Vibe-coded projects break under real customers

The "vibe coding will kill SaaS" narrative is everywhere right now, and I think it's completely wrong. Yes, anyone can spin up a Lovable or Bolt.new project in an afternoon. But there's a fundamental confusion happening: people are mistaking software products for software businesses. SaaS was never really about the software — it was always about the service, the operations, the years of edge cases and integrations and customer conversations that make a product actually work.

In this episode, I break down why vibe-coded solutions fall apart the moment real customers show up, why "comprehension debt" is the hidden killer of AI-built projects, and how we might need to shift our messaging to make the invisible 20% of our work visible to buyers who now think they could build everything themselves.

This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com
You'll find the Black Friday Guide here: https://www.paddle.com/learn/grow-beyond-black-friday

The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/vibe-coding-wont-kill-saas/
The podcast episode: https://tbf.fm/episodes/427-vibe-coding-wont-kill-saas

Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm
Send me a voicemail on Podline: https://podline.fm/arvid

You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com

Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast

Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter

My book Zero to Sold: https://zerotosold.com/

My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/

My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com

Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you.
- Notion (which I use to organize, write, coordinate, and archive my podcast + newsletter): https://affiliate.notion.so/465mv1536drx
- Riverside.fm (that's what I recorded this episode with): https://riverside.fm/?via=arvid
- TweetHunter (for speedy scheduling and writing Tweets): http://tweethunter.io/?via=arvid
- HypeFury (for massive Twitter analytics and scheduling): https://hypefury.com/?via=arvid60
- AudioPen (for taking voice notes and getting amazing summaries): https://audiopen.ai/?aff=PXErZ
- Descript (for word-based video editing, subtitles, and clips): https://www.descript.com/?lmref=3cf39Q
- ConvertKit (for email lists, newsletters, even finding sponsors): https://convertkit.com?lmref=bN9CZw