The Prolonged Write-Downs in Enterprise Software Startups

It’s not easy to run an enterprise software company these days. For the n th example of this, read the latest story by my colleague Laura Bratton, who describes how an Atlanta real estate manager replaced Salesforce software with a custom app developed using Replit and Claude Code—saving $100,000 a year. Yipes. Fears that companies will replace their software subscriptions with cheaper AI tools have hammered not just publicly traded stocks but the valuations of private companies. While we don’t often get a look at these private valuations unless the startups sell more shares, mutual fund disclosures give a glimpse into how big public investors are feeling. As the attached chart shows, for mo