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Posted: Fri 14th Aug 2026
Last updated: Fri 14th Aug 2026
9 min read
Reviewed by Marc Gardner, senior content manager
There's no doubt that vibe coding has revolutionised the opportunities available to aspiring entrepreneurs.
My mind was blown when I first discovered tools like Lovable and Base44.
Suddenly, in a matter of hours, I could bring to life the dozens of ideas running around in my head, and the years of sketches sitting in the Notes app on my iPhone, using nothing more than well-crafted prompts.
But the truth is, I'm now 14 web apps in and not one of them is making meaningful money. They look good and I've genuinely enjoyed building them.
But right now, the only companies consistently making money from my entrepreneurial journey are Lovable, Base44, Supabase, Vercel, Anthropic and OpenAI. And that's the problem.
If you're new to the term, vibe coding is simply using AI coding tools to build software by describing what you want in plain English rather than writing every line of code yourself.
You explain the problem, the AI generates the code, and together you refine it through conversation.
For entrepreneurs without a technical background, it's transformational.
It means that in a matter of days or weeks, they can now explore an idea that might once have cost tens of thousands of pounds to prototype.
While vibe coding helps you build faster. It doesn't help you find customers faster. And, critically, building a prototype and building a business are two very different things.
It's become incredibly easy to bring half-baked ideas to life.
It's just as easy to skip the tried and tested steps that turn an interesting concept into a product that solves a real problem, one people are genuinely willing to pay for.
It's only going to get tougher, as more founders discover the excitement and – dare I say it – the fun of vibe coding.
That means more products, more competition and more people convinced their idea is unique.
Over the last two years, I've immersed myself in the start-up ecosystem across the UK and Ireland. And one thing has become obvious – the same ideas appear again and again.
That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Consumers like choice, businesses like choice. History tells us there's rarely only one winner. What worries me more is the narrative.
Every day, I'm served another story about a founder raising millions for a vibe-coded start-up before they've acquired a single paying customer.
Those stories make great headlines, but they aren't the reality for the vast majority of founders.
Most of us won't raise millions before we've proven anyone wants what we've built. We have to earn it.
I built the first version of my app, Callpanion, in just three weeks.
As someone who had never written software before, that felt incredible. It was genuinely one of those moments where you realise technology has fundamentally changed what's possible.
Then came the reality. I didn't spend the following nine months writing code. I was talking to potential customers, which meant:
testing messaging
running interviews
changing onboarding
tweaking pricing
learning what people actually valued
learning what they ignored
In other words, doing marketing.
Ironically, I've spent more than 30 years helping businesses launch products. Yet I still found myself getting caught up in the excitement of building because AI made it so easy.
It reminded me that understanding customers was the difficult part, not building.
This is the stage that most founders want to skip. Why? Because it's uncomfortable.
Asking strangers to critique something you've poured your heart into is difficult. Hearing someone say "I wouldn't pay for that" can feel deeply personal.
But I've learned people are incredibly kind. They'll tell you your idea is brilliant and that they'd use it. They'll tell you to keep them updated. What they won't necessarily do is take out their credit card.
There's a huge difference between someone liking your idea and someone being willing to pay for it. That distinction sits at the heart of product-market fit.
One mistake I see repeatedly is founders treating validation as a single milestone. It isn't.
There are four very different stages, which you should try not to confuse.
Idea validation asks whether you've identified a genuine problem.
Prototype validation proves you can build something that solves it.
Willingness to pay tells you whether the problem matters enough for someone to spend money.
Retention shows whether your product creates enough ongoing value that customers keep coming back.
Each stage answers a different question. Skipping one usually means paying for it later.
After dozens of customer interviews and more pivots than I'd like to admit, I've stopped looking for compliments and started looking for commitment.
The first signal is that people keep coming back without you chasing them.
The second signal is that they begin introducing other people to your product. Word of mouth is still one of the strongest indicators that you're solving a real problem.
The third signal – and the one that matters most – is when someone reaches for their wallet without you having to persuade them.
Revenue is feedback, everything else is opinion.
A trap I've fallen into more than once is adding another feature because it feels productive.
Founders often convince themselves they're improving the product when, in reality, they're avoiding the much harder work of speaking to customers.
No-code and AI coding tools make this temptation even greater because adding another feature can take hours instead of weeks.
The danger is that you spend months polishing functionality no-one actually asked for.
Every hour you spend building should be balanced with time spent listening. Watch what potential customers do, not just what they say.
Behaviour will always tell you more than a response on a survey.
No-one talks enough about founder burnout, but it's real! Building a start-up is emotionally exhausting, particularly if you're doing it alone.
There are days when you feel unstoppable and days when you question everything. Be kind to yourself – this is a marathon, not a sprint! You have time.
Validation rarely happens in a straight line. You'll change direction and you'll discover assumptions that were wrong.
You'll realise the customer you imagined isn't actually your customer. That's normal.
Don't measure progress solely by revenue. Measure it by what you've learned.
Every customer conversation makes your next decision better. Every piece of honest feedback saves you building something no-one wants.
Ironically, getting your first paying customers is only the beginning.
Now your focus shifts to delivering consistently, improving onboarding, retaining customers and understanding why people stay.
Your first customers are your greatest source of insight.
Listen to them. They can save you a lot of pain later.
Support them well. They're the first to believe in you and likely to be the most forgiving.
Build trust. Be honest with them, bring them on the journey and don't overpromise.
They're helping you shape the business your future customers will experience.
If I were starting again tomorrow, I'd:
spend less time building and more time talking
validate the problem before writing a single prompt
define my ideal customer more clearly
test pricing earlier
worry less about perfection and more about whether I was solving something people genuinely cared about
AI has democratised software development in a way I never thought I'd see. Today, almost anyone can build a product. That's remarkable.
But AI hasn't changed the fundamentals of business. Customers still buy solutions to problems, and both trust and marketing are still vital.
And there's still no shortcut to understanding the people you're trying to help.
But if you're willing to do that work – the conversations, the listening, the pivots – you're already ahead of 95% of vibe-coders out there.
Vibe coding has changed how we build businesses. It hasn't changed why customers buy. I don't think it ever will.
Gail Cook is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and founder of KailieTech Ltd.
