A Google AI engineer built a fully functional Slack clone in 14 days using Claude Code — without manually writing or editing a single line of code. In this episode, Nathan shares the full story.

Nathan is an AI Engineer at Google who works with the company's largest enterprise customers to build generative AI solutions. He issued himself a public challenge: clone Slack in two weeks using only vibe coding and AI agents. He did it. The project — called Slawk — is open source, already has 250 GitHub stars, and has sparked a wide debate about the future of software engineering.

In this conversation with GTM Hackers host Charles Brun, Nathan and Charles break down exactly how it was built, what went wrong, what surprised him, and what it all means for founders and GTM leaders thinking about AI-powered product development.

What we cover in this episode:

1. Why Nathan decided to clone Slack as his side project challenge

2. The tech stack he chose and how he planned the architecture with Claude

3. How he used a browser-connected MCP agent to visually compare and clone Slack's UI

4. The 3-agent system he built: QA agent, Dev agent, and CTO orchestrator

5. How the QA agent filed GitHub issues with GIF screenshots — automatically — while Nathan slept

6. Test-driven development in a vibe coding workflow

7. The real cost of the project (under $200 total)

8. Why cloud infrastructure solves most scalability concerns critics raised

9. Why MCP servers make traditional app integrations obsolete

10. Nathan's vision for an AI-native Slack and why incumbents can't build it

11. The identity crisis behind anti-AI pushback in the software engineering community

12. Nathan's next project: QA as a Service

Nathan's key argument: only 1% of people can currently build software because they need to know how to code. Vibe coding is about to change that ratio dramatically. And the companies that figure this out first will have a significant competitive advantage.

If you are a founder, a GTM leader, or a builder exploring AI tools, this episode is one of the most practical and honest accounts of what vibe coding can actually do in 2025.

Find Nathan on LinkedIn — he replies to everyone in DMs. The Loc GitHub repository is linked in the show notes.

GTM Hackers is hosted by Charles Brun, a B2B SaaS go-to-market advisor and founder with 15 years of experience scaling revenue with AI. Follow GTM Hackers on Spotify to get notified of new episodes every week.

Related topics: Claude Code, vibe coding, agentic AI, multi-agent workflows, AI software engineering, Slack alternatives, open source tools, SaaS cost reduction, AI for startups, go-to-market AI strategy, MCP server, model context protocol, AI QA testing, building in public, AI product development.