I speak only from a very high-level POV. From a lower-level/in the "trees" -- yes, I don't disagree whatsoever with your characterization that a single company can achieve that. I know of many many many products I use (tech even!) that I could create exponentially better alternatives for, as well.

Now, there come a few considerations I don't believe you have factored in:

- Just because your company has struck gold: does that mean that pathway is available or realistic enough for everyone else; and to a more important point, is it /significant/ enough that it can scoop the enormous amount of tech talent on the market currently and in the future? I don't believe so.

- Segueing, "software products that I wish I had in my life." Yes, I too have many ideas, BUT: is the market (the TAM if you will) significant enough to warrant it? Ok, maybe it is -- how will you solve for distribution? Fulfillment is easy, but how are you going to not only identify prospective customers (your ICP), find them and communicate to them, and then convince them to buy your product, AND do this at scale, AND do this with low enough churn/CAC and high enough retention/CLTV, AND is this the most productive and profitable use of your time and resources?

Again, ideas are easy -- we all have them. But the execution is difficult. In the SaaS/tech space, people are burned out from software. Everyone is shilling their vibe-coded SaaS or latest app. That market is saturated, people don't care. Consumer economy is suffering right now due to the overall economy and so on. Next avenue is enterprise/B2B -- cool, still issues: buyer fatigue; economic uncertainty leading to anemic budgets and paralysis while the "fog" clears. No one is buying -- unless you can guarantee they can make money or you can "weather the storm" (see: AI, and all the top-down AI mandates every single PE co and board is shoving down exec teams throats).

I'm talking in very broad strokes on the most impactful things. Yes, there is much to create -- but who is going to create it and who is going to buy it (with what money?). This is a people problem, not a tech problem. I'm specifically talking about: "what more tech is there to sell -- that PEOPLE WILL BUY -- besides LLM integrations?" Again, I see nothing -- so I have pivoted towards finance and selling money. Money will not go out of fashion for a while (because people need it for the foreseeable future).

Ask yourself, if you were fired right now at this moment: how easy would it be for you to get another job? Quite difficult unless you find yourself lucky enough to have a network of people that work in businesses that are selling things that people are buying. Otherwise, good luck. You would have more luck consulting -- there are many many many "niche" products and projects that need to be done on small scales, that require good tech talent, but have no hope of being productized or scaled (hint!).

It’s really interesting to hear your points.

I do think I may struggle a bit to find something comparable to my current company, but we’re also hiring right now. And it’s a very small company in the grand scheme of things, even though we have customers much bigger.

I guess having that experience makes me think that there must be a lot of other small companies working in their own interesting niche, providing a valuable product for a subset of major companies. You just don’t usually know they exist unless you need their specific niche.

But I recognize your points too. It seems like the B-to-C space is really tricky right now, and likely fits closer with what you’re describing.

I think that the flip side is that a company doesn’t need to make it big to be successful. If you can hire 5 developers and bring in $2m/yr, there’s nothing at all wrong with that as a business. Maybe we will get lucky and the market will trend towards more of those to fill in the void that you mentioned. I think it could lead to a lot of innovation and a really healthy tech world! But maybe it’s just being overly optimistic to think that might be the path forward :)