Welcome

On September 8, 2025, the open-source software world had a close call. At least 18 widely used software packages, tools that thousands of apps and websites depend on, were secretly tampered with after a hacker tricked one of their maintainers into giving up account access.

What Happened

The hacker sent a fake security email that looked like it came from npm, the service that hosts these packages. The email convinced a trusted maintainer to reset their account, giving the attacker the keys to publish new versions of popular tools.

Those new versions contained hidden malware designed to steal cryptocurrency. If someone used an app built with one of the compromised packages, the malware could quietly swap out the user's wallet address or intercept transactions, redirecting money to the attacker.

How It Was Stopped

The good news? The open-source community spotted the problem quickly. Within hours, the malicious versions were removed. Because of the fast response, the window for real damage was very small, and most developers and end users were not affected.

What We Can Learn

This incident is more than just a story about hackers. It is a reminder of how fragile the digital supply chain can be. Modern apps and businesses run on a patchwork of third-party code. When even one trusted link in that chain is compromised, the ripple effects can be huge.

The lessons are straightforward but important. Everyone needs to be cautious of urgent emails since scammers rely on fear and urgency to trick people into clicking. Stronger protections on accounts are also vital, with hardware keys and passkeys offering far more security than text messages or apps alone. Finally, individuals and organizations should be thoughtful about what they install and trust. Convenience can sometimes come with hidden risks, and exercising extra care can prevent costly mistakes.

Why It Matters

We rarely think about the invisible software building blocks that make our apps work, but they are everywhere. This incident shows that trust in those building blocks is critical, and protecting them requires vigilance from everyone in the ecosystem.

The Bottom Line

This was a near miss, not a catastrophe. But it is also a clear warning. Stronger habits today mean fewer crises tomorrow. Treat your digital security like a seatbelt, not an accessory.

I was recently asked to look at a startup that had all the ingredients of ambition but very few of the ingredients of survival. It is a story worth telling, because I see versions of it play out again and again.

The founders had vision. They saw a future where software could work smarter than anything on the market today. Their imagination was inspiring. But they did not have technical depth, and without a strong partner to bridge that gap, their idea struggled to move beyond fragile prototypes.

The product itself was brilliant, perhaps even too far ahead of its time. It solved a problem the market will care about one day, but the timing was off. Being too early can quietly sink a startup in the same way that being too late can.

The underlying technology was unpredictable. Some days it worked beautifully, other days not at all. Customers don't have patience for "sometimes." In SaaS, trust is built on consistency.

Planning was another challenge. With no clear roadmap, no launch strategy, and no path to production, the team was trying to build a skyscraper without first pouring the foundation.

The result was predictable, though never easy to watch. Time was burned, energy was drained, and momentum never turned into traction.

The lesson is not that these founders failed, but that they remind us of what every team must have to succeed. Ambition alone is not enough. If you lack technical expertise, bring it in early. If your product is ahead of the market, scale it back to what people can use today. If you cannot productionalize, then you have a demo, not a business.

AI assistants integrated into products like word processors can potentially collect data to improve their models, though practices vary significantly between companies and products.

AI companies typically collect this data for several purposes, including model improvement where user interactions, writing patterns, and feedback help train future versions. They also use the data for personalization to learn user preferences and provide better suggestions, feature development to understand how people use the assistant when building new capabilities, and quality assurance to identify and fix errors or problematic outputs.

The types of data that might be collected include the text you write and edit, which suggestions you accept or reject, how you interact with the assistant's features, error reports and usage patterns, and sometimes audio if there's voice functionality. However, there are significant variations in how different companies approach this data collection.

Some companies require explicit opt-in consent while others collect data by default. The processing method also varies, with some handling data locally to avoid transmission while others process everything in the cloud. Many companies anonymize data by stripping identifying information before using it for training purposes, and better products typically offer granular privacy settings that give users more control.

