First, there was Eight Minute Abs. Then there was the 4-Hour Work Week. Next, we may have the One-Person Unicorn.
We’ve been seeing more and more chatter from thought leaders in big tech and venture capital that AI tools are making it easier to launch and even scale a software company with very few people. Perhaps eventually with just one person.
We’ve heard a version of this from Chamath Palihapitiya (of Social Capital and the All-In Podcast).
We wrote previously about a point Chamath made on the All-In pod to the effect that VCs will become less necessary as tech founders can leverage AI to get further, and faster without having to raise capital and so on. In other words, they won’t need seed capital to make payroll. Because there won’t be much of a payroll, if any.
And this conversation just keeps growing.
I recently watched a YouTube excerpt of a conversation between Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian and Sam Altman.
In that conversation, Sam Altman says that we are very close to a 10-person unicorn (billion-dollar pre-IPO valuation). That is a jaw-dropping feat on its own.
Altman added that he is a member of a chat group of fellow tech titans (unnamed), and members of that group are taking bets on when the first single-person company will reach unicorn status. The implication is that this isn’t far off either.
There’s an AI Tool for That
So why do people think the one-person unicorn will happen? AI tools have been created to handle almost everything. From writing SEO copy to writing code.
Many of the tasks requiring people can now be done, at least in draft form, by an AI tool. Naming the business, designing the logo, writing everything from marketing copy to your About Us page, coding, building the website, creating product demo videos. You name it.
So in that sense, it seems inevitable that the idea of the lean startup would accelerate with AI.
There is a long tradition of companies staying small for as long as possible. Instagram had just 13 employees when Facebook acquired it.
If that acquisition happened now, perhaps Instagram would sell for $1 billion, and all of the proceeds would go into the founder’s pocket. Kevin Systrom is still rich, even if he missed this boat.
I’ve never been a fan of “unicorn” as a term. It’s banal and overused. But in this context, it is helpful as a shorthand to let people know the scale we are talking about.
Many Will Fail
While this may eventually be great news for a few very resourceful and perhaps misanthropic founders, there are downsides to this one-person unicorn idea. Just as there are downsides to any discussion of how AI can replace this or that role. From lawyers to copywriters. Not everyone wants to talk about it. But it’s always in the air.
I suspect there will be many wannabe founders who will naively see this as a faster path to riches. But many if not most will lack the smarts or resourcefulness to pull it off. Just because something is possible doesn’t make it easy.
So while we may see startups stay lean for longer. And we may yet see the single-person unicorn. I also think we may see an elevated startup failure rate.
