There was a post on Reddit the other day about some kid (relatively speaking) who vibe coded a vibe coding app and sold it after only four months for something silly like $80 million. Conventional MBA wisdom tells us that we should deep-dive in a market we have at least a decade experience in, do exhaustive market research, develop an ICP, interview potential customers, iterate, design, overthink…etc. We're told stories about guys like Phil Knight and the nearly two-decade struggle to turn Nike into the brand we all know today. What gives? Why do some struggle where others thrive?
Sarah and I have been chatting about best practices vs antipatterns quite a bit while we've been working on landing pages and positioning for our tattoo booking platform. The topic of mentioning competitors in our marketing material came up. We're taught to never mention competitors in your company's marketing or ads. You don't want to have your brand permanently associated with your competition. But then, why does almost every SaaS website have an "us-vs-them" section laying out the pros and cons of their features compared to their competitors'? This exercise has brought us to a few conclusions: blindly following dogma (the belief system, not the film) is a bad idea, best practices should be used as guides, breaking too many rules typically doesn't end very well, and you - the business owner - need to be the captain.
My career has given me the privilege of witnessing some pretty spectacular failures and successes. I know for myself, experience is the best teacher (we'll blame my ancestors and my upbringing for my stubbornness). Somehow, by some miracle, I've learned that there is value in studying others' paths. This is where the value of best practices comes in, not as rigid commandments carved in stone, but as a collection of hard-won wisdom that we can adapt to our own circumstances. They're like maps drawn by previous travelers - useful for general navigation, but not necessarily the only route to your destination.
This still feels uncomfortable. Why did this vibe coder kid win the game of capitalism? He was able to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He saw the cultural influence vibe coding had, the right network, the right tools, and hit at exactly the right moment. When you dig a little deeper you'll still find that he followed a lot of best practices, just for a very short amount of time.
This seems almost paradoxical, no? Ignore all the rules, but also follow all of them, be lucky, and have rich parents. Done! I think it's a better idea to focus on what we're trying to accomplish first. Having a clear goal makes it easier to know which advice you can follow and which you can ignore. And let's not try to lawyer our way out of this - my daughter is a professional: "I want to make a billion dollars in six months!" Cool goal, but not very practical.
Having a clear goal can help you contextualize your decisions. Best practices tell us to never mention our competitors in marketing materials, but your B2B SaaS clients need to know how you stack up against your competition. Do you have that feature they need and how is it different from the others'? The idea of having a clear goal is some of the most common advice you can get: a north star, a guiding light, an X that marks the spot.
Now that we have a goal to aim for we can strategically use best practices, or break from the norm to our benefit. Instead of religiously following each best practice ask yourself "why?" and more importantly "how does this get me closer to my goal?" Sometimes taking only the relevant parts of the guidance, or running a small test can help you cut through the noise. This is especially true in software where updating a page on your website, or adding a small update is more simple than doing a test run of thousands of real-world widgets.
So, if a clear goal is your north star, then think of best practices as your compass. A compass doesn't tell you about the terrain ahead - the unexpected swamps or the sudden mountains - but it keeps you pointed in the right direction. It's a tool, and its value is in the hands of the person using it. The vibe coder didn't throw out his compass; he just used it to navigate a very different, very fast-moving landscape than the one Phil Knight traversed. The goal isn't to memorize the map. It's to learn how to read the terrain, trust your compass, and have the knowledge to forge your own path when the old roads no longer lead to where you need to go.
With that, go and break a few rules, but not too many! And good luck out there.
-Sethers
