Vercel's generative UI, Supabase launch week, new AI devtool startups

If this week's developer tools news had a theme, it would have to be split between "AI that's actually useful", and "database branching".

Let's get into it...

Hot Product Launch

Vercel previewed v0, their generative UI side-project in October, but last week launched for everyone.

v0 uses OpenAI to take natuaral language commands, then builds components using Tailwind and a UI library called "shadcn UI". The brilliance of this approach is that v0 outputs code using frameworks that can be edited by a developer. Previous "low code" attempts outputted spaghetti code that no dev team wanted to maintain.

Does v0 have a moat? Definitely not. Today I can give chatGPT commands about which frameworks to use while building components. And everyone from Microsoft to Google to OpenAI itself will likely make a generative UI tool.

Try v0, generative UI service

Original v0 announcement

v0 turns screenshots to code

v0 - Vercel's New AI Writes Surprisingly Good Code

Products Launches

✨ Supabase had another exciting launch week. Most dev tool companies make a blog post and send out a tweet and call that a "launch". Supabase included videos about each new feature and hosted a Twitter/X space to talk to customers in public.

The only thing that would make this launch week better was a unified story that connected how Supabase wants the market to think about everything they launched. Taken together, what workflow or value is unlocked now that these features are in the world?

Here's a partial list of their most exciting new features:

Database branching that works with git and Vercel preview

Subabase studio now has an AI Assistant, Postgres role, and user impersonation

Supabase Auth now has identity linking, session control, and password protection

✨ Ampt, which helps Javascript developers provision cloud resources, launched Ampt SQL, a serverless database powered by Neon.

✨ Speaking of Neon, the fast-growing serverless database startup announced "branch reset", which enables you to pull the latest data and schema from a parent branch of your database.

✨ Laredo Labs launched AI-powered devtools, and "raised $8.5 million in a seed round co-led by Radical Ventures and Horizons Ventures".

✨ I missed this startup launch last month - Sweep competes with Laredo Labs, and bills itself as an "AI junior developer that handles small features in your codebase". Sweep raised "$2 million from Goat Capital, Replit CEO Amjad Masad, Replit VP of AI Michele Catasta and Exceptional Capital at a $25 million post-money valuation."

Enterprise Watch

Sadly no developer tool startup made a move last week that seemed designed to attract or win large, paying customers. Most of the launches were exciting but were features for small business and hobbyists.

Maybe next week!

Need help planning your next impactful product launch? I offer single day consulting sessions to work out your messaging and channel strategy, so you can land more sales. Hit "reply" to this email, and let's talk. - Hashim Warren