E63: The AI War Machine with Rabah Rahil

In this episode of 1 to 100, formerly The SAAS Operators, Rabah Rahil joins us to talk about what software businesses look like when AI makes development cheaper, increases leverage, and changes how companies buy.

We start with the idea that SaaS is done.

Rabah argues that this is overblown. Rishabh points out that software consumption is still growing quickly, while companies like Anthropic can produce huge amounts of revenue with far fewer employees than older software companies.

The bigger change is the amount of leverage software now creates.

We talk about the rise of AI-powered services. Rabah thinks many businesses would rather buy an outcome than another software tool.

AI lets agencies and service companies deliver that outcome with much less headcount, while keeping the domain expertise and flexibility that software alone can miss.

The go-to-market model also changes by market. Some companies need PLG with very fast time to value.

Others need founder-led sales, CEO-to-CEO selling, and a services layer that helps the customer implement the product. Rishabh argues that the middle ground is becoming a difficult place to build.

Rabah also explains what he has learned building Doctrine, internally called War Machine, while using it inside a real marketing team.

His main lesson is get the product into the hands of real customers as early as possible.

A product can feel productive to build, but founders can use product work to avoid the harder job of building the company and selling.

We also talk about why distribution matters more as development gets cheaper.

A better product can still lose to an incumbent with stronger sales, relationships, and market access. Rabah argues that building software is becoming easier while building distribution remains difficult.

The lesson for founders is build for real demand, sell the product that exists, and choose a go-to-market model that matches how your market buys. AI makes it easier to build. It does not make distribution, trust, or customer adoption automatic.