# The Normie Gap, the end of SaaS, the slop backlash, and other observations

![A broken pot with the words "Each Piece of You
Matters"](../images/dbdfb3e86df8.jpg)

Some Kintsugi-ish art on the streets of Philadelphia.

Happy 2025!

My family is happy and healthy. My first year in [business has me
cautiously
optimistic](http://gatecheckstudios.com?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash).
The Eagles are in the playoffs. And I look back fondly at 2024 and enter
a new year full of uncertainty and energy. 

A lot has happened [since I last
emailed](https://newsletter.seanblanda.com/archive/realignment-lessons-from-a-four-month-wander/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)
and the length of this email is longer than I set out to write. So I’ve
broken this up to be super skimmable. I write to share an update and, as
always, share some things I’m thinking about in an effort to get some
feedback from you, dear reader.

If any of this is interesting or you have thoughts, hit reply. Even if
we’ve never spoken or met before! 

I’m going to split this into three sections:

**I. Personal updates.** An update on career / business stuff

**II. What I’m thinking about.** Thoughts and predictions about the
state of the internet, media, politics, and other things.

**III. Future leanings.** Areas I’m experimenting with and would love to
talk to you about.

Here we go!

# I. Personal updates

From a career perspective, 2024 contained three distinct phases. I spent
the first year pushing a major campaign over the finish line at
Crossbeam as VP of Content that included a brand new conference,
[best-selling
book](https://www.amazon.com/Ecosystem-Led-Growth-Blueprint-Marketing-Partnerships/dp/1394226837?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash),
website redesign, and the cherry on top of our category creation
playbook cementing [“Ecosystem-Led
Growth](https://a16z.com/podcast/ecosystem-led-growth-the-next-generation-of-gtm/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)”
as an strategy adopted by revenue teams.

Then I planned my transition out as the company acquired Reveal.  (I
wrote about why I did that in detail
[here](https://newsletter.seanblanda.com/archive/I-left-my-full-time-gig/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash))

And lastly, in July, I entered the solopreneur phase I am in now. Here
are some things I’ve done since.

**Gate Check Studios**. When I struck out to do “consulting” I didn’t
really have a good idea of what it would look like or even what my goals
were. I was running ***from*** something versus running ***to***
something. I needed a break from Zoom calls, managing, and navigating
the company structure that comes with being a leadership member at a
fast-growing startup. I had a creeping feeling my skills were
atrophying, the internet was changing, and I just needed some space and
time to figure it out. 

I also had lots of Slack convos, email threads, and text message chains
with various marketing leaders and I knew there were areas I could add
value to various companies.

So [I started Gate Check
Studios](http://gatecheckstudios.com?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)
as a banner to do this work.

I’ve learned so much, but some updates/learnings:

- Surprisingly, **I ended the year just barely exceeding my salary had I
  stayed at Crossbeam by 3%**. I was expecting to take a 20-30% cut as I
  ramped up. This has given me the confidence to continue to bet on
  myself (thank you to my wife Allison for the space!). I even bowed out
  of a job interview process with a company I respect because I felt I
  still had more to explore here — which felt like a milestone of sorts.
  My 2025 goal is to beat my Crossbeam salary and bank the extra for the
  inevitable slow periods.

- The thing most people reach out to me for is doing brand marketing via
  content, editorial, video, and events. With the macro climate, I had
  feared this stuff would get cut, but **there are still companies
  investing here**.

- However, my offer still needs work. My current approach is essentially
  to get on the phone with a marketing leader, explore their pain points
  and suggest ways I can help via brand, content, events, operations, or
  strategy. I either tackle it as a one off project or a retainer as a
  fractional leader. That’s a bit too broad and a big 2025 goal will be
  to **lock in on what I do and the kind of clients I want to work
  with**.

- With the help of 15 years’ experience, rolling my own AI tools (for
  organization, not creating content, mind you!) **I work extremely
  quickly** and deliver value much quicker than I would as a full-time
  employee with all the bureaucratic overhead. This has allowed me to
  nail the deadlines while still spending much more time with my
  children and take on some household projects and responsibilities that
  would have languished otherwise. 

- That said, **I deeply miss being emotionally connected to the company
  and team I am working for**. When you are a consultant, there can be
  some cognitive dissonance there. It’s for this reason that I am sure I
  will one day go back in-house or maybe even build a small team.  

