Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people | Anton Osika (CEO and co-founder)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

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Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people | Anton Osika (CEO and co-founder)

The AI startup that's Europe's fastest-growing company ever

Mar 09, 2025

Transcript

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

Brought to you by:

• Sinch—Build messaging, email, and calling into your product
• Persona—A global leader in digital identity verification
• Fundrise Flagship Fund—Invest in $1.1 billion of real estate

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Anton Osika is the co-founder and CEO of Lovable, which is building what they call “the last piece of software”—an AI-powered tool that turns descriptions into working products without requiring any coding knowledge. Since launching three months ago, Lovable hit $4 million ARR in the first four weeks and $10 million ARR in two months with a team of just 15 people, making it Europe’s fastest-growing startup ever.

What you’ll learn:

Why you need to be in the top 1% of AI tool users
Watch Lovable build a functional Airbnb clone in 30 seconds—complete with working features and modern design
The unconventional hiring approach that helped build a 15-person team capable of extraordinary execution
How traditional product development will look with AI
What skills will matter most to product teams going forward
How Anton’s team discovered a breakthrough in AI “unsticking itself”

Some takeaways:

Lovable’s approach to software development lets users describe an app in natural language and have AI generate production-ready code in real time. This is opening the door for non-programmers to create complex web applications, pointing to a future where building software is as simple as writing a wish list.
Anton’s team discovered a breakthrough in AI “unsticking itself”—allowing the AI to keep improving and fixing its own bugs.
The biggest bottleneck in product development is shifting—from “Who can build it?” to “Who knows what to build?”
Community and open source as a growth lever: By first releasing the CLI tool GPT-Engineer to the open source community (earning 52K stars on GitHub), Lovable built a passionate early user base. This community-driven approach not only validated the product but also created buzz that propelled its subscription growth post-launch.
Being in the top 1% of AI tool users will set you apart professionally in the coming months—spend a full week using AI tools to solve real problems to get there.
Product taste, user understanding, and the ability to define problems clearly are becoming more valuable than pure coding skills as AI handles more implementation.
Their approach to hiring focuses on:
1. People who deeply care about the product and users
2. High raw cognitive capabilities
3. Startup mindset, prioritizing speed over process
4. Generalist capabilities with one superpower
5. Using work trials (one day to one week) to evaluate fit
Keys to effective AI tool mastery:
1. Spend a full week solving a real problem end-to-end
2. Surround yourself with others interested in AI tools
3. Focus on clear communication of requirements
4. Be patient and curious about understanding how things work
5. Practice explaining exactly what you want and expect