Services New Software Skill

Services: The New Software — Claude Code Skill

A Claude Code skill that applies Sequoia's ["Services: The New Software"](https://sequoiacap.com/article/services-the-new-software/) framework to evaluate AI product ideas and business models.

The Problem

Every founder building an AI product faces the same risk: the next model upgrade turns your product into a built-in feature. Most AI startups are building **tools** (copilots) when they should be selling **outcomes** (autopilots).

This skill acts as a guardrail — it automatically triggers when you discuss side project ideas or business models with Claude Code, and runs the idea through Sequoia's framework to check whether you're building something defensible or something that will be commoditized.

What It Does

When triggered, the skill walks through 5 checkpoints:

#	Check	What It Catches
1	Tool or Outcome?	Are you selling software or selling completed work?
2	Intelligence or Judgement?	Is the work rule-based (automatable now) or experience-based?
3	Already Outsourced?	Is there an existing budget you can substitute, or do you need a reorg?
4	Model Upgrade Test	Does the next Claude/GPT version help you or kill you?
5	Flywheel Potential	Does doing more work generate proprietary data as a moat?

It also flags 5 common traps: "AI-powered X tool", "Dashboard for Y", "Copilot for Z profession", "Automating internal workflow", and the "Feature vs Service" test.

Install

**Option A: Claude Code Skills directory**

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/services-new-software
curl -o ~/.claude/skills/services-new-software/SKILL.md \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/takeshiyu/services-new-software-skill/main/SKILL.md

**Option B: CLAUDE.md (append)**

echo "" >> CLAUDE.md
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/takeshiyu/services-new-software-skill/main/SKILL.md >> CLAUDE.md

Customization

The skill is designed to