In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, host Alex Theuma welcomes Nathan Latka, CEO and Chief Investment Officer at Founderpath (and Founder of SaaSOpen).
Nathan is a Founder, CEO, podcast host, and Wall Street bestselling author. He’s embedded in the SaaS community and has been a friend of SaaStock and Alex since 2018. Yet, surprisingly, this was his first time on the SaaS Revolution Show, so we were keen to dive right in!
This jam-packed episode is one you don’t want to miss.
In this 30 minute episode, Alex and Nathan discuss:
- A sneak peek at how their shared approach to SaaS and community led to a $1.6M acquisition (with more to come at SaaStock USA).
- Why Microsoft’s Satya Nadella was wrong–AI is an opportunity for SaaS, not the end of it.
- The impact of AI on SaaS pricing.
- How founders should think about becoming AI-first.
- Using AI to remove friction in the customer journey.
- Staying ahead of shifts in organic traffic.
- The most valuable marketing skill in the AI era.
Watch below or read on for key takeaways.
Listen to the audio:
The truth about AI in SaaS
AI is a hot topic that somehow keeps getting hotter. With that comes clickbait headlines and bold claims.
Perhaps the most notable was Microsoft’s Satya Nadella going viral after stating that the era of SaaS as we know it is over–or, as the headlines put it, “SaaS is dead”. Alex asked Nathan his view on these stories and what he sees as the real impact of AI on SaaS.
For Nathan, SaaS isn’t dead but it is fundamentally changing in many ways:
- Pricing: From good-better-best to outcome focused, usage-based pricing models.
- Customer onboarding and time to value (TTV): Why every founder should be thinking about becoming AI-First.
- The buying process: How AI is causing a fundamental shift in how buyers search for solutions.
- Outbound sales and marketing: Using new technology effectively and the case for “prompt marketing”.
The impact of AI on SaaS pricing models
Right now, every SaaS company has paying customers that don’t actively use the product. So, an email marketing tool with users who never send emails or a social scheduling tool with an empty calendar.
This leaves founders with a choice of how to deal with these sleeping subscribers: “Do you attack that because you know that zero usage is a precursor to churn? Or do you ignore it and hope they start using it again. It’s a tricky situation.”
But according to Nathan, AI is about to turn that model on its head:
“You can’t hide anymore. The tools that will make the most money are the ones that deliver the most value, as measured by usage.”
So while SaaS isn’t dying, traditional pricing models are. Instead, pricing will be credit and usage based:
“You won’t make money when people aren’t getting direct value. It’s great for the consumer and it’s great for the SaaS company because it’s built on a foundation of real, earned revenue.”
Read more about the impact of AI on SaaS pricing.
Becoming AI-first: Do you need to rebuild?
Not only is AI impacting SaaS pricing models, it’s also changing how SaaS products are built, and how SaaS companies run operationally. For those not born out of AI it can feel hard to keep up but it’s important to do a true evaluation rather than bolting AI on to your homepage title.
Here are some ways Nathan recommends SaaS founders look at becoming AI-first.
1. Improve customer onboarding and reduce time to value (TTV)
In Nathan’s view, “The smartest founders today are thinking about the same things they always thought about: How do I get customers onboarded faster? How do I get them to value quicker? And they’re using AI and conversational agents to reduce friction in that process.”
Using Upwork as an example, Nathan explained that by using AI to help users create project descriptions, he gets the value (in this case, finds a contractor) faster.
“It would take me 15-20 minutes to write the project description. Now, they’ve changed the interface…All I do is write what I need done and it generates the project description for me. I post it and I get the contractor faster.”
2. Understand how buyers search for solutions
AI is changing how buyers search for software solutions. It’s taking people away from Google, search engines, and review sites. And we can see the impact already. G2 and Capterra’s organic traffic has dropped almost 80% over the last 12 months.
“If you want to buy an email marketing tool, you just ask ChatGPT “What’s the top email marketing tool? That’s how people are making buying decisions now.”
According to Nathan, conversational agents like Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek “are becoming the new front page of Google”. It’s up to founders and growth leaders to make sure their businesses appear in these top results.
Investors are paying attention, too—companies like Founderpath track traffic sources and expect to see AI-driven searches growing.
Increase your visibility in AI search results
Check your prominence in AI results by asking tools like ChatGPT the same questions that customers search for on Google.
If your company isn’t mentioned, here are a few things you can do to increase your chances:
- Start from a strong SEO foundation. That means a domain rating 50/60+ and a strong backlink profile.
- Optimise high traffic page: Update H1s to reflect the search queries customers are asking AI agents. For example, rather than “Premier capital source for software founders” Founderpath might use “Top three non-dilutive capital sources for software companies.”
- Train the AI to include your company in results: Email your users and ask them to:
- Repeat the search (e.g. top email marketing tools)
- Follow up with the AI on why your company wasn’t mentioned–including a line about why it should be.
While that last point might sound like a big ask, Nathan compares it to asking customers for a review on G2 or Capterra.
3. Use AI for effective outbound: The case for ‘prompt marketing’
Depending on who you ask, outbound is either dead or can be fully automated by AI. But the truth is more nuanced.
Nathan took us back to 2020 to provide some context:
“I’d get emails from sales reps that were terribly written and they’d go right to spam. I’d also get emails from CEOs that were well written and I’d open them, click, and engage.”
In 2025, this principle hasn’t changed. All that changes is that companies with less resource can get an outbound campaign going faster:
“But if you don’t structure it in a way that captures the recipient’s attention and gets them to reply, it’s useless. You’re just spraying and praying. You’re paying for ChatGPT and credits that don’t bring value.”
In this environment, creativity is the differentiator. And that’s why Nathan believes that the most in demand marketing role going forward will be “prompt marketer”:
“In a world where everyone has access to the same tools, who wins? What cold emails do busy CEOs open and reply to? And the answer is going to be whoever writes the most creative subject line and copy.”
While AI doesn’t solve that for you, understanding how to use waterfall enrichment tools like Clay effectively, can.
Not only can you update data on thousands of contacts, Founderpath prompts AI tools to help pull hyper-relevant insights on prospects. For example:
- Looking at target company accounts on LinkedIn and identifying the most recent employee to leave.
- Using that information to create a subject line along the lines of ‘Sorry you just lost [Name]’.
“You’re going to open that email. I know you’re thinking about [that employee] because he left just three weeks ago. That’s what I mean by creativity.”
Hear more from Nathan at SaaStock USA
Join Nathan and 1500 SaaS founders, leaders, and investors in Austin this May for the third edition of SaaStock USA.
Our Partnership with SaaSOpen kicks things off on Monday 12 May where Nathan will be hosting an invite only CEO event and we’ll host the inaugural AI First pre-conference event.
Across the conference, Nathan is bringing a select group of founders, CEO, and Investors to the Founderpath Center Stage for data-driven content you won’t get anywhere else. He’ll also be sharing more details about the $1.6M acquisition of SaaSOpen alongside our Founder Alex Theuma.
You need to be there.
Tickets are selling fast! Get yours today.
