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- Hacker News
- FYI we've built this internally and it was a pain, so I was excited to check out what you've built to see if it was a good fit for us.
But your landing page + video was just slop city. Removes 100% of credibility for me.
I know the advice is launch early and often, but honestly I would just point people to the github until you have something better.
by themanmaran - Was ready to try this until I saw the launch video. It's pure AI slop.
If that's the first impression you're giving, you're underselling what looks like a legitimately useful product :(
by 0xnyn - Fair critique on the video :') We’re working on a studio-recorded version, but didn’t want to delay the launch, so we hacked this together as the script/placeholder for now. But this is our launch video, completely, 100% recorded in blood and flesh of a human: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HsDtNkdMpMby adeelraza
- Vibe coded website that looks like it was one-shotted in 5 minutes. Doesn't even work on mobile, the copy wraps off the screen. How can we take you seriously?by dbbk
- I had to close the page after 5 seconds, seeing the AI slop.by m4rkuskk
- If this can fully replace something like postmark plus do documents it could be very interesting. I might try it out in a year or so if it’s still around.
- We will be around. Have been for 5 years :)by adeelraza
- Congrats on the launch, but don't mostly people use AI now for most of the ui and frontend tasks, why would they go through all of this if they can just ask AI?by axa27
- AI needs structured output and that’s exactly what Unlayer Elements provides for emails and documents. And visual builders on top of that.by adeelraza
- The interesting part to me is the boundary you’re drawing around AI output: agents generating structured React components that can be reviewed, versioned, and later opened in a visual builder, rather than another unowned HTML blob.
A practical launch follow-up would be to look for live conversations from teams building AI-assisted invoice, proposal, report, or email workflows and getting stuck on that handoff from generation to editable production content. With the Unlayer positioning and ideal user as input, racoonn.me can surface those timely Reddit/X threads and produce reply drafts that address the stated implementation problem before mentioning the relevant builder or Elements workflow.
That is not a substitute for docs or examples around the component model. It is the discovery-and-first-response layer for finding people who are already trying to solve the exact problem you describe.
by hohoyaya43 - Congrats on the launch! Elements seems really useful and practical, what's the response been from builders so far?by edc88
- We’re seeing really good momentum with our open source projects. React email editor and elements.by adeelraza
- I think the key issue is not whether an LLM can make a 10-minute demo, but who maintains all the edge cases afterward: template state, email-safe HTML, export, permissions, custom blocks, and previews. Which part is usually the hardest for customers to integrate today?by Natalia724
- Yes, maintaining is the real issue. And also battle testing the quality of software.by adeelraza
- Congrats on the launch, and welcome to HN. This is a real problem and it is good to see more teams taking it seriously. For a bit of context, and full disclosure that I am on the other side of this market: we built Beefree SDK around almost exactly this use case about ten years ago. We started with an embeddable email editor and expanded into popups and web pages over time, so the pain points you describe, Outlook quirks, merge tags, exports, versioning, localization, plus many others like security, scale, and collaborative editing, are all very familiar to us. I am not saying this to rain on your parade. The category has been maturing for a while now and there is genuinely room for good products in it. Honestly, HN was a big part of how we got off the ground in the early days. A launch post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8474744) is a lot of why we were able to grow and develop at all, so I have real appreciation for founders sharing their work here. Happy to compare notes any time.by Nazzareno
- Congrats on your late Launch HN. Everyone's going to ask this question but, in a world of AI/LLMs, why wouldn't I just build it myself in 10 minby orliesaurus
- Not the OP, nor do I have any relationship to them, but I've had to build or maintain plenty of these in my time and sure, an LLM can knock out a basic one easily, but there are so many edge cases that need to be accounted for that it gets complex quickly.
Congrats on the launch - this looks like a genuinely useful tool. I look forward to checking it out.
by leftnode - I see this question a lot. Not associated with OP but most companies don't want to maintain a bunch of vibed up apps they don't understand.
I work outside of SV in the southeast and most businesses know AI is being used for products they use but they want experts in that field behind that.
by greenhat76 - Totally fair. You can build the first 10-minute demo with an LLM now.
The hard part is usually what comes after: editable state, templates, email-safe HTML, PDF/export pipelines, assets, permissions, custom blocks, previews, and all the rendering edge cases that show up once real users depend on it.
AI also makes structure more important, not less. That’s why we launched Unlayer Elements: instead of having an LLM generate a static blob of HTML, it can target structured components that map back into an editable email, web page or document.
So I'd use AI to prototype it. I'd use Unlayer when that content layer becomes production infrastructure you don't want to maintain yourself.
by adeelraza - Marketing site feedback - Use of the primary color in the checkbox is confusing at a glance. I see a red like color and think "Oh they don't support s3"
- As a content creator, this intrigued me until I saw the AI-generated overview video front and center on the homepage. The subtext communicates that the product was designed for fake people standing in front of large fake touchscreens dragging fake elements around.by iAMkenough
- Fair critique on the video :') We’re working on a studio-recorded version, but didn’t want to delay the launch, so we hacked this together as the script/placeholder for now. The demo is completely, 100% recorded in blood and flesh of a human: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HsDtNkdMpMby adeelraza