The SaaSpocalypse
03 June 2026
Redmond Orme
Fractional Global Partner Director | Scaling B2B SaaS & eCommerce | Channel Strategy & GTM Specialist | Consultant @ Cloud and Commerce
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Part 1 - The SaaSpocalypse
For a time SaaS seemed like the perfect solution.
If there was a workflow you could create a product around it. If you could create a product you could find someone to buy it. The model was simple: specialize, grow, repeat.. For a while it really worked. Businesses got tools they never had before. New categories were created from scratch. We should acknowledge that before criticizing it.
As SaaS grew, something changed quietly.
The more SaaS specialized the more it broke into pieces. Each new solution made sense on its own; a better way to manage something, a smarter approach to something else. Nobody thought about where all those solutions would fit. Who would connect them, keep them running and make sure they were actually being used?
That job fell to the customer.
The industry called this arrangement “composable”. It sounded modern and intentional. In reality it meant the complexity of building a coherent technology environment. Integration work, data management, change management was transferred from the vendor to the buyer. The customer became the system integrator. What started as a market of solutions started to feel like a different kind of problem.
For a time the numbers made it work.
When money was easy to get, growth was the main goal. The problems with the model were easy to ignore. Complexity became a chance for services. Customer churn became a customer success challenge. The tough questions, like “Are people actually getting value from this?” and “Is this really easier than before?” were put off until later.
Then the environment changed.
Money got harder to come by, scrutiny increased and renewal conversations got harder. Buyers started asking questions. Not “What does this do?” but instead “What has this actually delivered?”. The honest answer in many cases was more complicated than anyone wanted to admit.
What we’re in now isn’t a market correction. It’s like a moment of clarity. The industry is now facing a reality that was always there but easier to ignore when the numbers were going up.
The good news is that clarity can lead to change.
The vendors who come out of this well won’t be the ones who cut costs the most. They’ll be the ones who looked at what their model delivered were honest about the problems and started building something.
SaaS created a lot of value over the past decade.
The next chapter is about making that value easier to get. Complexity for the buyer and more results actually delivered.
This shift is already happening.
That’s worth paying attention to.
