It's now faster to build the app than to find it

A few weeks ago I needed an SSH client that actually worked on iPad. Not a desktop client squeezed onto a tablet. Something for how I work now: reviewing diffs, monitoring builds and checking on agents when I am away from the desk.

Everything I tried felt built for a different job.

So I built TermAway in a weekend.

Then I found Echo. Same basic idea. Same problem. Same timing.

My first reaction was embarrassingly predictable: they copied me.

They did not. Two people had the same itch and the cost of scratching it had collapsed.

The same week, Cursor published a video about remote coding and mentioned Echo. I left a comment saying I had built the same thing and mine was free.

Nobody noticed. Fair enough.

Building is no longer the scarce part

There used to be a meaningful gap between recognising a small problem and having working software in your hand. You needed a team, a budget and enough time to justify both.

AI coding tools have compressed that gap. TermAway did not need a roadmap ceremony. I needed it, built it and used it.

But cheap implementation does not create distribution. It does not create trust and it does not mean the first version understands the problem particularly well.

Echo getting attention while TermAway did not was a useful reminder: a product can be easy to build and still hard to place in front of the right people.

The moat moved

Being first matters less when ten competent versions can appear in the same month. The useful advantages now sit elsewhere:

• knowing the problem from real use
• making opinionated choices instead of copying a category
• talking to the people who have the same problem
• improving the product after the obvious version ships

That last part is easy to underestimate. AI makes the first 80 percent fast. It also gives everyone else the same acceleration. The remaining decisions become more visible, not less.

TermAway exists because I wanted a better tool for my own workflow. Echo is evidence that the need was not imaginary. Good. Competition is cheaper than market research.

The lesson was not that ideas are worthless or speed no longer matters. It was simpler: shipping became easier. Earning attention did not.