10 brutal lessons from 6 months of vibe coding and launching AI Startups

I’ve spent the last 6 months building and shipping multiple products using Cursor + and other tools. One is a productivity-focused voice controlled web app, another’s a mobile iOS tool — all vibe-coded, all solo.

Here’s what I wish someone told me before I melted through a dozen repos and rage-uninstalled Cursor three times. No hype. Just what works.

I’m not selling a prompt pack. I’m not flexing a launch. I just want to save you from wasting hundreds of hours like I did.

p.s.
Playbook 001 is live — turned this chaos into a clean doc with 20+ hard-earned lessons.

It’s free here → vibecodelab.co

I might turn this into something more — we’ll see. Espresso is doing its job.

⸻

1. Start like a Project Manager, not a Prompt Monkey

Before you do anything, write a real PRD.

• Describe what you’re building, why, and with what tools (Supabase, Vercel, GitHub, etc.)
• Keep it in your root as product.md or instructions.md. Reference it constantly.
• AI loses context fast — this is your compass.

2. Add a deployment manual. Yesterday.

Document exactly how to ship your project. Which branch, which env vars, which server, where the bodies are buried.

You will forget. Cursor will forget. This file saves you at 2am.

3. Git or die trying.

Cursor will break something critical.

• Use version control.
• Use local changelogs per folder (frontend/backend).
• Saves tokens and gives your AI breadcrumbs to follow.

4. Short chats > Smart chats

Don’t hoard one 400-message Cursor chat. Start new ones per issue.

• Keep context small, scoped, and aggressive.
• Always say: “Fix X only. Don’t change anything else.”
• AI is smart, but it’s also a toddler with scissors.

5. Don’t touch anything until you’ve scoped the feature

Your AI works better when you plan.

• Write out the full feature flow in GPT/Cursor first.
• Get suggestions.
• Choose one approach.
• Then go to Cursor. You’re not brainstorming in Cursor. You’re executing.

6. Clean your house weekly

Run a weekly codebase cleanup.

• Delete temp files.
• Reorganize folder structure.
• AI thrives in clean environments. So do you.

7. Don’t ask Cursor to build the whole thing

It’s not your intern. It’s a tool. Use it for:
• UI stubs
• Small logic blocks
• Controlled refactors

Asking for an entire app in one go is like asking a blender to cook your dinner.

8. Ask before you fix

When debugging:
• Ask the model to investigate first.
• Then have it suggest multiple solutions.
• Then pick one.

Only then ask it to implement. This sequence saves you hours of recursive hell.

9. Tech debt builds at AI speed

You’ll MVP fast, but the mess scales faster than you.

• Keep architecture clean.
• Pause every few sprints to refactor.
• You can vibe-code fast, but you can’t scale spaghetti.

10. Your job is to lead the machine

Cursor isn’t “coding for you.” It’s co-piloting. You’re still the captain.

• Use .cursorrules to define project rules.
• Use git checkpoints.
• Use your brain for system thinking and product intuition.

p.s.
I’m putting together 20+ more hard-earned insights in a doc — including specific prompts, scoped examples, debug flows, and mini PRD templates.

If that sounds valuable, let me know and I’ll drop it.

Stay caffeinated. Lead the machines.