The Vibe Coding Cliff
If you build software without writing code, what happens after the prototype?
New tools are enabling more people than ever to build software.
AI tools like Cursor, Lovable, Bolt, v0, Replit have unlocked software development for everyone. Coffee shop owners, tradies, parents on the couch can take a problem they understand better than anyone else and start building a solution.
What the tools won't tell you is when your product is ready for real customers, real scale, and real security pressure. I'm researching how founders build products, where AI-built products hold up, where they run into trouble, and what founders who get past the cliff are doing differently.
Generative AI tools are great at getting you quickly to a working prototype. But a working demo hides questions of scale, security, and architecture. These problems tend to land months later, all at once. While this is the norm, there's a meaningful number of startups built with AI that avoid the cliff. I'm interested in what these founders are doing differently.
A side project, run in my spare time.
I'm a software engineer. For the last 14 years my job has been taking software from "it works" to "it works reliably, securely, and at scale". This has often been in places where getting it wrong has real consequences, like banks and government.
If you're a founder who's built with AI tools, your experience is what I'm after, whether you sailed through with no problems or hit road blocks along the way.
David Craig
Principal Engineer, BNZ · Wellington
- 14+ years across financial services and government
- Web applications, platform stability, security & cloud architecture
To be clear: This is a personal project run in my own time. It's not affiliated with or endorsed by my employer.
Two ways to help shape the findings.
Fill out the survey
Ten quick questions about how you built, what's held up, and what hasn't. Open to any NZ founder who's used AI tools to build software.
Start the survey →Have a proper chat
If you've been through it, I'd love to hear the full story. Relaxed, off-the-record by default chat, nothing gets published without your permission.
Connect on LinkedIn →Everyone who takes part gets the findings before they're published anywhere else.
Complete the survey and you're in the draw for a $100 Prezzy card.
Sit down for an interview and I'll spend half an hour on your technical situation — no strings.