When considering these tools, it's important to always check the privacy policy and settings of any AI-integrated product and look for options to disable data collection for model training. You should also consider whether the product processes data locally versus in the cloud, and note that some enterprise versions offer stronger privacy protections than consumer versions. While the practice of collecting data for model improvement isn't inherently problematic, transparency and user control over data usage are crucial factors to evaluate when choosing these tools.

Hackers with words. Prompt injection exploits the very way AI understands and follows instructions, turning harmless text into a weapon that can bypass safeguards, leak secrets, or trigger damaging actions. For SaaS companies weaving AI into their products, this linguistic sleight of hand isn't just clever, it's a growing security risk that demands urgent attention.

Prompt injection is a security vulnerability in AI systems where an attacker manipulates the input prompt or the context the AI uses to make the model behave in unintended ways. Similar to how SQL injection exploits weaknesses in database queries, prompt injection exploits the way AI models interpret instructions. An attacker might embed malicious directions into text, documents, emails, or other data sources that the AI processes, causing it to leak sensitive information, bypass safeguards, or perform harmful actions. This becomes especially dangerous when AI is integrated into workflows that access private data, execute commands, or interact with external systems.

The problem arises because many AI models treat all input as trustworthy, including data from unverified sources. Malicious prompts can lead to data leakage, policy circumvention, or manipulation of automated processes. In SaaS environments, this risk is amplified: multi-tenant systems could experience cross-customer data exposure, compliance breaches under laws like GDPR or HIPAA, and brand damage from compromised AI outputs. Furthermore, AI-driven automation features could be weaponized, for example by sending spam or executing unauthorized changes in business systems.

For AI-powered SaaS products, prompt injection is not just a theoretical concern—it represents a new attack surface that must be addressed with careful design. Mitigation strategies include strict input sanitization, separation of untrusted content from system instructions, robust permission controls, and continuous monitoring for suspicious patterns. Without these measures, companies risk not only technical failures but also significant legal, financial, and reputational harm.

If AI is the new gold rush, then the "axes and shovels" are the essential tools, infrastructure, and services that enable others to build, deploy, and profit from AI without necessarily having to strike the "gold" (killer app) yourself.

The "AI gold rush" analogy comes from comparing today's explosion of artificial intelligence development to the mid-1800s California Gold Rush. In the original gold rush, the "gold" was literally scarce, valuable metal buried in the ground. Thousands of prospectors and miners flocked to California in hopes of striking it rich, but while a few found great success, most left empty-handed. The consistent winners were the people and businesses who supplied the miners with essential tools and services, the sellers of picks, shovels, sturdy work clothes like Levi Strauss's jeans, lodging, food, and transportation. They profited steadily regardless of whether any particular prospector found gold.

In today's AI boom, the "gold" is not metal but breakthrough AI applications systems like ChatGPT, Midjourney, or AlphaFold that manage to capture huge user bases and generate significant revenue. The modern "prospectors" are startups, researchers, corporations, and independent developers racing to build the next hit AI product. As in the 1800s, a few will hit it big, but the majority will struggle to survive in a highly competitive market. The reliable winners are again the suppliers: companies that provide the core tools, infrastructure, and services every AI builder needs. This includes providers of cloud computing power and GPUs, data labeling services, AI development frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow, model deployment and MLOps platforms, compliance and safety solutions, and even education and training programs to equip the workforce.

The analogy matters because it highlights a safer strategy in a hype-driven, uncertain market: instead of competing directly to strike "gold" with a single AI product, you can succeed by being an enabler selling the modern-day axes and shovels that everyone else needs to dig.

In customer service and support, AI chatbots are handling routine inquiries like password resets, order status checks, and basic troubleshooting, which frees human agents to focus on complex issues. Companies are also implementing automated ticket routing that analyzes incoming support requests and assigns them to the right department or specialist, along with real-time sentiment analysis during customer calls to alert supervisors when escalation may be needed.

