BuildOrbit Journal

Practical writing on products, growth, and technology.

Ideas, lessons, and observations on building online products, improving systems, using AI well, and making better technology decisions over time.

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Latest Writing

Notes from the work.

Product lessons, engineering decisions, and delivery notes from real projects.

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AI-generated code failure in production with developer debugging runtime errors, system crash logs, and broken deployment

Product Engineering10 min read

AI Wrote the Code. Now Who's Debugging It?

The speed is real. The productivity gains are real. But so is the 43% of AI-generated code that breaks in production after passing every test. Here's the story the industry keeps trying to quietly footnote.

Rahul Shitole

Apr 15, 2026

ai generated codeai code production+8

Lovable MVP app on laptop with broken foundation illustrating post-MVP challenges, no-code limitations, and scaling issues in production apps

No-Code Migration9 min read

Lovable Got You to v1. Here's What Nobody Tells You About v2.

Lovable is genuinely impressive for getting to a working prototype fast. The problem isn't the build. It's what happens three months later when real users show up, credits run out, and the code underneath starts fighting you.

Rahul Shitole

Apr 13, 2026

vibe codinglovable+5

Linear product story visual showing rejection of feature requests and replacement of Jira through opinionated product design principles.

Product Engineering9 min read

How Linear Built a $1.25B Product by Ignoring Its Customers

Karri Saarinen built a Chrome extension at Airbnb just to survive using Jira. Three years later, that frustration became Linear, a $1.25B product that grew by deliberately ignoring what customers asked for. Here's what that decision actually looked like from the inside.

Rahul Shitole

Apr 6, 2026

product engineeringopinionated software+5

Developer running npm install sees red malware warnings on screen while a package on a conveyor belt reveals hidden malicious code, illustrating a supply chain attack.

Product Engineering7 min read

The Axios Attack Is a Vibe Coding Wake-Up Call

100 million weekly downloads. Two hours. A Remote Access Trojan that erased all traces of itself. The Axios attack hit most of the JavaScript projects but vibe-coded products were the most exposed. Here's exactly what happened and what to do right now.

Rahul Shitole

Apr 1, 2026

axios supply chain attacknpm supply chain attack+5

Product Engineering10 min read

2.78 Crore Tickets in 13 Days. Here's What Happens to Your App Under That Load.

One year before Dhurandhar 2, Coldplay crashed BookMyShow. Same platform, same kind of demand, completely different outcome. The difference wasn't budget. It was five architecture decisions made before the spike, not after it.

Rahul Shitole

Mar 31, 2026

high traffic app architectureapp scalability+7

This is a photo of a modern horizontal smartphone, split vertically by a line of glowing teal light. The screen on the left displays the FlutterFlow no-code app builder interface, featuring a widget palette, properties panel, and an app canvas with a user interface including form fields, images, and a button. The screen on the right displays a code editor with a dark theme, showing a file named "productionApp.dart" with actual, readable Dart/Flutter code, including class MyProductionApp extends StatelessWidget and return MultiProvider. The smartphone rests on a dark surface in a dimly lit, blurred office desk environment with a monitor and office supplies in the background. This composition highlights the side-by-side comparison between visual design and handwritten production code.

No-Code Migration10 min read

FlutterFlow Is a Great Prototyping Tool. It Is Not a Production Strategy.

Six months on FlutterFlow, real users, some traction, then a developer opens the exported codebase and says "I need to rewrite this before I can extend it." That conversation happens more than it should. Here's what founders need to know before they commit.

Rahul Shitole

Mar 25, 2026

flutterflow vs custom flutterflutterflow vs flutter+6

Laptop displaying a modern app interface placed on a cracked foundation exposing servers beneath, symbolizing fragile infrastructure behind a fast-built product.

No-Code Migration10 min read

You Built It in 3 Days. Now Your Infra Will Make or Break the Next 3 Months.

Vibe coding tools helped you ship in days. But the infrastructure defaults underneath your prototype weren't architecture decisions, they were just the path of least resistance.

Rahul Shitole

Mar 20, 2026

vibe codingvibe coding infrastructure+8

Split-screen illustration of a founder choosing between a Bubble no-code dashboard and a custom code editor.

No-Code Migration9 min read

What Bubble Won't Tell You Before You Build Your Whole Product On It

A user clocked 5.02 seconds load time on their Bubble app. The same page, same data, on a custom-built app: 1.07 seconds. That's the gap no one talks about when founders are deciding which way to build. Here's when Bubble is the right call and when it isn't.

Rahul Shitole

Mar 16, 2026

bubble io alternativesbubble vs custom code+6

Smartphone showing a low 28/100 PageSpeed score in front of a dental clinic, illustrating how slow websites cause lost patients.

Web Performance8 min read

What a 28/100 PageSpeed Score Actually Costs a Dental Clinic Per Month

A 28/100 PageSpeed score isn't just a technical number. For a dental clinic getting 400 visitors a month, it's the difference between 8 new appointments and 16. Here's what slow websites actually cost and what the fix involves.

Rahul Shitole

Mar 12, 2026

pagespeeddental clinic website+5

Graph illustration of no-code platform costs increasing sharply as an app scales, with stacked dollar bills representing rising monthly pricing tiers.

No-Code Migration9 min read

The No-Code Cost Wall: What You're Actually Paying as Your App Grows

No-code starts at $32/month. Then $134. Then $349 plus plugins, overages, and services you didn't budget for. Here's the real pricing breakdown for Bubble, FlutterFlow, Webflow, and Adalo, and the point where custom development actually becomes cheaper.

Rahul Shitole

Mar 9, 2026

no-codebubble+6

Split illustration comparing a food delivery app charging 30% commission on a ₹1,200 order versus a restaurant website encouraging customers to order directly and save.

Web Performance8 min read

Your Restaurant Pays Zomato 20-30% Per Order. Here's What a Website Actually Changes.

Delivery apps give you orders. They also take 25–30% of every one, and they make sure the customer remembers their name, not yours. Here's what a website actually changes and when it doesn't.

Rahul Shitole

Mar 4, 2026

restaurant websitefood delivery commission+6