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Service-with-Software: Why the Best AI Companies Start with Humans

Written by Harry Prabandham

Curated by Rubric Financial

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Pure SaaS Is Losing to Service-with-Software

Companies clinging to 'pure software' with 80% gross margins but no proprietary data are getting outcompeted by service-first businesses
The best AI application companies aren't pure software; they're services businesses that automate with AI over time
You can't automate what you don't understand. Services aren't a bug, they're one of the best ways to build a data moat
Optimizing for SaaS margins from day one means optimizing for investor optics instead of building something defensible

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About the author

Harry Prabandham

Founder & CEO

Founder and CEO of StartupCFO. MBA from Wharton, MS in Computer Science, and decades of experience building and advising venture-backed startups.

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