What’s Actually Replacing SaaS
The companies building with AI aren’t adding AI features to existing SaaS. They’re replacing entire operational workflows with agents that run end to end — without dashboards, without user input, without waiting.
The Manifesto is the architectural case for why this is happening and what it means for how you build.
The Architecture Shift
Software companies sell tools. Agent-native companies deliver outcomes.
That distinction changes everything: what you build, how you staff it, what reliability means, what a “user” is, and whether your product needs a UI at all.
The shift from SaaS to agents isn’t a feature upgrade. It’s a different operating model.
What This Report Covers
- Why the SaaS model reaches its limits in an agent-native world — and what the architecture that replaces it actually looks like.
- How to structure a startup around agent workflows instead of user-facing features.
- The operational shift: from user actions to autonomous business outcomes.
- What changes about team structure when agents do the work your engineers used to coordinate.
- Legal, ethical, and compliance ground rules every agentic startup needs before going to production.
Where Founders Get Stuck
Most founders building with AI right now are at the same decision point: they’ve seen what agents can do, but they’re still designing their product like a SaaS app.
They’re adding AI to a workflow that was built for humans. That works until it doesn’t.
The Manifesto gives you the mental model for building the other way around — starting from what the agent can own, not what the user needs to click.
At InTheValley, we work inside these teams. The same architectural questions surface every time. This report is the framework built from those engagements.
Get the Report
The Agentic Startup Manifesto is a 29-page framework for building companies where agents run the operation.
- The Agentic Startup Manifesto - June 8, 2025
- Remote Hiring in 2025 - April 5, 2025