Ryan Neu

Building the buy button for SaaS. Founder & CEO, Vendr

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

I learned this back in the early HubSpot days from the legend @markroberge!

[Aaron Epstein @aaron_epstein]

Think of startup sales as a doctor/patient relationship.

If you just walked into the doctor's office and they said "here take this prescription", you wouldn't trust it at all. They don't even know what problems you have yet!

Sales is the same. You are the doctor/expert that has to ask lots of questions to understand your customer's problems before you earn the right to show how your product can help.

(shoutout @ryanRneu for teaching this to many founders)

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

@hhedaya This link is a 404 - lmk if you update, would like to check it out!

[Shensi Ding @shensi]

AI agents turn every employee into a security risk.

Introducing Agent Handler for Employees: secure AI access for every employee.

We’ll give you $10K if you get sensitive info from @JeanelleAgent.

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

Wait for it, @BostonGlobe

[Y Combinator @ycombinator]

Ruth from @VendrHQ is the AI negotiation agent for SaaS.

Trained on data billions in spend data, she helps you benchmark prices, plan negotiations, and save money.

https://t.co/7Y962NhyWR

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

@jasonlk Will show you something soon 🍿

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

Posted this on LI yesterday.. here are my thoughts:

Gartner's stock is down 50% this year. Research is officially disrupted.

AI can now summarize reports, surface market maps, analyze sentiment, and rank vendors—instantly, and often more effectively.

But Gartner’s real product was never the research. It was access. Access to analysts. Access to vendor shortlists. Access to enterprise buyers.

The problem is that access is no longer scarce.

The same buyers who once paid $30K+ for a Magic Quadrant are now getting sharper insights, faster, from AI-first products.

Sellers know this too. They’re no longer chasing analyst coverage the way they used to, because they know future buyers aren’t relying on the Magic Quadrant to make decisions.

If I were running Gartner, I’d do three things:

1. Open the data.
Kill the research PDF. Build an API. Stop hiding insights behind paywalls. Become the pricing and vendor intelligence layer that powers the platforms buyers already use. Build the most accessible buyer experience, backed by the best data.

2. Own the bottom of funnel.
Capterra-style SEO is dying. Review sites are fading. Instead of chasing traffic, build a product for high-intent buyers and sellers. Buyers want pricing, competitive options, and real-world paths to purchase. That’s where buying decisions start and sellers will pay to be there.

3. Regain relevance.
The market is voting against research and advisory. Don’t defend it, reinvent it. The future of influence is real-time, transparent, and embedded.

Gartner had a 20-year head start but AI just leveled the field. The winners will be the ones that open up, not the ones who try to hold on.

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

@paulg @linamkhan Amen.

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

@jasonlk @Replit Wouldn’t be SV without some early marketing hype baby! 😉

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

@jasonlk @Replit Fair point re: the promise. It’s great for the basic website or the product prototype. Behind that, not gonna happen (yet).

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

@jasonlk @Replit No-code platforms have a ceiling imo.

GitHub/Cursor/Vercel takes it from prototype to serious app and is actually easier, even for us sales-guy founders.

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

As AI eats the internet, trust becomes the new scarcity. Communities grounded in identity, values, and real connection will matter more than ever.

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

Is there an ‘undo everything I just did for the past hour’ button on @Replit? Rollback not an option and git ain’t workin’

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

AI-powered buying starts by eating PLG—low-friction, self-serve purchases are easy targets. From there, it moves upmarket, gradually replacing sales-led motions for lower-ACV products that still require rep interaction today. This shift is a win for buyers who just want to purchase without enduring a drawn-out sales process.

So what happens to those AEs? They move upmarket—spending more time on high-value, complex deals where buyers actually want a consultative experience. The role doesn’t disappear; it just evolves to focus on higher stakes, higher impact sales.

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

@HeyAmit_ @HeyAmit_ would love your thoughts on the one that we just launched @VendrHQ to uncover b2b pricing without having to contact sales: https://t.co/InrpqZgeg1

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

The future of B2B sales won’t be won by better decks or tighter pitches. It’ll be won by whoever removes the most friction.

The modern buyer has simple needs:
-They don’t want to be sold to. They want to get hands-on with product to make their own decision.
-They don't need an ROI calculator. They want transparent pricing to assess value.
-They want to pay for real outcomes, not promises.

And they want to decide on their terms, not because it’s end of quarter.

Truth > Persuasion
Speed > Process
Transparency > Games

We’ve spent the last 7 years building @VendrHQ inside this tension — watching buyers get smarter, sellers cling to old playbooks, and AI start to eat the middle.

Here’s what I believe:
-If you’re still optimizing for pipeline stages instead of friction elimination, you're already behind.
-If you're hiding your pricing, you're losing the deal before it starts.
-If your sales process isn’t getting faster every quarter, your competitors will pass you.

The next generation of sales is about enabling decisions, not controlling them.

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

@juicemoorthy @ProductHunt Very cool! Any feature requests?

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

You know what would be cool? To get the price of a B2B product without having to sit through a discovery call or forced demo.

Check out what we just did on @ProductHunt today...

https://t.co/CQ66BeIjqH

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

@AndyGCook @ProductHunt @AndyGCook giving you an upvote... gotta get you above "Why my wife yelling at me" 🤣

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

@AndyGCook @ProductHunt Oh snap!! Love it!

[Ryan Neu @ryanRneu]

@jasonlk Same. Belief > Experience.