Vibe Coding Blew My Mind

A client’s SaaS dream stalled — then I vibe-coded it alive.

True Story: a client comes to me with a SaaS vision — complex, expansive, the kind of beast that’d chew up months and a fat budget. They’re pumped, I’m pumped, but their cash doesn’t match the scope. We brainstorm deal structures — revenue shares, phased payments, equity swaps — anything mutually beneficial to keep it rolling. I’m sketching timelines, they’re crunching numbers. Then life hits: priorities shift, resources get yanked, and the project’s shelved. Gut punch, but it happens. They’ve got to handle their fires; I get it.

The thing’s still nagging at me, though. This wasn’t some lightweight app — think multi-layered, database-heavy, API-driven, user dashboards galore. A proper SaaS beast. I’ve been messing with Replit for quick prototypes — mobile apps, web demos, that sort of thing — whipping up proofs-of-concept in hours. But this? This felt next-level, out of my league for a solo sprint. Then I thought: why not test the limits? Call it ‘vibe coding’ — half gut, half tech, see where it lands.

So I fire up ChatGPT, dump every requirement the client gave me: user auth, data flows, CRUD ops, API triggers, the works. I tell it, ‘Craft me a prompt for Replit’s Agent to build this thing, first iteration, no shortcuts.’ I’m expecting a decent starting point — maybe some boilerplate to tweak over days. I paste the prompt into Replit, hit run, and lean back. Minutes — literal minutes — later, I’m staring at a fully built app. I’m laughing in disbelief.

Every feature’s there, humming. User logins? Check. Database? Spun up, schema locked in. APIs? Configured, firing calls like clockworks — GETs, POSTs, all talking to the right endpoints. Frontend’s rough but functional — dashboards rendering real-time data. Backend’s handling logic like it’s been battle-tested. I’m clicking through, testing edge cases, waiting for it to crash. It doesn’t. My days — this wasn’t a demo, it was the damn thing.

I’ve been sleeping on these AI code generators. Hard. I thought they were toys — good for snippets, maybe a quick mockup if you squint. Nah, this flipped my whole game. Replit’s Agent didn’t just parrot code; it reasoned through the architecture, wired it up, and handed me a working SaaS in less time than it takes to brew coffee. I’m replaying it in my head: requirements in, product out, no human middleman. It’s witchcraft, but it’s real.

Now I’m rethinking everything — my workflow, my dev process, how I pitch projects. Years of grinding custom builds, late nights debugging, and here’s this tool spitting out what’d take weeks, maybe months, solo. Sure, it’s not polished — UI’s basic, edge cases need hardening — but it’s a foundation I’d charge five figures for, done in a blink. I’m not ditching my skills; I’m still the one steering the ship. But this? This is a turbo boost I didn’t see coming.

The kicker: that client convo’s back on. I’ve got a live product to show, not a slide deck or promises. They paused it for resource issues, but now I’m walking in with, ‘Hey, it’s built — let’s talk.’ They’ll need to shuffle funds again, figure out market fit, hosting, scaling — but the heavy lifting’s done. I’m not just a dev anymore; I’m a vibe-coding wizard with a SaaS in my pocket. How’s that shift the game for them? For me? Still wrapping my head around it.