Will solo startups dominate the business landscape in the future?
Today, this graphic caught my attention:
It featured individuals who managed to build significant profit while running their businesses solo, without employees. Until now, I’ve seen these more as exceptions rather than the norm.
But with AI, nothing seems impossible anymore. I believe this model could start to dominate:
Companies will shrink their workforce structures, lean teams of senior talent will remain, and use AI to multiply high-quality output.
Highly capable individuals will compete with these companies, with their differentiation largely driven by personal branding.
What I still can’t fully “figure out,” though, is the potential rise in unemployment and overproduction caused by AI. If people (especially white-collar workers) lose their jobs and income, the question is, who will actually buy all these AI-made/generated products and services? :D
So my main question is:
How do you see business models evolving in the future?
For inspiration, I’ve attached the infographic I mentioned.
Replies
AI definitely makes solo possible for more people, and we’re seeing that. But I still think teams win long-term — not because of headcount, but because of skill diversity. A great engineer and a great therapist-turned-product-designer see problems completely differently. That combination is hard to replicate solo, even with AI.
What’s interesting is we’ve seen this at the big company level too — massive layoffs, leaner structures. But the ones that cut too deep start losing that diversity of perspective. There’s a floor.
Building OceanMind with a tiny team — we could only move the way we do because one co-founder thinks in nervous system science and the other in code. No AI fills that gap yet.
Btw, thank you for the image, so inspiring!
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@alexeyglukharev IMO, teams will win, but not to such an extent (200 vs 20), and each team member will be required to be multi-skilled in at least 2 areas. Demands on skills will increase.
@alexeyglukharev That contrast between perspectives is the real edge
@alexeyglukharev The nervous system plus code combo is powerful
@alexeyglukharev That "floor" point is underrated
@alexeyglukharev Small teams work when the minds are different
Toone
Happy Easter everybody 🐰
It looks the reality we are approaching, but honestly as a solo founder I don't think it's a path I'd recommend to anyone... Flexible, hot for some people yes but you'll gotta go through hell to get something off the ground.
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Happy Easter (tho we work anyway) 😀
It is not impossible, but rare, to be a successful solo founder. (also, what does " successful " mean? Working remotely? Having 1B+?) I think that this image describes it pretty well:
The words of Alex Karp:
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@stoyan_minchev Wait – the company had 3 devs and 2 of them were doing nothing in the company? :D What are they paid for? :D Marketing hasn't been easy even before.
Many things are not easy:
– had a good idea for problem-solving
– put that idea into practice (execution)
– market it
The first two things are easier now with AI, but the third one is not so easy.
@busmark_w_nika :) It sounds funny, yes. But people are still trying to get used to the new world. The project starts with the expected workload, and three people assigned. They decided to use new technologies. The result was: one developer took the tools and finished it all. ;)
That is why some developers are afraid for their jobs. People see that not so much developers are needed anymore.
As I would like to be a part of this one-person company, I don't think I could stay 1 person at the 2mil mark maybe even 1mil. There are just certain things I don't want to do that i would be happy to pay someone else to do. Not that I couldn't do it, I just don't want to. I mean right now I am looking for someone to make my tutorial video's and I will pay them, because I don't like making video's with me or my voice, but if I have to I will. I believe all these business listed, even though are labeled as one-person, are still using third parties to get things done in their business. Now with AI it is easier to build these businesses but every business will have things to do that people don't want to do, like taxes, legal obligations, insurance, etc...
The concern isn't one person businesses it is companies like Oracle laying off 20K employees and other companies doing the same. What is the talent pool they are laying off and if they are laid off because AI made there positions obsolete then how are they going to get another position in the same area? I mean sooner or later the adoption of AI will make a lot of positions obsolete. I have been telling the younger generation coming into the helpdesk position is start getting into AI, because in my personal opinion the landscape of helpdesk (specifically in technology, like troubleshooting OS issues, connection issues, software issues, etc...) will be change to a 1 person position. I believe that OS's will be completely AI and self healing.
Even more concerning is the future of an AI dystopia state where the human element is removed from any job and replaced by an AI robot, for safety of the human life. We have seen a start to this with automation back in the 90's in the automotive industry. We have seen the collapse of manufacturing. We are seeing the birth of the self driving car. The AI assembly line will completely be human free. There is nothing an AI robot will not be able to do, once they can make it waterproof and regulate temperature, then outdoor work, like build houses, septic tank cleaning and everything in between will be human free. At this point we will rely on government payments for us to get food, pay bills, etc... creating the final divide of have and have nots, completely removing the middle class. This is most concerning for me.
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@david_sherer I also think that they distribute work to freelancers (e.g. I do not expect from Marc Lou to edit videos – he also hired a video editor for his YouTube and he has profits from YT too), but that work will be more task-based than hour-based.
@david_sherer Yes, this. While I'm currently developing something as a solo dev, I certainly aspire to growing out of that mode sooner than later. If I can launch successfully, the point is to then expand the foundation with tech-support and marketing at the very least...
Rather than everything being done by a solo entrepreneur, I feel that team sizes are gradually shrinking. Lately, I’ve been thinking that the bigger the team, the more time things take. I often feel that a team of 2–3 people might be the optimal size, rather than a one-person business.
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@do_this_all_day31 I would say that teams up to 10 (really lean structure) is the future.
People will be shifted to physical services (tho I do not know whether all people can be in charge, as there is a limited space for them too).
The constraint used to be execution capacity, as one person could have the idea and the vision, but couldn't build, sell, and operate simultaneously. In our case with @CoreSight, we're a very small team doing work that would have required a much larger one a few years ago.
On your unemployment point, I think the transition period is the real risk. The new roles being created require different skills than the ones disappearing, and that gap doesn't close overnight. This is also an opportunity for anyone who wants to create a business that helps people with their AI skills.
@busmark_w_nika I really don't know the answer to this, because I've been a professional motion picture and television editor for close to 30 years (The Flash, FBI, Once Upon A Time, etc.) but am now branching out and creating a product I hope will have broad appeal, based on a need I witnessed in the entertainment industry. So while I don't have the answer, I'm absolutely interested in knowing the answer, because my situation would be exactly that: a fairly disciplined developer with some coding skills using AI as a force multiplier to deliver a product that hopefully somebody wants. LOL.
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@conleec To be honest, those who were already successful without AI will be on steroids with AI. It is about who holds it in their hands.
Solo founders can achieve a lot of things with AI now, but still the power of team work and consistent effort can beat them, but I am genuinely happy to see solo founders beat large players.
I think solo companies will increase, but not fully replace teams.
AI helps with execution, but distribution, trust, and relationships still compound with people.
What’s changing is leverage:
1 person and AI is what small teams used to do
But demand still comes from networks, not just output.
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@priyanshu_singh23 probably there is not such a strong power in one individual (even with AI) :)