$4M ARR on simplicity, AI that pays for itself, and voice coding magic 🪄
Three launches worth your attention + the advice I'd give any new founder starting today
Hey friends,
Figured I’ll share these three things worth your time this week:
1. Just hunted AI Mode by Dappier on Product Hunt (Currently on the front page!)
What’s the background? The pattern is everywhere: Reddit, Amazon, YouTube, WaPo, Home Depot — conversational AI is taking over search.
But here’s the catch most companies hit: building it yourself is expensive, slow, and requires a full dev team. Even worse? You’re bleeding inference costs with no way to make money back.
Dan Goikhman and the Dappier team built something different.
AI Mode gives you AI search that actually pays for itself. Launch it on your site in minutes (zero code), it trains on your content automatically, and embeds contextual ads right in the responses. The ad revenue covers your costs and generates profit.
You’re not choosing between “launch AI” or “stay profitable” anymore. You get both.
No dev team needed. No analysis paralysis. Just give users the AI experience they expect and earn while doing it. Check it out on Product Hunt — would love your thoughts.
2. How Tally Hit $4M ARR with Simplicity as Their Moat
Marie (CEO) from Tally Forms shared their bootstrapped playbook:
“We hit $4 million ARR with a tiny team. Here’s how:
Pick a crowded, boring industry with low NPS
Target a specific audience (ignore the rest)
Talk to users constantly
Build one thing extremely well
Keep. Things. Simple.”
That last line hits hard. In a world obsessed with feature bloat, Tally won by doing less, better. Sometimes the moat isn’t technology — it’s discipline.
3. Two Quick Hits:
Vibe Letter is live — I recently launched the world’s shortest newsletter about the vibe coding space. Latest launches, trends, news, and emerging startups. All signal, zero fluff. Subscribe if you’re curious where this space is headed.
Google AI Studio’s voice-to-vibe feature — Have you played with it yet? Talk to your computer, watch it code. It’s ridiculously cool and honestly feels like we’re living in the future.
Advice I’d Give to a New Founder:
Someone recently asked me this and I thought I’ll share here too. “Being a founder is not about luck. Yes, luck plays a small role, but you can’t spend energy thinking about it.
Focus on 3 things:
Stay in the game (don’t quit)
Learn fearlessly like a kid (daily + weekly)
Apply and iterate based on customer feedback
Do this for 2-3 years? You’ll be unstoppable.”
Until next time,
KP