How to get unstuck when AI tools fail you (learned the hard way): 🧵

1/ Stop throwing more AI credits at the problem
- If 3 different AI tools can't solve it, it's not an AI-solvable problem
- You're just burning money at this point

Story time: How I spent £200 trying to fix a £20 problem 🧵

1/ Built 90% of my MVP with Lovable. Felt like a genius.

2/ Hit a deployment issue. "How hard can this be?"

3/ Spent £47 on additional Lovable credits trying different approaches

Interesting shift I'm seeing: More and more founders are building 80% of their apps with AI tools, then getting completely stuck.

They're not looking for full dev teams or 6-month projects.

They need someone to spend 2-3 hours fixing specific, well-defined problems.

The hardest part about getting stuck at 80% isn't the technical problem...

It's watching your momentum die.

You go from "I'm building something amazing!" to "Maybe I'm not cut out for this" in about 48 hours.

That psychological shift? That's the real cost of the last 20%.

Two weeks into our MVP. Here are some things we've done to improve in the last few days, thanks to the feedback of our users.

Problem: Too much friction to add a task

→ Solution: Moved “Add task” ahead of signup so users can create pre‑auth, then sign up to save.

Why do AI tools get you to 80% then leave you hanging? 🧵

1/ AI tools are trained on "happy path" scenarios - the common, straightforward implementations that work most of the time.

2/ Your specific use case probably has edge cases, integrations, or more complex requirements.

Here's what that "simple fix" actually costs you:

Time spent: 6+ hours (you should be talking to users)
AI credits: £50+
Stress level: Maximum
Momentum lost: Priceless

Meanwhile, a developer could fix it in a fraction of time.

The hardest part about getting stuck at 80% isn't the technical problem...

It's watching your momentum die.

You go from "I'm building something amazing!" to "Maybe I'm not cut out for this" in about 48 hours.

I just had a really interesting support call with a customer.

They have an interesting issue which we are seeing more and more of.

Tools like Lovable and Base44 and empowering non technical people to try and create massive internal projects for bricks and mortar businesses.

AI Credits vs Hiring a Developer: Break down the real costs 🧵

Scenario: Stuck on a deployment issue for 3 days

AI Credit Route:
- Lovable credits: £47
- Claude API calls: £23
- Cursor Pro: £20
- Time spent: 12+ hours
- Result: Still broken
- Total cost: £80 + your sanity

Unpopular opinion: "Just learn to code" is terrible advice for most founders.

Here's why:

1/ Your competitive advantage isn't coding - it's understanding your market, customers, and business model.

2/ The time you spend learning React could be spent talking to 50 customers.

The hardest part about getting stuck at 80% isn't the technical problem...

It's watching your momentum die.

You go from "I'm building something amazing!" to "Maybe I'm not cut out for this" in about 48 hours.

Wild observation: People are spending more on AI tool credits trying to fix ONE bug than I would've spent just hiring a developer to fix it properly.

Lovable credits: £47
Cursor Pro: £23
Claude API: £31
Stack Overflow Premium: £15

Total: £116 for something that's still broken.

Quick guide to working with founders who used AI tools:

✅ They understand their product vision clearly
✅ They can articulate what's broken
✅ They've usually tried multiple solutions
✅ They're motivated to get it working#AI
#Founders #ProductVision #Innovation #ProblemSolving

You know what we just realised about building with AI tools?

Everyone talks about how "easy" it is now... but honestly, getting to 80% feels like magic, then hitting that wall at 80% feels like punishment.

Have you spent 3 hours trying to fix a simple deployment issue?