S1E9: Agent Talk #9 - Doreen Huber (EQTV) -We're Rethinking SaaS

In a candid conversation at Paid’s launch party, EQT Ventures investor Doreen Huber shared her razor-sharp perspective on what’s working in AI agent investing, why traditional SaaS is losing ground, and what founders need to bring to the table to secure funding in this new era. Our favorite takeaways: * SaaS is no longer the focus to the B2B Software team at EQT Ventures:"My team is not investing in traditional SaaS anymore. Our strategy is to go for agentic, AI-native companies, and we tend to disqualify what doesn’t fit that bucket." * True agents only:"We only want to support companies doing something end-to-end—not just enhancing customer care with AI-drafted emails. We’re looking for agents that do the actual work from start to finish." * Commercial DNA matters:"I definitely have a thing for founders with commercial DNA. If someone comes from an engineering side, they absolutely need to learn this... the best CEO is also the best product person." * Founder qualities:"I personally love the outliers, the underdogs, or someone with a crazy CV. I'm not into the typical business school, textbook founder. I love it when someone shows up with an edge." * Legacy SaaS is under pressure:"Many legacy SaaS companies will lose market share to agentic players. A lot of them are struggling—they don’t have the AI talent, and they’re stuck in outdated stacks." * On industry hype:"Some of the big players are slapping AI labels onto old products. That’s not agentic innovation. That’s legacy software trying to catch up." What Doreen is looking for now: * Enterprise-ready agentic sales and marketing solutions – not just slim use cases, but holistic systems * Agentic cybersecurity – solving modern threats with AI-native architecture * Vertical AI applications – especially where AI is applied to labor, not just software budgets What’s working: “Most companies moving faster than others have that AI-native mindset. They want lean teams and ask: ‘Can we do this with agents instead?’” What’s not working: “BDR email sequencing or scheduling tools... they look impressive at first, but in reality, these problems won’t exist in a year or two. That’s just a GPT anyone can build.” What are your thoughts on Doreen's take that traditional SaaS is finished? Do you agree that legacy companies can't catch up with AI-native startups? 👇 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agenttalk.substack.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.