Founder Mode.

Brian Chesky → Paul Graham. The founder skipping middle management and diving into every level. The business-side counterpart to vibe coding.

Founder marketing the product via personal X/LinkedIn. The 2025 indie standard.

Founder personally selling the first 50-100 customers. The founder feels the JTBD; sales is hired later.

A developer building internet products solo or with a tiny team, without VC. Dreaming of ramen profitability.

A one-person entrepreneur. With AI tooling, the "one-person unicorn" is now a realistic goal.

Growing a company without investment, on revenue/personal funds. The indie hacker default.

Minimum Viable Product. The smallest functional version that lets you learn. "Ugly but alive."

Product-Market Fit. The moment your product genuinely meets demand. "You'll feel it" — measurable as organic growth + low churn.

Sean Ellis's "How would you feel if you couldn't use this anymore?" 40%+ "very disappointed" = PMF signal.

The call to release something even if imperfect. Indie hacker mantra: if there's a user, there's a product.

Marc Lou's popular Next.js boilerplate. The "launch in a day" motto pairs symbiotically with vibe coding.

The day you officially open the product to the public. Product Hunt + X + HN + newsletter machinery fires.

A subscription product solving one niche problem, run by a tiny team or solo. Exploded in the AI era.

Collection of started-but-unfinished, deployed-but-unused projects. The indie dev's confession.