5 ms·

A Vibe Coded SaaS Killed My Team

90 points by speckx 1y ago

ramesh31 1y ago
[flagged]
- venturecruelty 1y ago
  Who forced you to read this personal blog post on someone's personal blog? I'm just imagining you sitting there and seething over someone's personal choices that don't affect you. You can close the tab and move on, it's fine. Anyway, on-topic stuff so I don't get shitbanned: I feel bad for the author. Unfortunately, this will all get worse before it gets better (and I'm not so sure it'll get better).
  - stuffn 1y ago
    > Click interesting title related to <profession> > Get flashbanged by furry imagery It's a fetish. The topic is ostensibly professional. You must be deliberately ignoring the obvious to not see why OP said what they said. Not only is putting your fetish everywhere seen as unprofessional, furry cartoons are a neck breaking contrast to the potential seriousness of the topic.
  - stanleykm 1y ago
    There aren’t any content warnings for links on HN. So it’s not like the user is making a conscious choice to go to a furry personal blog.
    - krapp 1y ago
      There is nothing in the linked article that would require a content warning. No sexually explicit or even implicit content whatsoever.
      - alephnerd 1y ago
        Furry content is often deemed NSFW, and it can get annoying for it to be constantly flashed in your face. Nothing wrong with it, but giving some sort of content warning isn't the worst thing in the world. Personally, it does get annoying sometimes when two completely unrelated topics are fused into one - personally I'd find this kind of content equally as annoying as that cringe Gen X "Semiconductors with Brittany Spears" shtick, but to each their own. There is nothing wrong with content flags or warnings, especially for stuff with a sensual or potentially sexual connotation.
        krapp 1y ago
        There is nothing in the linked article that is unsafe for work, nor does anything in the linked article have a sexual connotation. No one owes you a content warning that "this site contains cartoons and that might annoy you."
        alephnerd 1y ago
        > No one owes you a content warning In most cases, people do owe content warnings for content that is potentially sexual in nature.
        JoshTriplett 1y ago
        The article contains zero content that necessitates such a warning. Your belief that it is "sexual in nature" is a misinterpretation or incorrect assumption.
        kelseyfrog 1y ago
        I don't find anthropomorphized animals to be sexual in nature. I find it a bit strange that it's assumed most people complaining about the blog or suggesting content warnings, on the contrary, do.
        bugbuddy 1y ago
- paulhebert 1y ago
  Did it really bother you? They had some goofy illustrations in the blog post. So what? I thought it was kind of fun
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - slooonz 1y ago
    It was goofy and fun-looking when the first blog did it. Now that everyone and its dog does those "goofy" illustrations, I find them insufferable.
    - krapp 1y ago
      I haven't seen "everyone and its dog" doing anything of this sort - the vast majority of blogs nowadays seem to be indistinguishable from one another, just bland and barely styled text. I am enjoying how bothered people are by it, though.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
      - deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
- fungus02 1y ago
  [dead]
- kelseyfrog 1y ago
  Likewise. Your take is so bad I have to assume you have a public humiliation fetish. Please keep it off HN. Thanks.
- miningape 1y ago
  Gotta love how none of the replies to your comment deny that it's a fetish
  - MuteXR 1y ago
    Why respond to an obviously dumb argument?
- bitwize 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - sph 1y ago
    I fondly remember when your presence online was a nickname on IRC and no one cared nor wanted to know about your identity, least of all your sexual preferences. Show your code, who cares if you’re a dog at the keyboard. Nowadays it’s the opposite. “Hello, I am X, my gender is Y, I am sexually attracted to Z, here is the list of my disorders off the DSM-5. Oh, my political affiliation is W, if you’re on the opposite side kindly sod off.” Who gives a damn. The hacker ethos is truly dead and buried.
- tracker1 1y ago
  I'm not sure what kink you are referring to.. the use of a mascot character isn't a kink that I am aware of. Oh, no... not Frosted flakes... that kinky tiger is scary.
  - miningape 1y ago
    > Oh, no... not Frosted flakes... that kinky tiger is scary. Oh my sweet summer child You really don't want to know what they did to our boy Tony
    - tracker1 1y ago
      Probably not.. I actively avoid commercials. From pihole and browser plugins to the high seas or paid service levels. But at a conceptual level, I still didn't have a problem with mascots
      - miningape 1y ago
        You're misunderstanding - the issue isn't with mascots. The issue is with the furry community who take their fetishes way too far. For example the Tony the Tiger accounts had to be shut down after facing years-long constant sexual harassment from furries.
  - ErroneousBosh 1y ago
    > the use of a mascot character isn't a kink that I am aware of. Ceren era of the FreeBSD mascot? Not going to link to it, because while it was all in good fun back then, it's not the sort of thing people do now. Edit: Also before anyone gets sniffy about it, Ceren is actually fucking God-tier technically, and a great person.
- jamesbelchamber 1y ago
  I don't think using an LLM counts as a kink but I'm prepared to be persuaded
- inetknght 1y ago
  I personally (not professionally) also find the images distracting. But they're not offensive or derogatory. Would you rather have images of cities, people smiling, and maybe a car or two? Or maybe you want a picture of a green forest or whatever? Those are the same pictures in many businesses' posts but they're also just as irrelevant and therefore just as unprofessional. The contrast is that the business should be professional while this blog post is a personal site. God forbid someone add their own flair to their own personal opinions. Thankfully God doesn't exist, so it's not forbidden. You're just being rude. It is a personal blog post. It's just an opinion, man. The topic could be professional, but it isn't. That doesn't make the topic any less interesting.
