The ‘prpsumer’ vibe coding revolution is real. I’m a mass convert. We’ve built 12+ AI-powered apps on SaaStr.ai, and the results have been staggering:
- 800,000+ total uses across our AI tools
- 10,000+ used SaaStr.ai to help research and pick their AI agents
- 3,000+ VC pitch decks reviewed by our AI VC
- ~1,000 VC intros facilitated and counting
These aren‘t prototypes, toys, or mere experiments. This is production software being used at genuine scale, helping founders get real feedback, real valuations, and real intros to real VCs. And we’ve rebuilt SaaStr.com itself onto SaaStr.AI with vibe coding.
But here’s what almost nobody in the “I built a SaaS in 4 hours” content wave is telling you:
I maintain these apps every single day. Every. Single. Day.
It’s Not About Things Breaking. It’s About Evolution.
Yes, stuff breaks sometimes. APIs change. Edge cases surface. Users do things you didn’t anticipate.
But that’s actually the smaller issue.
The bigger reality is that the features have to evolve rapidly. When you’re building with AI at the core, you’re not building static software. You’re building something that users expect to get smarter, handle more cases, and improve constantly.
A vibe coded app isn’t a house you build once. It’s a garden. And gardens need daily attention if you want them to thrive.
The Real Time Tax: 30-60 Minutes Daily + Constant Mindshare
Some days it’s 30 minutes. Some days it’s 60. The actual keyboard time isn’t the killer.
It’s the mindshare.
You’re always thinking about it. What’s not working quite right? What feedback came in? What new capability could make this 10x better? What did Claude or GPT just get better at that I could incorporate?
When you’re building traditional software, you can context-switch away. With vibe coded apps at scale, they live in your head rent-free. Because the iteration cycles are so fast, there’s always something you could be improving.
The Prototype vs. Production Gap Few Talk About
Here’s the thing almost everyone gets wrong:
A prototype requires almost no maintenance. Production at scale requires daily maintenance.
This is the great vibe coding bait-and-switch. You can absolutely spin up something impressive in an afternoon. Demo it. Get some ooh’s and ahh’s. Post it on Twitter/X.
But the minute you say “this is a real product that real users depend on,” you’ve signed up for a different contract entirely.
At 100 users? Maybe you check in weekly.
At 10,000 users? You’re checking in every few days.
At 800,000 uses? It’s daily. Non-negotiable.
Would I Do It Again? 1000% Yes.
Let me be absolutely clear: I love this. The impact has been huge. We’ve helped thousands of founders get better feedback on their pitches, helped 80,000+ know what their start-ups and worth, helped 10,000+ pick their AI agents, and connected nearly 1,000 of them with VCs they wouldn’t have met otherwise.
The speed-to-value is unmatched. Ideas that would have taken months and significant engineering investment are live in days. The ability to rapidly iterate based on user feedback is a superpower.
But it is not “set and forget.”
Anyone telling you otherwise either hasn’t shipped to real users at scale, or they’re selling you something.
The Honest Math for Founders
If you’re considering vibe coding your way to a product, here’s the real calculus:
Prototype/Demo: Near-zero maintenance. Great for validation, investor demos, internal tools with forgiving users.
Early Production (hundreds of users): A few hours per week. Manageable alongside other work.
Scaled Production (thousands+ of users): 30-60 minutes daily minimum, plus significant mental overhead. This is a real ongoing commitment.
The leverage is still incredible. I’m mass maintaining 12+ apps in maybe an hour a day — that would have required a team before.
But “no-code” and “vibe coding” have somehow become synonymous with “no work.” They’re not.
They’re “different work.”
The Bottom Line
Vibe coding is one of the most powerful tools we’ve ever had for shipping software fast. I’m building more, not less.
But if you’re going to go to production at scale, block the time. Every day. Build it into your schedule like you would any other critical founder task.
The ones who treat their vibe coded apps as “done” are the ones whose apps will slowly rot. The ones who treat them as living products that need daily care will build something that compounds.
800,000+ uses later, I’m still learning this lesson every single morning.
