⬛️ stop building the wrong stuff

sam altman says we’ve entered a phase where “idea guys” are getting their comeback

more on that in a few lines.

but first! i need your help 😇

last week we released dontbuildthis.com so that ‘idea people’ don’t build the wrong stuff.

🎁 gift: all my subscribers will get free pro-tier accounts to dontbuildthis when these tiers are launched. this will include ideation + validation + builder + go-to-market solutions (and more tools/ventures coming as well + sharing learnings along the way).

we released dontbuildthis last week with 2 simple linkedin/x posts and it kind of blew up (20k+ ideas submitted and already 1k+ members in less than a week).

so roasty the fox decided to continue the fun by launching on producthunt tomorrow (friday 13th june 9am cest). if he doesn’t get upvotes he’ll lose his job.

if you have a producthunt account and would like to help pls accept this invite ❤️ https://calendar.app.google/a8DZSS8Revgpy27V6

now a bit more about what we’ve built and why.

i’ve written about it before, but few say it better and more concisely than sam altman in his freshly written post… we’ve entered the era of the “idea guy”

summary in my words: vibe-coding (and boilerplates) are making building easier than ever. ideas (and i'd argue distribution) will reign supreme.

yes, even in production and at scale.

you might be thinking what moats are left if everyone is building? i’ve talked about this as well in here.

but more importantly… i see so many people just building the wrong stuff…the same stuff.

so welcome to the builder era sure... but don’t build the wrong thing.

and that’s why we built dontbuildthis (how meta)

customer interviews don't work and are super slow, current synthetic data solutions tend to be too kind and not convincing enough and it seems that 99% of the build in public community is basically vibe coding the wrong stuff :D

so hundreds of thousands of hours and dollars will go into bulding prototypes that just don't get traction.

we also built this for ourselves. i run a venture studio (which i announced here last week) and us & our partners (we partner with family offices or holding companies) would come with ideas that clearly needed refinement.

so we scratched our own itch.

before launching ideas, now we pre-validate them intensely through this engine.

here’s a quick demo i made for the ph launch:

things it looks at (in a sort of random order):

→ desirability, viability, feasibility, founder-fit sure...but it dives deeper...
→ budget evidence: presence of real spend signals in market data
market size
→ urgency level: painkiller, vitamin, or optional nice-to-have
→ is your wedge sharp? wedge clarity: specific entry point vs broad feature
→ all vibes, no substance?
→ competitors, competitor density: count of direct tools and → funding raised
→ distribution path: existing audience or paid-only acquisition
→ gross margin outlook: costs (apis, infra) versus likely pricing
→ regulatory impact: compliance hurdles that add or reduce risk
→ churn risk: reasons similar products lose users, from review data
→ build-to-learn ratio: time to first meaningful test vs full build
→ data flywheel: whether usage generates proprietary data advantage
→ pricing power: ability to charge > $50 / month without long sales cycle
→ founder fit: documented expertise or network that shortens go-to-market
→ cac vs ltv: projected acquisition cost against customer lifetime value
network effects: presence or absence of multi-sided growth loops
→ is your idea solving budgeted pain or just chasing applause?
→ retention forecast based on benchmarks from similar tools
user switching cost needed to adopt the new solution
integration complexity with widely used platforms (e.g., salesforce, shopify)
→ typical sales-cycle length inferred from comparable products
required data-privacy or security certifications (e.g., hipaa, soc 2)
→ dependence on single or volatile third-party APIs
→ payback period on customer-acquisition spend (months to breakeven)
→ margin sensitivity to high-usage spikes or free-tier abuse
→ demand seasonality or cyclic patterns in the target industry
→ risk of incumbents bundling the same feature at no extra cost
→ availability and strength of potential distribution partners
→ clarity of expansion revenue or upsell ladder after initial sale
→ backend scalability limits versus projected peak loads
→ timeline and cost of regulatory approvals, if required

you get the gist!

how it works is super simple

paste idea → roasty the fox drags it through real data → you get a score + punchline verdict.

here’s an example of taking a bad idea and carving it into something ready to ship

here’s how it started

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🎉 let’s ship…

what changed along the way?

- ditched the “inspiration” fluff.
- chased invoices, not likes.
- niched down to a budgeted pain.

essentially got rid of confirmation bias and found a super verticalized niche to double-down on.

you also get a place to store your ideas:

and a public leaderboard (don’t worry ideas are private by default, but you can choose to share them)

so my tip to you…test your idea before the next sprint.

🌱 as mentioned above if you’re interested i'll add you to the "pro" tier that we're releasing soon (= more in depth reports, next steps on how to build, prototypes solutions guide and more...even some boilerplates) just full this 30sec form out:

want free ‘pro tier’ access when we launch? fill out your name and email here:

again...

welcome to the builder era... just don't build the wrong thing

⬛️