- mulquin 1y ago
  They do it intentionally to annoy you in particular.
  - rsync 1y ago
    This is true: when I load the page I just get stock photos of business meetings and cubicle …
- asdfman123 1y ago
  Are you saying they're a "fursona non grata"?
- some_furry 1y ago
  You cannot look at Cendyne's blog, nor mine, and have any understanding of what either of our kinks even are. It's not a topic we really write about. And, no, furry isn't a kink. (Yes, I know literally anything CAN be a kink to some people, but there's a difference between "hypothetical individuals" and general truths that apply broadly to a group of people.) Further reading for the peanut gallery: https://soatok.blog/2021/04/02/the-furry-sexuality-blog-post/ https://soatok.blog/2021/04/02/the-furry-sexuality-blog-post...
triword 1y ago
Somehow I feel like this article was very unclear? The way it's written, the way it tells its story, I'm really not sure what happened. I wish there was just a link to the saas in question. Like maybe it's that I just woke up, but all I really got out of this was that a vibe-coded app resulted in a company being downsized. But that's in the title. Any specifics beyond that? I really couldn't say despite having read the whole article.
- redrove 1y ago
  Yes I agree. There’s no context to anything and the furry images sure aren’t helping.
  - pclmulqdq 1y ago
    I bet the vibecoded SaaS didn't have furry-related professionalism issues and was actually a lot easier to sell.
    - MuteXR 1y ago
      What does this even mean?
      - tayiorrobinson 1y ago
        not sure, but i'm getting the sense that they're annoyed that someone is expressing themself on their own personal blog and not being Professional enough
  - p0w3n3d 1y ago
    Probably too scared to share the SaaS. Or maybe it's something big?
  - kcplate 1y ago
    Images, color palette, the whole nine yards distracted me enough that I couldn’t get past the fold.
  - 1y ago
andrewstuart 1y ago
Clearly not AI written because I didn’t get the point or the SAAS in question.
- phyzome 1y ago
  The author very clearly says that they're not naming the application in question.
jamesbelchamber 1y ago
Al definitely made this easier but I've been on this particular merry-go-round a few times and I suspect failing to properly evaluate a product that seems too good to be true is actually a tale as old as time. (Still sucks though, sorry and good luck)
- awesome_dude 1y ago
  I'm old enough to remember all the horror stories like this when people were outsourcing.
fudged71 1y ago
Client CEO was one-shot by a vibecoded startup. Basically the YCombinator dream scenario (for the startup not you). A lot of lessons from this for incumbents. Disrupt yourself before it happens to you.
- lawlessone 1y ago
  i might start a vibe cooking restaurant, disrupt the marketplace, those incumbents are wasting money by cooking their chicken. If someone get's sick and sues i'll remind of the ELA, Eater License Agreement. No employees, everyone there will be their own business and pay me for the privilege to work.
  - pixl97 1y ago
    Until software actually has quality regulations expect more insecure crap to be shoveled out
    - lawlessone 1y ago
      we've forgotten the lessons of Therac-25
  - fy20 1y ago
    > pay me for the privilege to work This is basically how services like Uber Eats work in my country. The basics of it are foreign students want to earn extra income by working a few hours per week. This is allowed on a student visa, but it's limited hours, so real businesses like restaurants or bars don't usually want to hire students. First of all you need a means of transport. There are small companies that will rent to you - on a weekly basis - an electric bike or a 20 year old Toyota Prius that is barely legal to drive (we have strict technical inspections here, so it's not that bad). They handle all the maintenance and insurance, you just pay your money and get a vehicle. Next up you probably can't use your drivers license from home here to drive, as once you have a residence visa you need a local license. Many people just risk it, but if you want to do it legally you need to have a minimum number of lessons with an instructor and then pass the test. The test is only in the local language, so if you don't speak it (zero chance as a student that's been here 3 months), you need to hire a translator to accompany you on your test. They may or may not help to ensure your answers are correct. (You can only exchange a driver's license from other EU countries) Finally you need a worker account on the delivery service, and the bag. You can register as self employed, file all the documents, go through the training course. That will take time, plus I think they are not always looking for new people due to high demand from workers. So you can skip all that and just rent an account from someone else, and hope they pay you at the end of the day. So there is an entire industry dedicated to helping people earn a side income. I'm surprised the delivery services themselves don't start getting involved in this as it is a lot of money they are leaving on the table - although most of it has a questionable legal status.
vintagedave 1y ago
So the team has been fired before a contract has been signed? The list of issues seem a minefield, including for the poor peon who found them. People who find issues can be at risk in the wrong companies. And I have no idea what legal obligations they may have.
- jamesbelchamber 1y ago
  Seeing the list, I thought they might at least have some reporting responsibilities. Alas, I am also not in the US.
meindnoch 1y ago
What is this slug (or whatever is it) cartoon all over the place in this article?
- bitwize 1y ago
  It's the author's fursona.
  - meindnoch 1y ago
    Yikes.
    - lawlessone 1y ago
      i'll take it over the people with cartoon girls of dubious age.
