The customers know he was hacked because the hacker sent an email to everyone on the customer list. Yet none of the customers left and he's only grown the customer base since then.

I think that tells you something: they have a real, painful, and costly problem to solve that he solves for them to a T.

> ...normie-coded startups

Having been in the startup space for the last 20 years spanning bootstrapped companies to startups that raised $8m seed rounds to startups that raised a $100m C round, I've learned that there's only one thing that matters: solving valuable problems and getting that in front of customers.

You can be as technically pristine as you want and live in an ivory tower, but that rarely if ever leads to a successful entrepreneurial endeavor.