Skyfall AI’s $2 million Steve Startups Program works out to an average of $400,000 for each of the five businesses it plans to hand to its AI CEO, by our arithmetic. Small software businesses sold at a median of 3.9 times profit in 2024 and 2025, Acquire.com reported. At that multiple, $400,000 is the price of about $102,600 a year in profit, or roughly $8,550 a month.
François Chollet, the creator of Keras, called the idea “the ultimate real-world eval” in a post on X that had about 64,000 views when we checked. Skyfall’s co-founder says its first three businesses are all doing well; the figures it has shared are mixed, as we reported on Monday.
Business Pill · AI Agents Explained
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on AI agents. It teaches the general idea only and does not describe Skyfall or Steve.
The key insight: Skyfall AI’s $2 million program averages $400,000 for each of five businesses, by our arithmetic; at the 3.9 times profit median Acquire.com reports for small SaaS sold in 2024 and 2025, that matches about $102,600 a year in profit.
Chollet wrote: “Acquiring distressed or stagnant SaaS apps and handing the keys to an agent harness is the ultimate real-world eval. Just P&L as the objective function and the market as the feedback signal.” His X profile lists him as co-founder of Ndea and ARC Prize and creator of ARC-AGI.
Earlier tests of AI running a business used simulators or small shops. Skyfall’s own business simulator, Mini Amusement Parks, found that human players ran a park several times better than the leading language-model agents, The Next Web reported.
In 2025 a version of Anthropic’s Claude ran a small shop in Anthropic’s office. It sold tungsten cubes below cost and ended its first month at a loss, though an upgraded version later turned the shop profitable, according to The Next Web.
Valuation multiples on different bases: public SaaS as price to revenue, small SaaS sold on Acquire.com as sale price to profit (2025 is the median). Data: Acquire.com Acquisition Multiples Report, 2025 findings. The $400,000 average and $102,600 profit equivalent are our arithmetic.
What Was Posted on X
Sam and his team are working on a super exciting idea: autonomous businesses.
Acquiring distressed or stagnant SaaS apps and handing the keys to an agent harness is the ultimate real-world eval. Just P&L as the objective function and the market as the feedback signal.
François Chollet, whose X profile lists him as co-founder of Ndea and ARC Prize and creator of Keras and ARC-AGI, quote-posted Sam Pasupalak’s launch post at 17:23 UTC on 9 November. He called acquiring distressed or stagnant SaaS apps and handing them to an agent harness “the ultimate real-world eval”. The framing is his view.
Introducing Steve: the Worldโs first AI CEO for fully Autonomous companies.
Powered by World Models, Recursive Self Learning, a Policy Engine and a team of specialist AI agents, it runs your business end-to-end ๐ฅ.
Proof? Steve currently runs 3 businesses we acquired and they are all crushing it (numbers in thread ๐งต)
Weโre now launching the Steve Startups Program of $2M to acquire 5 additional startups for Steve to automate.
Join us in the Autonomous Enterprise revolution ๐.
Sam Pasupalak, a Skyfall AI co-founder per The Next Web, announced Steve and the $2M Steve Startups Program at 16:28 UTC on 9 November. The “crushing it” description is his; the figures Skyfall has shared are company-reported and are set out in the piece.
What Skyfall Says It Has So Far
Skyfall’s co-founders are Sam Pasupalak, Kaheer Suleman and Sumit Pasupalak, The Next Web reported. Sam Pasupalak and Suleman co-founded Maluuba, the deep learning lab Microsoft bought in January 2017. The launch release lists Fidelity, Touring Capital, M13 and iNovia Capital as backers.
In his launch post, Sam Pasupalak wrote that Steve “currently runs 3 businesses we acquired and they are all crushing it”. The thread gives one number: AlphaSocial, a social media app taken over in August, “MRR grew by 2.3x in just under 3 months”. Using Skyfall’s figures, The Next Web put the social media tool at $3,649 a month at takeover and $8,307 by October.
The company says the second, GammaPromo, a Shopify referral app, was bringing in $8,634 a month when it was bought in August and now brings in $8,379, about 3% less; Skyfall calls that stabilisation. The third, DeltaLeads, was taken over in late October and “results will be announced soon”. These figures are the company’s and have not been independently checked.
