Hey friends,

There's such a big difference between standing on the sidelines and playing on the field.

Stuff I've been dreaming about for years I can prototype in an afternoon in Claude Design and have Fable build an initial version in less than an hour.

I talked about this on The Panel podcast yesterday:

​

Some of you will remember that back in 2018 I had this idea for Spots.fm:

Spots is a way to sponsor independent creators on their YouTube channels, newsletters, podcasts, etc.

Jon Buda (my Transistor co-founder) and I were thinking about building it, but we had to shelve it because we were still trying to get Transistor to profitability.

(The idea goes back even further: in 2012, I built a self-serve form for the Product People podcast that allowed people to book and pay for ads on my site).

So three days ago, I decided to start building it.

I've had the vision, shape, and functionality for Spots in my head for years. I started by creating some rough wireframes myself, uploading those to Claude Design, and having it build interactive mockups.

Then, I went to Claude Code (I've been using Aaron Francis' Soloterm.com as my "meta-harness"). I created a Product Requirements Document using Brian Casel's plugin, gave Fable that PRD + the design from Claude Design... and it went to work.

I recorded this demo 3 days ago, shortly after finishing the first build of the Ruby on Rails app:

​

It's incredibly exciting to see something you've thought about for years come to life before your eyes.

I want to see how far I can take this idea. So I wrote down my goals for the project:

My goals for the Spot.fm project.

• Build a web app I can use myself. How does it feel to be the customer? What's it like to try to get sponsors this way?
• Use it in public: show it off, demo it, make videos about it
• Send organic demand to a waiting list. When people are interested, funnel them to the spots.fm email list.
• Get a few initial users: Gradually invite folks I trust to try it themselves.

Over time, I want to see:

1. ​Is there enough customer demand for this? How many people are already searching for this? How easy is it to get folks to sign up?
2. ​Is there a business model that makes sense? If the pricing model and volume can't produce enough revenue
3. ​Is this an industry/category I want to be in? Is there founder/market fit?

I don't want to get ahead of myself. 99% of the time, even good ideas can't work for a variety of reasons (lack of founder/market fit, unable to get distribution etc).

If the answers are positive, I think Jon and I will talk about building a production-ready application.

But until then, we're in a whole new era of building products. The dynamics have changed.

---------------

When more people are building software, what's the value of software?

In economics, when you increase the supply of something, its market value goes down (and so does the price).

Up until now, software was valuable because it was hard to make. You needed a team of engineers, money, and time.

I remember in the early days of the iOS App Store, you could sell a fart app and make a lot of money. But once everyone was making fart apps, nobody could make money on them. When fart apps were no longer scarce, their value to the market dropped.

Generally, the economy rewards difficulty and rarity. If something is hard to do or make, you get to charge more.

If AI reduces the time it takes to build software, what happens to the value of software?

Looking at different Slacks I'm in, so many people I know are building new apps. With this much software flooding the market, do any of us have a chance anymore? (I mean, it was hard to build a profitable software company before AI; now it feels even harder!)

My guess is that customers will still want to buy certain types of software/tools "off-the-shelf."

The software products that succeed will need to have:

• Distribution. Can you actually get people to find the thing?
• Taste. Do you know what to build, and what to leave out?
• Trust. Why should people trust you and your brand?
• Founder/market fit. Do you have passion/advantages in this market?

Indie entrepreneurs need to stack every advantage they have, and increasingly "hand coding" won't be the advantage it once was.

Do you have any thoughts about all of this? Reply and let me know.

Cheers,
Justin Jackson

PS: Want to make it easy for businesses to buy ads on your podcast, YouTube channel, newsletter, or blog? Sign up for the Spots waiting list.

Are you a business that wants to buy ads on podcasts, YouTube, et? Sign up for the Spots waiting list!