      - sph 1y ago
        it's the same demographic.
        lawlessone 1y ago
        Theres some overlap but i've found the furries tend to lean to the left more. The guys with the cartoon girls often goes to the right.
        sph 1y ago
        You’re looking at the wrong axis. It’s got nothing to do with politics.
_pdp_ 1y ago
The vast majority of vibe-coded apps are subpar because they're not built by experienced developers who understand proper software engineering practices. However... while I risk sounding like the discussions in r/vibecoding, I am convinced that it is absolutely possible to create high-quality, entirely machine-generated applications. And yes it bothers me as well because I am also invested my craft. What I found is that the key isn't in how you prompt the LLMs but in the comprehensive tooling and guardrails you build around the development process. This includes custom ESLint rules, specific type constraints, custom MCPs, and even tailored VSCode plugins. It works. Not fully autonomously, but effectively enough that you often only need to perform a final review before deployment. I have no doubt in my mind that the majority of software will be written by machines but only after the right guardrails are set in place - not just better models, magic prompts and fingers crossed.
- sh4rks 1y ago
  Can you share some tips? Right now I spend 20 minutes vibe coding 3000 lines of code and then 3 hours reviewing every single line.
  - journal 1y ago
    depends on what you're trying to make. i suggest trying to vibe code a tool like i have called llm.exe which takes contents of predefined md file and sends it for response which is added to the end of the file. then incrementally add new flags to the tool to have more features and use other models, anything from generating audio using audio models to archiving and image input. Then try to create something in framework you are not familiar with and come up with your own methods allowing you to go much further than one shot. i tried to vibe code winapi and it's hard, but i think doable even for large scoped projects, the problem is context hoisting and you need to keep track of a spec. try to think what is the minimum text you need to describe what you are doing. ask models to generate one file or method at a time. i don't use fancy ide.
  - collingreen 1y ago
    That's still a great trade in time if you end up keeping most of those 3000 lines.
motbus3 1y ago
> Somehow, I need to keep the tech coasting in its last days while migrating all the data that I can. I mean. What they are going to do if your time expires? Give you a bad evaluation because they didn't plan the change correctly? But something tells me your company might be in a much worse situation than you might know. They might just doing cost cuts everywhere to stay afloat. Or maybe they are just greedy too...
kittikitti 1y ago
A particularly insightful nugget in this article was your definition of vibe-coding from an experienced insider: "Ignoring the code entirely and only prompting". I've struggled with the definitions and wondered where the line is drawn. In private, I'm more strict with how I define vibe coding: "Prompting for information about code". However, it's strict so that I don't become dependent on AI while we're still discovering the harms. It's unfortunate that head count is considered a cost to some. I always found that the people in an organization should be considered as important as profit. Where increasing headcount is as positive an indicator as increasing profits. I'm not sure how our economy came to this point, perhaps it's a symptom of our short-term financial planning.
- GeneralMayhem 1y ago
  "Ignoring the code entirely and only prompting" is the only definition of vibe-coding I'm aware of. It's from a Karpathy tweet (https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383 https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383): > There's a new kind of coding I call "vibe coding", where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists... I "Accept All" always, I don't read the diffs anymore. When I get error messages I just copy paste them in with no comment, usually that fixes it. The code grows beyond my usual comprehension. It specifically doesn't mean "using an LLM as a code assistant". It definitely doesn't mean asking the LLM questions about code which you'll then use to write your own code. Those are LLM-assisted activities, and it's totally fine if you're using the LLM that way. But it's not what the term "vibe coding" means. "Vibe coding" is giving up on any pretense that you're in control, and letting the LLM take the wheel. It's fun for getting quick projects done, but it's also now becoming a distressingly common practice for people who literally do not know how to program in order to get a "product" to market.
- fatihpense 1y ago
  I agree that the vibe-coding definition is helpful. Ideally, headcount can be seen this way: our company is giving many people the chance to do honest work and live dignified, meaningful lives. I think that should be a company's main social responsibility not superficial marketable stuff.
showcaseearth 1y ago
The vibe coded aspect of this article seems quite irrelevant to me. If I read this correctly, an exec team (or just CEO?) got sold a terrible piece of software without proper vetting. Very bad software has existed for a long time, and this is an age-old story. Vibe-coded garbage perhaps has increased the volume of terrible stuff to wade through, but is secondary to a familiar story of dumb leaders making dumb decisions.
- klabb3 1y ago
  > The vibe coded aspect of this article seems quite irrelevant to me. IMO not really, because of your own point: > Vibe-coded garbage perhaps has increased the volume of terrible stuff to wade through This is not a hypothetical, nor an incremental difference. People are drowning in garbage, and if they don’t use garbage generation themselves, they get pushed out because they have to review a ton of garbage and they have to bump their stats (CLOC, PRs etc). > but is secondary to a familiar story of dumb leaders making dumb decisions. Well, sure. Both can be true. The social lessons will take a long time. MBA style leadership doctrines typically last for a decade or more, until overwhelming anecdotal evidence pushes them into the next hype. In the meantime, we’re definitely in for a ride.
