There's a lot of talk in VC about vibe coding killing software as a business and I don't believe it. Here's why: do you change your car's oil yourself?
Every investor has a go-to story about building a really cool piece of software in a weekend (or an hour). I recently did this with a Denver concert tool. It is, 100%, a transformative experience.
It certainly feels like the death of software as a viable business.
But this worldview assumes that we have endless resources to build and, crucially, maintain software.
I built my concert tool because I was already spending four or five hours a month -- in the long-term, spending 40 hours building it was a time savings for me.
If someone had offered what I needed for $10/mo, I would have paid in a second, because I don't have time to build a piece of software to fix every inefficiency in my life.
As software involves more people (serving 50 people instead of one), the complexity expands. AI can take care of the backend complexity, but who is taking care of the front-end UI and UE complexity? Who is creating a really great user experience?
The prevailing forward-looking belief is the death of the interface.
But remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. And a standardized interface is the foundation of efficiency when doing repetitive tasks. Which we still do every day.
The greatest software in any market is made by companies obsessed with a problem, companies who spend years building better and better solutions while talking to hundreds and thousands of customers. It's not built by Bob in IT, who threw together an MVP over the weekend.
AI is 100% a transformative technology. I urge every founder to get their hands very dirty with Lovable and Replit and Claude Code and make it a foundational piece of their business strategy. And think about how many pieces of software you pay for in building your MVP.
With my concert app, I'm paying for Lovable, ChatGPT, Appify, GitHub, access to Apple's Music API, a host of Google tools and a domain through Squarespace.
Maybe the problem is less about the death of software and more that it's no longer a great investment option for VCs?
It kinda reminds me of investors shitting on "lifestyle" businesses.
Don't get fooled.