Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people

Key takeaways

1. Lovable first released the open source CLI tool GPT-Engineer, which earned 52K GitHub stars. That built an early user base, validated the idea and created buzz that helped subscription growth after launch.
2. Osika hires for deep care about the product and users, high raw cognitive ability, a startup mindset that favors speed over process, and generalists with one superpower.
3. Lovable uses work trials of one day to one week to judge fit before hiring.
4. To get into the top 1% of AI tool users, spend a full week solving a real problem end to end with AI tools and practice stating exactly what you want and expect.
5. As AI takes over more implementation, Osika says product taste, understanding users and defining problems clearly become more valuable than pure coding skill.