This is NOT Vibe Coding: An Unfiltered Survival Guide to Building a Production iOS App and Website with GPTs
I've spent a decade working at startups challenging some of the most entrenched industries in the country.
But I'd never actually built a full product myself — until now.
In 90 days, and over 1 billion GPT tokens later, I shipped Percent: an app that's live in the App Store with a companion website featuring authentication, profiles, user content, images, gifs, voting, review change logs and cross-platform sync.
Total cost: $1,120 ($850 in Claude credits, plus subscriptions and infrastructure).
Total mistakes: about a million.
This experience was not fun. There were very few good vibes. At times, it was the most aggravating work of my career. And that's why this is NOT vibe coding.
This is NOT Vibe coding is an unfiltered short-form survival guide—part memoir, part manual—for building real software with GPTs.
Includes: Master CLAUDE.md Instructions file—the actual collaboration protocols, development methodologies, and security guidelines I used building Percent.
See the results:
Web app at https://www.percent.wtf/
iOS app:https://apps.apple.com/us/app/percent-review-everything/id6749832774
About me:
I’m a product manager focused on building reliable infrastructure and growth systems. I’m currently at Stedi, where I own the Eligibility product and lead AI initiatives. Previously, at NexHealth, I led the 0→1 development of NexHealth Verification. Earlier roles at Carvana and Tubi included platform work in personalization, authentication, onboarding, and large-scale content distribution. I’ve led Growth teams, run user research operations, and managed PMs. My mission is simple: build profitable products people love to use.
A handbook for working more effectively with AI to build better software. This is the outcome of hundreds of hours of wrestling and fighting with these tools—a guide to help you avoid the costly mistakes that almost made me quit along the way.