20VC: $5BN in Revenue, 7 to 7,000 Employees in 9 Months, 206,000 Tests in a Single Day: The Craziest Story in Startups: Curative with Fred Turner

Where this was said

Is SaaS Dead? Why Is Curative Cutting 80% of Its Software Spend?

At 45:21 · chapter starts 45:00

The SaaS-is-dead discussion crystallises around Salesforce. Fred matter-of-factly states that Curative cancelled its $600,000 annual contract because a vibe-coded internal CRM, built in approximately two months, now works better for their specific workflows and hosts their AI agents natively. Nobody was using Salesforce anymore. The broader thesis is structural: large SaaS platforms are built to serve all customers generically, which means they serve no customer perfectly. They require dedicated administrators — Curative had a full-time Salesforce admin — and are notoriously difficult to extend with custom features. An in-house vibe-coded system can be tailored precisely, updated instantly, and integrates with every internal agent without additional configuration. Fred acknowledges maintenance is a genuine challenge and that this approach works best when you have strong technical resources. He estimates Curative will cut approximately 80% of all SaaS spend this year, with an internal tracking slide devoted to mapping every contract renewal date to the person responsible for cancelling it ^{[1] — Fred Turner "80% SaaS spend cut: Curative is cutting approximately 80% of its total SaaS spend in the current year, replacing legacy software with inter…" 47:13 Play} . He draws a distinction between infrastructure-layer software (Sentry, Slack) which has deeper switching costs, and application-layer software like CRMs and claims systems, which is now squarely in the crosshairs.

Technology

Curative Cancelled its $600K Salesforce Contract

20VC: $5BN in Revenue, 7 to 7,000 Employees in 9 Months, 20… · Jul 18, 2026 Technology

Curative cancelled a $600,000 annual Salesforce subscription after building a vibe-coded internal CRM in about 2 months that works better, integrates with their AI agents, and required no full-time Salesforce admin. This is their thesis for cutting 80% of all SaaS spend this year.

45:10

47:50

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We just recently canceled our Salesforce contract because we have an internal CRM that was vibe-coded, that is working better, that is managing our process better, is more integrated into what we're doing. We run our agents inside of it and no one was using Salesforce anymore. $600,000 a year. Gone to zero.

Fred Turner

20VC: $5BN in Revenue, 7 to 7,000 Emplo…

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Technology

80% SaaS spend cut

20VC: $5BN in Revenue, 7 to 7,000 Employees in 9 Months, 20… · Jul 18, 2026

Curative is cutting approximately 80% of its total SaaS spend in the current year, replacing legacy software with internally built AI-powered alternatives.

47:13 – 47:40

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