Software is becoming disposable — and that's a problem for la gente

Startups are building software that burns out faster. Auren Hoffman's latest note argues that the old playbook of shipping once and compounding value over decades is cracking. Tools now launch, catch a wave, then dissolve — replaced by the next shiny thing.

The pattern is familiar to anyone who's watched their neighborhood businesses cycle through. The bakery on the corner closes, a café opens in its place, then a smoothie shop takes over before the espresso machine cools. Software is doing the same. The tools we depend on — the ones that run our payrolls, track our inventory, even manage our health — are increasingly built to be swapped out rather than inherited.

This matters because disposable software doesn't just mean more apps to juggle. It means the people who actually use it — the shop owners, the delivery workers, the small operators — get stuck holding the bag when a tool shuts down or pivots. The data they've accumulated? Gone or locked behind a new pricing wall. The workflows they've built? Unraveled. The cousin who figured out how to run their side business on a specific platform now has to learn the new one — or risk losing customers.

Why this matters for us: when the tools that run our daily lives keep changing without warning, it's usually la gente — not the founders or the VCs — who pays the price.