At some point in the last two years, running a business stopped feeling like a bold career move—and started feeling like basic risk management.

Teams shrank. Tools got better. Job security thinned out. And suddenly, more people found themselves doing what used to be considered “side projects” just to stay resilient.

That shift is exactly what Vancouver-based startup Durable is betting on.

“We think everyone in the world should be a business owner in some capacity over the next decade,” says CEO James Clift. “Not because it’s trendy—but because it’s necessary.”

Durable raised its Series A in 2023 and has been quietly scaling since. Today, the platform has more than three million users, a 22-person team, and an ambition that goes far beyond website building: becoming an AI-native business partner for independent operators.

If you remember Durable from its early days, you probably remember the shock value: type a prompt, get a working business website in seconds.

But Clift says that was never the end goal.

“The original thesis wasn’t to be a website builder,” he explains. “It was to be a full-stack, AI-native business in a box for solo business owners.”

Over the past two years, Durable has rebuilt much of its product and infrastructure around that idea. Websites are just the entry point. The platform now spans branding, invoicing, payments via Stripe, marketing workflows, and business operations—while keeping the complexity invisible to the user.

The goal isn’t to give people more tools. It’s to remove entire categories of work.

“You shouldn’t have to know how to build a website, do SEO, manage invoicing, or chase paperwork,” Clift says. “All of that should just be solved.”

Durable is also a case study in how AI is reshaping internal teams.

At one point, the company had more than 60 employees. Today, it’s operating at a fraction of that size—with far more output.

“Everyone on our team ships,” Clift says. “Designers, product managers, marketers—everyone is orchestrating AI.”

Features that once took months now ship in weeks—or days. One engineer recently hacked together an AI video ad generator over a weekend. It’s now in production.

“This is the most fun I’ve had building in years,” Clift admits. “I almost just want to write code again.”

The lesson, he says, isn’t about cutting headcount—it’s about leverage.

“Hire smart people, give them powerful tools, and let them cook.”

One of the more counterintuitive ideas Clift raises is that software startups may actually be harder to build now, not easier.

“When you break a lot of non-AI-native software down, it’s just a database and a frontend,” he says. “That’s basically zero to build now.”

The real opportunity, he argues, is in human-delivered value, amplified by AI.

Durable customers include mobile massage therapists, seasonal landscapers, pumpkin-porch decorators, coaches, and consultants—people delivering real services, not abstractions.

“The moat isn’t the software,” Clift says. “It’s the human value being delivered. The software just removes friction.”

AI doesn’t replace those businesses—it makes them dramatically more efficient.

One of the most striking themes in Clift’s thinking is how he frames entrepreneurship—not as ambition, but as insurance.

“Careers are shakier than people want to admit,” he says. “Having a business—even a small one—is like an insurance policy.”

Durable sees many users running seasonal or part-time businesses: snow removal in winter, landscaping in summer, or four intense months of work followed by eight months off.

The point isn’t hustle culture. It’s optionality.

“If you’ve ever made your own dollar, you build a muscle,” Clift says. “Once you have that, you can roll with almost any punch.”

Looking ahead, Durable’s biggest bet isn’t websites or payments—it’s context.

“We want to understand your business deeply,” Clift explains. “Your revenue cycles, your customers, your margins, your goals.”

That context unlocks automation that actually matters: knowing when to file taxes, how to respond to customers, where to allocate cash, and how to reverse-engineer revenue targets.

“Imagine telling your business, ‘I want to make $100K this year,’ and it tells you exactly what needs to happen,” he says.

The long-term vision is a system where your business runs quietly in the background—optimizing, allocating, reminding—while you focus on what you’re uniquely good at.

Clift is unapologetically optimistic about where this leads.

“I don’t think the future is a few massive employers and everyone else scrambling,” he says. “I think it’s millions of small businesses with leverage.”

AI, in that worldview, isn’t about replacing work—it’s about restoring agency.

“Business ownership isn’t some innate gene,” Clift says. “It’s reps. And now, for the first time, the reps are easy to get.”