Why Every Business Will Be a Software Business
Software isn't just eating the world. It's becoming the world. Why every small business operator needs to think like a tech company.
Key Points
- Every business—regardless of industry—is now in the software business whether they admit it or not
- You don’t need to build software, but you need to think in software terms: systems, automation, and data
- Companies that embrace software-first thinking will outcompete those that resist, especially at the small business level
Marc Andreessen said “software is eating the world” back in 2011, and at the time it felt like tech bro hyperbole. Today, in 2023, it’s less a prediction and more a statement of fact. But here’s what’s even more true: software isn’t just eating the world. It’s becoming the world.
I’ve spent the last several years running Rotate, a software development agency, and what I’ve seen is remarkable. It’s not just the obvious tech companies getting disrupted—it’s every single business. The gym with old-school chalkboards is now running sophisticated membership and scheduling software. The restaurant taking phone orders is now coordinating orders through tablets, delivery apps, and inventory systems. The consultant scribbling notes in a Moleskine is now automating their entire workflow with Zapier and Airtable.
The businesses that win aren’t the ones building custom software from scratch. They’re the ones that have adopted a software-first mindset about how they operate.
What Software-First Actually Means
When I talk about “thinking like a software company,” I’m not suggesting that every business needs a dev team or should learn to code. That’s not the point at all. What I mean is adopting the principles that make software companies successful: systems thinking, automation, data-driven decisions, and continuous iteration.
Naval Ravikant talks about leverage as “doing work that compounds.” Software is the ultimate leverage engine. It’s work you do once that scales infinitely. A chef cooking a meal has to cook every single meal. A restaurant with an optimized ordering system and kitchen workflow can serve 10x more customers without proportionally more labor. That’s leverage.
The no-code and low-code revolution has democratized this. You don’t need to hire engineers to implement Zapier workflows, set up automated email sequences, or build customer databases in Notion. The tools are there. They’re accessible. The barrier to entry is just understanding how to think about your business as a series of connected systems instead of disconnected tasks.
Real Examples (That Aren’t Tech Companies)
Let me be concrete. I’ve watched a personal training business transform by shifting from appointment notebooks and cash payments to a software-driven model. Online booking, automated reminders, digital progress tracking, community Slack channel. Suddenly they could serve more clients, retain them better, and understand their business through data. That gym owner didn’t become a software engineer. She became someone who uses software to multiply her impact.
I’ve seen a consulting firm go from tracking projects in Excel to using a custom Airtable base that feeds project data into client dashboards, automates invoicing, and surfaces bottlenecks in real time. The founder now spends less time on administrative work and more time selling and delivering. That’s leverage.
My own businesses reflect this. At Rotate, we’re obviously software-heavy—but even our internal operations run on systems and automation that would’ve been unthinkable five years ago. Proposal generation, resource allocation, time tracking, client communication—almost none of it requires manual intervention anymore. The business runs faster and smoother because we’ve treated our own operations like a product worth optimizing.
The Software Mindset vs. Building Software
Here’s the critical distinction: you don’t need to build software. You need to think in software terms. That means:
Systems over chaos. Document how work flows through your business. Where does money come in? Where does it go out? What decisions need to be made? Software companies obsess over these workflows because they have to—they can’t scale if their operations are arbitrary. Neither can you.
Automation over repetition. Look for the tasks you do repeatedly and ask: can this be automated or delegated to a tool? Most small business owners I talk to are trapped in loops they don’t even see. They’re spending 10 hours a week on things that could be handled by a $50/month SaaS product.
Data over intuition. This doesn’t mean becoming a data analyst. It means tracking the metrics that matter to your business and letting them guide decisions. Peter Thiel talks about how the most important thing in building a company is getting the strategy right once—and then having the discipline to see it through. You can’t see clearly if you’re flying blind. Use data to clarify, not paralyze.
Iteration over perfection. Software companies ship constantly. They test, learn, and improve. Most traditional businesses wait until things are perfect before they launch or change anything. That’s the wrong mentality. Start with something that works, measure the results, and improve it incrementally.
Who Wins and Who Loses
The companies that resist this shift will be outcompeted. I’m not being dramatic—I’m just observing what’s already happening. The traditional ad agency that doesn’t use marketing automation gets undercut by one that does. The local accounting firm that relies on spreadsheets loses clients to one with integrated software. The e-commerce brand that doesn’t use dynamic pricing gets crushed by one that optimizes for margins in real time.
What’s wild is that this doesn’t require being a large, well-funded company. Some of my favorite examples are solopreneurs and tiny teams that have built software-first businesses from day one. They’re competing with people and companies that are much larger because they’ve optimized relentlessly and removed friction systematically.
The software-first mindset is also what allows small operators to punch above their weight. You can’t compete on headcount or budget, but you can compete on how intelligently you’ve architected your operations.
It’s About Leverage, Not Replacement
One more thing that’s worth saying clearly: this isn’t about replacing humans with robots. It’s the opposite. It’s about giving humans more leverage. A software company isn’t trying to eliminate engineers—it’s trying to make each engineer’s output more valuable. The same logic applies everywhere else.
When you automate a tedious admin task, you’re not firing someone. You’re freeing them to do work that requires judgment, creativity, and human touch. That’s where the real value is. And that’s why thinking in software terms makes you more valuable, not less.
How to Start Thinking Like a Software Company
If you run a non-tech business, here’s how to start:
First, map your workflows. Spend a week documenting exactly how work flows through your business. Every decision point, every handoff, every data entry. Don’t judge it—just write it down. This is how software engineers think about problems.
Second, identify your friction points. Where’s time being wasted? Where are mistakes being made? Where are decisions being made without data? These are your opportunities. They don’t all need to be solved at once.
Third, start with one system. Pick one workflow—customer onboarding, invoicing, social media posting, whatever—and optimize it. Learn what tools exist. Could Zapier solve this? Could Airtable? Could something custom? Start small, get it working, then move to the next one.
I talk more about this in my piece on the integrator mindset—that ability to see how different pieces of your business fit together and optimize the whole system. It’s a skill that gets more valuable every year.
The Asymmetry
Here’s why I’m confident in this view: the asymmetry only goes one direction. A business that thinks like a software company but isn’t particularly tech-focused will always outcompete a tech-focused business that doesn’t think systematically. The mindset is what matters.
You see this in bootstrapped founders versus venture-backed ones. You see it in consultants who’ve built software-like repeatable processes versus consultants who reinvent the wheel on every engagement. You see it in franchises that have obsessively systematized their operations versus independent operators who wing it.
Software companies win because they think carefully about leverage, systems, and scale. And now, every business that thinks that way wins too.
The world hasn’t changed to require this mindset. The world has always rewarded systematic thinking and leverage. Software just makes it more obvious and more accessible than ever before.
If you’re looking to get started with shipping and iterating quickly, check out my thoughts on shipping it ugly. And if you want to think about how philosophy shapes business thinking, I wrote about what my philosophy degree taught me about business.
The future isn’t more software companies. It’s all companies becoming software companies.