Solo Builders vs. Scale and Imitation

In this special milestone episode, Simon Maple and Guy Podjarny celebrate 1 million views by looking back at the chaos of 2025 and forecasting the high-stakes reality of 2026.

On the docket:
• Why appearing on this show has become a leading indicator for getting acquired or raising billions (and whether Simon should start charging a 2% carry).
• The end of prompt engineering and the rise of context as the ultimate competitive advantage.
• Our boldest 2026 predictions, including open models taking enterprise share and AI coding going truly multiplayer.

Whether you're building a solo unicorn or leading an enterprise team, this is your roadmap for staying ahead of the 2026 AI curve.

Check out the discussed EPs:
Olivier Pomel: https://youtu.be/-5N53Xq5DX4?si=f8hFrjtO4eZQ4sYJ
Macey Baker: https://youtu.be/ENL9WJ93fVU?si=ffDkY4OYxVxKlCOc
Maksim Shaposhnikov: https://youtu.be/BQbuAykmleQ?si=u_dDLkNKNgCq10ax
Yaniv Aknin: https://youtu.be/WjMy0JFTQZ0?si=yoFbEvoWhsIicetw
Merrill Lutsky: https://youtu.be/kH_Z_k6hIwg?si=-4R1Yv45pRO2LcKq
Samuel Messing (Slack): https://youtu.be/jCVvVVXcxbQ?si=o004uK9g6xIKxiMp
Maor Shlomo (Base44): https://youtu.be/TKrXyZr6UgM?si=c-WXIzqDHbl9bW4d
Quinn Slack (Sourcegraph): https://youtu.be/ZTLSMN8eISs?si=1WtChQh6UTvoFcbJ
Mati Staniszewski: https://youtu.be/ImknDhWdDkQ?si=3C-3vWpvou-0pAuU
Victor Riparbelli: https://youtu.be/5OS3pZ3yXrg?si=AB8v10U80zyUpv3p

Resources:
Cursor acquiring Graphite: https://graphite.com/blog/graphite-joins-cursor
Wix acquiring Base44: https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/18/6-month-old-solo-owned-vibe-coder-base44-sells-to-wix-for-80m-cash/
Amp: https://ampcode.com/free
Kilo Code: https://kilo.ai/
Groq: https://groq.com/newsroom/groq-and-nvidia-enter-non-exclusive-inference-technology-licensing-agreement-to-accelerate-ai-inference-at-global-scale

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Ask us questions: podcast@tessl.io