How the old startup business model worked

Technology and software-based business models have been with us since the 1970s. Software has brought us into the digital age and given us a host of new tools to play with. And delivering a software-based business model has had a fairly standardised model.

Generally speaking, you will:

1. Have your initial idea for a software product
2. Write a business plan
3. Look for funding (whether private or public)
4. Hire a small team and start the business
5. Develop and launch the product
6. Find and convert your customer audience
7. Refine the product and scale the business
8. Generate revenues and make a profit (if you’re lucky!)

This is the old model. It works, but it’s slow to scale, needs multiple people and requires significant funding to make it work.

How a one-person business model works

There are multiple differences between the old start-up model and a one-person, solopreneur business model. The one-person model is predicated on the foundations of artificial intelligence (AI) and its ability to remove the staffing needs and automate your processes.

Typically, with a one-person model you would:

1. Start with finding an audience – likely using a social platform to connect with potential customers
2. Discover the needs of this audience and develop your business idea
3. Create a basic coded version of your product/service idea using AI (vibe coding)
4. Launch the product and refine it based on audience feedback
5. Build a tangible community around your product
6. Build AI agents that can be tasked with automating every aspect of service delivery
7. Scale the business quickly and increase your audience exponentially
8. Generate fast-growing revenues and hit your aspirational profit targets

The new model is less reliant on people and faster to grow. It can be controlled, in theory, by one solopreneur with the skills to utilise AI, create basic coding and find the right business idea.

What’s the true opportunity of the one-person business?

The true opportunity of the one-person business is to be able to found, operate and scale your business idea without any of the traditional foundations of a tech start-up.

• You don’t need a huge team – in fact you might be able to run the entire enterprise yourself
• Your delivery is entirely digital – so there’s no need for physical production processes
• Your overheads are negligible, increasing your profit margins and revenues
• AI agents can scale easily as the customer demand grows
• Automation and AI removes the need for you to work ‘in the business’
• As the solopreneur, you guarantee yourself an income and lifestyle.

What are the potential downsides of the one-person business?

The idea of being able to generate thousands, millions or even billions of dollars from a business where you’re the only human employee might seem like utopia to some.

But as with any utopian dream, there are potential issues and downsides to the solopreneur dream of creating a one-person, billion-dollar business.

Here are some possible outcomes to consider:

• You could over-automate and lose connection with your customers
• Your tech may break, failing to operate and scale as intended
• Your AI agents may produce garbage outcomes and ‘AI slop’
• You may feel the pressure of running the business solo, with no other founders
• You may miss the social aspect of being part of a human team

Sam Altman’s dream of a one-person, billion-dollar business may become a reality over the coming years. With the speed of AI development, it’s more than possible.