AI makes building software cheap, so customer trust now decides startup winners

Vibe coding collapses build times, and founders who skip hard customer questions fall hardest, veteran builder tells Sydney audience

By LineZotpaper

Published23 October 2026

Read Time2 min

Virginia Murdoch, who co-founded ebook startup Booki.sh before AI coding tools existed, told founders at Google Ascend in Sydney last week that the AI era has made building software almost free and that customer trust, not technical speed, now decides which startups win.

Murdoch, who co-founded Booki.sh in 2011 and had the company acquired by OverDrive after about three months and roughly 150 users, described "vibe coding" as feeling like a genius: describe what you want, the code flows, and within days you have something that works. Then a customer says, "I don't exactly know what you're doing here."

Writing in Startup Daily, Giant Leap managing partner Will Richardson said a decade ago the founder who could build the best thing fastest usually had the edge. Now anyone can assemble a product over a weekend, so that advantage is mostly gone. What has not got easier is finding out whether anyone wants it, and AI may have made that harder: the product arrives so quickly and seems to do so much that founders fall for it before anyone else has seen it.

"Talk to your customers" is the most repeated advice in startups, but the obvious question, "what do you want?", is close to useless, Richardson wrote. He offered three questions founders avoid: what customers do today instead of using the product; what they would give up or change to switch; and what the riskiest assumption is and the cheapest way to test it.

Murdoch's larger point, he wrote, is that the question used to be who could build fastest. Now it is whether you are the person customers trust. There is so much noise, and so many people chasing the same credit card, that a good product is not enough to cut through. Canva had room to grow when the default was Adobe; today people often think first of the person they already trust on a topic. Trust comes from showing up and being useful long before you ask for anything, Richardson wrote.

Analysis

Why This Matters

AI has cut the cost of building software to near zero, so speed of execution is no longer a defensible edge for startups.
Founders who skip structured customer discovery risk investing weeks in polished products nobody actually needs.
The hardest part of starting a company, finding out whether anyone wants the product, has not changed and is now the critical skill.

Background

For years, "talk to your customers" has been the most repeated piece of startup advice, yet founders rarely get told what to ask. Before AI, months-long build cycles forced founders to live with doubt before launch. Vibe coding, in which founders describe a product in natural language and tools generate much of the code, has compressed that cycle to days, so a founder can become attached to an idea before any customer has seen it. Murdoch's own path, building an ebook platform a decade before these tools, illustrates how much the build process has changed while the customer problem has stayed the same.

Key Perspectives

Founders: The main risk is falling in love with their own product; the three questions from the session offer a cheap way to test demand before spending real money. Customers: Customers often cannot design products, know only what annoys them, and will not switch without a clear reason because time, attention and effort are scarce. Skeptics: Some might argue trust and customer discovery were always the deciding factors, and that AI mainly changes speed, not the fundamentals of startup success. Others may worry that vibe-coded products are easy to build but hard to defend once competitors copy the same weekend project.

What to Watch

Whether founders adopt these three questions as a standard part of pre-build validation rather than after shipping.
Whether the next generation of AI tools makes building even easier, increasing the premium on trust and distribution.
Whether investor conversations shift from product speed to evidence of customer demand and trust.

Sources

In the AI era, the crucial questions all founders dread are more important than ever · Startup Daily

Checked

12 claims in this story checked against 1 source: 7 supported.

Show each claim

SupportedAI makes building software cheap, so customer trust decides startup winners.Startup Daily: “AI made building cheap; trust and brutal customer questions now decide winners.”
Not in the sourcesFounders who skip hard customer questions fall hardest.
Partly supportedMurdoch told founders that building software had become almost free.Startup Daily: “The cost of building software has dropped to almost nothing.”
SupportedMurdoch spoke to founders at Google Ascend in Sydney last week.Startup Daily: “So when she told a room of founders at Google Ascend in Sydney last week what it’s like to build with AI now, people listened.”
SupportedThe customer said, “I don't exactly know what you're doing here.”Startup Daily: “Then you put it in front of a customer and they say, “I don’t exactly know what you’re doing here.””
Partly supported“Talk to your customers” is the most repeated advice in startups.Startup Daily: ““Talk to your customers” might be the most repeated advice in startups.”
SupportedThe question “what do you want?” is close to useless.Startup Daily: “The obvious question, “what do you want?”, is close to useless.”
Partly supportedMurdoch co-founded Booki.sh in 2011, before AI coding tools existed.Startup Daily: “In 2011 she co-founded Booki.sh, a web-native ebook reader”
SupportedOverDrive acquired Booki.sh after about three months in the market, when it had about 150 users.Startup Daily: “It was acquired by OverDrive, then the leading global distributor of ebooks and audiobooks, after about three months in the market and with about 150 users.”
SupportedA decade ago, the founder who could build the best product fastest usually had the edge.Startup Daily: “Ten years ago, the founder who could build the best thing fastest usually had the edge.”
SupportedAI may have made customer discovery harder because products arrive quickly and founders fall for them before anyone else has seen them.Startup Daily: “If anything, AI has made it harder. When a build took months, there was time for doubt to creep in. Now the product shows up so fast, and seems to do so much, that you fall for it before anyone else has seen it.”
Partly supportedToday, people often think first of someone they already trust on a topic.Startup Daily: “Today, when someone has a problem, they often think first of the person they already trust on that topic, sometimes before any product exists.”