10/04/2026
YC just explicitly called for AI-native agencies to apply. After years of VCs treating agencies like second-class businesses.
They had good reasons before. The old agency model was brutal. You scaled by hiring junior people, handing them lower-priority projects, and praying the output wouldn't be complete garbage. Growth meant more headcount, heavier processes, slower delivery. SaaS was the opposite - the bigger the customer base, the more efficient the operation. Unit economics clearly favored SaaS.
AI agents changed that math.
But the biggest change is one nobody's talking about. For years, agency know-how was locked inside the heads of key people. Impossible to scale, impossible to sell. Now, if you want AI agents to actually work, you have to do something agencies never bothered with - a complete brain dump. Build your single source of truth. Document every process, every decision framework, every quality standard.
That documentation IS the IP.
A few key people with properly documented expertise can now operate dozens of agents working around the clock. The only salary is the token bill. Agency margins, with a full pipeline, can now genuinely compare with SaaS.
So yes, I understand why YC made the call. Agencies that did their homework - documented everything, built real IP - are finally investable. They can scale without raising headcount.
My own take? After 18 years of building GrownApps, I don't see a reason to take investment and dilute my shares. My team handles delivery without me stepping in. I have the time and thanks to AI the ability to iterate faster than ever. It's only a matter of persistence until the flywheel spins.
