Yay! Two of my favourite Substackers united! I love and respect the insane technical capabilities of both of you, but above all else I value your humility, kindness, and willingness to build in public with complete transparency. That is why I will always read and listen to what you have to say. 🙏
Appreciate the kind words! 🤗 Love Karo’s newsletter and the wonderfully supportive community she’s built. I found my first few subscribers in the PWA chat, which is also a great place to find beta testers for early stage apps!
Karen, loved this post! Your commitment to craft over convenience — especially the attention to details like widows and orphans — is something AI can't replicate, and it shows.
One small thought: the word "users" kept standing out to me. Since CarouselBot is really about supporting authors and creators, language like "creators," "writers," or even "peers" might better reflect the respect you clearly have for the people using your tool. Just a thought — keep up the great work!
Karo and Karen, this is the kind of builder story I want more of because the hero is judgment, not the model.
The “Nos” section is the lesson. Claude tells you what the average market thinks. You know what your users are actually frustrated by. No API keys. Yes image support because humans asked. Yes obsessing over widows and orphans because quality is invisible until it isn’t, then it is all anyone can see.
Also, the Canva pop-up saga is hilarious in the bleak way only builders understand. One hundred and twenty-six attempts is basically a Greek tragedy with a browser extension.
The part I really respect is the anti “vibe coded my way to $100K” posture, with receipts. Legal reviews kill ideas. Payment processors say no. Terms of service matter. The boring infrastructure work is the work.
Net: this is what “build with attitude” should mean. Let the AI propose. Keep the product decisions in human hands.
I love the opening to this article: 'Claude said no!' 😆 Of course it did. And guilty as charged: I told Karen I use Gamma… but in reality I only produced one carousel and gave up.
Karen is such an inspiration, and I love this collab between two inspirational women who rock the vibe-coding stage on Substack. I also love CarouselBot, it's exactly the kind of tool that makes making a dreading tasks almost effortless.
It’s so exciting to see people using CarouselBot, and I’m happy you’re having a good experience! 🎉 I’ve learned a lot from Karo and the community she’s built, and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of this series unfold!
I think this is officially my series of the week. I LOVED stumbling across this, and discovering Karen's tool was definitely the icing on the cake. It's so inspiring to see women build and create in the AI space, and even better when they do it against the advice of AI haha - love a rebel. Super excited to read more. This is a great series, Karo :)
Loved this post Karo! It's definitely got me rethinking some of Claude's suggestions in my own projects. I always learn so much from the things Karen builds. There's so much thoughtfulness, intentionality, and care behind decisions. Congrats on launching CarouselBot Karen!
What an amazing and inspiring journey Karen with full of learning. I loved the way you cornered the AI suggestions and built the awesome CarousalBot. I did not get a chance to test it out but with so many people I follow sharing wonderful carousals from it, is a treat to watch and now I also know the story behind, it makes it special! Thanks again Karo for putting together yet another BwA post.
This was a nice learning experience, thanks for putting it together. I have no use for the tool cause I don't want to create carousels let alone post on LinkedIn 😖
But the lessons work regardless. I'll keep them in mind to keep developing the product that I'm slowly making progress with thanks to AI coders 😁
Yay! Two of my favourite Substackers united! I love and respect the insane technical capabilities of both of you, but above all else I value your humility, kindness, and willingness to build in public with complete transparency. That is why I will always read and listen to what you have to say. 🙏
I felt the same (two of my favorite Substackers united) when I saw your live with Mia yesterday 🤗 Thank you for reading Sam!
Appreciate the kind words! 🤗 Love Karo’s newsletter and the wonderfully supportive community she’s built. I found my first few subscribers in the PWA chat, which is also a great place to find beta testers for early stage apps!
Karo * Karen = geometric growth with a smile 😁
Thank you so much Chris 🤗 🤗
Thank you! 😊
Congratulations Karen!
I've been wondering when Karo is going to release yours, what a great timing and amazing collab!
It’s such a fun series! And it will be interesting to look at all the profiles together, and perhaps analyze them, when all 36 are done!
Yes, I have so many ideas of what we can do when we're done with all 36 interviews! If you do to, let me know 🤗
Thank you Jenny! I'm so grateful for both of you and everyone else in this series 🤗
Karen, loved this post! Your commitment to craft over convenience — especially the attention to details like widows and orphans — is something AI can't replicate, and it shows.
One small thought: the word "users" kept standing out to me. Since CarouselBot is really about supporting authors and creators, language like "creators," "writers," or even "peers" might better reflect the respect you clearly have for the people using your tool. Just a thought — keep up the great work!
Thank you so much for reading Colleen!
