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AI Can Build Your App. It Can't Make It Good. | Paul Bakaus, Impeccable
Episode 23
Published 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Description
Paul Bakaus created jQuery UI, sold a startup to Zynga, and spent nearly a decade at Google — then went solo to prove one experienced builder, amplified by AI, can do what used to take a team. His company Renaissance Geek is backed by a16z; its first product, Impeccable, stops AI coding agents from shipping design slop.
Topics covered:
- Why his first hire was a chief of staff, not an engineer (the middle-manager trap)
- The era of the 40-year-old founder: intuition and craftsmanship as leverage
- What Impeccable is and why AI design slop is a moving target
- Free-first distribution: no ads, no outbound, only tweets
- Judgment over generation: Steve Jobs as the greatest editor of all time
- The bear and bull case for solo founding
Guest: Paul Bakaus — solo founder & CEO of Renaissance Geek (Impeccable), creator of jQuery UI, ex-Google.