**Started (And Slowing) Sabbatical**. [I started a
newsletter](http://sabbatical.email?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)
and occasional video series about long-term career breaks. This was a
fun and refreshing diversion from writing about B2B SaaS, however I’m
going to be clearing out my remaining drafts and slowing down the work
on Sabbatical. Some reasons:

- The concept of the newsletter isn’t immediately appealing to most
  people. My framing is off. I know what it feels like to have
  “audience/niche fit”. I don’t have it. I still believe that people
  taking long-term breaks and considering their career in a non-linear
  way will continue to be a trend. This particular execution needs more
  work.

- Personalities and individuals are the future “publishers” — doing this
  under a branded banner and not my name may not make sense here. I am
  reluctant to tie my online identity as the “sabbatical guy” right
  now. 

- Much of the experimentation I was doing on my own project I am able to
  do on behalf of clients.

- Most people thought I was taking a sabbatical myself rather than
  working on a thing called Sabbatical. Not as important, but it
  factored into my decision.

**Getting back the itch.** At the end of my Crossbeam tenure my
curiosity supplies were emptied. The combo of navigating COVID, becoming
a dad (x2), and working at startup sprint speed had exhausted whatever
cognitive energy supplies I had. For the record, I enjoyed the time and
would do it again. But there's a time to hustle and there’s a time to
rest. 

When I created some space to explore or be entrepreneurial, I was
initially a little despondent about how few ideas I had. I had a few
dark nights where I realized I was entering middle age and maybe all of
my interesting and creative ideas were behind me. Or that any creative
“drive” I had was forever gone. That hustle, that feeling in my chest I
get when I'm working on an idea that excites me may never come back. I
might as well become a paper pusher at some giant company and call it a
career. Father Time, after all, is undefeated.

Thankfully, it turns out I just needed more time and more inputs. I had
been working with the same audience, using the same tools, in the same
circumstances. It was like cooking with the same ingredients, and I
needed to go back to the grocery store. I also needed to give myself
some grace to not be defined by “the doing” all of the time.

As I spoke to more people, played with more tools, read more thoughtful
writing, and gave myself time to breathe, the itch came back. Ironically
it’s a theme I note in my Sabbatical writing: giving oneself the time to
create the space in which new ideas can enter. 

**AI tools.** I don’t want to look back at this time during this
historic platform shift and realize I should have been more ambitious
and experimental. I’ve been an AI maximalist when it comes to improving
my ability to be a one-person business. Some fun projects:

- Using Tana (thanks [Ryan
  Baum](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanbaum?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)!)
  I’ve created a custom call agent that recognizes the client I am
  speaking with and organizes my notes accordingly. It’s been a game
  changer for the context switching that comes with juggling multiple
  projects.

- My notes were all over the place, so naturally I turned to AI to solve
  them. Using
  [Replit](http://replit.com?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash),
  I created
  [Savesies](http://savesies.com?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)
  (named after the Philadelphia practice of saving your parking spot
  with cones). Savesies is a
  [del.icio.us](http://del.icio.us?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)-like
  tool that I’ve used to gather my notes and bookmarks on the various
  things I'm following, caches their contents, and allows me to ask an
  AI agent about the content of my bookmarks. Being able to edit
  software using a prompt to bend to my personal tastes has been
  revelatory, like learning how to make my own furniture. 

- Creating an “editing bot” with ChatGPT that offers suggestions on how
  to improve the copy. It, admittedly, needs some work but it at least
  catches typos and easy grammatical errors.

**Health stuff**. I also took this time to get my health in order.
Several males in my family passed away before 55, often due to heart
issues. I got aggressive plaque scans, ECGs, and developed a
relationship with a preemptive cardiologist. One of the beautiful
aspects of living in Philadelphia is access to the world-class Penn
hospital system here!\

# II. What I’m thinking about:

**The atomization of everything.** Probably the thought I return to the
most is that the media environment continues to smash everything into
smaller and smaller pieces. The teams creating content are smaller and
the audiences are smaller. Some reasons for this:

- **Distribution**. SEO is being replaced by the AI prompt. All of the
  social platforms are moving from a social graph (“I’m following a
  person”) to an algorithmic one (“I was served this content out of any
  larger context”) As a result, it’s nearly impossible to reach new
  audiences at scale. You may have noticed that a press tour in 2025 is
  no longer a handful of late night talk shows. It is going on dozens of
  podcasts. [See Timothy Chalemets campaign for “A Complete Unknown”\
  \
  ](https://www.vogue.com/article/timothee-chalamet-genius-a-complete-unknown-press-tour?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)The
  primary constraint for creating in 2025 is not talent, or tech, or
  creativity: it’s distribution.

- **Tooling**. The productivity gains of AI are mostly going to the
  empowered individual.

