Problem is what kind of moat does that SaaS have? The flip side of 'we replaced our dev team with vibe coders look how fast we print shitware' is now shitware value falls close to 0, as anyone can make it.
Though you suggest he's non-technical... "writing down exactly what he wants" is just coding!
> "writing down exactly what he wants" is just coding!
That would make good project managers and business analysts "coders" and they are not coders. It is only in this age with LLMs does that line between functional requirements and code become blurred.
He doesn't know how to write code well; he knows how to write requirements and instructions well from managing offshore teams.
In practice, his instructions are detailed in the functional domain. Engineers bias too much in the technical domain.
> The flip side of 'we replaced our dev team with vibe coders look how fast we print shitware' is now shitware value falls close to 0, as anyone can make it.
Actually, he recognizes this and said something to the effect of "this is the end of SaaS" meaning that anyone can build this. That's his biggest fear going all in on this (he is still keeping his day job despite this project gaining traction so quickly)
But I don't think this is true; I think there are still some technical barriers (at the moment) like one needs to know to instruct about databases, set up external services, etc. The AI is writing the connections to some third party APIs, but one needs to know what an API is and which one to use to instruct the agent.
A future may be coming where this is no longer the case (e.g. combining deep research and computer use that will automatically set up domains, connect external services, etc.), but it's not here yet.
> 'shitware'
Is it "shitware" if customers are paying because they are deriving value from it? He's got 30 customers, a few of which paid annual subscriptions because it provided value to their actual business. Is it "shitware" because it's not handcrafted? Does it matter if it's solving some real problem and customers want to pay for it?
> "writing down exactly what he wants" is just coding!
Agreed. The more exact and clear your instructions are, the closer to programming it is. Presumably the non-technical person has an application where they care about things like performance, scalability, compatibility and all those things coders sweat over.
Though you suggest he's non-technical... "writing down exactly what he wants" is just coding!