Building a startup with AI taught me that faster execution doesn't always mean faster progress
I've used ChatGPT and other AI tools while building my startup, and they've made it possible to take on work that would normally require a much larger team. Research, technical problem-solving, planning, and exploring new ideas can happen much faster. But one thing I've learned is that completing more work doesn't necessarily mean the business is moving forward at the same speed. You can build faster, solve technical problems faster, and make improvements faster, while the harder questions about customers, adoption, and business growth still take time to answer. It's changed how I think about productivity as a founder. I'm learning to distinguish between how much work gets completed and whether that work is actually moving the business forward.
For founders building with AI, what's one lesson you've learned about the difference between moving faster and making real business progress?
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Same lesson here. With Claude Code I built an Apple Watch app for my song app, 23 Siri and Shortcuts actions, a home screen widget and lyric videos, a lot of surface for one person. The Watch app has still only run on simulators, because I do not own a watch. Meanwhile the question that matters most, who actually pays, was answered by a handful of people coming through ads, at the speed real people move: every one of the first four payers was 35 or older and came for an occasion. No amount of building speed changes how fast that kind of answer arrives. Building is now the cheap part; learning from real people is still the slow one.