What does it really look like to commit to vibe coding for a full year — as a non-developer founder who's spent most of his career on growth?

In this episode, I walk you through my first 365 days of building real software with AI: the decision, the frustration, the turning points, the tools, the communities, and the systems that finally made it feel sustainable.

This isn't a "watch me build" tutorial.

It's the story behind the craft — and the lessons that can save you months if you're starting now.

If you're a founder, operator, or senior professional who wants to ship real products without waiting for a CTO or agency, stop getting stuck in tool chaos and false starts, and build with evidence instead of hype — this episode is for you.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Story time: 365 days of vibe coding

00:42 Day zero + the decision to build

02:20 The dependency problem (why I had to learn this)

03:31 The challenge + first momentum

07:43 Q1: frustration → learning the fundamentals

11:06 My favorite learning resources (YouTube channels)

14:42 Tooling choices: V0 → Cursor (and why)

16:59 First product + first paying customers ("The Captain")

18:08 Q2: community + rebuilding Pirate Skills (Next.js)

22:15 MCP servers + the stack that changed everything

26:16 Q3: turning chaos into systems (Builder Codex)

29:16 Next projects + Forge origins (Signal Log)

31:25 Q4: growth again + codifying the system (Growth Codex)

32:41 The cost curve + how to think about AI spend

39:02 Switching to Claude Code (current experiment)

40:20 What I'd do differently + your next steps

LINKS:

📖 Read the full article: https://pirateskills.com/insights/365-days-vibe-coding

🎬 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg73bjjKo5w

🧪 Join a free Growth or Builder Lab: https://pirateskills.com/events

💬 Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/bensufiani

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Build. Grow. Repeat. is the Pirate Skills podcast for founders, operators, and senior professionals learning to build and grow real products with AI.

New episodes weekly.