I wrote this piece a few years ago under the banner of version1, a different kind of studio I was trying to build at the time. The tools were different. The world was different. But the thesis holds — maybe even more so today than it did then.

The idea behind Progress-as-a-Service was simple: the biggest opportunity wasn't in the product someone was selling — it was in how they were running their business. Most companies were operating like it was still 2012. New tools weren't just better — they were fundamentally different. And that difference could be operationalized.

That's where version1 started. It was a bet on no-code as the atomic unit of progress — software without software people. But no-code hit a ceiling. Or maybe it got swallowed.

Then AI dropped.

And suddenly it wasn't about better tools — it was about a different game entirely.

Why this post still matters

Everything I argued in this post — that most businesses are under-leveraged, that innovation gets bottlenecked by inertia, that the way we work is overdue for reengineering — is now louder, faster, and more urgent.

Except now we're not just talking about Airtable and Zapier. We're talking about GPT agents that can replace intake forms, support tickets, proposal drafts, onboarding calls, and even internal dashboards — automating the glue that holds a business together.

And that's exactly where Startedby comes in.

What is Startedby?

Startedby is a consulting platform and AI studio focused on helping businesses reimagine how they work. We don't touch your product. We don't try to change your market. We help you run everything around your product smarter, faster, leaner — using AI.

Think:

  • Automating sales ops, hiring, onboarding
  • Building internal agents for client workflows
  • Replacing PowerPoints with live, AI-driven demos
  • Getting from "this takes time to run" to "this runs itself."

The goal isn't to disrupt your business. It's to unlock it.

What changed since version1

Back then, no-code was the revolution. Now, it's AI that's rewriting the rules.

Back then, we thought the future was drag-and-drop builders. Now, we're building companies with prompts and scripts and workflows that think for themselves.

The frontier is no longer about building faster. It's about operating smarter.

And the delta between those who adapt and those who don't is growing by the day.

Let's get to work.

— Trevor