Agencies and SaaS Are Converging
Simon Penson spoke at the Agency Hackers Ibiza Super Summit on Wednesday, attending the massive event for the second year running.
The session entitled Agencies and SaaS Are Converging: How to Turn It Into the Opportunity of a Lifetime picked up on the theme that has been a feature of Scaled’s work all year, namely that as the cost of building software collapses towards zero, the agencies which will end up ahead won’t be those competing with SaaS but those that begin to resemble it.
If you were there, you would realise it wasn’t the typical conference talk. If you weren’t, here is a summary, without spoilers.
What’s covered
Simon starts by explaining why the ground is shifting beneath agency owners right now, rather than just going over the typical AI-related anxiety arguments. He outlines three specific, converging shocks already shaping how agencies are acquired and valued. He then walks through the maths behind how a services business’s value is changing in real time, using an example that has prompted several PE partners to ask Scaled some very direct questions.
The middle section of the talk got the most attention. An example of a method for turning delivery work into productised IP, based on the experience of an agency which reduced its staff from 70 people to 9 without losing a single client or lowering the quality, and the organisational blueprint that lay behind it.
He ends by referring to a 24-month timeframe, and the four measures he is keeping an eye on distinguish the agencies which are making the change from those simply running out of options.
Get the deck
Download the entire slide deck from Simon’s talk below.
Ready to go further?
The deck shows you why the shift is happening and what’s at stake. The next question is how.
The Loop-Engineered Agency is Scaled’s guide to building the kind of business Simon described on stage: one where delivery runs as repeatable, compounding loops rather than billable hours. It’s the practical companion to the talk, and it takes the thinking behind the 70-to-9 story further than a 30-minute slot allows.
It’s written for agency owners and leadership teams who:
- want to know where to start
- want to move from selling time to selling outcomes and IP
- are thinking about valuation, investment or exit in the next two years and want their business to look like the ones buyers are paying up for
The 24-month window is already running. Agencies that act early will have the most options when it closes.