- **Niches are vibes now.** Audiences don’t just want to follow a topic
  they are interested in they want the passive vibes from the person via
  only kind of paying attention to their podcast or occasionally seeing
  their videos on short-form video sites. (It’s the same reason Netflix
  shows are [designed for you to only sorta pay
  attention](https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-49/essays/casual-viewing/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)
  with scripts that constantly repeat the plot points. We want media we
  can hang out with, not necessarily engage with actively.)

- **Institutional distrust**. Two factors at play here: 

  1.  The ever-decaying trust that Americans have of every institution
      at every level.

  2.  A generation is coming of age raised on creatives, influencers,
      and Twitch streamers who, candidly, often have extremely low
      amounts of media literacy.

**What does AI-native media look like?** With every platform shift comes
a new generation of media companies. Buzzfeed, for example, was uniquely
born during the social media shift. It sounds passé now, but the fact
that they A/B tested headlines on various platforms and wrote things
with virality in mind was a big deal at the time. ([Remember the 2014
New York Times innovation
report?](https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2014/new-york-times-makes-another-change-in-response-to-innovation-report/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash))

Most people think our news will be written by AI bots. Maybe. But what
if the AI-native news sites…:

- …took advantage of the flattening of the UI into a single chat box?

- …allowed a single journalist or editor to extend themselves to AI
  avatars, AI produced podcasts, using AI tools that find stories within
  large and complicated data sets, etc.

- …restarted the open web, because of the 10,000 AI-created bespoke
  tools and apps now available to distribute content to, rather than the
  same four or five?

Or what if “AI-native media” is some anachronism like “horseless
carriage” and this is all an exercise in futility? 

**Polymarket**. A criticism I’ve had of the anti-media types is that if
you followed the chain of information they were sharing it often began
because some journalist at a “mainstream” media outlet reported
something.
[Polymarket](https://polymarket.com/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)
flipped that for me.\
\
Tracking Polymarket during news cycles has been the best way to track
the news. During the election, Polymarket was a more reliable indicator
of actual sentiment than the polls. Not Boring’s Packy McCormick ([and
the only newsletter to publish a picture of me with a Sam Hinkie sign in
it](https://www.notboring.co/p/trust-the-process?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash))
even has an [AI-created podcast using Polymarket as the
source](https://www.notboring.co/p/introducing-boring-news?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash).  

I check it nearly every day, and I wonder how long it will take before
there are independent journalists that “cover” the betting markets the
same way people at Bloomberg cover, say, the commodities markets.

Polymarket has also oddly provided me with an outlet when the recent
election didn’t go in my preferred direction. Which leads me to…

**Shorting Donald Trump.** It’s controversial to say in tech circles,
but one of my (contrarian?) takes is that our incoming president will
not lead to some unlock of progress or deregulation. Before, my belief
that he’s a poor executive would be resigned to conversations at the
bar. Now, I just shut up and count my money on Polymarket as I bet the
opposite of whatever he says he’ll do.

![A list of Polymarket bets](../images/1c52b1aca9ad.png)

Sure I lost the election, but I’m losing these bets.

**Is crypto for real this time?** During the first crypto boom in 2021 I
became fascinated with [NFTs and how they created scarcity in a digital
context especially for
writers](https://seanblanda.com/nft-for-writers/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash).
Turns out, they really didn’t (at the time, most NFTs just pointed to a
URL kept on on some server). But I remain intrigued by the possibilities
here for media and publishing. I love the ideas of decentralization and
the open web that underpin many crypto projects. A future where everyone
has a crypto wallet that can be used to frictionlessly subscribe or
purchase things is very good for media. That future is closer than in
2021, but it’s not here yet.

> call the 2007 journalism bloggers - WE FINALLY HAVE MICROPAYMENTS
> [https://t.co/5qbSqf1HZq](https://t.co/5qbSqf1HZq?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)
>
> — Sean Blanda (@SeanBlanda) [December 20,
> 2024](https://twitter.com/SeanBlanda/status/1870198077388190079?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)

\
**The normie gap.** In early Web 1.0 days in the late 90s, there were
scores of freelancers and agencies that would sell businesses the
importance of having a website and taking the Internet seriously. They’d
charge someone some crazy fee and essentially whip something up in some
WYSIWYG tool like FrontPage or Dreamweaver. They were taking advantage
of the education gap: the tools for easy website creation had arrived,
but not everyone knew.

And thus goes AI. Those on the bleeding edge are already creating teams
of agents to execute tasks that would take humans hours and charging as
if humans are still doing those tasks. Or they are posting content to
platforms like Facebook for engagement to an unwitting public. We are in
a moment where there is immense money to be made selling services that
AI can do to people who don’t know (or don’t care) that the job is being
done by a machine.

