Rome Wasn't Built in a Day. They Didn't Have Claude Code.
In the age of AI, authority is the new expertise. And small teams are about to eat the world.
Saw this tweet a few days ago and it wedged itself in my brain:
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they didn’t have claude code.”
It’s a brilliant line.
Witty, direct, and more than a little terrifying if you’re sitting at the top of a corporate food chain.
Because this isn’t just a clever jab for tech insiders; it’s a prophecy.
The age of the enterprise, with its bloated teams, endless meetings, and glacial pace, is over.
A new era is dawning—the age of the one-person unicorn, the micro-business that can outmaneuver giants because it’s armed with a new class of AI tools that don’t just augment our abilities; they multiply them.
My prediction?
Enterprise-level competitors with hundreds—even thousands—of employees are going to be completely disrupted by teams of less than ten.
…and this is all possible because of these AI-powered app development tools.
The Great Inversion: Authority Over Expertise
For decades, the game was about expertise.
You needed to be a master craftsman, a seasoned coder, a domain-specific guru.
This created high barriers to entry and protected the incumbents.
If you wanted to build something, you needed to hire someone who could build it. That cost money, time, and control.
In this new world, AI is rapidly commoditizing raw technical skill.
The new currency, the one that can’t be automated—is authority.
Authority isn’t about knowing how to do everything. It’s about knowing what needs to be done and why.
The most valuable skill in 2026 and beyond is the ability to define a problem with precision and articulate a solution with clarity.
This is the essence of authority.
It’s the vision to see what’s broken and the conviction to design a fix. The tools to actually build that fix?
Those are becoming table stakes.
In the age of authority driven by AI, our ability to solve problems with unique, specific, and proprietary solutions using tools like Lovable, Famous AI, or Claude Code becomes the ultimate competitive advantage.
This is going to allow sole proprietors and microbusinesses to compete against enterprise-level competitors in ways those enterprise-level competitors never thought possible.
The Rise of the One-Person Unicorn
The “one-person unicorn” is no longer a myth. It’s the logical conclusion of extreme leverage.
AI is collapsing entire organizational layers.
Marketing that used to require a team of specialists? Automated workflows.
Customer support that needed call centers? Handled by intelligent agents.
Software development that demanded engineering teams? "Vibe-coded" into existence.
Analytics that required entire data departments? Always-on copilots.
The founder is no longer the chief “doer.” They are the architect, the orchestrator, the taste-maker.
Think less “founder with a laptop” and more “CEO of invisible employees who never sleep.”
Look at Dave Clark, the former CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer.
He recently shared how he built an entire end-to-end customer prototype, reworked a critical deck, and created a custom CRM in a single weekend. “Three things that used to take months happened in 72 hours,” he wrote.
He didn’t do it to save a few bucks.
He did it because he needed it done and could do it himself faster and better than any off-the-shelf solution.
When challenged by skeptics, he shot back:
“The skepticism in the comments just shows how wide the gap is between the observers and the builders.”
That quote should be tattooed on the forehead of every founder who’s still waiting for permission.
The Arsenal: “Vibe Coding” and the Tools of Creation
“Vibe coding” isn’t about knowing a programming language.
It’s about having a clear vision and communicating it to an AI that can execute.
Tools like Lovable, Famous AI, and Claude Code are the new hammers and chisels for the digital age.
But let’s get real. This isn’t a free lunch.
This isn’t some four-hour workweek fantasy where you sip margaritas while your AI empire runs itself.
Jason Lemkin of SaaStr, who has built over a dozen AI-powered apps used by hundreds of thousands of people, puts it best:
“A vibe coded app isn’t a house you build once. It’s a garden. And gardens need daily attention.”
It’s not “no work”; it’s “different work.”
The leverage is insane, but it requires a new kind of discipline—the discipline of the orchestrator, not the laborer.
You’re not grinding away at the code; you’re tending the vision, iterating on the product, and making decisions that matter.
The Unreasonable Advantage
The competitive advantage is no longer the complexity of your code. It’s the clarity of your thinking.
As one sharp analyst at William Blair noted:
“For the most successful and scaled software companies, determining what to build next and how it should function within a broader system is fundamentally more important and more challenging than the technical act of building and coding it.”
Read that again.
The hard part isn’t building.
The hard part is knowing what to build.
…and that’s a human problem.
That’s an authority problem.
This is where the unreasonable man thrives. George Bernard Shaw said it best:
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man works to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress is made by the unreasonable man.”
These tools are for the unreasonable ones.
The ones who see a problem and refuse to accept that it can’t be solved.
The ones who don’t wait for a team, a budget, or a blessing from the board.
Build Your Rome
The Romans were the greatest builders of their time.
They had manpower, resources, and engineering prowess. They built roads, aqueducts, and an empire that lasted centuries.
But they didn’t have this. They didn’t have the ultimate leverage.
The tools are here.
The opportunity is now.
The only thing missing is your vision and your will.
Stop waiting for permission. Stop thinking you need a team of 50.
Stop believing you need to be a “coder.”
Your job is to find a painful problem and design a beautiful solution. The tools to build it are now at your fingertips.
What Rome will you build?
This is the way.
Hanley
Whenever you’re ready, there are two ways I can help you:
Finding Peak Insider
If you’re ready to stop being just an expert and start becoming an authority, become a Finding Peak Insider. You get access to all my prompt guides, frameworks, and a community of leaders building their own authority brands.
1:1 Authority Coaching
I am taking on a limited number of one-on-one coaching clients who are serious about creating their own authoritative brand. If that’s you, email me at ryan@findingpeak.com with the subject line “Authority” and tell me about your business.
This piece really got me thinking about the future of work and, honestly, my own field. It's refreshing to think we might finaly see a shift towards rewarding vision and "knowing what needs to be done" over just raw technical headcount.