Hello,

We're launching on a Monday, any tips on how to prepare?

Anything to do during the weekend?

Most businesses and startups rely on VCs.

I would briefly write it as follows:

I wrote a long essay following a talk I gave at AI DevCon in Brooklyn last month.

It starts out with an anecdote about hunting ChatGPT in December 2022 and goes on to explore what I think will be necessary to thrive as code becomes a commodity:

In December 2022, I hunted ChatGPT on Product Hunt.

It ranked #1 product of the day, then the week, and went on to be named Product of the Year.

Having co-founded a YC-backed conversational AI startup in 2018 (long before LLMs) I recognized in ChatGPT the missing ingredient that would have made that venture viable.

The future we d anticipated had arrived. I could revisit my old problem, or I could expand my area of potency by raising and deploying my own venture capital fund.

I chose the latter.

Three years later, on December 9th, I watched a 24-hour window on Product Hunt cross 500 launches roughly double what I observed throughout the preceding 825 days. Only 13 were featured; most were unremarkable.

The LLM has fundamentally shifted the economics of software development.

As someone with a dual vantage point being the #1 Product Hunter while investing in AI startups I watch the floodwaters rise in real-time.

What s become clear: SaaS is dying; VC is withering . Building software is not uniquely compelling. Code has become a commodity.

What most people miss about commoditization is that when a product or resource becomes abundant, it doesn t just get cheaper. It unlocks new and previously uneconomic uses.

Recently I've worked with a group of non-corders trying to "vibe code" their apps with AI.
While knowing code is clearly not a must these days, it helps to get technical.
People who were familiar with basic software engineering concepts were 10x more likely to success and get better results.
So, with the hope of providing value to the non-coders people, I've created a quick roadmap for the basic terms and concepts you should be familiar with.

• Requirements: Building apps with AI is all about being able to clearly guide AI and express your app features and requirements.
  You need to be able to express those ideas and explain them as you d explain to a human developer. Think like a Technical Product Manager.

• Frontend: The face of your app.
  It's what your users see and interact with. It could be a website, a mobile app, or a desktop app. Most popular frontend libraries and frameworks are React, Next.js.

• UIs: They are the buttons, the forms, the modals, the tooltips, etc. In React, the UI is built with components. For design & styling, Tailwind CSS is the most popular library.
  For animations, Framer Motion is the most popular library.

• Packages & npm: Apps are not built from scratch.
  They are built on top of existing libraries and frameworks, like lego blocks.

  The most popular package manager is npm. For example, "react-hook-form" is a famous package that helps you build forms.

• Backend: The backend is the part of your app that runs on the server.

  It's where you store your data, your business logic.

  e.g: If you want to send an email, or process payments - this is where you'll do it.

  Vibe tip: Use minimal backends with serverless functions.

• Database: The database is where you store your data.

  It's where you store your users, your projects, your tasks, etc. Think of it as a big spreadsheet.

  I recommend using a database that is integrated with your frontend.

  For example: Fine, or Supabase.

• API: Real-life apps almost always need to integrate with other apps.

  For example: if you want to send email, or get weather data, or integrate with AI - it's all done through APIs.

• Hosting & Deployment: For your app to be accessible to the public, you need to host it.

  The code is usually hosted on GitHub, and deployed to platforms like Fine, Vercel, Netlify.

Finally, being comfortable with code is helpful - even if not a must.

AI often makes minor mistakes (like importing a wrong package), and if you re not afraid of reviewing code - you will get better results faster.

Leaving projects unfinished in a local folder is a habit almost every solo developer struggles with.

Quietly abandoning them feels safe because no one asks questions.

Telling just one trusted friend or peer instead of blasting it on social media works so much better for me. Public build logs can get overwhelming but a simple 1-on-1 check-in keeps you honest without all the extra noise.

Personally, I was laid off a year ago and currently bottoming out on savings. Every day is not guaranteed, quite literally, at this point. Yet, I keep my head down and continue building out a product relentlessly that I, quite frankly, have no idea how it will turn out.
Many of us took this leap of faith and are under strenuous circumstances, especially in the current market. If you're in similar positions, just know that everything will work out! Fortune favors the bold.
We're in this together! I would love to hear your stories.

One challenge I've noticed in workplace learning is how much attention goes into creating and delivering courses, while what happens afterward gets less attention.

Employees may complete training, but when they face a real situation at work, they often still need guidance, clarification, or practice.

A couple of years ago, sharing revenue numbers and progress updates on X felt like a cheat code. Now my feed is full of Day 47 of building my SaaS posts, and I m not sure anyone is reading them anymore, including me.

I ve been posting updates, and it s brought honest result, e.g. some founder friends, but very few actual customers.

Has building in public brought you real customers, or mostly other builders?

If you still do it, what kind of posts actually get traction for you?

been testing multi-agent setups with tools like cursor and claudecode recently. they were great early on, but giving them more autonomy seems to backfire.

instead of sticking to the main task, they end up hunting down tiny bugs or adding unnecessary code tweaks that just drain hours in loops.

is this just a prompt control issue or are agents hitting a limit with complex context?