Thank you! 🙏 And appreciate your thinking around the term “user.” ❤️ Will keep this in mind as I evolve CarouselBot’s communications.
YW. Brava!
Karo and Karen, this is the kind of builder story I want more of because the hero is judgment, not the model.
The “Nos” section is the lesson. Claude tells you what the average market thinks. You know what your users are actually frustrated by. No API keys. Yes image support because humans asked. Yes obsessing over widows and orphans because quality is invisible until it isn’t, then it is all anyone can see.
Also, the Canva pop-up saga is hilarious in the bleak way only builders understand. One hundred and twenty-six attempts is basically a Greek tragedy with a browser extension.
The part I really respect is the anti “vibe coded my way to $100K” posture, with receipts. Legal reviews kill ideas. Payment processors say no. Terms of service matter. The boring infrastructure work is the work.
Net: this is what “build with attitude” should mean. Let the AI propose. Keep the product decisions in human hands.
Really appreciate this comment! 🤗🙏 Even if you’re using AI to code, all the usual compliance, legal, and engineering rules still apply. 😆
Love the Story!! You can JUST BUILD IT.
Thank you! 🤗
I feel like everytime Karen said 'no' to AI, the product got better! Your intuition and judgement were spot on.
P.S. as someone who sees every widow and orphan in a layout, I deeply respect that decision 😜
Heheh, me too, 1000 %.
I suppose AI doesn’t care about widows and orphans because it doesn’t understand aesthetics the we way do… 🤔
yep, i think you are onto something there!
I love the opening to this article: 'Claude said no!' 😆 Of course it did. And guilty as charged: I told Karen I use Gamma… but in reality I only produced one carousel and gave up.
Karen is such an inspiration, and I love this collab between two inspirational women who rock the vibe-coding stage on Substack. I also love CarouselBot, it's exactly the kind of tool that makes making a dreading tasks almost effortless.
She is! I'm learning a lot from Karen. Thank for reading Anna! 🤗
It’s so exciting to see people using CarouselBot, and I’m happy you’re having a good experience! 🎉 I’ve learned a lot from Karo and the community she’s built, and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of this series unfold!
This was eye-opening to someone who has yet to try vibe-coding - or built a product that wasn't just for me! I know where to come when I do...
You can do it Mariam. And if you get stuck (I did, many times), we'd love to help 🤗
Thank you, Karo!
You’ll be surprised how straightforward it is! The most important thing is to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve.
Congrats Karen! 💫 👏
Thank you for reading Ileana! BTW, have you managed to collect 100 voices for Designing The Shift?
18 so far!
Ok, will keep on boosting 🤗
Thank you! 🤗
I think this is officially my series of the week. I LOVED stumbling across this, and discovering Karen's tool was definitely the icing on the cake. It's so inspiring to see women build and create in the AI space, and even better when they do it against the advice of AI haha - love a rebel. Super excited to read more. This is a great series, Karo :)
Thank you so much Jade! Really appreciate your comment!
Thank you so much! 🙏🤗 And agree this is an amazing series, I think there will be 36 builders featured! 🤯
Cannot wait :)
Excellent decision. That is a human decision.
We’ll see if Claude was right! 😂
Looking at all the comments from people who already use CarouselBot, I doubt it. It'll be fun to say "I told you so" to Claude 😂
Loved this post Karo! It's definitely got me rethinking some of Claude's suggestions in my own projects. I always learn so much from the things Karen builds. There's so much thoughtfulness, intentionality, and care behind decisions. Congrats on launching CarouselBot Karen!
Thank you Priank! 🤗 Karen is a fantastic teacher, I'm also learning a lot from her. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment.
Thanks so much! Yes, Claude is my advisor, not my employer! 😂
What an amazing and inspiring journey Karen with full of learning. I loved the way you cornered the AI suggestions and built the awesome CarousalBot. I did not get a chance to test it out but with so many people I follow sharing wonderful carousals from it, is a treat to watch and now I also know the story behind, it makes it special! Thanks again Karo for putting together yet another BwA post.
Thank you so much! 🤗 Agree that Karo is doing great things with this series!
Easy to do with guests like you!
This was a nice learning experience, thanks for putting it together. I have no use for the tool cause I don't want to create carousels let alone post on LinkedIn 😖
But the lessons work regardless. I'll keep them in mind to keep developing the product that I'm slowly making progress with thanks to AI coders 😁
Curious what you’re building! And, yes, AI can sometimes provide pretty awful directional advice. 😆
More statistically “correct” advice. But we’re messy humans so it no always applies.
(And I’m building something for non-tech folks to leverage AI)