My predictions for 2026
What I think is coming for SaaS and marketing
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I have a personal policy of staying away from predictions.
I don’t have a crystal ball, and if the last six years have taught me anything, it’s to make no assumptions and never take anything for granted.
But from time to time, I like to stress-test my understanding of things I care about—and want to believe I’m good at.
At the same time, I want to hold myself accountable for the things I say.
So, in the spirit of transparency, here’s a recap of my predictions for this year.
Take everything you’ll read in this note with a grain of salt.
Let the note guide or educate you—but don’t take anything at face value.
And obviously, don’t make any financial decisions based on what you read here.
Disclaimers out of the way, let’s get into it.
1) Consolidation of SaaS
I expect 2026 to be a strong year for SaaS M&A.
Some of it will be necessary. Some opportunistic. Some both.
SaaS entered a consolidation phase when AI went mainstream three years ago. While part of the activity is obviously driven by AI disruption, a big chunk comes from companies that raised heavily during the ZIRP era—at valuations that no longer make sense.
Now, they consolidate to stay afloat and create enterprise value—enough to give their investors a shot at liquidity.
In the past few months:
Positive acquired Surfer
Salesloft merged with Clari
Amplitude acquired June.so
SaaS consolidation is already underway.
We’ll see more of it in 2026.
2) Consolidation of service providers
The phrase here is: “the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.”
Harsh, but true.
I expect more agency M&A, more growth at the top end of the market, and many agencies and freelancers at the bottom end slowly being squeezed out.
In a market where money is tighter, acquisition is harder, and product-market fit isn’t a given, SaaS companies are becoming more selective with vendors.
Those at the top—agencies, advisors, consultants—will benefit.
(And if they play it right, they’ll come out stronger on the other side. Don’t ask me what that side is.)
Those with no brand, no case studies, no recognition, and no VC/PE firm connections will struggle.
Two micro-trends are fueling the competition:
In-house SaaS employees taking on freelance gigs
Burned-out employees going solo after a good run in peak SaaS
More competition. More options for buyers.
And more pressure on the lower end of the market.
This trend is already in motion—I expect it to intensify in 2026.
3) Negative PR
We saw negative PR in 2025 in two main forms:
Brands bashing competitors on Reddit to “influence LLMs” and buyer decisions
LinkedIn beefs between SaaS founders and employees
Neither is aesthetically pleasing—nor necessary, most of the time.
But expect to see more of it as the SaaS Hunger Games heat up.
In a pressured market, that pressure needs to go somewhere.
Unfortunately, bashing competitors to gain market share will become more common next year.
I recently saw someone on LinkedIn—who I’ve followed for a while—consistently posting negative comments about individuals and companies.
Turns out, this wasn’t just random.
It was part of his product launch strategy.
Yeah, I don’t like it either.
But it is what it is.
4) Influencer acquihires and audience co-owners
I’ve written about this extensively, so I won’t rehash it here.
You can read my thoughts here.
5) Work-in-public as a marketing channel
Working in public (aka building in public) is a legit marketing channel.
Most companies haven’t gotten the memo.
But the ones that have are already jumping aboard. Expect to see a lot more of it in 2026.
6) Executive ghostwriting and employee advocacy
CEO ghostwriting on LinkedIn today feels a lot like SEO content in 2020: overhyped.
Many were successful with SEO content. But there are key differences between the two:
I’ve personally spent over $40K of our company’s money on LinkedIn ghostwriters.
So I’ve seen what works—and what doesn’t.
Overall, I expect more companies to invest in executive ghostwriting (especially for their CEOs). So, expect even more “LinkedIn thought leadership.”
But since much of it will be outsourced to the wrong providers, I expect the quality of content from many C-level accounts to drop.
I’m also not convinced this trend is sustainable.
Combine all that with falling organic reach, and it’s no surprise that LinkedIn thought leader ads will continue to flood our feeds.
I also expect employee advocacy programs to gain traction.
More on that here.
7) GTM engineering and “personalization”
This year, I got myself deeper into the world of GTM engineering.
At its core, GTM engineering combines different tools and channels to drive growth. There can be value here—especially as companies face increasing volatility across channels (see #8).
In 2026 (and beyond), I believe more companies will seek shelter in GTM engineering—particularly via cold or signal-based outbound.
The modern GTM tech stack promises “true personalization at scale.”
I call BS on most of that.
Most companies don’t yet have the in-house capabilities for GTM engineering.
Which means much of it will be outsourced to service providers.
But here’s the catch:
Most providers already struggle with quality—let alone actual personalization at scale. (Not that in-house teams would necessarily do better.)
And for SaaS companies in mature categories (e.g., project management), there are two additional challenges:
There’s little innovation in pricing
Most companies don’t have a strong offer
Without a compelling offer—and without real personalization—I don’t see how GTM engineering becomes the silver bullet some tools claim it is.
Not so bullish here in the long term.
8) Channel volatility and saturation
One of the biggest issues we’ll face in 2026 is channel volatility and saturation.
The go-to-market channels available for acquisition are becoming more uncertain by the day.
Aside from a couple of edge plays like work-in-public (which not all companies can leverage effectively), most acquisition channels are underperforming—or at best, unpredictable.
And the results? Getting worse.
Take paid as an example.
It used to be the be-all and end-all for acquisition.
Companies wouldn’t blink at spending $200K per month on paid, yet they’d question a $10K monthly investment in content marketing. (True story.)
But for a while now, I’ve heard from both SaaS teams and agency founders that paid just isn’t working the way it used to.
And it’s not just paid.
The same applies to:
LinkedIn organic
SEO
Cold outbound
Webinars
To be clear: nothing is dead.
Every channel can work—if approached correctly.
But marketers will need to face reality:
Most channels will remain volatile, and consistently generating positive returns will be harder than ever.
9) SEO/AEO will grow in importance
After wandering for two years in search of an SEO alternative—driven by fear-mongering and echo chamber narratives—marketers will realize:
SEO is still here
In a twisted turn of events, content will be sexy again.
Together, SEO + content will power the emerging channel everyone’s talking about:
AI search
To be clear:
AEO is a new channel
There’s overlap with SEO, but AI search is fundamentally different.
Still early days. Expect volatility and resistance ahead.
10) Minuttia will make a comeback
Okay, I know this one’s a bit self-serving.
But given #7 and the fact that Minuttia’s been around since 2020, I believe we’ll make a strong comeback in 2026.
To be clear: the company never went anywhere.
But the past couple of years were challenging.
That said, I believe we’re well-positioned for the shift toward content-first acquisition strategies.
Stay tuned—we’ll share some updates before the year ends.
Final thoughts
These aren’t the only micro-trends I see.
But they’re some of the most prominent ones.
In a world this complicated and interconnected, you need clarity and focus more than anything else.
You also need a solid understanding of the dynamics around you—even if they don’t affect you right now.
No “SEO is dead” headlines. No definitive takes.
I try to stay grounded—and close to reality.
I hope these predictions help shape your end-of-year thinking.
And don’t worry: I’ll review these same predictions at the end of next year.
Thank you for reading today’s note, and see you again next week.