One of the SaaS blogs I read recently made a point that’s quietly shaking the industry: the traditional SaaS exit playbook—the one where you grow to $20–50M ARR and wait for a buyer—isn’t working anymore. For years, that model was predictable. Build a solid B2B SaaS product, hit your growth targets, maintain decent unit economics, and either private equity or a strategic acquirer would show up. It was a well-understood game. That game has changed. In the first half of 2025, over half of all...

Every decently-run company tracks technical debt. Fewer track the debt that really limits growth: product debt. Product debt is what happens when features outlive their usefulness but stay anyway. When the product gets cluttered with exceptions, edge cases, and “just one more toggle” requests. It’s what happens when your product no longer reflects your strategy. The symptoms: Customers using 20% of the product but paying for 100%. Internal teams unsure which version is “right.” Product...

Every CEO has been there: your biggest deal is on the line, and the prospect needs “just one feature. ”You look at the product team and say, “Can we make it happen?” They do — and it works. But a few months later, that feature becomes an orphan, your roadmap’s off track, and the product team’s sprint cadence now follows your top five accounts. You’ve crossed a subtle but dangerous line: your product team has become your sales team. This is one of the most common patterns in late-stage...