5 ms·

Tell HN: My 3 competitors are all super polished companies run by solo devs

7 points by gametorch 1y ago

I'm a solo developer that runs a small AI startup in the game development industry. The demand is good. After initial marketing, I've seen a lot of organic growth. I get 3-5 new paying customers per day without doing anything. I'm crossing 300 signups soon. I quickly ran into competitors building the same exact product. These looked like super polished, well-established companies. The websites look nice. The engineering looks solid. As far as I can tell, they're all run by individual solo developers, too. I built my entire startup with o3. I already considered myself a good engineer. I think I shipped 2-3x faster than ever before, when building this startup, due to AI. It seems that other developers are exhibiting similar gains. How long until the first 1-person $100m company? I would bet it happens in 2026. Maybe even 2025.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
mosdl 1y ago
Once the person makes their 100m company, 10 competitors will undercut them by using AI to duplicate the work.
- byoung2 1y ago
  It would make sense to build that $100M company in a vertical where the first-mover advantage is a significant moat
  - gametorch 1y ago
    That's the double-edged sword aspect of AI: these models are commodities so you can expect to very cheaply build almost anything out of code as the price of code generation gets driven down to zero through competition. But so can anyone else.
    - byoung2 1y ago
      Exactly...so if anyone can generate the app in a few days, you've got to find a vertical where you sign up everyone first and lock them in. Then the. next 10 competitors who generate the same app won't be able to get your customers.
      - mosdl 1y ago
        And first mover usually requires a lot of money to secure (ads, etc) so basically the person who gets the most vc or is already rich will win.
blinkbat 1y ago
"I built my entire startup with o3." including security? auth? database design?
- gametorch 1y ago
  I dictate all the database schema so it can one-shot the rest of the tedious nonsense, like analogous struct types, db getters and setters, etc. I basically just architect the solutions and it implements it for me.
  - zdw 1y ago
    Does it generate all of the DB interface code bespoke, or leverage an ORM?
    - gametorch 1y ago
      Just raw SQL queries via the rust sqlx crate. I think ORM is harmful in 2025. In rust, you can get compile-time SQL syntax and type validation; it won't compile if the corresponding columns, tables, etc. don't exist. Combine that with LLMs generating the code for you and it's pointless to use an ORM. ORMs are insanely opaque and prone to horrible bugs and performance losses that are completely avoidable now, imho.
  - blinkbat 1y ago
    and regarding security?
    - gametorch 1y ago
      yep but I triple checked it, of course I also had two different LLMs audit the codebase pre launch and once every so often.
      - blinkbat 1y ago
        and you consider yourself well-versed enough in security to spot check it? just making sure.
theGeatZhopa 1y ago
a bit unrealistic and unserious to ask such questions, as one never know how the customer will behave. Just imagine, that another one start the exact same thing, but do, for example, faster & better support - because it's not a one man show. And then? then you'll see better marketing, because there's a sales & marketing professional employed, you see better & faster feature development. Etc... In my life, its not as long that I can fill each discussion, I've seen quite a few situations, where I said "thats it. Thats an perfect idea no one have had before" -> nope. Each one turned out to be not as good as I thought and, I wasn't the only one who came up with that... My experience tell me, you need a differentiator. You have to solve a pain, but the medicine must be better than of your competitors. In your case, I would rather say "if the others, like you, are really solo-interpreneurs and do exactly the same thing as you do. Then it will be ok, as long none of the others start to invest heavily in marketing with a dedicated marketing department. That will be the differentiator that might break your neck." Stop dreamin, reinvest the gains and employ some people to bring your business to a new level. Don't risk it without necessities. Dont slow down your pace with "principles". My opinion. I may be wrong, but I'm a different risk profile. I like to have everything under control. What is your risk taking capabilities? may be, this will be some kind of inspiration. That guy build and sold for 100mio as a solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR2H7X1HBEM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR2H7X1HBEM
- theGeatZhopa 1y ago
  who can't stand the truth and downvotes? some vibe coders? Or is it O3 doing it, because it doesn't like? I have a suspicion :)
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
byoung2 1y ago
How are your customers finding you?
- gametorch 1y ago
  Reddit, Google, X, and LLMs referring me
mathiaspoint 1y ago
Yeah my theory is that we'll soon see the end of massive tech companies. The size is more a liability than an asset now.
alganet 1y ago
Have you considered the possibility that 1 million similar companies worth $100 each will appear? I know nothing about product, but think how many people could have done it with the same tools as you.
- gametorch 1y ago
  I think you have a super good point. Cost of anything that is purely driven by code is falling like a rock now. I don't have an answer to this question. I don't have an answer to the moat question. Best guess is some sort of "network/platform value" upon which you deliver the commoditized output of a model.
  - msgodel 1y ago
    Code was always cheap, anyone could write it and it's really not hard to learn. I don't think LLMs change that.
    - alganet 1y ago
      > Code was always cheap It is more correct to say that cheap code always had a large supply compared to expensive code, and LLMs haven't changed that. Expensive code, though, is expensive. LLMs also haven't changed that. Expensive code accurately and efficiently encapsulates knowledge. There is no horizon for humans getting rid of this need.
  - alganet 1y ago
    I know nothing about moat or network or anything like that. This is basic stuff. People have money. People use money to buy things. Money is limited. It can move, and shift, but not grow. People earn X and will spend a portion of that on stuff on different things. If there's a lot of similar competitors of similar cost and quality, they'll share the money pool (what people are willing to spend on your kind of thing). AI is, therefore, irrelevant. It drives your costs down, but it also drives the cost down for everyone. Any competitor can use it to achieve similar results. If you base your production on it, you get no edge. What can you do that is unique and you can offer to your potential customers?
ezekg 1y ago
"I have this million dollar app idea, I just need somebody to build it." Nothing new under the sun.
tuesdaynight 1y ago
I believe that solo founders will have way more leverage than today. At the same time, I find it paradoxical how the people that say these things have the most simple idea, that could be copied in a weekend, to show as example. Founders with great ideas, domain knowledge and money to do marketing will make a lot of difference. The diary that I created using AI to fit my taste? Everybody can copy that code in days.
tom_m 1y ago
Your business isn't the code. It's a combination of things, but you can't just expect to write some code and go win. You have to sell it. Market it. Maintain it. Listen to customers. Support customers. A very long time until a 1-person unicorn. For good reason. You need a lot more than software. Even if you say oh well AI can also automate marketing and customer support, etc. Bulls---. Only to a degree. You want to know why Facebook was successful while others weren't? Or why people couldn't just copy them? It's not the software.
gaws 1y ago
> I get 3-5 new paying customers per day without doing anything. I'm crossing 300 signups soon. > I already considered myself a good engineer. > I built my entire startup with o3. > How long until the first 1-person $100m company? Truly grim stuff.

