Our second meetup put the new pitch format to work, after feedback from the first night, and opened with a quick tour of what changed in AI over the previous few weeks.
AI updates
- Google's Gemini 4 Argon. Google DeepMind's model card (Oct 13) compared it with GPT-6 Astra and Claude Opus 5.5. On Google's own evaluations it led most knowledge-work and long-context tests, while Opus 5.5 led on Terminal-bench and Astra on FrontierSWE and OSWorld. These are vendor numbers, so treat them as a starting point.
- Claude Code. Recent releases added an auto-mode setup command that tunes itself to your project, Quick, Standard and Deep code-review levels, fork subagents on by default, compaction of long idle sessions, and hooks that can block an action when they fail.
- OpenAI's Decisions API. Announced at DevDay on Sept 29: you give it a question and a fixed set of answers, and it picks one in roughly 150 milliseconds instead of about 1.6 seconds. It's built for routing, classification and choosing an agent's next step, and it's in limited preview.
- Meta's Muse Wonder. Meta's first frontier model, released Oct 12, with features for carrying context across conversations and keeping long tasks on track. Meta's own tests put it level with GPT-6 Astra; independent numbers weren't out yet.
The new pitch format
Every builder now gets 25 minutes with a hard stop, Q&A included, in four parts: why you built it, the market, how you build with agents (stack, what works, what broke), and go-to-market with a clear ask of the room. The "building with agents" section has quickly become the part people take the most notes on.
Pitch: Stubbly
Bart Baldwin, founder of JavaBeanAI · stubb.ly
Snip it. Stub it. Share it. Stubbly makes short links and QR codes. Bart built it because he didn't want to pay a year up front for a link shortener just to shorten a few links. As he checked it the day before the meetup, Bitly's entry paid plan was $120, billed yearly.
The market. Small businesses and creators who just want a short link and a QR code on menus, flyers, social bios and business cards. It's a crowded space (Bitly, TinyURL, Rebrandly, Dub, Short.io), and Bart isn't claiming to invent the category. Stubbly competes on low cost, generous limits, a QR code with every link, and monthly plans.
How it's built. Bart doesn't come from a traditional coding background. Stubbly started with planning help from Grok and vibe coding with the Replit agent. Now a Grok bot plans the app and prompts the Replit agent directly, while Bart owns the idea, the plan and the final check.
Takeaways
- You don't need to be a career engineer to ship a real product, but you do need to own the plan and the final review.
- Crowded markets are fine when you can name exactly what bugs customers about the incumbents.
- Check competitor pricing the day of your pitch. It changes.