The global technology landscape is currently weathering a seismic shift that has violently erased two trillion dollars in paper valuation from software companies in 2026. This market reset, which industry insiders have dubbed the SaaS-pocalypse, was punctuated by a single weekend in February where tech valuations plummeted by $285 billion as investors began to realise that the traditional rules of the software game had fundamentally changed.
At the heart of this disruption is the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence agents from giants like OpenAI and Anthropic, which are beginning to perform the work of entire departments with startling efficiency. For Auckland-based tech leader Devin Deen, the founder of ThinkGo, this is not merely a period of market volatility but a necessary evolution that will separate the true innovators from those simply riding a wave of what he calls vibe coding.
Deen observes that the SaaS-pocalypse is specifically targeting the per-seat licensing model that has been the bread and butter of the industry for decades. As AI enables individuals to do more than ever before, the demand for dozens of software licenses for a single team is evaporating. “If I can swap ten people with two to three people working with AI agents, am I going to need those many licenses for that particular product?” Deen asks.
This shift is forcing companies to rethink their pricing and deliver value based on outcomes rather than headcount.
Another real terror for SaaS startups is the new reality that any SaaS product that can be replicated in a weekend by a competitor using AI, is effectively a commodity. Deen warns that, “SaaS was already in shaky grounds in terms of what vibe coding can replace. Your software can be replaced in one weekend by someone who likes what you did”.
For a software business to remain competitive and investable today, Deen says it must look beyond its generic code and embrace the concept of the whole product model. As Deen explains, “It’s not just your product that’s the value. It’s your integrations, how open your partnerships, your community that you have built with your customers, the engagement, how they feel about your brand”.
Success in this era requires a radical departure from complicated business strategies and rigid corporate structures, a lesson Deen carries from his formative years as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.
Contrary to the Hollywood stereotype of rigid, top-down hierarchy, Deen explains that the Marine Corps actually operates on a model of decentralised command. The core building block is the fire team, a small, four-person autonomous unit that is entrusted to make strategic decisions in the heat of the moment. “That small unit is nested in squads and platoons of people, but the fire team level is like the basic building block,” Deen says. This is only possible because every member of the team understands the overarching mission and their specific part in achieving it.
Deen applies this exact logic to the startup world, where he advocates for small, autonomous teams that are aligned on the business challenge, game plan and winning moves and are given the freedom to execute nimbly. He defines leadership not as control, but as “building up people so they can make decisions on their own, so long as they know what the plan is”.
At ThinkGo, this lean philosophy is reflected in the way the business itself is built, opting for automation and specialist partnerships over a massive internal army. By automating everything from lead nurturing to the onboarding journey, the company remains nimble while using AI agents to keep headcount low and speed high.
Deen’s first product is ThinkGo Diagnostics, which acts as an MRI scan on a business to help founders find their own path through the chaos. By assessing critical metrics like annual recurring revenue and net revenue retention alongside maturity benchmarks, the diagnostic tool provides a programmatic to-do list for growth. It is a pragmatic approach that eschews the bad name often associated with corporate strategy in favour of practical, actionable steps for founders who are struggling to scale.
One of the most persistent hurdles Deen identifies in the New Zealand tech ecosystem is the challenge of changing human behaviour. Even in the most innovative startups, people often become comfortable in their own “decisive chaos” and resist the systems needed to move past the product-market fit stage (a hurdle where forty percent of startups unfortunately flame out). “People get comfortable in the chaos and they don’t want to change out of it,” Deen notes.
To overcome this, he encourages Kiwi founders to adopt a more American-style optimism and a growth mindset, particularly when approaching international markets. While New Zealanders tend to rely upon personal relationships to break into somewhere or something new (sometimes staying in unproductive conversations far too long) Americans find it absolutely acceptable to approach strangers and initiate dialogue.
For Deen, ultimately, the SaaS-pocalypse is a call to return to the fundamentals of business: knowing your customer and building a culture that can weather friction.
He warns that, “It doesn’t do you any good to add a hundred customers if you’re losing a hundred customers. You’re just on a treadmill for nothing”.
“The only way to prevent that churn is through constant, assumption-free dialogue with the people using your product.”
As AI continues to commoditise code, the human elements of business (leadership, inspiration, and the ability to foster a melting pot of diverse perspectives) become the only sustainable competitive advantages.
For the Kiwi entrepreneurs willing to look past the vibe coding and focus on building robust, mission-aligned fire teams, Deen believes the current market reset is not an end but a powerful new beginning.
Interview by Sam Collins.