**Quiet quitting social media and online life and focusing more on
IRL**. Amongst my peer group and friends, many have faded from social
media and any online presence. A few factors here:

- **Age and life stage**. There comes a point where posting your brunch
  photos is cringe.

- **Platform decay**. I know several people who had large audiences on
  Twitter pre-Elon Musk or organic traffic referrals that just don’t
  have it in them to build it back up after the shift in the various
  algorithms. 

- **Creator burnout**. For those that rely on social media presence for
  work or business, there's always someone willing to do that sponsor
  deal for less money. And soon there will be AI avatars ready to “take”
  the job. And the demand for posting all the time is exhausting.

**The collapse of SaaS.** A large percentage of what we consider a “tech
worker” are the support staff for software companies. People that are in
support, or human resources, or customer support, or (\*gulp\*)
marketing. In a world where a dumb ol’ liberal arts major like myself
can build his own tools, why am I paying a monthly fee for some SaaS
tool? Much like the tractor made farming more efficient and sent a bunch
of labor out of the agriculture business, will AI have a similar impact
on SaaS?

> [@christophergeorgewink](https://www.tiktok.com/@christophergeorgewink?refer=embed&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash "@christophergeorgewink")
>
> Tech jobs make up the highest ever share of overall layoffs in the
> American economy
> [\#techtok](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/techtok?refer=embed&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash "techtok")
> [\#techjobs](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/techjobs?refer=embed&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash "techjobs")
> [\#economy](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/economy?refer=embed&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash "economy")
>
> [♬ original sound - Chris
> Wink](https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7449069539649932078?refer=embed&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash "♬ original sound - Chris Wink")

**The dead internet theory’s effects on advertising**. One of the forms
of distribution that ***is*** working is partnering with “UGC” creators
to advertise whatever is you want to share. (One of the more corrupt
aspects of the internet is creators being paid and not disclosing it.)
That alpha is quickly shrinking as more people catch on, yes. But
further there are now full blown AI tools that will make fake creators
that can say whatever you want however you’d like. Here’s one below:

# An error occurred.

Unable to execute JavaScript.

This is one of the negatives of losing the social graph (see
“distribution” above). I am no longer building trust with an individual
creative over time. I am instead seeing “normal” people inserted into my
feed and recommending a product and assuming that it is organic. Because
of the audience's distrust in institutions and brands, this is working.
But eventually audiences will stop responding to these things. And **a
lot of marketers are going to freak out when this happens**.

**A pause on cynicism**. The backlash against tech and media is, in
many, cases deserved. But we’ve swung a bit too far and much of the
discussion around the state of these industries, and often the country
as a whole, is steeped in contempt and cynicism. But I can no longer
abide the knee-jerk “mainstream media bad” or “Elon Musk evil” or
“America is doomed.” 

(In fact, [America is crushing it right
now](https://x.com/SeanBlanda/status/1828068870868930924?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)!)

As I think about the next decade of my life — I find it difficult to
give attention to cynics or to reactionaries. I want things to change
and to improve. My overriding politics are that we should build and make
new things. And I don’t want to be scared. \

# III. Future Focuses:

I thought that six months in, I would have triumphantly arrived at my
next phase. Dear reader, I don’t think that’s how this works. 

But here are some things I’m exploring in the first half of 2025:

- **In the age of AI, how effective can one person be?** I will continue
  to work with clients, but I have a hard cap on the number I’m willing
  to take on. What would it look like to “scale” me as much as possible?
  Is there a future where my “coworkers” are agents I train for specific
  tasks? Can I use tools like Replit to create 100 mini-products for my
  business?\
  \
  (And if I can do this, can’t everyone?)

![an image from a dr seuss book](../images/d080c94831bb.jpg)

Dr. Seuss, prophetic as always

- **Humanity over slop.** With discovery broken and flooded by ads and
  [AI
  “slop”](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-generated-content-internet-online-slop-spam.html?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-normie-gap-the-end-of-saas-the-slop-backlash)
  will people crave the human touch again? I’m betting yes, and that’s
  the work I'm advocating for on behalf of clients and taking on in my
  own projects.

- **B2B content marketing disentangled from brands**. As software
  companies cut their content programs there is green space for
  independent B2B media companies again. Impatient companies will funnel
  sponsor dollars to these independent brands as their own efforts
  stall. I think there is opportunity here.

- **Getting back to creation**. Dialing back my research and exploration
  in the name of shipping stuff.

\_

If you’ve made it this far, you are a true pal. Thanks for reading, and
send me your year-end reviews! I love reading them.

With love from Philadelphia,

Sean