Product Fridays

Introducing Sous Chef, our newest app

Big news! Sous Chef, [http://app.souschef.cool/] our AI-powered app for creative cooking, is officially in open beta 🎉 Now, we’re not saying we’re the next coming of Bobby Flay and Alton Brown, but we both know our way around the kitchen. And we’ve always been frustrated by the dearth of purpose-built products that match how we like to cook. So, we’re designing our own. Sous Chef makes cooking amazing meals easier, more spontaneous, and more fun. Take a look! [http://app.souschef.cool] In this episode, we break down what Sous Chef does, how McGill came up with the idea while reading recipe newsletters, and why nailing down the perfect set of features is so dang hard. Also, should we rename the app “Cooking Idiot”? That’s what Phelps wants. We’ll let you draw your own conclusions We’d love to hear your feedback on the beta. Give it a try and drop us a note at hello@productfridays.com [hello@productfridays.com] with your thoughts. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com [https://productfridays.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Revealed: The Product We'll Vibecode Out of Existence

Last week, we threw down the gauntlet: We’re joining the SaaSpocalypse and picking one of our software subscriptions to replace with a vibecoded substitute. The people spoke: It’s QuickBooks. We suspect QB has very few fans. Much like other big platforms (e.g. Jira, and increasingly Zoom), it’s tried to become everything to everyone over years — and ended up completely incomprehensible to anyone. It’s the opposite of an “opinionated product.” In this new era of frictionless personalized software, its breadth feels like bloat. We simply don’t need all of it! (And we’re not the only people thinking this. Intuit’s stock has dropped by a third since the beginning of the year.) In this episode, we dig into what actually would be the perfect bookkeeping software for two guys named Andrew (and maybe you, too). We don’t want to spoil anything, but “Partiful for expense categorization” DID come up. Next week: We unveil our creation. Stay tuned. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com [https://productfridays.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Help us pick which SaaS platform to vibecode out of existence

Earlier this week, the NASDAQ’s most powerful software stocks took a massive nosedive because an AI provider published a plugin. [https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/ai-threatens-a-wall-street-cash-cow-financial-and-legal-data-6782657e?st=wws866&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink] It sounds kind of silly, like the (probably apocryphal [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_mice_and_rats#Elephants_and_mice]) thing where elephants are deathly afraid of mice. But the numbers don’t lie. Some of the biggest software platforms around — Intuit, Adobe, LegalZoom — did indeed lose hundreds of billions in market capitalization after Anthropic added a legal research plugin to their new Cowork product. What are they worried about? It’s not just about Anthropic competing with legal software. The real fear is that Claude and other AI tools can help anyone spin up passable alternatives to expensive SaaS products — an era of personal software. Who needs to pay QuickBooks $500 a year to balance their books when an AI can build you a custom replacement in an afternoon? Is this fear justified? We’re going to find out by stress-testing our own software stack. We went through every recurring subscription we pay for and asked: Could we build a decent substitute using Claude? These are our top picks. Vote below to help us choose which one to tackle first. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com [https://productfridays.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Introducing The Andrew Company

Folks, we did the dang thing. After six years of friendship, three years of consulting together, and 10 beautiful months of Friday podcasting — The Andrews are officially joining forces to create The Andrew Company. [https://the.andrew.company] (Here’s our official launch video [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/the-andrew-company_we-are-andrew-mcgill-and-andrew-phelps-and-activity-7416913005063585793-qj3g?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAJqfv8BNy-T--1JUsuV1K45lmYYGqzLe3k] — shot in Phelps's daughter’s playroom.) We have two goals: * Create delightful (and opinionated) products together. We love tools that solve specific problems extremely well — apps like Flighty [https://flighty.com] and YNAB. [https://www.ynab.com] So we’re doubling down. The Andrew Company’s primary output is joyful products (and podcast episodes). We’re already at work on Re:verb, [https://www.reverb.email] Bandwagon [https://bandwagon.chat], and Sous Chef. [https://www.souschef.cool] * Help companies, big and small, take ideas from a blank whiteboard to v1.0. Starting is hard! We make it easy. We help teams turn early ideas into first versions of real products or new lines of business — from places like CNN [https://cnn.com] and The Washington Post [https://www.washpost.com] to startups like Till Financial. [https://www.tillfinancial.com] In this episode, we walk through why we decided to join forces and how we worked through our differences as co-founders. This is a big step for us. And we have to say — we’re very grateful to all of you. Product Fridays, in some ways, is the beta version of The Andrew Company. This community, and your feedback, has been invaluable in helping us decide what matters most for our business and working lives. Thanks for being part of it. And here’s to many more Fridays to come. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com [https://productfridays.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Getting Real About 2025 (And Our Bets For 2026)

Happy almost New Year! This is a year-in-review episode, but we’ll save you the usual LinkedIn end-of-year pablum. Some things about 2025 were hard. Andrew Phelps shares how he dealt with unexpected business pressure; McGill talks about his “duck months” — calm on the surface, paddling like hell underneath. Some of you might have felt the same way? But 2025 also gave us some incredible gifts. Clarity! Some really important work! And of course, this podcast and community. You are one of the best things that happened this year. Thank you for being with us. On to 2026. We’ve got predictions for the year, and we’re doing our best Polymarket impression and applying confidence intervals to each. For instance, we’re 90% sure that if you listen and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, we’ll write you a personalized limerick. But we’re only 10% sure our poetry will be any good. Mentioned in this episode: Honestly, so many things, but here are some of the more unusual suspects: * MS NOW (née MSNBC) * Parent company Versant * The Walt Disney Company * Nano Banana Pro * And ofc Gemini/ChatGPT/Claude et al * Perplexity * That time Phelps’ flight almost crashed [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewphelpsllc_i-was-onboard-jetblue-flight-967-this-morning-activity-7300199902242885632-isPr?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAJqfv8BNy-T--1JUsuV1K45lmYYGqzLe3k] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com [https://productfridays.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]