Momentum is the oxygen of startups. Lose it, and you suffocate. Getting it back is harder than creating it in the first place.
Here’s the paradox founders hit early:
- Move too slowly searching for the “perfect” technical setup, and you’re dead before you start.
- Move too fast with vibe-coded foundations, and you’re dead later in a louder, more painful way.
Both paths kill. They just work on different timelines.
Death by Hesitation
Friendster is a perfect example of death by hesitation. They had the idea years before Facebook. They had users. They had momentum.
But their tech couldn’t scale, and instead of fixing it fast, they stalled. Users defected. Momentum bled out. By the time they moved, Facebook and MySpace had already eaten their lunch.
That’s hesitation tax: waiting, tinkering, second-guessing while the world moves on.
Death by Vibe Coding
On the flip side, you get the vibe-coded death spiral.
Take Theranos. It wasn’t just fraud, it was vibe coding at scale. Demos that weren’t real. A prototype paraded as a product. By the time the truth surfaced, they’d burned through billions and a decade of time.
Or look at Quibi. They raced to market with duct-taped assumptions the whole business was a vibe-coded bet that people wanted “TV, but shorter.” $1.75 billion later, they discovered the foundation was wrong.
That’s the danger of mistaking motion for progress.
The Right Way to Use Vibe Coding
Airbnb is the counterexample. Their first site was duct tape. Payments were hacked together. Listings were scraped. It was vibe code but they treated it as a proof of concept, not a finished product.
The moment they proved demand (“people really will rent air mattresses from strangers”), they rebuilt. They didn’t cling to the prototype. They moved fast, validated, then leveled up.
That’s the correct use: vibe code as validation, not as production.
The Hidden Tax
The vibe code tax is brutal because it’s invisible at first. It’s not just money.
- Lost time → The 6–12 months you’ll spend duct-taping something that later has to be rebuilt from scratch.
- Lost customers → Early adopters churn when they realize your product is held together with gum and string. Most won’t return.
- Lost momentum → Investors don’t like hearing “we’re rebuilding.” Momentum is a story you only get to tell once.
And you don’t get to dodge this tax. You either pay it early (by finding a technical co-founder or paying real engineers), or you pay it later (through rebuilds, lost customers, and wasted months).
How to Stay Alive
- Be honest. Call your vibe-coded MVP a prototype. Never pitch it as “production-ready.”
- Set a timer. Airbnb didn’t stay in duct tape land for years. They validated and moved on. You should too.
- Budget for the rebuild. If you don’t have a co-founder, assume you’ll need to pay engineers once the prototype proves itself.
- Go small but real. One feature built right is more valuable than ten features that crumble.
Final Word
The startup graveyard is full of companies that either waited too long or shipped too fast without a foundation. Friendster hesitated. Theranos faked it. Quibi mistook hype for traction.
Airbnb survived because they paid the vibe code tax on their terms. They used duct tape to test, then rebuilt before the cracks became fatal.
That’s the playbook.
Because no matter what the vibe code tax always comes due.