Todd Saunders

Todd Saunders serves as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dalton Mills, an AI-native software platform purpose-built for field-service operations in the trades industry. Prior to this venture, he established and steered a vertical-software company through a significant strategic pivot, capital raises, multiple acquisitions, post-deal integration, and ultimately a successful exit. His core areas of expertise encompass artificial intelligence, leadership for founders, and vertical SaaS businesses.

AI is moving the bottleneck inside companies from execution to judgment. It can produce analysis, software, content and customer communication at a fraction of the previous cost. The harder problem becomes deciding what is correct, what should ship and who is accountable when the system is wrong.

As a second-time founder now building AI-native vertical software, I believe this will reshape SaaS. Customers will increasingly reject rigid products that force every business into the same workflow. AI allows software to adapt to the operator, but customization without clear rules can automate confusion just as easily as it automates good work.

The strongest leaders will identify stable, repeatable decisions for automation, then keep humans responsible for exceptions, customer commitments and high-consequence judgment. The goal is not maximum automation. It is a company that can move faster without losing context, trust or accountability.