Software Is Getting Hard to Invest In

What happens when non-technical people at a hackathon build in one day what software startups have been pitching for years?In this episode of KP Unpacked, KP Reddy and Nick unpack why sitting in a hackathon full of non-technical AEC people building working prototypes in eight hours is making software feel uninvestable. Incumbents are building features they've wanted for five years. Nobody needed corporate approval. Nobody needed a startup. They just needed a day and a keyboard. If that's the new baseline, what exactly is a software company selling?The conversation covers why PE firms are overpaying for AEC companies at 14x EBITDA and losing their best people 18 months after close (almost clockwork), why Procore's AI agents announcement landed with a thud, why vibe coding is a rabbit hole that creates individual value but rarely scales to the company, and why token pricing is heading toward the same bundled unlimited model as internet bandwidth in the 90s. KP also reveals his new LinkedIn rule: send a 10-page resume, not a one-page highlight reel. If you control what I see, I can't assess what matters. And a hospital system owner asked Zero RFI to build a real-time team qualification tool because they're tired of getting the B team swapped in mid-project without notice.Key questions answered:Why is software getting harder to invest in after every hackathon?What did non-technical AEC people build in one day that startups have been pitching for years?Why are PE firms losing their best AEC people 18 months after acquisition, almost to the day?What's wrong with paying 14x EBITDA for a firm that doesn't grow like that?Why did Procore's AI agents announcement land with nobody caring?Is vibe coding a rabbit hole or a real productivity tool?Why should you send a 10-page resume instead of a one-page highlight reel?How is KP cross-referencing resumes against his LinkedIn connections using skills files?Why do hospital owners want real-time team qualification tools mid-project?What's the AI diffusion crossing the chasm moment for the broader economy?Why is the Bay Area network effect getting stronger, not weaker?Why are tech company balance sheets suddenly going CapEx heavy for the first time ever?If you're building software for AEC and wondering why incumbents are building your features in-house, a PE firm trying to understand why cultural fit isn't transferring post-acquisition, or a founder debating whether to raise venture or bootstrap, this episode will force you to ask whether the software playbook still applies when anyone can build anything in a day.Listen now.