The Price of a Small SaaS App
Acquire.com, a marketplace for startups, says “In both 2024 and 2025, SaaS businesses sold at a median profit multiple of 3.9x”, on confirmed sale prices. Its 2025 findings put the multiple at 4.3x in 2023, and at 3.7x for deals under $100,000 and 3.9x for those between $100,000 and $1 million in 2025.
Its data covers “typically businesses with an enterprisevalue below $10 million”. Average margins on profitable SaaS listings were 71% in 2024 and 2025, it says. Skyfall’s application form asks founders whether they are already listed on “TrustMRR, Acquire.com or another marketplace”.
Public software is priced on a different base. Acquire.com says public SaaS revenue multiples averaged 17x in 2022 and reached “roughly 5.5x by the end of 2025”, a fall of 67.6% by our arithmetic. The small-business profit multiple moved from 4.3x to 3.9x over 2023 to 2025, down 9.3%.
What $2 Million Buys
Skyfall’s page says it is “selecting five businesses to run on Steve, with up to $2 million in total for investment or acquisition”. Split evenly, that is $400,000 each, by our arithmetic; the company has not given a per-deal figure.
At Acquire.com’s 3.9x median, $400,000 matches about $102,564 a year of profit, about $8,547 a month, by our arithmetic. In July, Skyfall planned to spend up to $1 million on a single small business and double its revenue within six months, Forbes reported, as cited by The Next Web. The new average is 60% lower per business.
The monthly figures Skyfall has shared for its two apps, $8,307 and $8,379, are revenue, not profit. Skyfall has not published their costs, margins or what it paid for them in the release, thread or reports we read.
The Structural Read
As we read Chollet’s frame, the P&L test cuts both ways: it is the only score that counts for an acquired business, and on Skyfall’s published figures so far the score is revenue for two apps over about two to three months, without costs.
As we read the multiples, the arithmetic of buying cash-flowing apps is set by small-deal pricing: Acquire.com’s median moved from 4.3x to 3.9x profit from 2023 to 2025, while public SaaS revenue multiples fell from 17x to about 5.5x on a different base.
François Chollet on X, 9 November 2026
“Just P&L as the objective function and the market as the feedback signal.”
Three Implications
FOR FOUNDERS OF SMALL SAAS APPS Skyfall’s form asks whether applicants are already listed on TrustMRR, Acquire.com or another marketplace, where SaaS sold at a median 3.9 times profit in 2024 and 2025, Acquire.com says.
FOR AI AGENT BUILDERS Chollet calls acquired apps the ultimate real-world eval; Skyfall’s own Mini Amusement Parks simulator found human players ran a park several times better than leading language-model agents, The Next Web reported.
FOR READERS OF THE RESULTS The company says one app went from $3,649 to $8,307 a month and another fell about 3%; costs, margins and prices paid are not public.
The framework argues: “It’s a structural bifurcation driven by two converging forces: the democratization of development through AI-assisted coding and the intensification of enterprise integration dependencies.”
As we read it, Skyfall is shopping at the small, standalone end of that split, where apps sell at single-digit profit multiples and an agent harness can touch every function. The framework predates Steve and does not discuss it.
What Is Not Established
Prices paid, profit and margins for the three businesses are not public, so their multiples cannot be computed. The revenue figures cover about two to three months and come from Skyfall. Whether the program’s money goes to purchases or investments, and at what prices, is not stated.
Steve is not running alone: “A human owner sets the direction and approves the decisions that matter most”, The Next Web reported. Acquire.com’s multiples describe its own marketplace deals, not Skyfall’s.
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Skyfall’s program averages $400,000 for each of five businesses, by our arithmetic, in a market where small SaaS sold at a median 3.9 times profit in 2024 and 2025, per Acquire.com. On that multiple the average buys about $102,600 a year in profit. Chollet’s test is the P&L; Skyfall’s published P&L so far is revenue for two apps, one up 127.7% and one down about 3%.
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A note on sourcing. Skyfall’s business figures are the company’s own, from its founder’s X thread and as reported by The Next Web, and have not been independently verified. Program terms are from Skyfall’s application page and launch thread. Multiples are Acquire.com’s, from its 2025 findings report and its January 2026 report post, and describe deals on its marketplace. The $400,000 average, profit equivalents and percentage changes are our arithmetic. Skyfall was not contacted for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
