TL;DR
“Take my money!” or one more redesign? It all comes down to what happens after launch.
Someone cloned Photoshop and 6 more Adobe apps with AI, then gave them away free.
Get users without a pitch.
Replit makes OpenAI its default brain.
Google Play now hosts private vibe-coded apps, no developer account needed.
Webflow is going to build your ads as well as your landing page.
F5Bot emails you when someone needs your product!
A tale of two makers
2 makers vibe code and ship their project the same weekend, using the same tools.
6 weeks later, one of them gets an email from an office manager at a dental clinic in Ohio.
Her whole team has been using the app for 2 weeks, and she wants to know if there’s a plan for 6 people. Preferably by Friday.
It’s the 3rd “take my money!” email this month.
The other one is still looking at the 11 signups he got on launch day.
The app works fine. He’s redesigned the homepage twice since then.
The new button is a lovely shade of blue.
What each of them did after launch weekend is where their stories split.
We want MakerThrive to help more makers become the “take my money!” one.
Over the next few weeks, we’re zooming in on exactly that part: the stretch after launch.
Before we do, we’d love to know what’s holding things up for you. Tap the answer below that sounds most like you 👇
What's holding up your project right now?
If “someone could just copy it” hit close to home, Adobe has a sad story for you...
SOMEONE CLONED PHOTOSHOP IN A WEEK. THEN GAVE IT AWAY.
Photoshop took Adobe 30+ years to build. This month, one developer rebuilt it with Claude in about a week.
Then he did the same to Premiere, Illustrator, Lightroom and 3 more, and gave all 7 away for free.
They’re early versions, and only a couple work well so far. Nobody cared.
All 7 apps got 40,000+ stars on GitHub (basically likes for code) in their first week.
Why the stampede? The developer, Brandon Thomas, said Adobe’s cancellation fees were a big reason. For years, leaving Adobe has meant a fee waiting at the door, like a hotel minibar charge for checking out.
Turns out making it hard to leave doesn’t make people want to stay.
And it’s not just Adobe. Gamers used the same kind of AI to drop the skateboarding game Skate 3 into Call of Duty. Picture someone kickflipping through a war zone.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Soldier.
If it’s made of code, it can be copied now. So is there any point making software at all? (Spoiler: yes.)
OUR TAKE
Your code can be copied in a weekend. How people feel about you can’t.
Adobe made people angry, so when a free copy showed up, they didn’t just switch. They threw a party.
It works the other way too. Reply to every email and fix the bug a user mentioned in passing, and your users aren’t going anywhere.
Adobe, if you’re reading this, you’re welcome : )
THE FOUNDER STEP
Solve the problem, and the app sells itself.
Picture 2 posts in the same subreddit.
The first says “I built an invoicing tool, check it out!” It gets 2 upvotes before a moderator quietly removes it.
The second is a reply to someone who just lost another Sunday to their invoice spreadsheet:
“That used to drive me nuts too. Want to tell me what’s going wrong? Happy to help.”
Ten minutes later, there’s a DM.
With AI, there are more apps than ever. Nobody wants to sort through 40 invoicing tools. They want the headache gone.
The maker who shows up to fix the problem, not pitch the product, gets the yes.
This week’s step: find one place where people with the problem your app solves hang out, like a subreddit, Facebook group or Discord.
Look for someone describing that problem, and offer to help.
Talk to them about their problem. Not your solution.
The fastest way to get users is to show up where they are and be helpful.
Want to see real examples of this? Hit reply and we’ll put some together.
QUICK HITS
Replit had a brain transplant: The patient is doing fine, and most users won’t notice. OpenAI is now the default model behind its AI agent, though Claude is still there if you pick it.
Your app, your Play Store: Google Play now has room for an audience of 1: you. Since Oct 13, US builders can vibe code an Android app in Google AI Studio and run it privately through Google Play, no developer account needed.
Webflow wants your ad budget too: Webflow used to stop at the landing page. Its new Campaigns tool is going to turn a short description of what you’re selling into a landing page, a few variants and matching ads, then push them to Google Ads.
TOOL OF THE DAY
Find people who need your product, right when they’re asking for help.
F5Bot emails you whenever someone on Reddit or Hacker News uses the words you choose. If your app fixes invoicing headaches, you might pick “invoice spreadsheet.” Every time someone posts about it, you’ll know, and you can jump in to help.
The trick is to track the problem, not your app’s name. Nobody’s searching for your app yet. Plenty of people are complaining about the problem.
A lot of makers have built something, but nobody’s using it yet. That’s the problem MakerThrive is here to help with.
So we set F5Bot to watch Reddit for “first 100 users,” a phrase makers use when they’re trying to get their first users.
In 1 week, it found 89 different conversations. In 28 of them, a maker was asking for help, like “Built my SaaS, got 0 customers in 30 days.”
That’s 28 people with the exact problem we help with, found in a week, for free.
Now try it with the problem your app solves.
Bonus: you see the exact words people use to describe their problem, which is gold for your landing page.
It’s free, and their guide to finding customers on Reddit is worth 5 minutes if you want new users without pitching anyone.
Hit reply anytime. We read every one.
Keep on Founding!
The MakerThrive team
