I'm a self-taught developer who knows React and Next.js, and lately, I've been feeling pretty anxious about my career.

AI is moving so fast that I sometimes question where I should invest my time. It can build UIs, write backend code, connect APIs, and even help build entire applications. I'm worried that simply knowing how to build web applications won't be enough to get a good job in the coming years.

I'd love to hear from people who run businesses, build startups, or hire developers.

If you were hiring a developer for your startup today, what would you actually look for?

Would you want someone with strong React/Next.js and full-stack skills who can take a product from idea to launch? Or would you prioritize someone who also knows AI engineering, RAG, AI agents, LLM integrations, and automation?

I'm trying to figure out whether I should spend the next 6 months becoming a much stronger full-stack developer or divide my time between web development and AI engineering.

As a self-taught developer, I don't want to spend another year learning things that won't help me become more valuable in the job market. I want to build products that solve real problems and develop skills that a business would actually pay for.

If you were in my position, what would you focus on, and what would make you confident enough to hire someone like me?

I'd genuinely appreciate an honest perspective from a founder or business owner. I could really use some direction right now.

I've built a startup here in New Zealand, where we organise dinner for strangers and send them on a side quest, kind of like timeleft but a bit more structured and participation involved. Have sent more than 400 people to these dinners.
We've successfully ran dinners every week since May. Although now I'm running out of cash. My full-time job isn't paying me great hence i'm almost out of cash to run meta ads which i've been relying on. I do not get to focus fully on my start up because of working 60hrs at a full time job leaves me with a limited time. I've worked on an app to make operations easier. Although now i feel the importance of funding to keep the business running. Especially for marketing related content etc
Should i take a pause and wait till i get funding sorted along with all the resources needed OR do i keep going? If i do pause will it takeaway the traction? Im just so confused!

For founders who post across several social platforms: how much of the work is still manual for you?

We’re looking into a workflow problem around taking one piece of content and adapting it for LinkedIn, X, Instagram, etc.

Which is closest to what you currently do?

A) Same post everywhere

B) Rewrite each platform version manually

C) Scheduler + manual adjustments

D) AI/tool creates the different versions, then I review them

E) I focus on one main platform and mostly ignore/repost to the others

The thing I’m most interested in is where the time actually goes.

Is scheduling already solved for you, while adapting the tone, length, format and images is still the annoying part?

Not linking anything, mainly trying to understand whether this is a real enough pain to solve.

I have a cool idea for a product and am looking to open source it from the start, but also plan to turn it into a startup through hosting, if the project ever takes off.

I've read posts here about how open sourcing your app can be beneficial - you can more easily build community, get feedback, and it's transparent.

What I'm wondering is: does this still hold in a world of AI coding?

I can see problems with large amounts of AI generated PR's, or AI's scanning my code to exploit security vulnerabilities. Or perhaps people forking and using their AI's to build their own features, thus not contributing to the original repo.

Idk, what do you guys think? Is open sourcing still a valid model despite how much the software ecosystem has changed?

PS: I've already decided I'm going to be open sourcing my product. There's an existing company implementing essentially the same idea using similar technology, and I believe I can build something just as good while making it freely available

Hi, I’m from Belgium. I have a podcast on books that is working pretty well and I am developing a podcast on movies. Not a review-podcast but a community podcast where 3 people talk about a topic on books/movies and the conversation unfolds. We try to have as much interaction with the audience as possible.

Now I’m feeling that there’s more to this concept, business-wise. What else can I do with this community? I’m thinking something like Letterboxed or Goodreads, where people can make lists and recommendations, maybe also buy some books or movie tickets and merch? Idk how far can I take this? Maybe some live events? Book fairs? Movie festival? Are there any other ways to generate some extra income?

FYI I’m not the host, I’m the owner of the (small) production company behind it.

Hello everyone!! I run a ~400-person software services company with 100+ client projects. We needed to measure AI adoption internally and hit a wall: every analytics tool wanted integrations with Jira, GitHub or Slack. For us, that means approval from every client.

So we built a survey-based approach for ourselves. It works for us, but I'm trying to figure out whether this is a real market or just our niche.

Questions:

1. If you're in services, consulting or agencies, do you have the same integration problem?

2. Would you trust survey data over telemetry, or only alongside it?

3. Who owns this problem in your company: HR, CTO, COO, or an AI transformation lead?

4. Would being able to analyze the results with your own AI (Claude, ChatGPT) change anything for you?

Not sharing a name or link. Just looking for honest pushback.

Many thanks all!!

Something I keep thinking about. Our AI does a job a specialist usually does by hand: it reads paperwork a company already filed (import taxes, in our case) and finds money they paid by mistake. It works on real files.

Our problem is delivery. The people who get the money back don't have the files, someone else in the chain keeps them, and most don't know there is money to find.

And reaching them is a second problem. Cold calls gave us 1 meeting out of about 65, maybe our volume is just too small, I don't know. Organic doesn't work either, because nobody googles "import tax refund" when they don't know it exists.

So I see three ways to ship it: an app they use themselves, done-for-you where we run it and take a % of what we find, or through partners who already have the files and the trust.

What would you try first in our case?

I'm 21, solo founder, building an AI system that manages tasks and context for companies. I already have testers and a growing waitlist.

The problem is I'm not a dev. I trust what Claude delivers to me, and I only judge the things I have some basic knowledge about. Before building anything I always use AI to research the best practices, and in the end I test everything.

Unfortunately I don't have a network with any good devs.

Is it possible to build a huge company this way? What is your recommendation?