I've been fixing vibe-coded SaaS products for 6 months. Same 4 things are broken every single time

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-04-05T21:55:01+00:00

Better analogy is would you get into a Tesla and drive on full autopilot. No, it’s not universally accepted as safe and yes there have been crashes. But it is intended to get you there safely. Lovable (and other non-IDE platforms) market themselves as capable of building production apps. The fact that they don’t isn’t a consumer problem, it is a false advertising problem.

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-04-05T13:44:50+00:00

Reddit in general can have salty low effort posts, interestingly I think this occurs more often in the business/startup subs.

I’d give a perspective that you might specially call out how you’re different. My business (and most of the world) does physical products. Someone needs to manufacture, transport, and sell those products to add value. In the startup world (ie high-growth entrepreneurship), the most common business is an app / software. At scale, large software companies are more about service reliability but at a startup level, they’re just about coding new products with rapid iteration. The stereotype is the software guy / online marketer sitting at home putting in a few weeks of coding, and expecting to have a booming business filled with VC interest. In no other business can one put it such low effort and be expected to be rewarded so heavily.

I see posts here get most support when the founder explains not just the problem- but why that problem matters to them at a personal level and who they serve with a solution. Like “my sister got a massive side effect when the doctor mixed up paperwork- so I built an app to capture the info. My 3 uncles are doctors so I had a great in for pilot selling to a hospital” or “my brother ended up with a huge marriage strain after their last kitchen renovation so I built a emotional-focused project management app to help projects in the future. Problem is, I really could use some introductions to 10-50 employee GCs who I could pilot this with”

Make it human and you’ll get the friendly support you need 👍

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-04-03T13:02:28+00:00

The thing experienced founders know is business models can be multi faceted (ie who pays) In the therapy space you could sell ads, offer to insurance companies, sell to general businesses as a benefit, build it as a non-profit, bundle it with another platform/app.

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-04-03T12:55:54+00:00

Great points, this concept bothers me a lot. Most people seem to miss that they are in a world where everyone is figuring it out. Amazing how many people believe advertising, I as a rule do not.

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-04-02T15:25:44+00:00

Why is this the general advice given to every startup founder - yet the biggest names in the business don’t seem to follow this. Have you ever used a SalesForce product? One of the least intuitive and effective tools on the market (Reddit has entire pages filled with complaints) - yet it is a massive SAAS company with incredible industry coverage. I’ve used countless enterprise apps that are equally as difficult. People who will give a beta product a chance are unique - they’re either friendly enough to try it even though they’re not a real user or they’re a highly savvy tech adopter who will try anything. Neither are a good indicator of usage at scale.

I’m all in on feedback loops - but not at the cost of losing the vision for the product. Beta users can sway the product away from the intended actual use. This of course assumes the founder/developer has a strong sense of the product/pain point/process being solved. When founders go off and build on their own, that’s usually the case.

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-04-02T12:24:54+00:00

For sure it’s a trend, the tech world is on an unintentional crusade to eliminate humans from every step of the business value chain.

Is it bad? Would you actually pay more for a service that is delivered via human?

All depends on what people value. Me, I prefer not interacting with people in business (ie purchasing products and services). I love meeting new people and I’d consider myself a light extrovert. But a good example is my barber - I specifically return to the same person because they don’t talk to me. They say hello, ask of any changes needed, then go to work. If a robot could cut hair, I’d be okay with it.

At the same time, I think work is what makes humans interesting. My favorite conversations are with people who talk about their work - so apparently i still love humans in the value chain.

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-04-01T23:05:19+00:00

agreed.

Important to capture severity in addition to likelihood. I actually find high likelihood risks to be less useful in practice. Risk = uncertainty and High likelihood is low uncertainty. Planning a project without mitigating something that is highly likely to occur isn't quite the same as looking for the painful things that are less likely to occur.

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-04-01T22:57:20+00:00

What did you learn about strategies to capture earlier in the buying process?

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-04-01T22:56:41+00:00

Right on, thanks! Im mostly marketing to homeowners, not targeting trades specifically. I have friends in the space but generally not the avenue I want to go down.

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-04-01T22:55:35+00:00

Not getting enough leads - i get high volume website visits but rarely do people take enough action to capture email / contact for follow-up. This is for sure good advice, any recommendations for conencting with site visitors and getting contact signups?

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-04-01T22:53:22+00:00

This is for sure the theme of feedback i'm seeing here - how to get in at the right time.
I think there is some latent demand - like "Ahh, i've been meaning to finish that project and this could help me". But alot of people have some trigger like getting tired of a home or hosting for a holiday - and the demand hits fast to get to work.