  - godelski 1y ago
    > This is not a hypothetical, nor an incremental difference. People are drowning in garbage, and if they don’t use garbage generation themselves, they get pushed out I think of special notice is that even Apple and Disney are doing this. Two companies who have traditionally been far more cautious and extremely protective of their image. When entities like these are caving, I think it's safe to say we're well into Bizaro land. Disney is the best example here. Iger recently suggested Disney+ users could make short form personalized content using Disney characters. This is very surprising to hear from a company who is extremely protective of those characters and the image of those characters. We do not yet have control over these image and video generation such that we can absolutely prevent certain classes of generation from happening. If they go through with it I'll give it a week (a month tops) before someone is able to generate porn with it. But hey, maybe the hit in stock will not be greater than the rise from the hype. But maybe that's part of the problem. Though they also don't appear to be getting any of that hype money either...
br0gi3 1y ago
Most obnoxious link I've ever clicked on from HN.
awesome_dude 1y ago
Fast, Cheap, Good Unvetted imported code = the first two, and only the first two.
fatihpense 1y ago
I like the post first explains just what happened in enough detail, then comes with conclusions. It is more helpful to me as a data point. As the style, images seem weird at first, but they help conveying emotions, point of view. Somehow, they also help with attention for me. As another commenter said, it seems that guardrails will be important. I believe, 'software is managing complexity' at the end of the day. The complexity and decision-among-options will continue to exist. They need to live and taken care of somewhere.
civilian 1y ago
This article makes sense when you figure out that the author's assumption is that vibe-coded == bad. It sounds like this startup headed for closure anyway, with it's failing revenue, "At the same time, the current revenue projection calls for the end of the business within a few more months." So, the vibe-coded app is a hail mary by the CEO / investors? If you're already just a few months from closing shop, maybe switching to a vibe-coded up saves you a ton of engineering headcount and gives you a chance? Changes the math on how you price the product? Maybe slugs were meant for better things than engineering
thisisit 1y ago
This is so difficult to read that I was tempted to just throw it into a chat model and let it summarize from me. Still tried to make sense between all those furry images. Now from what I understand the company rode the pandemic wave and over hired and over spent. Their VC funded competitors out market and out sold them. The plan was to exit gracefully once a certain number was hit and return money to investors. But then investors decided to bet on a SaaS. As revenue went down and teams were cut down. With no revenue to support the engineering team. Investors/leadership are now taking a bet on the vibe coded SaaS. Rest of the post is lamentation about this badly written SaaS and its vibe coded nature. There seem to be no formal contract with this SaaS but people are already being laid off and the non-American app developers seem unaware of local laws etc etc. As much I feel for the writer I don't think the title is apt. It isn't as much as Vibe coding which killed the team, as it was bad financial decisions. Surely this vibe coded app hastened the demise and much could be said about the terrible decision to go with a vibe coded app.
charcircuit 1y ago
>we'd be immediately in violation of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), CAN-SPAM Act, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). >How could a platform be that bad? People care about technology solving their problems, not that it is 100% legal.
jaredcwhite 1y ago
I'm flummoxed by the comments here, and why is this flagged? The article couldn't be clearer: Startup had a product. Revenue was going down, headcount was already brought to a bare minimum. Startup started to prepare to exit and return remaining funds to investors. Game over. Instead, investors talked startup leadership into firing nearly everyone still around working on the product and pivot to using a vibe-coded SaaS for the basis of its product. All signs point to this being a poor-quality, faulty, quite possibly illegal product as a result, but do leadership & investors care? Seems not. OP is going to aid in the migration (my question: WTF?) and then leave. My commentary: our industry is so fscked, and a hearty two-finger salute to every software engineer who told me in 2023 that AI wasn't going to replace humans, the humans who use AI are going to replace humans. Lol, lol, and again I say, lol.
delichon 1y ago
It sounds like the owners desperately leapt on a cheap SaaS as a life boat while the ship sunk, and the writer is blaming the life boat.
kebokyo 1y ago
I subscribe to a Telegram channel that posts the most recent posts on HN that meet a certain minimum karma threshold. Because it's a public channel, anyone can add emoji-based "reactions" to posts and have those reactions displayed for everyone else viewing to the channel. The reactions as of 2025-26-25T21:51:30Z are as follows: kiss 10; crying face 2; moai statue 2; trophy 1 The only things I can think of as to why so many people are reacting with a kiss emoji are a. people think the distorted "new girl" is hot, or b. people think the author's fursona is hot I'm personally rooting for the latter, but I'm biased (see website for proof)
some_furry 1y ago
So your employer was on the road to bankruptcy and they decided to replace the tech stack with AI as a hail mary? Did I understand that right? Talk about an unenviable situation.
phyzome 1y ago
Vibe-management and vibe-coding. What a pairing.

