Hey,

You're getting this because you either followed me on X, signed up on thepeptidelist.com, or someone forwarded this to you. Either way, welcome. This is issue #1. Let's see where this goes.

Quick context: I'm Andrei. I build ThePeptideList.com, the largest independent peptide provider directory on the internet. One person, AI tools, no investors, no sponsors. I write about building things, the peptide industry, and whatever else is on my mind.

Here's what I've been thinking about this week.

I shipped 198 pages in one afternoon.

Not a typo. Using Claude as a coding partner, I generated dosage guides, comparison pages, city landing pages, and vendor reviews across ThePeptideList. All templated, all SEO-optimized, all with real data.

The shift isn't "AI writes code." The shift is: one person with clear product sense can now move at the speed of a small team. I don't have a CTO, a head of content, or an SEO manager. I have a markdown file called STATE.md and an AI that reads it every morning.

The bottleneck is no longer execution. It's knowing what to build.

Takeaway: If you're building something and thinking you need a team first, you probably don't. Start with a STATE.md and an AI. Add humans when the AI can't make the decisions anymore.

The FDA vs. compounding pharmacies, explained simply.

Here's what's happening: Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk make brand-name GLP-1 drugs (Mounjaro, Ozempic, Wegovy). These cost $1,000-1,500/month. Compounding pharmacies make the same molecules for $100-300/month. The FDA recently started cracking down on those compounders, arguing that the "shortage" of brand-name drugs is over, so compounders can no longer legally produce copies.

Why this matters to you: if you're getting semaglutide or tirzepatide from a compounding pharmacy, that access may not last. The legal battles are ongoing. We're tracking all of this at ThePeptideList, including which pharmacies are 503A vs 503B, which have FDA warnings, and which are still operating.

Read more: 503A vs 503B Pharmacies: What's the Difference?

Nobody tells you how quiet it is.

Building solo is great for speed, terrible for morale. There's no one to high-five when a feature ships. No one to complain to when a deploy breaks at midnight. No Slack channel with reaction emojis. Just you, a terminal, and the quiet satisfaction of watching your analytics tick up by single digits.

I got my first verified provider this month. Dr. Mark Anton at Aesthetics MD agreed to be listed with a verification badge. It's a small thing. But it meant someone looked at what I built and said "yes, this is legitimate." That was a good day.

The fix for the loneliness isn't co-founders or employees. It's building in public. Telling people what you're doing. Getting feedback in DMs instead of standup meetings. This newsletter is part of that fix.

Indie Hackers: Why Solo Founders Win — Not a specific article, but the entire community. If you're building alone, this is your water cooler. The stories of people turning side projects into real businesses keep me going when the analytics are flat and the to-do list is infinite.

I think about this every time someone asks if the peptide space is "too crowded" or if it's "too late" to start building with AI. It's never too late. The people who started yesterday are only one day ahead.

That's issue #1. If you liked it, forward it to someone who builds things. If you hated it, reply and tell me why. I read everything.

See you next week.

Andrei
@andreimellas on X
thepeptidelist.com

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