Are SaaS & AI Products Going To Die Because Of Vibe Coding?

A few days back, A man named Garry (who runs Y Combinator),

wrote a rather provocative post on X telling Zoho and similar products are all heading for doom because everyone is going to vibe code or something, 

But as someone who helps tech products get more traffic + paid clients, let me tell you... 

it's COMPLETE B.S. 

Every company, big or small, faces this...

There is something called a Build vs Buy decision. 

When it comes to building something on your own vs. buying a readymade ( or even a half-baked ) solution, 

the latter is chosen 99% of the time 

Why? 

The reasons are painfully obvious once you think about it. 

Why Companies Buy SaaS Tools Instead of Building Internally (Every Single Time)

1. Time is Money

Building takes months. Buying takes minutes. Companies need solutions NOW, not after 6 months of development hell.

2. Expertise Gap

A marketing team doesn't know how to “build” a mark-ops or data analytics software.  A sales team can't code a CRM tool. 

They know how to USE these tools, not build them.

3. Opportunity Cost

Every hour spent building internal tools is an hour NOT spent on your core business. You know, the thing that actually makes you money?

4. Maintenance Nightmare

Building is the easy part. Maintaining, updating, securing, and supporting it? That's the real nightmare that never ends.

5. Scalability Issues

Your custom-built solution works great for 10 users. What happens when you need to scale to 100 or 1000? Good luck with that.

6. Integration Hell

Your custom tool needs to work with 15 other existing systems. Good luck building all those integrations from scratch.

7. Hidden Costs

That "free" internal tool you built? It's costing you developer salaries, maintenance time, and opportunity costs. It's the most expensive "free" thing you'll ever create.

8. Compliance and Security

Good luck getting your custom-built tool through enterprise security reviews and compliance audits. Off-the-shelf solutions already did that work.

9. Team Turnover

If the developer who built your custom tool just quit, it’s all over. Now nobody knows how it works.

10. Feature Bloat

Your internal tool keeps getting requests for new features. Soon it's a bloated mess that does everything poorly.

So Why Did Garry Say This?

Garry runs Y Combinator. His job is to fund the NEXT big thing, not cheer for the EXISTING big things. 

Of course he's going to say current solutions are doomed, that creates urgency for new startups to apply to YC.

Provocative statements get attention. 

"Everything is doomed" gets more clicks than "

Things will continue evolving normally." It's classic media manipulation.

Oh also, I found more reasons after doing some research behind YC. 

The “AI Hype Cycle”

We're in peak AI hype. Everyone thinks AI will solve every problem. In 2 years, we'll realize AI is just another tool, not magic.

The Developer-Centric Bubble

VCs and tech founders live in a bubble where everyone can code. They forget that 95% of business people can't build their own solutions and don't want to.

It’s not their fault because they’re centric to what’s happening in the Bay Area 

The "This Time It's Different" Fallacy

Every new technology comes with people claiming "this time it's different." Radio, TV, internet, mobile, cloud, AI... same story, different decade.

So, now that we’ve gone through all this, what’s in it for SaaS founders

Vibe coding (whatever that even means) isn't going to replace WELL-BUILT SaaS products for the same reason that restaurants and fast food suddenly didn’t replace home cooking 

The market for SaaS products isn't shrinking, it's expanding. As more businesses go digital, the need for specialized, well-built software solutions grows.

What IS changing:

• AI-powered features are becoming table stakes

• Integration capabilities are more important than ever

• User experience matters more than features

• Niche solutions are beating general-purpose tools

These are EVOLUTIONS, not revolutions. They're opportunities for smart SaaS founders,

Look, if you're building a SaaS product right now, don't let some provocative tweet from a VC make you question everything.

Solve real problems for real customers

Build products that people actually want to pay for

Focus on their users, not on tech hype

Market their products effectively

Iterate based on feedback, not fear

The "vibe coding" crowd will build some cool prototypes. Most will fail. 

The serious SaaS companies will keep serving their customers, generating revenue, and growing their businesses.

Zoho and companies like them will be just fine. 

Why? Because they solve real business problems for real companies who have real work to do.

Your SaaS product will be fine too, if you focus on your customers and not on the hype cycle.

Keep building. Keep marketing. Keep solving problems.

P.S. If you're a SaaS founder struggling to get more traffic and paying clients , I help tech companies grow their user base and revenue. 

Book a call here if you want to stop building in the dark and start growing your business