SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin said that the AI of the vibecoding service Replit deleted his database, despite instructions not to change the code without permission. Lemkin had previously praised Replit and predicted that he would spend $8,000 a month on it, but later became disillusioned with the service and said that it was not ready for widespread use.
SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin said that the AI of the vibecoding service Replit deleted his database, despite instructions not to change the code without permission. Lemkin had previously praised Replit and predicted that he would spend $8,000 a month on it, but later became disillusioned with the service and said that it was not ready for widespread use.
According to The Register, SaaStr runs an online community and organizes events for entrepreneurs who want to build SaaS businesses. On July 12, the company’s founder, Jason Lemkin, wrote in his blog about his experience using the service Replit, which positions itself as «the safest place for vibecoding.»
«If Replit deleted my database between my last session and now, they’re going to pay dearly for it», — Lemkin noted.
Replit says that vibecoding makes programming accessible to everyone, entirely through natural language. In a social media ad, the company claims that its product saved an operations manager with no coding skills $145,000.
According to Jason Lemkin, he was initially impressed with Replit, and within a few hours he had a «really, really cool» prototype. «It’s amazing to start with: you can create an ‘app’ just by imagining it on the command line. Replit does the quality checks for you (which is really cool), at least in part with your help… and then you push it to production, all in one continuous flow,» he said.
He liked the service so much that he didn’t even mind spending $600 on additional services, in addition to the $25 subscription. «At this rate of spending, I’ll probably be spending $8,000 a month. And you know what? I’m not even mad about it. I’m obsessed with it,» Lemkin added.
However, he quickly became disillusioned with the product when he discovered that the AI «lied and cheated all day,» as well as hiding errors and problems, and fabricating data. Jason Lemkin later revealed that the AI tool deleted his database.
«Replit assured me that it does not support database rollback. He said that in this case it is impossible, that he destroyed all versions of the database. It turns out that Replit was wrong, and the rollback worked after all,» the SaaStr founder said in another post.
But Lemkin’s optimism about the vibecoding service has evaporated. He believes a company that makes millions of dollars should offer a better product. The service isn’t ready for widespread use, he says, and especially not for its target audience, which is made up of non-technical professionals who want to build commercial software.
Recall that earlier, representatives of Ukrainian IT companies N-iX, MacPaw, and Ciklum commented on the effectiveness of vibecoding, as well as the pros and cons of this practice.
