By now, most people in tech have seen it. If not, here’s the full comment, that sparked a wildfire in the community, where he said:
“75% of the people on our engineering team lost their jobs here yesterday because of the brutal impact AI has had on our business. And every second I spend trying to do fun free things for the community like this is a second I'm not spending trying to turn the business around and make sure the people who are still here are getting their paychecks every month.”
Let’s unpack that.
What is Tailwinds Business Model?
In short:
Prebuilt UI components (HTML + Tailwind CSS snippets)
An UI kit for React and/or Headless UI
One-time payment, no recurring revenue
In a space with insane competition:
Flowbite
DaisyUI
Preline
HyperUI
Headless UI
TW Elements
TailGrids
FlyonUI
Meraki UI
Wind UI
Ripple UI
Material Tailwind
Some of these are completely free. So, yeah, you get the idea: if your product is a one-time bundle of copy-pastable HTML, and every mid-level dev can churn out each block in some hours or even minutes... That's not exactly a good long-term strategy in this market.
What a 75% Layoff Really Means
A 75% layoff sounds catastrophic, until you realize it's about three people. No punchline.
The Media Hype Train
Big dev YouTubers like Theo - t3․gg jumped in to declare:
“This is one of the first examples of AI immediately causing engineers to lose jobs.”
Come on, man. For real?
My 2 Cents
Is it still sad? Yes, of course. Tailwind is arguably the most popular UI library in web development right now. But when your entire business sits on a shaky foundation, it doesn’t take AI to pull the rug out. That said, the drama paid off. Tailwind landed a wave of new sponsorships in just a few days: Vercel, Google AI Studio, Theo himself, and loveable.
Hopefully, they don’t just survive. But learn something from it too.
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