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The software industry's 30-year business model is becoming obsolete - this founder is betting his company on what comes next.
Why listen: Jacob Beckerman reveals why the cost of code approaching zero means every software company needs to rethink everything - from margins to moats to hiring. He's open-sourcing his entire codebase, hiring poets alongside engineers, and building for a world where brand matters more than features.
Jacob Beckerman is the founder and CEO of Macro, an AI workspace startup that has raised over $32 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Box Group. He previously conducted AI research at Penn and worked at Bridgewater Associates.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
00:00 - Why everything you learned about building software companies is now obsolete
01:47 - The three radical changes coming as software development costs hit zero
05:47 - Why 93% gross margins are dead and cursor operates at 20%
08:28 - The new rulebook: ambition, openness, and brand over features
11:06 - Why being "principled" and narrow will kill your startup
13:11 - From seven-figure PDF reader to replacing Slack, Notion, and Linear simultaneously
17:19 - Open-sourcing your entire codebase as competitive advantage
20:50 - Why you're selling integrations and intelligence, not software
22:26 - Hiring poets and MFAs instead of MIT engineers
27:50 - Software brands becoming like fashion: Salesforce as Kirkland
30:34 - Traditional moats are dead—what actually matters now
32:32 - "Would you rather wrap a database or superintelligence?"
35:00 - Infinite demand for intelligence vs finite meeting summaries
40:00 - Why zombie unicorns have their heads in the sand about AGI
42:26 - Battle scars matter more than startup advice
47:22 - "Get the hell out of the way and let me go on my journey"
Why listen: Jacob Beckerman reveals why the cost of code approaching zero means every software company needs to rethink everything - from margins to moats to hiring. He's open-sourcing his entire codebase, hiring poets alongside engineers, and building for a world where brand matters more than features.
Jacob Beckerman is the founder and CEO of Macro, an AI workspace startup that has raised over $32 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Box Group. He previously conducted AI research at Penn and worked at Bridgewater Associates.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
00:00 - Why everything you learned about building software companies is now obsolete
01:47 - The three radical changes coming as software development costs hit zero
05:47 - Why 93% gross margins are dead and cursor operates at 20%
08:28 - The new rulebook: ambition, openness, and brand over features
11:06 - Why being "principled" and narrow will kill your startup
13:11 - From seven-figure PDF reader to replacing Slack, Notion, and Linear simultaneously
17:19 - Open-sourcing your entire codebase as competitive advantage
20:50 - Why you're selling integrations and intelligence, not software
22:26 - Hiring poets and MFAs instead of MIT engineers
27:50 - Software brands becoming like fashion: Salesforce as Kirkland
30:34 - Traditional moats are dead—what actually matters now
32:32 - "Would you rather wrap a database or superintelligence?"
35:00 - Infinite demand for intelligence vs finite meeting summaries
40:00 - Why zombie unicorns have their heads in the sand about AGI
42:26 - Battle scars matter more than startup advice
47:22 - "Get the hell out of the way and let me go on my journey"
Creators and Guests
Host
Pascal Unger
Co-founder / Managing Partner at focal.vc We lead pre-seeds in North America with up to $1M: We exclusively back AI native software startups at the very start. Thereafter, we help them get off the ground better and faster, supported by a network > 200 GTM executives. That's our singular, unwavering focus.
What is focal podcast?
Pivotal early lessons of today's best startups.
Welcome to the focal podcast where we go deep with some of today's best founders and operators on ONE crucial lessons from their early days.
This podcast is not the usual "highlight reel" startup podcast that goes one inch deep across 20+ topics. Rather, we ask the questions you’d ask if you were sitting across from them. No fluff, just the real, actionable insights you’d get if these founders were mentoring you 1on1.
We cover topics including:
- What worked and why.
- Costly mistakes and how they fixed them.
- Frameworks that truly made a difference.
- Tactics to move faster.
- What they wish they’d known sooner.
- And much more!
"Only a fool learns from their own mistakes. The wise learn from the mistakes of others."