The Rise of the Solopreneur and AI Agents
In recent times, significant attention has been drawn to the “solopreneur”—an individual building a scalable business primarily through digital tools and platforms. The concept even suggests the imminent emergence of $1 billion companies run by a single person. But is this sustainable? Can one person, or a very small team, truly manage everything with the assistance of an army of AI agents? There are indeed numerous small, well-funded, and ambitious businesses.
In the United States alone, estimates from Crunchbase indicate at least 10,000 companies with fewer than 10 employees have secured substantial investments or venture capital funding in the millions. According to leading solopreneur proponent Tim Cortinovis, it is theoretically possible to build a large, competitive company with minimal human help, relying on AI tools and freelancers.
The Evolution of the “Do-It-Yourself” Economy
The idea of a small yet profitable enterprise built around digital technologies has been gaining traction for over a decade. As early as 2009, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman referred to it as an element of the “Do-It-Yourself economy,” where entrepreneurs could leverage online services to launch new products and services. Over the past fifteen years, this concept has evolved dramatically. Across the industry, particularly among entrepreneurs themselves, there is a consensus that large-scale solopreneurship is now feasible, albeit with certain caveats. Modern digital tools, cloud infrastructure, and the increasing sophistication of AI have significantly lowered the barriers to entry and scalability for individuals and small teams, transforming how businesses can be conceived and operated.
Architecture and Automation: The New Entrepreneurial Edge
“The entrepreneurs of the past needed grit. The entrepreneurs of today need architecture,” states David Brudenell, executive director at Decidr.ai. He emphasizes that if a business can be designed where data generates insight, insight triggers action, and action loops back into performance—all without human friction—then size constraints diminish.
This vision suggests that AI and automation are not just tools but foundational elements for scaling. Alexandr Korshykov, CEO of DreamX, affirms that building a large-scale company with a small team or even solo is possible today, thanks to AI, automation, and global market access. His company observes individuals creating SaaS products, managing e-commerce empires, and launching EdTech platforms while keeping team costs minimal, showcasing the practical application of this new entrepreneurial paradigm.
Agentic AI: Taking Self-Sufficiency to the Next Level
AI, particularly agentic AI, is pushing the boundaries of self-sufficiency. Cortinovis suggests a model where one managing agent acts as a supervisor and “the brain of the others,” overseeing subagents. These subagents can be granted access to client information, addresses, and other necessary data, allowing for automated execution of various tasks.
This hierarchical AI structure promises to streamline operations and enable rapid business growth with minimal human intervention. However, while AI undoubtedly removes many barriers to scaling with limited resources, seasoned entrepreneur John Jackson, founder of Hitprobe, cautions that “it’s unlikely we’re going to see many one-person unicorns.” He believes it’s more probable that “very lean businesses with small teams as small as three to five people” will scale to levels previously requiring an entire workforce.
Lean Businesses and Sectoral Disruption
The emergence of lean businesses with minimal human capital is a more realistic outcome of AI integration than the single-person unicorn. Initially, these are likely to be technology or SaaS companies, leveraging AI for core functions. However, Jackson also sees “huge opportunities for disruption in more traditional sectors, such as audit and compliance,” where tiny companies could compete effectively against large, established organizations.
The growth of these lean companies will be enabled by the smart use of AI tools for everything from customer support and automated marketing platforms to low-code product builders and scalable cloud infrastructure. The winners in this new landscape will be those capable of using these tools to gain a competitive edge, scaling without increasing their workforce and acting with far more speed and agility than larger, more traditional companies.
The Enduring Human Element: Judgment and Relationships
Despite the transformative power of AI, human professionals remain crucial for strategic oversight of “operations, sales, compliance, and product,” as Eli Goodman, CEO of Datos, points out. While execution can be automated, judgment cannot. AI is “not always reliable yet when it comes to high-level analytics, emotional interaction with clients, or handling unpredictable situations,” explains Korshykov. Challenges persist in fully automating legal processes, financial audits, and strategic consulting. Data security and privacy issues can also hinder scaling, especially in regulated industries.
Goodman emphasizes that success ultimately depends on a human’s will to succeed, time management, and prioritization. Founders must know when to delegate to machines and when to “dig in” themselves. The “myth of doing it completely alone doesn’t hold up when you’re actually in it,” as many other people, directly or indirectly, contribute to the outcome, even if they aren’t full-time staff.
AI-Augmented, Not AI-Alone Entrepreneurship
The convergence of foundational models, agentic frameworks, and cloud-native infrastructure provides unprecedented tools for single founders to move faster and scale further. However, building a billion-dollar business still requires a combination of product-market fit, relentless execution, and a bit of luck. The critical human components—decisions, relationships, resilience, and judgment—cannot be fully automated.
While AI significantly enhances the capabilities of solopreneurs and small teams, enabling them to achieve previously unattainable scale, the ultimate success still hinges on human leadership, strategic oversight, and the ability to navigate complex, unpredictable situations. The future of entrepreneurship is likely to be AI-augmented, rather than AI-alone, where human vision and will remain the driving force behind colossal companies.
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