90 points by speckx 1y ago

ramesh31 1y ago

[flagged]

venturecruelty 1y ago
Who forced you to read this personal blog post on someone's personal blog? I'm just imagining you sitting there and seething over someone's personal choices that don't affect you. You can close the tab and move on, it's fine. Anyway, on-topic stuff so I don't get shitbanned: I feel bad for the author. Unfortunately, this will all get worse before it gets better (and I'm not so sure it'll get better).
- stuffn 1y ago
  > Click interesting title related to <profession> > Get flashbanged by furry imagery It's a fetish. The topic is ostensibly professional. You must be deliberately ignoring the obvious to not see why OP said what they said. Not only is putting your fetish everywhere seen as unprofessional, furry cartoons are a neck breaking contrast to the potential seriousness of the topic.
- stanleykm 1y ago
  There aren’t any content warnings for links on HN. So it’s not like the user is making a conscious choice to go to a furry personal blog.
  - krapp 1y ago
    There is nothing in the linked article that would require a content warning. No sexually explicit or even implicit content whatsoever.
    - alephnerd 1y ago
      Furry content is often deemed NSFW, and it can get annoying for it to be constantly flashed in your face. Nothing wrong with it, but giving some sort of content warning isn't the worst thing in the world. Personally, it does get annoying sometimes when two completely unrelated topics are fused into one - personally I'd find this kind of content equally as annoying as that cringe Gen X "Semiconductors with Brittany Spears" shtick, but to each their own. There is nothing wrong with content flags or warnings, especially for stuff with a sensual or potentially sexual connotation.
      - krapp 1y ago
        There is nothing in the linked article that is unsafe for work, nor does anything in the linked article have a sexual connotation. No one owes you a content warning that "this site contains cartoons and that might annoy you."
        alephnerd 1y ago
        > No one owes you a content warning In most cases, people do owe content warnings for content that is potentially sexual in nature.
        JoshTriplett 1y ago
        The article contains zero content that necessitates such a warning. Your belief that it is "sexual in nature" is a misinterpretation or incorrect assumption.
        kelseyfrog 1y ago
        I don't find anthropomorphized animals to be sexual in nature. I find it a bit strange that it's assumed most people complaining about the blog or suggesting content warnings, on the contrary, do.
        bugbuddy 1y ago
paulhebert 1y ago
Did it really bother you? They had some goofy illustrations in the blog post. So what? I thought it was kind of fun
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- slooonz 1y ago
  It was goofy and fun-looking when the first blog did it. Now that everyone and its dog does those "goofy" illustrations, I find them insufferable.
  - krapp 1y ago
    I haven't seen "everyone and its dog" doing anything of this sort - the vast majority of blogs nowadays seem to be indistinguishable from one another, just bland and barely styled text. I am enjoying how bothered people are by it, though.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
fungus02 1y ago
[dead]
kelseyfrog 1y ago
Likewise. Your take is so bad I have to assume you have a public humiliation fetish. Please keep it off HN. Thanks.
miningape 1y ago
Gotta love how none of the replies to your comment deny that it's a fetish
- MuteXR 1y ago
  Why respond to an obviously dumb argument?
bitwize 1y ago
[flagged]
- sph 1y ago
  I fondly remember when your presence online was a nickname on IRC and no one cared nor wanted to know about your identity, least of all your sexual preferences. Show your code, who cares if you’re a dog at the keyboard. Nowadays it’s the opposite. “Hello, I am X, my gender is Y, I am sexually attracted to Z, here is the list of my disorders off the DSM-5. Oh, my political affiliation is W, if you’re on the opposite side kindly sod off.” Who gives a damn. The hacker ethos is truly dead and buried.
tracker1 1y ago
I'm not sure what kink you are referring to.. the use of a mascot character isn't a kink that I am aware of. Oh, no... not Frosted flakes... that kinky tiger is scary.
- miningape 1y ago
  > Oh, no... not Frosted flakes... that kinky tiger is scary. Oh my sweet summer child You really don't want to know what they did to our boy Tony
  - tracker1 1y ago
    Probably not.. I actively avoid commercials. From pihole and browser plugins to the high seas or paid service levels. But at a conceptual level, I still didn't have a problem with mascots
    - miningape 1y ago
      You're misunderstanding - the issue isn't with mascots. The issue is with the furry community who take their fetishes way too far. For example the Tony the Tiger accounts had to be shut down after facing years-long constant sexual harassment from furries.
- ErroneousBosh 1y ago
  > the use of a mascot character isn't a kink that I am aware of. Ceren era of the FreeBSD mascot? Not going to link to it, because while it was all in good fun back then, it's not the sort of thing people do now. Edit: Also before anyone gets sniffy about it, Ceren is actually fucking God-tier technically, and a great person.
jamesbelchamber 1y ago
I don't think using an LLM counts as a kink but I'm prepared to be persuaded
inetknght 1y ago
I personally (not professionally) also find the images distracting. But they're not offensive or derogatory. Would you rather have images of cities, people smiling, and maybe a car or two? Or maybe you want a picture of a green forest or whatever? Those are the same pictures in many businesses' posts but they're also just as irrelevant and therefore just as unprofessional. The contrast is that the business should be professional while this blog post is a personal site. God forbid someone add their own flair to their own personal opinions. Thankfully God doesn't exist, so it's not forbidden. You're just being rude. It is a personal blog post. It's just an opinion, man. The topic could be professional, but it isn't. That doesn't make the topic any less interesting.
mulquin 1y ago
They do it intentionally to annoy you in particular.
- rsync 1y ago
  This is true: when I load the page I just get stock photos of business meetings and cubicle …
asdfman123 1y ago
Are you saying they're a "fursona non grata"?
some_furry 1y ago
You cannot look at Cendyne's blog, nor mine, and have any understanding of what either of our kinks even are. It's not a topic we really write about. And, no, furry isn't a kink. (Yes, I know literally anything CAN be a kink to some people, but there's a difference between "hypothetical individuals" and general truths that apply broadly to a group of people.) Further reading for the peanut gallery: https://soatok.blog/2021/04/02/the-furry-sexuality-blog-post/ https://soatok.blog/2021/04/02/the-furry-sexuality-blog-post...

