Did a podcast with Stevdza San on AI Coding agents...

# feed

[Kevin]

Did a podcast with Stevdza San on AI Coding agents in kotlin and the struggles of running an early stage startup! would love to get your thoughts on it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdrVXqwEZQs&ab_channel=Stevdza-San▾

[Stefan Oltmann]

Just some feedback: the promotion feels a little heavy. Also, I was curious, since last week you said he wasn’t affiliated, but now there’s a podcast together — what’s the relationship?

Edit: Original wording came across a bit too harsh; which wasn't intended. This aligns better with what I wanted to express.

[Kevin]

he wanted to interview me for a podcast. I did not pay him to do this, otherwise he'd have to disclose that on his channel

[Kevin]

maybe you can clarify what you mean by affiliated?

[Kevin]

my interpretation is that his intentions align with his viewers and giving informative content to them

[Stefan Oltmann]

However, I wish you the best of luck with your startup.
Just please try not to advertise frequently in #C0BJ0GTE2.
That wouldn't have the desired effect.

[Kevin]

thought this content would be interesting to the wider community and pretty relevant considering the massive changes happening that we see. happy to discuss more on this if theres anything i missed in the podcast

[Stefan Oltmann]

This isn’t the founders’ Slack, so I’m not sure how many people here are actually interested in the struggles of an AI startup, to be honest.

I think you may want to re-think your advertising strategy. For example, last week you posted a long video featuring (at least to me) an unknown person using your tool. I didn’t watch it as it started with a lot of YouTube ads.

Right after that, you posted something that really belonged in #C09222272. That kind of posting comes across as spammy.

If you’d like my advice: I’d take inspiration from how Sentry.io approaches marketing. They have a strong product with a generous free tier, and their ads are fun but not intrusive. They don’t spam communities; instead, they sponsor tech podcasts — that’s how I first heard about them. They even gifted me a pair of Sentry-themed socks at KotlinConf. I love that company and their product. 😄

So my suggestion: focus on building something really useful with Firebender and let that shine. Then, with a touch of understatement, add: “Oh, by the way, this was built with Firebender.” That kind of subtle, product-led marketing can go a long way.

[Stefan Oltmann]

In the case of your product you should also make clear how it compares to Junie.

The first thing I see it that it's limited to Android Studio. I'm working Kotlin Mulitplatform - JVM, Android, iOS.

[darkmoon_uk]

While we're sharing opinions; I'm personally happy to see bit of self-promotion laced in with Kotlin content, we're all trying to get ahead and help each other, and it's valuable to see a 'data point' of the challenges faced by a startup using a Kotlin tech stack.
There's always a limit, but I don't think that's been reached here. Like I said, that's just my opinion - no more valid than others; but @Kevin I hope you don't feel your post is universally unwelcome - I'm sure that's far from the case kodee loving

[Kevin]

> In the case of your product you should also make clear how it compares to Junie.
i work closely with the engineers we support and several android/kotlin engineers have already talked about the differences in various reviews and blogs / journals, comparing the coding assistants (again, not paid promotion.)

> The first thing I see it that it's limited to Android Studio. I'm working Kotlin Mulitplatform - JVM, Android, iOS.
we support all jetbrains IDEs (docs)

you mentioned junie, sentry, and seem to have decent advice on advertising/marketing. the embarrassing truth is that our company is really small and we don't have a massive marketing budget or an advertising team. its literally just three engineers, me, aman, and zach. the only thing we can really compete on here is doing interesting research work for you, banging our heads against these AI coding agents when they aren't working correctly, and just making a tool thats actually useful

> focus on building something really useful with Firebender and let that shine
this makes a ton of sense and is something we'll be doing more of, thank you

> but @Kevin I hope you don't feel your post is universally unwelcome
thanks Chris appreciate the support! it means a lot

[Stefan Oltmann]

I didn’t mean to suggest that your posts are universally unwelcome or give that impression. Sorry if it came across that way. My intention was only to raise awareness about what you post and how often. For example, I found your last three posts a bit questionable: the podcast might have fit better in #C09222272, and the video filled with ads could have left a stronger impression if you had shared an ad-free showcase version on your channel. Same is true for this podcast video. Link videos ad-free to your Firebender channel.

My advice would be to focus more on the research work you mentioned. Sharing Kotlin-related blog articles here makes sense—your piece about Composer was very interesting and that’s the kind of content that sparks engagement.

Regarding the IDE support: maybe you’ve written about it in blogs I haven’t read, but when I visit your homepage it literally says “Cursor for Android Studio” (see screenshot) which doesn’t look like a multiplatform project. You can’t expect people to deep dive into the docs if you lose them on the front page.

Another tip: you could add a comparison chart on the front page, since Junie is your main competitor.

And remember, good marketing doesn’t require a big budget—just clever ideas. For example, digital artwork can be commissioned fairly cheaply on Fiverr.

I give you my feedback to help you; I hope you can see that.
I could have left it with the nospam marker.

I may give your tool a try - but not because of the videos; because of your blog about Composer. That was on my list anyway since you first posted about it.

Wishing you all the best.

[Stefan Oltmann]

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