The Importance of Product Management in AI Tool Development

Anton Osika is the co-founder and CEO of Lovable, which is building what they call “the last piece of software”—an AI-powered tool that turns descriptions into working products without requiring any coding knowledge. Since launching three months ago, Lovable hit $4 million ARR in the first four weeks and $10 million ARR in two months with a team of just 15 people, making it Europe’s fastest-growing startup ever.

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What you’ll learn:

1. Why you need to be in the top 1% of AI tool users

2. Watch Lovable build a functional Airbnb clone in 30 seconds—complete with working features and modern design

3. The unconventional hiring approach that helped build a 15-person team capable of extraordinary execution

4. How traditional product development will look with AI

5. What skills will matter most to product teams going forward

6. How Anton’s team discovered a breakthrough in AI “unsticking itself”

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Brought to you by:

• Sinch—Build messaging, email, and calling into your product

• Persona—A global leader in digital identity verification

• Fundrise Flagship Fund—Invest in $1.1 billion of real estate

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika

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Where to find Anton Osika:

• X: https://x.com/antonosika

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonosika/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Anton and Lovable

(05:12) Lovable’s rapid growth

(09:39) Live demo: Building an Airbnb clone

(18:34) Tips for mastering Lovable

(21:42) The origin story

(26:50) Scaling laws and getting AI unstuck

(33:20) Reliability and unique features

(36:25) The vision and future of Lovable

(38:14) Skills and job market evolution in the age of AI

(40:30) Hiring philosophy and team dynamics

(46:21) Building in Europe

(48:02) Prioritization and product roadmap

(51:38) Tools and work environment

(53:17) Tactics for moving fast

(54:37) Advice for building product teams

(57:11) Empowering non-technical founders

(58:31) Future developments and user support

(01:01:23) Failure corner

(01:05:20) Final thoughts and advice

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Referenced:

• Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

• Lovable Launched: https://launched.lovable.app/

• Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/

• Supabase: https://supabase.com/

• GPT engineer: https://github.com/gpt-engineer-org/gptengineer.app

• Microsoft Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com/chats/cmFw8dTsGU8D6b9siqQ6U

• Fabian Hedin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabian-hedin-2377b0144/

• Behind the product: Replit | Amjad Masad (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-product-replit-amjad-masad

• Replit: https://replit.com/

• Cursor: https://www.cursor.com

• Bolt: https://bolt.new/

• GitHub: https://github.com/

• Lane Shackleton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laneshackleton/

• FigJam: https://www.figma.com/figjam/

• Linear: https://linear.app/

• Sana Labs: https://sanalabs.com/

• Duolingo: https://www.duolingo.com/

• Claude: https://claude.ai/

• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/

• Lovable on X: https://x.com/Lovable_dev

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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