Opportunity → Dev Shop for Vibecoders
Framework → Sales Qualification Framework
Tool → Prism
Trend → AI Design Tools
Quote → The Market Doesn’t Care
🔗 Houck’s Picks
My favorite finds of the week.
Fundraising
Peter Walker on startup ecosystem ranking by stage (Link)
Growth
ICYMI
Opportunity: Dev Shop to Help Vibecoders
I’m on the record more than a few times talking about how the rise of AI will lead to a Cambrian explosion of entrepreneurship. As legacy companies use it to lay people off and cut costs, those people (and others) will try their hand at being founders due to the lower barrier of entry.
We’re already seeing this, people who I never thought would become founders are sending me vibecoded MVPs.
And this is objectively good. Not everyone will succeed as a founder but more startups = stronger societies.
The problem? A lot of these people won’t be engineers.
They won’t know anything about how to build software.
They won’t know anything about security.
They won’t know common UX patterns.
Their products, in many cases, simply won’t be ready for consumer use.
But they might actually be good ideas since these people likely have some expertise about the problems they’re solving for.
So… if you do know how to build good software, there’s a clear gap where you can brand yourself and a team as the ideal partner for these vibecoded MVPs to become full products.
Someone should build the go-to dev shop for Lovable/Bolt/Replit-era projects, where ideas are 90% done but need pros to ship production-ready software.
Most site builders still need devs to go from MVP to consumer-grade.
I have like 10 of these sitting around.
— Jeff Morris Jr. (@jmj)
11:27 PM • May 26, 2025
🧠 Framework: Sales Qualification Framework
I get a ton of questions from founders about sales.
Product-centric founders know it’s a weakness (or, even worse, they don’t).
Sales-centric founders are always hungry for any edge to get better at it.
And one of the biggest mistakes founders make in sales is wasting valuable time on leads who will never become customers.
A lot of what’s in this qualification framework is written simply, but that doesn’t mean it’s obvious. I’d argue a lot of this is easy to forget, the hint of potential revenue makes you ignore these things (when it shouldn’t).
🛠 Tool: Prism
Rather than having to watch session replays of users on your site, or using your product, why not ask AI questions about them instead?
Prism lets you do exactly that, and generate useful reports about them as well.
It’s a bit pricey ($1k/mo for 120k sessions) but could directly impact revenue and be worth it if you’re struggling to understand why users aren’t converting like you’d expect.
📈 Trend: AI Design Tools
At this point if you’re coding without Cursor or another AI tool, you’re falling behind.
With Figma on the verge of an IPO (and therefore about to no longer be even technically a startup), it makes sense that we’re seeing a spike of interest in AI design tools like Flora.
The next wave is coming.
And with so much talk about how “taste” will matter most when building products with the help of AI, it also makes sense that designers are searching to learn more about them.
I suspect we’re seeing something similar in most verticals, but designers are an interesting market right now since their capabilities are dramatically increasing, not just the volume of their output.
💬 Quote: The Market Doesn’t Care
It’s 4am right now.
Sometimes I write these issues over the weekend, other times it’s the Friday before.
But sometimes I’m particularly busy and there’s no good option other than staying up late to write.
But you, reading this right now, couldn’t care less. And you shouldn’t.
You’re just hoping that when you open an email with the ⛰️ in the subject line, from me, that something in there is valuable for you.
It’s a weekly bar I set for myself.
And it doesn’t matter what I have to do in order to deliver.
The same is true for your product.
Your users don’t care about the blood, sweat, and tears.
They’ll respect it, maybe even admire it, but you’re not selling inspiration, you’re selling a solution to their problem.
You are entitled to nothing from them.
The market simply doesn’t care.
So use that as a reminder to build something great.
The market doesn't care about your passion.
It doesn't care about your hard work, your tears, your sleepless nights, or your upbringing.
It cares only about the value you create.
Both demoralizing and incredibly freeing.
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh)
12:02 PM • May 19, 2025