7 points by gametorch 1y ago

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

mosdl 1y ago

Once the person makes their 100m company, 10 competitors will undercut them by using AI to duplicate the work.

byoung2 1y ago
It would make sense to build that $100M company in a vertical where the first-mover advantage is a significant moat
- gametorch 1y ago
  That's the double-edged sword aspect of AI: these models are commodities so you can expect to very cheaply build almost anything out of code as the price of code generation gets driven down to zero through competition. But so can anyone else.
  - byoung2 1y ago
    Exactly...so if anyone can generate the app in a few days, you've got to find a vertical where you sign up everyone first and lock them in. Then the. next 10 competitors who generate the same app won't be able to get your customers.
    - mosdl 1y ago
      And first mover usually requires a lot of money to secure (ads, etc) so basically the person who gets the most vc or is already rich will win.

blinkbat 1y ago

"I built my entire startup with o3." including security? auth? database design?

gametorch 1y ago
I dictate all the database schema so it can one-shot the rest of the tedious nonsense, like analogous struct types, db getters and setters, etc. I basically just architect the solutions and it implements it for me.
- zdw 1y ago
  Does it generate all of the DB interface code bespoke, or leverage an ORM?
  - gametorch 1y ago
    Just raw SQL queries via the rust sqlx crate. I think ORM is harmful in 2025. In rust, you can get compile-time SQL syntax and type validation; it won't compile if the corresponding columns, tables, etc. don't exist. Combine that with LLMs generating the code for you and it's pointless to use an ORM. ORMs are insanely opaque and prone to horrible bugs and performance losses that are completely avoidable now, imho.
- blinkbat 1y ago
  and regarding security?
  - gametorch 1y ago
    yep but I triple checked it, of course I also had two different LLMs audit the codebase pre launch and once every so often.
    - blinkbat 1y ago
      and you consider yourself well-versed enough in security to spot check it? just making sure.

