Chaz Englander (founder of Fancy and ModelML) discusses the rapid operational scaling of his delivery startup Fancy prior to its acquisition by GoPuff.
Opinion
Englander: Vibe coding is now ready for production software development
“I mean, a year ago, vibe coding was great for prototyping. I mean, now I think it's, like, great for production. So, in terms of MVPs, like, the concept of saying I don't have technical resources to build an MVP is just, like, not true.”
Insight
Englander: B2B founders will fail unless they work from design partners' offices
“If you've got a design partner that you're speaking to once a week, you're almost certainly gonna fail, right? If you've got a design partner that you are working from their office, and ideally sat next to them, you're almost certainly going to succeed.”
Insight
Englander: Foundation models are not an existential risk to vertical AI startups
“Our risk is, as I mentioned just then, is like, we may not have product market fit tomorrow morning. And that's not based on, like, OpenAI or Anthropical. It's just based on the speed that Verticalize application is shipping great products. So really, our only…”
Insight
Englander: Founders must always frame funding rounds as nearly completed
“It sounds obvious, but, like, I would advise, like, not to do that ever, right? In other words, like, no matter what, if you are raising, the round's pretty much already done. That's the narrative.”
Insight
Englander: Founders should set round targets to first check plus 20%
“That's what people should do is whatever their first check is in the round. Just say your total round is that plus like 20%.”
Insight
Englander: Having zero competition usually means there is no customer demand
“If you have no competition, and you've like never had any competition, it's like you still have no competition. You probably don't have anything that people want.”