🚀 Founders: The most asked question at Stanford alumni’s vibe coding event was whether early-stage startups should prioritize owning their code. The short answer? No.
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In the seed stage, your primary goal is proving traction, scalability, and market fit—not necessarily building out proprietary code from day one. Many founders successfully secure funding with tech stacks that prioritize speed and flexibility, such as:
✅ Vibe code a website for 100 sign-ups (Pineapple, Squarespace) ✅ Vibe code a clickable prototype for rapid iteration (Uizard, Galileo, V01, Bolt, Lovable) ✅ No-Code test data & working software for MVP validation, beta testing, and paying customers (Bubble, Supabase, Replit, Outsystems)—reducing infrastructure overhead ✅ Existing AI APIs, libraries & Open-Source Tools to accelerate development without reinventing the wheel
💡 Right now, it's easier to customize your AI for customers than to customize your entire codebase (which can come later). Early-stage investors care less about whether your tech is custom-built and more about whether it solves a real problem for real customers.
🎯 So, instead of obsessing over code ownership, focus on customers. Gather user feedback, iterate quickly, and build momentum with a killer AI or differentiated feature. "Traction", your ability to attract and retain customers will be the strongest proof of long-term viability. Far more than the lines of code sitting in your repo (outdated the moment it is written).
💰 And if customers pay you, you can bootstrap instead of fundraise. Because customers are much more loving! If you get acquired, it will be for your customers, or AI, not your entire codebase (rewritten every couple of years).
🌎 AI has made it harder to market to real human customers—and much easier to vibe code.
⚡ Founders, focus on what truly matters: customers.
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