Anyone else here have a SaaS they've been running since before AI came around?
Just about every post here is from people who have just started their journeys. But I'd love to hear from some of you that are like me who have been running a SaaS product for 5+ years doing 6+ figure ARR.
How has the advent of AI affected your SaaS? Has it been a net-positive or net-negative? What are some problems you're dealing with adapting to the AI world? How have you adapted? Any benefits?
For me as a solo-founder, the biggest problem AI has created for me is in marketing my product. I used to have pure organic SEO, but my Google search impressions have absolutely tanked. Even though I'm ranking higher than I ever was before, I'm getting a fraction of the impressions and clicks.
The other major piece of this is that my product is a developer tool. I used to get a ton of traffic from writing developer tutorials that plug my product. These tutorials on my site were the source of almost all my traffic. But now that developers aren't Googling for tutorials anymore, it's completely tanked my traffic.
Since my product is a developer tool, I've also had to adapt my product for the new way that people code now. That means creating an MCP, skills, etc.
On the plus side, my churn rate hasn't changed. Still 3-5% monthly. So I'm glad to see that AI isn't affecting the utility of my product. It's just customer acquisition that has been the problem. It's really just a matter of adjusting my marketing strategies for this new world. I have new marketing strategies in mind, I just need to finish up some features revolving around MCPs and APIs before I start trying to ride the wave.
A major benefit for me is that now that I'm coding with AI, I can release new features at like 5-10x the rate as I could before. As a solo-founder working on this project part-time, getting the time to work on it is very hard. But now I can get a ton done in a two hour session. This has been huge.
As a developer tool, I'm actually optimistic about the future since so many more people are building now. But until I get my marketing strategy down, it's just a hope for now.
Would love to hear how some of you guys are doing who are in the same boat!
Before anyone asks, I'm not going to mention my product because I'm not one who believes associating my company with my personal Reddit profile is a good idea, no offense 🙂