Last month, Tailwind CSS fired 75% of their engineering team.

Revenue dropped 80%. Doc traffic down 40%.

Meanwhile, Tailwind is more popular than ever.

Saw Aravind's post yesterday about Perplexity's new computer.

Got me thinking: we launched Happycapy - the 1st agent-native computer here on Feb 11 (beta was Jan 27). Grateful @rajiv_ayyangar and the PH community witnessed it from the start.

A few days ago, we discussed how difficult it was for me, for example, to create my first product.

In many cases, people struggle with money. But I believe that with the mass adoption of AI, many things can now be done at a relatively low cost.

I launched a small Apple productivity app as a $4.99 paid download.

For the first few weeks, it got zero downloads. I then made it free to download, and it reached more than 700 installs in three days.

That experience changed how I think about paid-upfront apps. I m now trying a 7-day free trial followed by a one-time $4.99 purchase instead of a subscription.

For makers building small paid apps: have you found a free trial more effective than paid upfront, especially without an existing audience?

When I started building, I had principles.

I was going to stay small. I was going to keep it simple. I was going to charge what it was worth and not chase growth. I was going to be different from all those "growth hacking" startups I hated.

Fast forward two years. I've added features I said I'd never add. I've done marketing I said I'd never do. I've charged less than I said I'd charge because I was scared. I've compromised on things I said I'd never compromise on.

Some of these changes were good. I was naive and the compromises were necessary. But some of them were just... me slowly becoming the thing I said I didn't want to be. Not because anyone forced me. Because it was easier.

Every side project I build hits the same wall. The code works, the idea is fine, and then the interface makes it look unfinished. No designer, no budget for one.

So I'm curious how other solo builders actually handle this:

• What's your design process when there's no designer? Component libraries, copying layouts you like, AI tools, something else?

• How do you find out the UX is bad in the first place? I can tell when something feels off, but I can't articulate why so I end up changing colors instead of fixing the real problem.

Curious what your setup looks like.

For every comment that I leave, I usually upvote about ten other items. Reviewing my own history, there was one thing that all my comments had in common: the creator had made a tough choice. Either they were worried about pricing or had dropped a feature.

A polished announcement gets an unobtrusive upvote. An honest doubt is responded to because it's the only way to do so.