triword 1y ago

Somehow I feel like this article was very unclear? The way it's written, the way it tells its story, I'm really not sure what happened. I wish there was just a link to the saas in question. Like maybe it's that I just woke up, but all I really got out of this was that a vibe-coded app resulted in a company being downsized. But that's in the title. Any specifics beyond that? I really couldn't say despite having read the whole article.

redrove 1y ago
Yes I agree. There’s no context to anything and the furry images sure aren’t helping.
- pclmulqdq 1y ago
  I bet the vibecoded SaaS didn't have furry-related professionalism issues and was actually a lot easier to sell.
  - MuteXR 1y ago
    What does this even mean?
    - tayiorrobinson 1y ago
      not sure, but i'm getting the sense that they're annoyed that someone is expressing themself on their own personal blog and not being Professional enough
- p0w3n3d 1y ago
  Probably too scared to share the SaaS. Or maybe it's something big?
- kcplate 1y ago
  Images, color palette, the whole nine yards distracted me enough that I couldn’t get past the fold.
- 1y ago

andrewstuart 1y ago

Clearly not AI written because I didn’t get the point or the SAAS in question.

phyzome 1y ago
The author very clearly says that they're not naming the application in question.

jamesbelchamber 1y ago

Al definitely made this easier but I've been on this particular merry-go-round a few times and I suspect failing to properly evaluate a product that seems too good to be true is actually a tale as old as time. (Still sucks though, sorry and good luck)

awesome_dude 1y ago
I'm old enough to remember all the horror stories like this when people were outsourcing.

fudged71 1y ago

Client CEO was one-shot by a vibecoded startup. Basically the YCombinator dream scenario (for the startup not you). A lot of lessons from this for incumbents. Disrupt yourself before it happens to you.

lawlessone 1y ago
i might start a vibe cooking restaurant, disrupt the marketplace, those incumbents are wasting money by cooking their chicken. If someone get's sick and sues i'll remind of the ELA, Eater License Agreement. No employees, everyone there will be their own business and pay me for the privilege to work.
- pixl97 1y ago
  Until software actually has quality regulations expect more insecure crap to be shoveled out
  - lawlessone 1y ago
    we've forgotten the lessons of Therac-25
- fy20 1y ago
  > pay me for the privilege to work This is basically how services like Uber Eats work in my country. The basics of it are foreign students want to earn extra income by working a few hours per week. This is allowed on a student visa, but it's limited hours, so real businesses like restaurants or bars don't usually want to hire students. First of all you need a means of transport. There are small companies that will rent to you - on a weekly basis - an electric bike or a 20 year old Toyota Prius that is barely legal to drive (we have strict technical inspections here, so it's not that bad). They handle all the maintenance and insurance, you just pay your money and get a vehicle. Next up you probably can't use your drivers license from home here to drive, as once you have a residence visa you need a local license. Many people just risk it, but if you want to do it legally you need to have a minimum number of lessons with an instructor and then pass the test. The test is only in the local language, so if you don't speak it (zero chance as a student that's been here 3 months), you need to hire a translator to accompany you on your test. They may or may not help to ensure your answers are correct. (You can only exchange a driver's license from other EU countries) Finally you need a worker account on the delivery service, and the bag. You can register as self employed, file all the documents, go through the training course. That will take time, plus I think they are not always looking for new people due to high demand from workers. So you can skip all that and just rent an account from someone else, and hope they pay you at the end of the day. So there is an entire industry dedicated to helping people earn a side income. I'm surprised the delivery services themselves don't start getting involved in this as it is a lot of money they are leaving on the table - although most of it has a questionable legal status.

vintagedave 1y ago

So the team has been fired before a contract has been signed? The list of issues seem a minefield, including for the poor peon who found them. People who find issues can be at risk in the wrong companies. And I have no idea what legal obligations they may have.

jamesbelchamber 1y ago
Seeing the list, I thought they might at least have some reporting responsibilities. Alas, I am also not in the US.

meindnoch 1y ago

What is this slug (or whatever is it) cartoon all over the place in this article?

bitwize 1y ago
It's the author's fursona.
- meindnoch 1y ago
  Yikes.
  - lawlessone 1y ago
    i'll take it over the people with cartoon girls of dubious age.
    - sph 1y ago
      it's the same demographic.
      - lawlessone 1y ago
        Theres some overlap but i've found the furries tend to lean to the left more. The guys with the cartoon girls often goes to the right.
        sph 1y ago
        You’re looking at the wrong axis. It’s got nothing to do with politics.