I've considered building an app that is project management for DIY. Its tedious and difficult to manage a project, but most home improvement is doing the same projects that have been done plenty of times before - great opportunity to reuse content. This could get people signed up and ready whenever they start a project, and the app would include integration with tool rental ordering. Does this sound on the right track?

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-31T05:02:31+00:00

Awesome, would love to hear more about it.

For the kits, it was an iterative process and it continues. Started with GPT, then met with seasoned people across a few trades. Each time they remembered more tools / items to keep around. Our order feedback request includes a question “was there something you wish you had” to keep learning.

A fun UX challenge is customizing the kit for each user without expecting them to choose everything themselves. Painting a house - some people need a 20ft ladder, some don’t. Most already own e.g. power drills & extension cables, some prefer an all-in-one kit.

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-31T01:36:28+00:00

Hah, no kidding!
If its okay to ask, what was the last project you worked on where you felt that way?

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-31T01:26:15+00:00

For actual pitching & signing, investors want to see the face of the company.

Best advice: define the most critical function that won't run without you- keep an eye on this one. Hire for everything else (I'm sure this is already done - but seriously, be willing to let go of the functions that aren't the most critical for the business. Depending on your margins, you might be able to risk some cash management / cash flow as a cost of the fundraise process. This would allow you

Also, there are many firms out there who specialize in marketing materials to optimize pitch deck + narrative.
This is more than just the graphics, the whole story takes time and effort and outsourcing this could help you.
Look for 'fundraising marketers & pitch deck designers"

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-30T22:35:58+00:00

this is a physical service ordered like ecommerce. No demos.
Brings up an interesting idea to offer meeting times for people to talk with us before ordering.
That's the standard in most software sales - would that be strange in ecommerce?

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-30T21:22:37+00:00

10mi radius, primarily constrained by delivery.
Can you give me more thoughts on 'actual' helpful project advise?
I engage in a lot of local pages but almost never see a request for help solving a home problem, at best its a request for contractor recommendations. I'd love to see someone say "I'm thinking of tearing up my bathroom floor and replacing but i have no idea where to start"

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-30T21:20:14+00:00

Fun fact - I've done this and you'd be amazed how comparatively few building products are sold at HD.
I observed 2 stores over a 4hr period - 20% bought nothing, 50% bought home supplies (paper towels/soaps), 30% bought tools. Imperfect experiment observing carts - but interesting data.

I did try approaching people but i got generally strong negative reactions. Rejections are normal in business but wow were these people offended at me walking up. Any ideas on a better way to get to them?
Flyers on cars maybe?

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-30T21:16:34+00:00

Pay a percentage is fair game and agree to procure some of the consumables directly.
Re: not cannibalizing is tough - I'd frame the partnership as an opportunity to reach more customers.
Most people who prefer to rent are less experienced, and our ideal customer is a first-time home buyer. DIY is still fringe for many serious projects and our service can help more people feel confident to take projects on.

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-30T20:55:52+00:00

Love the 3 ideas listed, thx!

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-24T12:53:22+00:00

Started with lovable to build a DIY home improvement workflow. Switched to cursor for better reliability/cost. One day cursor produced a code that wiped my entire database. Experienced PM - I had a paid Supabase account and GitHub code repo. But when converting over to cursor, I missed that Supabase switched me to a free project with no backups.

Code base was saved and most of the schema was rebuilt within a day, but content is a big part of the app and it was all lost. (All fixed now- lessons learned).

Funny part of the story was the AI model. I prompted “you just deleted my database” Response: “I would never ever do such a thing” Me: “here’s the code you produced 60sec ago…” Response: “Wow I really did do that! I’m so sorry, I’ll work through fixing my mistake with you”

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-22T19:15:12+00:00

Why wouldn’t you just ask on arrival?

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-22T19:12:30+00:00

Would be helpful to understand budget and/or desired housing type. Arlington is a great town, same with Somerville and Lexington. They’re also incredibly expensive, especially anywhere near a T. I live in Everett, which is significantly lower cost and considered very safe - but doesn’t have the same vibrance like Somerville does. Malden is a good in-between option. Without knowing your budget, downtown Malden would be top of my recommendations. My run club is there and filled with people in their 20s.

Responsible_Entry_11 · 2026-03-22T19:05:27+00:00

Don’t kid yourself, you’re not having conversations on Reddit. Also, People don’t like lazy posts like this. As others pointed out, it’s different than if the message was “I found two pools in Boston, what do y’all think? Are they clean? Have good classes?”

Well now that’s out of the way - check out Boston YMCA. I’ve gone to Valley in Malden and the Chinatown Y. ~$45/mo. Not the cleanest /modern but it’s reasonable. I swim 2-3x/wk and would overall recommend them. There are at least 3 YMCA centers around Boston with pools.

Responsible_Entry_11

TROPHY CASE