Why Every SaaS Category Will Die | Why 93% Gross Margins Are Over | Why You Must Be 10x More Ambitious in AI | Why Software Becomes Like Fashion | Jacob Beckerman, CEO of Macro
The software industry's 30-year business model is becoming obsolete - this founder is betting his company on what comes next.
Why listen: Jacob Beckerman reveals why the cost of code approaching zero means every software company needs to rethink everything - from margins to moats to hiring. He's open-sourcing his entire codebase, hiring poets alongside engineers, and building for a world where brand matters more than features.
Jacob Beckerman is the founder and CEO of Macro, an AI workspace startup that has raised over $32 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Box Group. He previously conducted AI research at Penn and worked at Bridgewater Associates.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
00:00 - Why everything you learned about building software companies is now obsolete
01:47 - The three radical changes coming as software development costs hit zero
05:47 - Why 93% gross margins are dead and cursor operates at 20%
08:28 - The new rulebook: ambition, openness, and brand over features
11:06 - Why being "principled" and narrow will kill your startup
13:11 - From seven-figure PDF reader to replacing Slack, Notion, and Linear simultaneously
17:19 - Open-sourcing your entire codebase as competitive advantage
20:50 - Why you're selling integrations and intelligence, not software
22:26 - Hiring poets and MFAs instead of MIT engineers
27:50 - Software brands becoming like fashion: Salesforce as Kirkland
30:34 - Traditional moats are dead—what actually matters now
32:32 - "Would you rather wrap a database or superintelligence?"
35:00 - Infinite demand for intelligence vs finite meeting summaries
40:00 - Why zombie unicorns have their heads in the sand about AGI
42:26 - Battle scars matter more than startup advice
47:22 - "Get the hell out of the way and let me go on my journey"
Why listen: Jacob Beckerman reveals why the cost of code approaching zero means every software company needs to rethink everything - from margins to moats to hiring. He's open-sourcing his entire codebase, hiring poets alongside engineers, and building for a world where brand matters more than features.
Jacob Beckerman is the founder and CEO of Macro, an AI workspace startup that has raised over $32 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Box Group. He previously conducted AI research at Penn and worked at Bridgewater Associates.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
00:00 - Why everything you learned about building software companies is now obsolete
01:47 - The three radical changes coming as software development costs hit zero
05:47 - Why 93% gross margins are dead and cursor operates at 20%
08:28 - The new rulebook: ambition, openness, and brand over features
11:06 - Why being "principled" and narrow will kill your startup
13:11 - From seven-figure PDF reader to replacing Slack, Notion, and Linear simultaneously
17:19 - Open-sourcing your entire codebase as competitive advantage
20:50 - Why you're selling integrations and intelligence, not software
22:26 - Hiring poets and MFAs instead of MIT engineers
27:50 - Software brands becoming like fashion: Salesforce as Kirkland
30:34 - Traditional moats are dead—what actually matters now
32:32 - "Would you rather wrap a database or superintelligence?"
35:00 - Infinite demand for intelligence vs finite meeting summaries
40:00 - Why zombie unicorns have their heads in the sand about AGI
42:26 - Battle scars matter more than startup advice
47:22 - "Get the hell out of the way and let me go on my journey"
Creators and Guests
Host
Pascal Unger
Co-founder / Managing Partner at focal.vc We lead pre-seeds in North America with up to $1M: We exclusively back AI native software startups at the very start. Thereafter, we help them get off the ground better and faster, supported by a network > 200 GTM executives. That's our singular, unwavering focus.