_pdp_ 1y ago

The vast majority of vibe-coded apps are subpar because they're not built by experienced developers who understand proper software engineering practices. However... while I risk sounding like the discussions in r/vibecoding, I am convinced that it is absolutely possible to create high-quality, entirely machine-generated applications. And yes it bothers me as well because I am also invested my craft. What I found is that the key isn't in how you prompt the LLMs but in the comprehensive tooling and guardrails you build around the development process. This includes custom ESLint rules, specific type constraints, custom MCPs, and even tailored VSCode plugins. It works. Not fully autonomously, but effectively enough that you often only need to perform a final review before deployment. I have no doubt in my mind that the majority of software will be written by machines but only after the right guardrails are set in place - not just better models, magic prompts and fingers crossed.

sh4rks 1y ago
Can you share some tips? Right now I spend 20 minutes vibe coding 3000 lines of code and then 3 hours reviewing every single line.
- journal 1y ago
  depends on what you're trying to make. i suggest trying to vibe code a tool like i have called llm.exe which takes contents of predefined md file and sends it for response which is added to the end of the file. then incrementally add new flags to the tool to have more features and use other models, anything from generating audio using audio models to archiving and image input. Then try to create something in framework you are not familiar with and come up with your own methods allowing you to go much further than one shot. i tried to vibe code winapi and it's hard, but i think doable even for large scoped projects, the problem is context hoisting and you need to keep track of a spec. try to think what is the minimum text you need to describe what you are doing. ask models to generate one file or method at a time. i don't use fancy ide.
- collingreen 1y ago
  That's still a great trade in time if you end up keeping most of those 3000 lines.

motbus3 1y ago

> Somehow, I need to keep the tech coasting in its last days while migrating all the data that I can. I mean. What they are going to do if your time expires? Give you a bad evaluation because they didn't plan the change correctly? But something tells me your company might be in a much worse situation than you might know. They might just doing cost cuts everywhere to stay afloat. Or maybe they are just greedy too...

kittikitti 1y ago

A particularly insightful nugget in this article was your definition of vibe-coding from an experienced insider: "Ignoring the code entirely and only prompting". I've struggled with the definitions and wondered where the line is drawn. In private, I'm more strict with how I define vibe coding: "Prompting for information about code". However, it's strict so that I don't become dependent on AI while we're still discovering the harms. It's unfortunate that head count is considered a cost to some. I always found that the people in an organization should be considered as important as profit. Where increasing headcount is as positive an indicator as increasing profits. I'm not sure how our economy came to this point, perhaps it's a symptom of our short-term financial planning.

GeneralMayhem 1y ago
"Ignoring the code entirely and only prompting" is the only definition of vibe-coding I'm aware of. It's from a Karpathy tweet (https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383 https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383): > There's a new kind of coding I call "vibe coding", where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists... I "Accept All" always, I don't read the diffs anymore. When I get error messages I just copy paste them in with no comment, usually that fixes it. The code grows beyond my usual comprehension. It specifically doesn't mean "using an LLM as a code assistant". It definitely doesn't mean asking the LLM questions about code which you'll then use to write your own code. Those are LLM-assisted activities, and it's totally fine if you're using the LLM that way. But it's not what the term "vibe coding" means. "Vibe coding" is giving up on any pretense that you're in control, and letting the LLM take the wheel. It's fun for getting quick projects done, but it's also now becoming a distressingly common practice for people who literally do not know how to program in order to get a "product" to market.
fatihpense 1y ago
I agree that the vibe-coding definition is helpful. Ideally, headcount can be seen this way: our company is giving many people the chance to do honest work and live dignified, meaningful lives. I think that should be a company's main social responsibility not superficial marketable stuff.

showcaseearth 1y ago

The vibe coded aspect of this article seems quite irrelevant to me. If I read this correctly, an exec team (or just CEO?) got sold a terrible piece of software without proper vetting. Very bad software has existed for a long time, and this is an age-old story. Vibe-coded garbage perhaps has increased the volume of terrible stuff to wade through, but is secondary to a familiar story of dumb leaders making dumb decisions.

