News take
Selling to agents still means knowing the person behind them
By Pat Villaceran · 13 October 2026
Picture the moment. Paul Graham is doing office hours with a founder. He suggests the founder might want a more outgoing cofounder to do sales. The founder says he doesn't. On 12 October, Graham posted about it on X. He describes the founder as "very smart but nerdy" and writes that he didn't need that cofounder "because most of his sales would be to agents". Then Graham adds: "I had to admit he could be right."
He could be right
Yes, for sure. I take that seriously. I believe more and more buying will run through agents.
But this is one founder in one post. We don't know who he is or what he sells. Graham only says he could be right. So I won't build a theory on it. I'll ask the question it leaves on the table.
Someone gave the agent its job
An agent doesn't buy because it wants something. A person sent it. That person gave it a budget. They told it what it can buy. They told it what it must never buy. They decide what counts as a good deal.
Here's a made-up example. Say you sell cleaning supplies to offices. An office manager tells an agent to reorder every month. The agent compares prices. It places the order. Who chose the budget? The office manager did. Who gets the blame if the order is wrong? The office manager does.
So for every customer you want, ask the same questions. Who sets the agent's budget? Who writes its rules? And the real one: what is that person answerable for?
That person is still your customer. The agent is how they reach you.
The human is still in the loop
When Nathan and I recorded our episode on agentic AI, I said it plainly: "So human in the loop is the driver." That holds on the buying side too. Behind every agent that buys, there's a driver. That driver may never read your landing page. Your sales story still has to make sense to them.
I think the business that deployed the agent answers for it. Your buyer's business is answerable for their agent. Sell to them with that in mind.
Keep the salesperson while you build
Should this founder hire someone outgoing anyway? I can't answer that for him. I don't know his market.
For me, the safer path is the one I described in our episode on the economics of originality: "do not cut down the salesperson who's bringing in the 90% of the revenue. Keep that in as a structure, but develop the roadmap right now." Do people pay you today? Then keep the people who sell to them. Build for agents alongside that.
And before you choose between a salesperson and an agent, go back to the top. What do you stand for? Why did you build this? Those answers tell you who you're really serving.
Start with one customer
Take the customer you want most. Write down who in that business would set an agent's budget to buy from you. Write down what that person is answerable for. Then write one line your product promises them.
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