One Person Now Competes With Your Team: What the Solopreneur Boom Means for European SMEs

The solopreneur economy has surged, with nearly 30 million Americans now running businesses with no employees. Collectively, they generate $1.7 trillion in annual revenue, representing 6.8% of total US economic activity.

That's not a rounding error. That's a structural shift.

Over 80% of US small businesses now operate without employees. The Small Business Administration received 440,000 new solopreneur applications monthly in 2024, a 90% increase over pre-pandemic levels. By their fifth year of operation, most solopreneur businesses earn $500,000 annually, according to Gusto research. 5.6 million independent workers now earn over $100,000 per year, nearly double the number in 2020.

The solopreneur economy isn't emerging. It has emerged. The question for established businesses is what this means strategically.

Three forces converged.

AI as a workforce multiplier. A single founder can now run operations that function like a small team of specialists. Marketing, customer service, content creation, financial analysis, code development. Tasks that required hiring specialists now require prompting AI systems correctly. The barrier between "I need help" and "I need an employee" widened dramatically, emphasizing the role of AI Automation Consulting for efficient scale.

Platform infrastructure maturity. Tools for payments, logistics, communication, project management, and customer relationship management have reached a level of sophistication that allows solo operators to access capabilities previously reserved for organizations with IT departments.

Cultural legitimacy. Working alone is no longer viewed as a limitation or stepping stone. 62% of Gen Z plans to start their own business. The corporate career path that defined previous generations holds less appeal for those entering the workforce now.

Marina Mogilko, host of Silicon Valley Girl, asked the founders of major AI companies a revealing question: if you lost everything tomorrow, your money, your network, your reputation, and had to rebuild from zero in 2026, what would you actually do?

Their answers converge on principles that matter to any business leader considering competitive positioning.

Samir Vasavada, co-founder of Vice, offers a framework so simple it feels almost insufficient. But simplicity often indicates truth.

Ask the people closest to you why they work with you. What makes you great. They will coalesce on one thing. You're a great communicator. You're great at thinking about complex product problems. You're a great salesperson.

Then become the best in the world at that thing. Forget about your weaknesses.

The insight runs counter to conventional advice on well-rounded skill development. Vasavada argues that while you might marginally improve weaknesses, you can dramatically improve strengths. And all the alpha comes from sticking to one thing for a long period of time.

"Careers compound no differently than capital does."

For SME leaders, this raises uncomfortable questions. Does your organization know its superpower? An AI Readiness Assessment can often help clarify this, ensuring resources are not spread across too many competencies, achieving adequacy in all while excellence in none?

Yan Xiao, CEO of Opus Clip, describes his approach to building: "I'm the prototype of a founder who doesn't start everything from technology but from users, from the market."

His process: spend the first weeks understanding real use cases, segmenting to a very specific ICP, mapping existing workflows, pain points, and alternative solutions. Then, build a proof of concept in days using Vibe coding tools like Cursor. Then return to early users for feedback, not just on whether they like the product, but on the value they perceive and what they'd be willing to pay.

The speed matters. Xiao suggests two to three weeks to understand the problem, then a couple of days to build a working prototype. The timeline would have seemed impossible five years ago. AI development tools compressed it.

Aravind Srinivas, founder of Perplexity, offers perhaps the most counterintuitive advice.

"The best you can do is do what you are truly obsessed with. Fundamentally, it's a bet on yourself. It's not a bet on the market. It's not a bet on the ecosystem or what competitors will do."

His reasoning: when your idea works and generates significant revenue, expect existing players to pursue it. The capex requirements in AI mean everyone seeks incremental revenue. They will copy what works.

"The only thing you can bet on is whether you are so obsessed with a topic that you will do it anyway, regardless of all the odds stacked against you. You'll prove the world wrong because you go so far deep into that, and no one cared about the problem more than you did."

The implication for established businesses: sustainable advantage comes from depth of commitment, not clever positioning. If competitors can match your offering when it proves successful, what's left is the willingness to stay in the arena longer than anyone else.

Daniel Priest, a serial entrepreneur, recommends what he calls a "776 apprenticeship" for those starting out: find a business doing seven figures in revenue with six figures of profit, and spend at least six months as a direct report to the founder.

The logic is revealing. Corporate experience at companies doing billions in revenue teaches almost nothing about startup dynamics. "You have no idea what a startup is going to feel like. You've got a big brand, a database, and all these assets. You're in La La Land." - not the startup Lalaland I worked for in the past :-)

Working with someone one or two steps ahead provides three things: self-awareness about your strengths and weaknesses, commercial awareness about how businesses actually make money, and access to resources you don't currently have.