theGeatZhopa 1y ago

a bit unrealistic and unserious to ask such questions, as one never know how the customer will behave. Just imagine, that another one start the exact same thing, but do, for example, faster & better support - because it's not a one man show. And then? then you'll see better marketing, because there's a sales & marketing professional employed, you see better & faster feature development. Etc... In my life, its not as long that I can fill each discussion, I've seen quite a few situations, where I said "thats it. Thats an perfect idea no one have had before" -> nope. Each one turned out to be not as good as I thought and, I wasn't the only one who came up with that... My experience tell me, you need a differentiator. You have to solve a pain, but the medicine must be better than of your competitors. In your case, I would rather say "if the others, like you, are really solo-interpreneurs and do exactly the same thing as you do. Then it will be ok, as long none of the others start to invest heavily in marketing with a dedicated marketing department. That will be the differentiator that might break your neck." Stop dreamin, reinvest the gains and employ some people to bring your business to a new level. Don't risk it without necessities. Dont slow down your pace with "principles". My opinion. I may be wrong, but I'm a different risk profile. I like to have everything under control. What is your risk taking capabilities? may be, this will be some kind of inspiration. That guy build and sold for 100mio as a solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR2H7X1HBEM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR2H7X1HBEM

theGeatZhopa 1y ago
who can't stand the truth and downvotes? some vibe coders? Or is it O3 doing it, because it doesn't like? I have a suspicion :)
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]

byoung2 1y ago

How are your customers finding you?

gametorch 1y ago
Reddit, Google, X, and LLMs referring me

mathiaspoint 1y ago

Yeah my theory is that we'll soon see the end of massive tech companies. The size is more a liability than an asset now.

alganet 1y ago

Have you considered the possibility that 1 million similar companies worth $100 each will appear? I know nothing about product, but think how many people could have done it with the same tools as you.

gametorch 1y ago
I think you have a super good point. Cost of anything that is purely driven by code is falling like a rock now. I don't have an answer to this question. I don't have an answer to the moat question. Best guess is some sort of "network/platform value" upon which you deliver the commoditized output of a model.
- msgodel 1y ago
  Code was always cheap, anyone could write it and it's really not hard to learn. I don't think LLMs change that.
  - alganet 1y ago
    > Code was always cheap It is more correct to say that cheap code always had a large supply compared to expensive code, and LLMs haven't changed that. Expensive code, though, is expensive. LLMs also haven't changed that. Expensive code accurately and efficiently encapsulates knowledge. There is no horizon for humans getting rid of this need.
- alganet 1y ago
  I know nothing about moat or network or anything like that. This is basic stuff. People have money. People use money to buy things. Money is limited. It can move, and shift, but not grow. People earn X and will spend a portion of that on stuff on different things. If there's a lot of similar competitors of similar cost and quality, they'll share the money pool (what people are willing to spend on your kind of thing). AI is, therefore, irrelevant. It drives your costs down, but it also drives the cost down for everyone. Any competitor can use it to achieve similar results. If you base your production on it, you get no edge. What can you do that is unique and you can offer to your potential customers?

ezekg 1y ago

"I have this million dollar app idea, I just need somebody to build it." Nothing new under the sun.

tuesdaynight 1y ago

I believe that solo founders will have way more leverage than today. At the same time, I find it paradoxical how the people that say these things have the most simple idea, that could be copied in a weekend, to show as example. Founders with great ideas, domain knowledge and money to do marketing will make a lot of difference. The diary that I created using AI to fit my taste? Everybody can copy that code in days.

tom_m 1y ago

Your business isn't the code. It's a combination of things, but you can't just expect to write some code and go win. You have to sell it. Market it. Maintain it. Listen to customers. Support customers. A very long time until a 1-person unicorn. For good reason. You need a lot more than software. Even if you say oh well AI can also automate marketing and customer support, etc. Bulls---. Only to a degree. You want to know why Facebook was successful while others weren't? Or why people couldn't just copy them? It's not the software.

gaws 1y ago

> I get 3-5 new paying customers per day without doing anything. I'm crossing 300 signups soon. > I already considered myself a good engineer. > I built my entire startup with o3. > How long until the first 1-person $100m company? Truly grim stuff.