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“I built this myself” and the long tail of software
Shantanu Gangal
CEO at Prodigal
October 12, 2026
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“I built this myself” and the long tail of software

Came home Friday evening to my 7y boy building a game on Gemini canvas. The first user and main gameplay centered around the younger 5y old!!

A flurry of typed prompts and thrilling runs. Lots of giggles. Score 1 for build 🎯 ... and didn't cost me anything. I anyway had planned to feed them dinner that night.

Soon the 5y outgrew the easy levels and the 7y found newer interesting toys. By bedtime, the passion project was forgotten.

"I built this myself." Four of the most satisfying words in business but often, follow the same arc. Handling gnarly edge cases on Friday night, the model upgrades that leave prompts rancid and resilience testing determines softwares' usefulness in the long run.

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