Ben Dekker

@JunaidAckroyd Helps you understand the culture, but I don't know if it would be necessary, especially if it's one that ends up failing. Then you might be learning to fail.

Unpopular opinion: you should work at a start up before founding one

@thenowhereway Product Hunt, as there is a newly curated list every day

You can launch on Product Hunt. Or launch on X with zero followers. Which one actually gets you your first 10 users?

@AbhiCodes15 Are we supposed to include the ones that didn't even get to the finish line? If so, it would probably fill a graveyard.

Hey devs, how many apps failed before your first product got success?

@nickarceco @dariusdan Most really never have cared and that's why there are designers making 6 figures with mediocre designs where there are highly talented designers that can't find gigs.

@bd3kker @dariusdan Yeah I’ve had that happen. AI will never have that level of polish that a hand can create but the question is going to come down to “do we really care about the polish for this use case in front of us?”

We spent decades proving that design is thinking, illustration is storytelling, and photography is seeing. AI is trying to fit all of that into a prompt box and call it progress.

@16vchq Nope, but if you can't pivot to meet the demand then you probably shouldn't be building in the first place.

@bd3kker does output ability always convert to demand?

if you were starting from zero today: would you rather have A. $2M in funding or B. 100,000 highly engaged followers in your niche you can only choose one. why?

@CoachThisath Totally agree. I've noticed an uptick in engagement I'm getting compared to a few months back.

@bd3kker I swear it kind of pisses me off but at the same time I'm grateful that actual humans are the ones being rewarded by the algo now

You know what’s absolutely awesome? How over 50% of posts on here are clearly written by AI… Being original is actually starting to stand out 😂

Agreed man. I I was working on a food packaging concept for an ice cream company the other day, and it came out pretty good, but then next thing you know, they start sending me a bunch of different concepts and ideas that I was just blown away by. They didn't really fit the style or the brand, but it was just like you had ChatGPT create those. Alright, well, maybe cooked in the next year or so.

@bd3kker @dariusdan Yeah it’s winning. I get less dms and emails about design help now that it’s a prompt away from a decent fix

@benfchi Thank you sir!

@bd3kker This is fantastic news! Congrats mate 🥳

Friday check in What’s one win you’ve had this week, no matter how small?

Time to build some Klaviyo flows. Anyone have a tool to help automate the process?

@jshguo It’s already wiped out quite a bit and will only continue the onslaught so good to be prepared. Speaking of, back to my plan B as well.

I’ve started building my Plan B. Just in case AI really wipes out most jobs.

@JonBuildsHQ Great success! Now just do that again and again and again. Compound my friend.

Good news: Revenue is up 10000%. Bad news: Revenue was $0.01.

@CZoom42637 Market fit with a product that actually solves a problem. Most don’t really solve real problems… Most startups are now rushed because of AI without real testing to validate.

If everyone can build with AI now… what will actually make a startup succeed ❓❓❓ Let's discuss this

@vivoplt I think the difference is if they understand what AI is actually building or if they have no clue…

Anyone who uses AI to write code isn’t a real programmer

@icanvardar I will say the feeling when you finally got a feature to work was the best and I miss that… the feeling of accomplishment. Now it’s like “cool you did it… yay. Good job.”

i miss how coding used to feel then i remember half of it was just boilerplate suffering

@araseb_ Something that I need, not think is cool. If it can help me, awesome! If others want it, sweet! If they don’t then at least it helps my flow.

vibe coders, be honest: are you building something people need or something you thought was cool?

@markproduct $25/week here! Well worth it.

Vibe coders, be honest… how much did Claude cost you this week?

@IricMidel That’s the thing, not everyone is becoming a founder. The sounding board of “founders” here is such a small subset of the actual market available to become users.

When everyone is becoming a founder because of AI, will there be any users left?

@DanielSmidstrup As long as there continues to be room to adapt I agree. Most think we’ll all be replaced by AI but I’m in your boat and use it to accentuate what I do.

People willing to adapt will never be replaced by AI Agree?

@yahyavision Sales. Can’t sell your output (whatever it is) without that skill.

If you had to restart your design career today, what's the first thing you'd learn?