A New Way to Build Software
The way we build software is changing. Recent advances in AI tools have made it possible to compress what used to take weeks into hours. But more interesting than the raw speed is what this compression enables: a new way of thinking about software development.
99 is an experiment in building software differently. The hypothesis is simple: by constraining development time to 99 minutes, we force ourselves to focus on what’s essential. This isn’t about rushing; it’s about eliminating the unnecessary steps that have accumulated in software development over the decades.
One of the most important principles in startups is to make something people want. Today, most people want software they can use on their phones. Building native apps takes too long for rapid iteration. Web apps, particularly Progressive Web Apps, offer the optimal balance: they’re quick to build, easy to update, and accessible to anyone with a browser.
This project grew out of a pattern I’ve noticed: the best software often starts as something much simpler than what it eventually becomes. Stripe began as a few lines of Ruby. Twitter was originally a side project at a podcasting company. By starting small and shipping quickly, you learn things you couldn’t have learned any other way.
“The 99-minute constraint isn’t about making something fast; it’s about making something small enough to be good.”
What’s particularly interesting about the 99-minute timeframe is that it’s long enough to build something useful but short enough to force brutal prioritization. You can’t include everything, so you have to think carefully about what matters. This constraint tends to produce better software than an unlimited timeline would.