For document processing and data entry, organizations are deploying AI systems that can process invoices by extracting key information such as amounts, dates, and vendor details and entering it directly into accounting systems. Contract analysis tools are helping legal teams identify key terms, deadlines, and potential risks across hundreds of agreements, while resume screening systems rank candidates based on job requirements and flag top prospects for human review.

Sales and marketing teams are leveraging AI through lead scoring systems that analyze website behavior, email engagement, and demographic data to prioritize prospects. Personalized email campaigns automatically adjust content, timing, and frequency based on individual customer patterns, and price optimization tools adjust product pricing in real-time based on demand, competitor analysis, and inventory levels.

Operations and scheduling have been transformed through predictive maintenance systems that analyze equipment sensor data to schedule repairs before breakdowns occur. Workforce scheduling tools consider employee availability, skills, labor laws, and demand forecasts, while supply chain optimization predicts demand spikes and automatically adjusts inventory orders.

Content and communication workflows benefit from AI through meeting transcription and summary generation that creates action items and key takeaways. Report generation systems pull data from multiple sources to create standardized business reports, and code review assistance identifies potential bugs, security vulnerabilities, and suggests improvements.

The most successful implementations start small with one specific process, measure the results, then gradually expand to other areas.

The Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT) is the quantum equivalent of the classical Fourier transform, which breaks down a complex signal, such as a song, into its individual pure tones. In a classical setting, this process takes time proportional to the size of the data; however, QFT can achieve a similar breakdown of quantum states exponentially faster. Instead of working on sound waves, QFT analyzes quantum information, which exists as superpositions of many possible states at once. This makes it possible to identify hidden patterns and periodicity in quantum data far more efficiently than classical methods.

QFT is a critical building block in several groundbreaking quantum algorithms, such as Shor's algorithm for factoring large numbers, where it serves as the key tool for uncovering periodic structures that classical computers would take far longer to find. In essence, QFT is like having a magical ear that can instantly hear and separate all the notes in a song, provided that song exists in the strange, parallel world of quantum mechanics.

For decades, investors have favored multi founder teams, assuming they bring more skills, stability, and resilience. This belief has led many to dismiss the idea that a single founder could launch and scale a multi million dollar company, especially in a complex field like AI. Yet rapid advances in technology are making that assumption outdated.

AI dramatically changes the equation for what a solo entrepreneur can achieve. Today, a single founder can leverage pre trained models, open source code, and low code tools to build sophisticated products without large engineering teams. Strategic partnerships, expert advisors, and global freelance talent can fill skill gaps without requiring a co founder or significant equity dilution.

The funding environment is also shifting. While some venture capitalists still prefer multiple founders, more are focusing on product market fit, defensible technology, and early traction. AI startups that solve real problems and show measurable growth can secure funding regardless of founder count. For investors, the strength of the product and the clarity of the market opportunity matter more than the size of the founding team.

Scaling a business is no longer tied to headcount in the early stages. Cloud infrastructure, automation, and SaaS platforms allow a single founder to operate at a scale that previously required entire teams. Once product market fit is achieved, it becomes easier to hire specialized talent and expand. Early success depends more on vision, execution, and adaptability than on how many names are on the incorporation papers.

Concerns about burnout are real but not unique to solo founders. In fact, operating alone can reduce conflict and enable faster decision making. AI powered productivity tools can automate repetitive work, freeing time for strategy, customer engagement, and personal balance. A strong network of mentors, advisors, and collaborators can help mitigate isolation.

In short, AI enables a level of capital efficiency, speed, and capability that makes the single founder model more viable than ever before. Pre trained models and automation replace large chunks of early engineering work. Cloud tools handle scaling. Remote talent markets make specialized expertise accessible on demand. The barriers that once required multiple founders are quickly disappearing.

The belief that multi founder teams are a prerequisite for success is a legacy from a different startup era. The next wave of AI driven innovation will prove that one determined founder with the right tools, network, and vision can build a multi million dollar company. Investors and the startup community should recognize that the single founder success story is not just possible—it is inevitable.