It is an AI thing though. AI makes it far easier to create bespoke software targeted at narrow specialized domains, which is the mainstay of modern SaaS. We'll probably see "proper" FLOSS expand into these sectors too, such that the software won't be simply a matter of internal vibecoding by any single business - instead, the maintenance work will be shared.

AI makes it easier to create something, but that thing is not enterprise software with support contracts and conformance to mandatory regulations and 4 hour bug turnarounds and real people on the end of the phone who understand how it works.

Sometimes I just wonder at how HN has no idea what enterprise software involves.

With this kind of niche sector-specific offering, creating a prototype that works properly for what the industry needs is the main hurdle. The rest is just the same sort of ordinary software engineering work that applies to any FLOSS project already - and we know that FLOSS (with optional 3rd party support covering "enterprise" needs) is quite viable.

I don't see AI easily creating a DataDog. You need it for reliability for example.

You can always also deploy open source since forever. What happens when it randomly drops logs or changes the text? If you get an alert and it is noise it starts becoming pointless.

And yet these type of stocks were at 50-100x earnings etc.