Discovery is the new distribution

Alex MacGregor

30 Jan 2026 — 1 min read

Perhaps the most famous ad of all time is "1984" from Apple.

It used a unnamed woman to represent the coming of the Macintosh as a means of saving humanity from "conformity" aka IBM. Now, we have another 1984 type moment.

You can now vibe code straight to a mobile app. Natural language in. Publishable, monetizable iOS app out.

For years, Apple’s biggest moat wasn’t just hardware. It was the App Store gatekeeping. Developers, SDKs, reviews, complexity. Pretty well documented.

While Apple still controls distribution and still controls hardware for now (another topic), it has one big, looming problem.

Replit and likely others soon just collapsed the creation side of that moat. Apps now take minutes to build and publish, not days.

The software supply side just exploded. And it will break the Apple App Store review process as we know it.

Built during the pre-AI era, now the fastest-growing apps find ways to grow despite it, not because of it.

Case in point: ChatGPT had 100 million users, based on early adoption metrics from that period, before the iOS app was available.

The real challenge then will be helping people find what you built. This changes the job for builders and brands.

For builders, it means distribution is no longer a “later” problem. You don’t earn attention by default just because you shipped. You earn it by showing up. By explaining. By teaching. By being visible long before the product is perfect.

For brands, it means marketing is less about polish and more about guidance. People don’t want to be sold to. They want to be helped to the right choice in an overwhelming sea of options.

Search, social, creators, communities, podcasts, newsletters. These are no longer channels. They are now discovery layers.

That coupled with a broken App Store will mean the winners in this next phase won’t necessarily build the most advanced technology.

They’ll be the ones who make themselves easiest to understand, easiest to trust, and easiest to discover.

Discovery is the new distribution.

Introducing: Launch

When we built Launch a few weeks ago, we didn’t expect much. Instead, something different happened. Founders started showing up. Then creators. Then indie makers. Then teams launching their first AI products. Then—somehow—the numbers kept climbing. In the last 28 days, Launch has seen over 6,000

Introducing: Creators

We built a new app for creators. Before: creators need to manually create a media kit for brands with their portfolio, rates etc on Canva or Google Slides. Now: use AI or add your info manually, get an always accessible media kit page you can share with brands. No more

Introducing: Creators 200

Creators are arguably now more influential than billionaires. But there’s never been a 'Forbes List' for them. Now there is 👉🏻 https://creators200.com/ Backstory: we have been tracking creators for media database Media AI when I thought..why not put 2+2 together? So, we made a

Do Judge a Book by Its Cover

Why is “Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” terrible advice in Marketing, Branding, and PR? You’ve heard it a million times: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But in the world of marketing, branding, and PR—that advice is not just wrong, it’s dangerous.

Read more

Introducing: Launch

Introducing: Creators

Introducing: Creators 200

Do Judge a Book by Its Cover