VC-Funded vs. Bootstrapped Solopreneur
“Services as software” is getting a lot of attention from venture capitalists right now, and it means two very different things depending on who’s using the phrase.
The VC version: Identify a service that runs on repeatable, rules-based tasks and replace the humans with AI. Autopilot. Little to no human judgment required. That’s a legitimate business category. It’s also not what you’re building.
What you’re building is the other version, which the VC firm Sequoia specifically carves out when it talks about management consulting: services where human judgment is a big part of the product. That is, the practice of applying expertise to a specific person’s or organization’s situation to improve their performance or help them achieve their objectives.
So swap “management consulting” in the previous paragraph for whatever your expertise actually is — coaching, strategy, creative direction, financial planning, organizational design — and the definition holds. If you’re being paid for your judgment, you’re in this category.
AI amplifies that kind of work. It doesn’t replace it. That’s the model Sovereign Startup Foundations established, and it’s the model this course builds on.
