How Building Startups Looks Like Today
The tools changed. The game changed. What it takes to build and ship has fundamentally shifted.
I've been in the startup scene for over a decade. The game has changed more in the last two years than in the previous ten combined.
What Changed
Solo founders can ship like small teams: AI tools collapsed the gap between idea and execution. What used to require a full team-frontend, backend, design, copy-can now be done by one person who knows how to orchestrate the right tools.
Speed is the default: MVPs don't take months anymore. They take days. Sometimes hours. The cost of validating an idea has dropped to near zero.
Distribution is still the bottleneck: Everyone can build now. But getting attention? That's still hard. The value shifted from coding ability to taste, speed, and knowing how to reach users.
The New Stack
I used to spend days setting up infrastructure. Now I reach for:
- →AI for scaffolding: Claude, Cursor, v0-for generating code, designs, copy
- →Vercel/Netlify: Deploy in seconds, scale automatically
- →Supabase/Firebase: Backend-as-a-service that just works
- →Stripe: Payments in minutes, not weeks
The stack isn't about showing off. It's about removing friction. The faster you can test ideas, the more shots you get on goal.
What Hasn't Changed
Despite the new tools, some truths remain:
Building is the easy part: Anyone can build a product now. The hard part is building something people actually want and will pay for.
Distribution matters more than ever: The internet is noisy. Standing out requires strategy, not just a good product.
Execution beats ideas: Ideas are abundant. Execution is rare. The ones who ship consistently, iterate fast, and talk to users are the ones who win.
Building LittleSpy
I'm currently building a competition monitoring tool. A few years ago, this would've taken a team and months of runway. Today, I'm doing it solo, moving fast, and shipping publicly.
The tools let me focus on what actually matters: solving a real problem, iterating based on feedback, and building in a way that's sustainable.
What This Means for You
If you're thinking about building something:
- →The barriers are lower than ever: You don't need funding. You don't need a co-founder. You need an idea and the will to ship.
- →Speed is your advantage: Large companies are slow. You can out-iterate them.
- →Learn to use AI: It's not optional anymore. It's infrastructure.
We're living through a rare moment where individual leverage is at an all-time high.
The question isn't whether you can build something. It's whether you will.