BFM+Exclusive

Why You’re Addicted to Lovable Before You Even Hit the Paywall

10 mins

Case Study

Skills you'll build

How Lovable is similar to a slot machine
The psychological loops that drive habit and retention
How to time paywalls to be more effective

The Covid pandemic helped turn the company Zoom into a verb. It was the standout success of that time, accelerated by the tailwind of everyone being stuck at home.

There's a chance that Lovable reaches similar category-defining heights with their take on "vibe coding"—essentially helping non-developers build products by prompting AI models.

But when I recorded exactly what I did during a realistic 100-minute build, nearly 60% of my messages were simply pointing out bugs. That sounds like product hell.

So how have Lovable created an experience that is so enjoyable to use, it's actually addictive to fix bugs?

And more importantly, how have they used this to upsell their premium service so effectively, that they've grown to $100m ARR in just 8 months?

Welcome to the product design casino.