Founders complain that developers overpromise, miss deadlines, and disappear.Developers complain that founders are unclear, unrealistic, and chaotic.So who’s actually right?In this episode of The Founder’s Gambit, I sit down with Ilija Vuk, one of the most reliable senior developers I’ve ever worked with. He’s helped rescue broken MVPs, push back on bad product decisions, and turn half-baked ideas into real, scalable software.We flip the script and talk openly about what’s really going wrong between founders and developers and how to fix it.

In this episode, we get into:- Why founders keep getting burned by developers (and how to vet properly)- The biggest red flags developers look for in founders and projects- What actually makes someone a “senior” developer today- Why overpromising destroys trust on both sides- How AI is changing development and where it helps vs hurts- Why juniors struggle with AI and how seniors use it differently- How developers should communicate mistakes when things break- Why good code and “working code” are not the same thing- Burnout, imposter syndrome, and how developers really deal with it- What founders can do to get better results from their dev teams- How to build products with developers who think, not just executeIf you’re a founder who’s been burned by developers, or a developer tired of chaos, unclear specs, and unrealistic expectations, this conversation will help you out.