A founder I worked with did everything right. Validated the idea, got early users, raised a pre-seed round, launched in under three months using AI coding tools. Then an investor asked one question on a board call: what happens when you hit 10,000 users at once? He didn't know. Neither did his developer. That's the gap nobody talks about enough. A working app and a production-ready app are not the same thing. One does what you demo. The other does what you demo under real conditions: concurrent users, bad inputs, third-party failures, actual pressure. AI coding tools have made building fast. They haven't made building ready. And the founders who skip that distinction usually find out the hard way, right when a customer hits an edge case or an investor asks the wrong right question. I wrote about the three failure modes I see most often, and the one check I recommend before any serious launch or raise. Full piece is up on Fast Company.
New from our CEO Daniel Haiem on Fast Company Executive Board. He breaks down why so many AI-built apps clear the demo bar but fail the production bar, and the three mistakes that turn a $30,000 MVP into a $200,000 rebuild: missing server-side authorization, untested load behavior, and configuration debt. His advice before any serious launch: have someone who didn't build the app try to break it. Full article linked below. https://lnkd.in/g-C-dhnG #AppMakersUSA #AppDevelopment #Startups #AI #FastCompanyExecutiveBoard Fast Company Executive Board
