SAAS Operators Podcast E02: OpenAI Ad Generation & Product Market Fit
In this episode of the SAAS Operators Podcast, the hosts discuss OpenAI ad generation. They dive deep into solving problems vs following demand trends, highlighting the difference between tools and solutions. The episode ends with a brief discussion on the role of AI in SAAS PMF.
From Minivans to Magic Moments: How AI Is Reshaping Software (and Founders)
What starts with minivans usually ends with insight.
One minute we’re talking about folding seats and Volkswagen buses, the next we’re deep in the trenches of product-market fit, pricing psychology, and the impact of AI on creative work, SaaS retention, and founder behavior.
Here’s what surfaced.
AI Is Raising the Floor, Not the Ceiling
The real shift in generative AI isn’t that it replaces talent — it flattens the curve. Rishabh put it well: AI makes everyone B+. A CEO can now half-design, half-code, and half-write. Which sounds like leverage until you realize most of us are now wasting time fiddling with tools we didn’t need to touch in the first place.
It’s not additive — it’s distracting. And for founders, distraction looks like progress.
But here’s the paradox: when AI is in the hands of the right person, the quality of input becomes everything. As Zach said, good art direction becomes great prompting. The tools don’t replace taste — they just reveal who has it.
Everyone Wants to Feel Like Superman
That’s what Rishabh called it. These tools — Lovable, Midjourney, ChatGPT — don’t just offer utility. They offer power. The illusion of instant creation. The dopamine hit of dragging your ideas into the world with no friction.
Zach told a story about a friend who built an entire business app on a flight, just using Lovable. The product may never go public, but that emotional payoff — “I built this, myself, from scratch” — is the new value prop.
AI isn’t just about getting work done faster. It’s about feeling like you’ve unlocked something. That matters.
The Real Problem Isn’t Making the Thing — It’s Keeping People Using It
Founders chase magic moments. But what gets someone to sign up isn’t what keeps them around.
Jeremiah laid it out clearly: for SaaS, retention often depends on giving customers a new dopamine hit every ~6 months. Not a major feature overhaul. Not a total rebrand. Just something new, surprising, and useful.
But Zach offered a nuance: sometimes, all you need is alignment with a workflow. A well-placed button that saves someone two clicks a day can be just as sticky as a major product launch. Especially when your product integrates into a daily habit.
The key isn’t always blowing someone’s mind — it’s staying in their muscle memory.
Pricing Is the Perception
We talked seat-based pricing. We talked usage-based pricing. But the bigger takeaway was this: your pricing model tells customers what to value.
Rishabh compared it to buying olive oil — most people pick the middle-priced one. Not because it’s better, but because the price tells a story. Same in SaaS. Your price is a signal of your product’s identity.
Zach summed it up perfectly: some customers hate usage pricing. Others hate seat-based pricing. There’s no winning. The best you can do is align your pricing with how value is actually experienced inside your product.
AI Product-Market Fit: Hope, Hype, and Hard Truths
A lot of AI tools right now have messaging-market fit — not product-market fit. They sell hope. They pitch a dream. But when the product doesn’t follow through, customers churn. And then OpenAI drops a new model and kills a dozen startups overnight.
That’s not a bug. That’s the cycle.
Rishabh pointed out the upside: this era of “AI budget” — where boards and exec teams are actively allocating spend just to try AI — is a rare tailwind. It accelerates the experiment cycle. It creates surface area for new ideas to be tested, even if most fail.
Zach called it clearly: hope sells. Just don’t oversell it. Progress has to follow belief.
Software That Grows With You
At the end, we landed on a subtle truth: the best software doesn’t stay the same. It grows with its user.
In DTC, the goal is often consistency — the same coffee, the same cookies, the same skin serum. In SaaS, the product needs to shift as the customer’s needs evolve. Otherwise, the fit breaks.
But not always. Some tools thrive by staying invisible (Jeremiah mentioned GCP — if you’re logging in, something’s probably on fire). Others survive by becoming part of a team’s rhythm — used daily, quietly irreplaceable.
Different products. Same goal: become part of the story your customer is telling themselves.
The Bottom Line
AI might raise the floor, but it won’t carry you to the ceiling. That still takes product insight, strategic positioning, and deep empathy for the customer’s real pain.
You need to solve problems. But you also need to make people feel powerful while they’re solving them.
Do both, and you won’t just survive the AI wave — you’ll ride it.