This mirrors what we see in the solopreneur data. 77% of solopreneurs reach profitability in their first year compared to 54% of employer businesses. They're not succeeding despite limited resources. They're succeeding because constraints force clarity about what actually drives revenue.

Amjad Masad, founder of Replit, identifies what separates creators from commodities in the AI era.

"Grit is very important. Resourcefulness, not quitting. Domain knowledge is very important. You need to give that domain knowledge to the agent. You need to prompt in a certain way so that you're downloading your domain knowledge. That is your competitive advantage."

The nuance matters. Yes, AI models are trained on publicly available data. They improve constantly. But Masad argues that each person accumulates tacit knowledge that is not expressed in the available training content.

"Every one of us, as we go through life, builds up experiences that LLMs do not get to experience because they're not embodied."

The CFO at a VC firm has knowledge and skills built over years that others can't replicate from blogs. The veteran operations manager understands edge cases that no documentation captures. The sales leader knows what actually closes deals in specific industries through pattern recognition that AI hasn't observed.

This frames domain expertise not as what AI will replace but as what AI amplifies. The person who spent a decade in a domain builds something far more nuanced than someone who asks AI to generate a generic solution.

The solopreneur boom isn't just about people starting solo businesses. It's about what becomes possible when AI enables individuals to compete with teams.

Your next competitor might not be another company. It might be a former employee or industry expert who realized they can serve your market with lower overhead and faster iteration.

The math changed. When one person with AI tools can handle marketing, customer service, basic development, financial operations, and sales, the cost structure of competition collapses. Someone passionate about a niche you serve can now compete without raising capital or building a team.

This doesn't mean all solopreneurs threaten all businesses. But in markets where customer relationships can be rebuilt and operations handled by a single skilled person, the barrier to competition dropped dramatically.

The most capable people increasingly have options beyond employment.

77% of solopreneurs reach profitability in their first year. By year five, most earn $500,000 annually. 5.6 million independent workers make over $100,000. The economics of going solo improved while AI made solo operation more viable.

This changes what employment must offer. If talented individuals can earn comparable income with more autonomy, traditional employment value propositions need reconsideration. What does your organization provide that someone couldn't replicate independently, perhaps through unique Custom AI Solutions?

If one person can do work that previously required a team, what should teams actually do? The answer isn't necessarily fewer people. It might be a different allocation, leading to opportunities for Business Process Optimization.

Tasks AI handles become infrastructure. Human time shifts toward judgment, relationship, creativity, and the domain knowledge that creates actual differentiation.

The solopreneur model offers a reference point. What would your operations look like if you had to run them with ten times fewer people but the same AI tools? The answer reveals where your current structure creates value versus where it maintains overhead.

Mogilko synthesizes the founder's insights into her own approach:

Pick a sharp, focused niche. Don't chase generic big ideas. Look for a founder-opportunity fit based on your origin story, your past wins, and your mission.

Build a simple AI-powered content system. Content drives discovery. The market is flooded but also growing rapidly. The winners operate systematically, not sporadically.

Run a 30-day launch sprint. Treat it like real business, not a hobby. Define a KPI for those 30 days. A client. Revenue. A specific metric. Structure decisions around that goal.

Learn to say no. Limited hours require ruthless prioritization. Even 15 minutes counts. Stop doom scrolling. Control your own time.

The framework works for starting a solopreneur business. It also works for launching new initiatives within established organizations. The principles scale: focus, systematic content, defined sprints, clear metrics, disciplined prioritization.

Phase 1: Superpower Identification (Weeks 1-2)

What does your organization do better than anyone else? Not what you do. What do you do better? Survey customers about why they chose you. Survey employees about what makes working here different. Look for convergence.

Phase 2: Domain Knowledge Audit (Weeks 3-4)

Where does your organization hold tacit knowledge that competitors can't easily replicate? Customer relationship patterns. Operational edge cases. Industry-specific insights. These become the foundation for AI-amplified advantage rather than an AI-replaced commodity.

Phase 3: Structural Efficiency Assessment (Weeks 5-8)

If you had to operate with half the headcount but full AI augmentation, what would change? This thought experiment reveals where current operations create genuine value versus where they maintain historical overhead, informing effective Workflow Automation Design.

Phase 4: Talent Value Proposition Revision (Ongoing)

Given that capable people increasingly have solo options, what does employment at your organization offer beyond compensation? Craft explicit answers. Test them with your best people, considering how AI Upskilling Programs can enhance your team's capabilities.

Dr. Hernani Costa
Founder & CEO at First AI Movers

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