20VC: SaaS is Dead: Why Systems of Record Will Die in an Agentic World | What Revenue Multiple Will Software Companies Trade At? | From 7,000 to 3,000: We Need Less People Than Ever with Sebastian Siemiatkowski
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 693 Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2026
⏱️ 88 minutes
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Summary
Sebastian Siemiatkowski is the co-founder and CEO of Klarna, the global digital bank with over 114 million global active users and 3.4 million transactions per day. Seb is one of the leading public company CEOs pushing the boundaries of AI.
AGENDA:
04:50 — The Real Threat to SaaS is The Switching Cost Coming Down
05:57 — What revenue multiple will software companies trade at in the future?
14:12 — Why you need to build your own customer service AI to win
23:51 — Klarna has two times the customer base of Revolut. They will beat Revolut
25:39 — How I lost a billion dollars not investing in Nubank
30:57 — Why Nubank are more likely to win the US than Revolut?
34:28 — We used to be 6,000 people. Now we are just 3,000
39:58 — When is a high valuation too high and can be dangerous?
42:45 — How we got Sequoia to invest and Michael Moritz to join the board
53:14 — If you are an investor today that is not building then you're at a fundamental disadvantage
01:11:43 — I have changed my mind on the adoption cycle... I think it will take longer than people think
20VC: Is SaaS Dead: Klarna Replaces 1,500 Internal SaaS Products | Why Systems of Record Will Die in an Agentic World | What Revenue Multiple Will Software Companies Trade At? | From 7,000 to 3,000: We Need Less People Than Ever with Sebastian Siemiatkowski
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We used to be 6,000 or over 7,000 people, and we're now less than 3,000. And I didn't ask for a single dime to do all this. And the reason for that is because I've seen the acceleration of AI, and I know we can ship all these things on the existing organization. We've gone from 7,000 people. We're now below 3,000. We've shrank 50%. This is what I sign up for. It is stressful. It was hard as hell. But this is what I wanted. |
| 0:24.1 | The next thing that's going to hit everyone bad is the switching cost of data. |
| 0:29.9 | This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings. Now we have an incredible episode today. |
| 0:33.9 | Seb from Klan is probably one of the leading figures in how to implement and use |
| 0:39.1 | AI effectively to shrink headcount and make your business way more efficient. This was one of the |
| 0:44.5 | most wide-ranging conversations we've had. Seb was just awesome in the studio. It's a fucking |
| 0:49.3 | great show. I love doing it. He was incredible. Let me know what you think. Harry at 20VC.com. |
| 0:55.9 | I want this to be the best podcast that you listen to every week. |
| 0:59.5 | But before we dive into the show today, |
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