech, your go-to platform for discovering software and AI tools tailored for startups and SMBs.

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