Small durable businesses face a new question: what does AI do to revenue
A founder wrote about running a bootstrapped SaaS for 20 years with his brother, apparently an audio-to-text style tool one commenter used that day. Commenters called it a dream, a real user base without chasing money, and one asked directly how revenue has changed during the AI period and whether coding agents are eating it. The question got downvoted but remained the most-asked one. In the UBI thread on the Marshall Islands, one comment suggested UBI could be a cynical way to ease an AI transition, imagining self-driving trucks taking jobs within three years.
The pattern: even in a feel-good story, people read it through whether AI makes a small utility replaceable. The ask for revenue numbers is really a demand for evidence, and nobody in the thread offered any.
The counterpoint, implied by the 20-year run, is that small tools with trust and a loyal user base have outlasted several tech waves already.
So what?
If your product is a thin utility, test now whether a chat model can replace it for your users. If you're a long-running small product, publish your retention and revenue trend. It's a credible marketing asset right now.