klabb3 1y ago
> The vibe coded aspect of this article seems quite irrelevant to me. IMO not really, because of your own point: > Vibe-coded garbage perhaps has increased the volume of terrible stuff to wade through This is not a hypothetical, nor an incremental difference. People are drowning in garbage, and if they don’t use garbage generation themselves, they get pushed out because they have to review a ton of garbage and they have to bump their stats (CLOC, PRs etc). > but is secondary to a familiar story of dumb leaders making dumb decisions. Well, sure. Both can be true. The social lessons will take a long time. MBA style leadership doctrines typically last for a decade or more, until overwhelming anecdotal evidence pushes them into the next hype. In the meantime, we’re definitely in for a ride.
- godelski 1y ago
  > This is not a hypothetical, nor an incremental difference. People are drowning in garbage, and if they don’t use garbage generation themselves, they get pushed out I think of special notice is that even Apple and Disney are doing this. Two companies who have traditionally been far more cautious and extremely protective of their image. When entities like these are caving, I think it's safe to say we're well into Bizaro land. Disney is the best example here. Iger recently suggested Disney+ users could make short form personalized content using Disney characters. This is very surprising to hear from a company who is extremely protective of those characters and the image of those characters. We do not yet have control over these image and video generation such that we can absolutely prevent certain classes of generation from happening. If they go through with it I'll give it a week (a month tops) before someone is able to generate porn with it. But hey, maybe the hit in stock will not be greater than the rise from the hype. But maybe that's part of the problem. Though they also don't appear to be getting any of that hype money either...

br0gi3 1y ago

Most obnoxious link I've ever clicked on from HN.

awesome_dude 1y ago

Fast, Cheap, Good Unvetted imported code = the first two, and only the first two.

fatihpense 1y ago

I like the post first explains just what happened in enough detail, then comes with conclusions. It is more helpful to me as a data point. As the style, images seem weird at first, but they help conveying emotions, point of view. Somehow, they also help with attention for me. As another commenter said, it seems that guardrails will be important. I believe, 'software is managing complexity' at the end of the day. The complexity and decision-among-options will continue to exist. They need to live and taken care of somewhere.

civilian 1y ago

This article makes sense when you figure out that the author's assumption is that vibe-coded == bad. It sounds like this startup headed for closure anyway, with it's failing revenue, "At the same time, the current revenue projection calls for the end of the business within a few more months." So, the vibe-coded app is a hail mary by the CEO / investors? If you're already just a few months from closing shop, maybe switching to a vibe-coded up saves you a ton of engineering headcount and gives you a chance? Changes the math on how you price the product? Maybe slugs were meant for better things than engineering

thisisit 1y ago

This is so difficult to read that I was tempted to just throw it into a chat model and let it summarize from me. Still tried to make sense between all those furry images. Now from what I understand the company rode the pandemic wave and over hired and over spent. Their VC funded competitors out market and out sold them. The plan was to exit gracefully once a certain number was hit and return money to investors. But then investors decided to bet on a SaaS. As revenue went down and teams were cut down. With no revenue to support the engineering team. Investors/leadership are now taking a bet on the vibe coded SaaS. Rest of the post is lamentation about this badly written SaaS and its vibe coded nature. There seem to be no formal contract with this SaaS but people are already being laid off and the non-American app developers seem unaware of local laws etc etc. As much I feel for the writer I don't think the title is apt. It isn't as much as Vibe coding which killed the team, as it was bad financial decisions. Surely this vibe coded app hastened the demise and much could be said about the terrible decision to go with a vibe coded app.

charcircuit 1y ago

>we'd be immediately in violation of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), CAN-SPAM Act, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). >How could a platform be that bad? People care about technology solving their problems, not that it is 100% legal.

jaredcwhite 1y ago

I'm flummoxed by the comments here, and why is this flagged? The article couldn't be clearer: Startup had a product. Revenue was going down, headcount was already brought to a bare minimum. Startup started to prepare to exit and return remaining funds to investors. Game over. Instead, investors talked startup leadership into firing nearly everyone still around working on the product and pivot to using a vibe-coded SaaS for the basis of its product. All signs point to this being a poor-quality, faulty, quite possibly illegal product as a result, but do leadership & investors care? Seems not. OP is going to aid in the migration (my question: WTF?) and then leave. My commentary: our industry is so fscked, and a hearty two-finger salute to every software engineer who told me in 2023 that AI wasn't going to replace humans, the humans who use AI are going to replace humans. Lol, lol, and again I say, lol.

delichon 1y ago

It sounds like the owners desperately leapt on a cheap SaaS as a life boat while the ship sunk, and the writer is blaming the life boat.

kebokyo 1y ago

I subscribe to a Telegram channel that posts the most recent posts on HN that meet a certain minimum karma threshold. Because it's a public channel, anyone can add emoji-based "reactions" to posts and have those reactions displayed for everyone else viewing to the channel. The reactions as of 2025-26-25T21:51:30Z are as follows: kiss 10; crying face 2; moai statue 2; trophy 1 The only things I can think of as to why so many people are reacting with a kiss emoji are a. people think the distorted "new girl" is hot, or b. people think the author's fursona is hot I'm personally rooting for the latter, but I'm biased (see website for proof)

some_furry 1y ago

So your employer was on the road to bankruptcy and they decided to replace the tech stack with AI as a hail mary? Did I understand that right? Talk about an unenviable situation.

phyzome 1y ago

Vibe-management and vibe-coding. What a pairing.