San Francisco-based founder claims Anthropic’s Claude update crushed her startup

A founder from San Francisco has voiced her concerns about the impact of Anthropic's recent Claude update on her startup, Ryze. Once thriving with a close rate of 70% for client acquisitions, the company experienced a staggering drop to just 20% within hours of the update's rollout, according to founder Ira Bodnar. Ryze specializes in tools that aid users in creating, tracking, optimizing, and managing digital advertising campaigns on platforms like Google and Meta Ads. In a candid post on X (formerly Twitter), Bodnar expressed her frustration, stating, "I woke up today, and Claude killed my startup." She explained that the new capabilities of Claude and Manus now allow AI systems to connect directly with Meta Ads accounts, facilitating automatic analysis of advertising data. This advancement poses a direct challenge to Ryze, as Claude's automation features can now execute tasks that Ryze's product was designed to handle. Despite this, Bodnar clarified, "Claude still can't make changes in ad accounts — it can only do analysis, and it has no access to Google Ads. But give it a few months, and it will. So building here feels pointless." Though she acknowledges the challenges, Bodnar remains hopeful about the future of her startup. She indicated that Ryze had anticipated such developments and had begun pivoting its business model weeks prior. The company is now concentrating on developing complex AI workflows aimed at advertising agencies with smaller teams. Bodnar maintains a positive outlook, asserting that while AI simplifies product development, the elements of human “taste” and strategic distribution are becoming critical competitive advantages. She argued that while AI may take care of the technical 'how', the human touch in creativity and audience engagement will remain vital. This situation reignites discussions around the so-called “SaaSapocalypse,” a notion suggesting that software companies could be overshadowed by increasingly capable AI technologies. Looking ahead, Bodnar predicts that platforms like TikTok and Instagram could see almost 98% of their videos generated by AI, leading to a marketing landscape heavily influenced by artificial intelligence. She warns that in the near future, success in the digital space may hinge less on creativity and more on a deep understanding of algorithms.