alt Hacker NewsIf these ai companies had 100x dev output, why would you acquire a company? Why not just show screenshots to your agent and get it to implement everything?
Is it market share? Because I don't know who has a bigger user base that cursor.
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> If these ai companies had 100x dev output,
I hate the unrealistic AI claims about 100X output as much as anyone, but to be fair Cursor hasn't been pushing these claims. It's mostly me-too players and LinkedIn superstars pushing the crazy claims because they know triggering people is an easy ticket to more engagement.
The claims I've seen out of the Cursor team have been more subtle and backed by actual research, like their analysis of PR count and acceptance rate: https://cursor.com/blog/productivity
So I don't think Cursor would have ever claimed they could duplicate a SaaS company like Graphite with their tools. I can think of a few other companies who would make that claim while their CEO was on their latest podcast tour, though.
Heyo, disclosure that I work for graphite, and opinions expressed are my own, etc.
Graphite is a really complicated suite of software with many moving pieces and a couple more levels of abstraction than your typical B2B SaaS.
It would be incredibly challenging for any group of people to build a peer-level Graphite replacement any faster than it took Graphite to build Graphite, no matter what AI assistance you have.
My guess is the purchase captures the 'lessons learned' based upon production use and user feedback.
What I do not understand is that if a high level staff with capacity can produce an 80% replacement why not assign the required staff to complete that last 10% to bring it to production readiness? That last 10% is unnecessary features and excess outside of the requirements.
Existing users, distribution, and brand are a big part of acquisition. Graphite is used mainly by larger orgs.
Also, graphite isn't just "screenshots"; it's a pretty complicated product.
Perhaps the company you are acquiring has the product of 100x dev output?
The claims are clearly exaggerated or as you say, we'd have AI companies pumping out new AI focused IDEs left and right, crazy features, yet they all are Vs code forks that roughly do the same shit
A VSCode fork with AI, like 10 other competitors doing the same, including Microsoft and Copilot, MCPs, Vs code limitations, IDEs catching up. What do these AI VsCode forks have going for them? Why would I use one?