Second Brain

Claude Code: The Side Project That Got 2 Likes

The Story

Claude Code started as a personal prototype in September 2024. Boris was the only person on the team. He built it in a terminal because that’s what he used every day.

At the time, AI coding meant autocomplete. Tab to fill in a line. Boris was building that too, until his manager Ben Mann pushed him: “Don’t build for the model of today. Build for the model 6 months from now.”

For months, Claude Code was mediocre. Boris used it for maybe 10% of his coding. The models just weren’t capable enough for most tasks.

When he announced Claude Code internally at Anthropic, the post barely registered. It got 2 likes.

But people started using it. Within a single day, 20% of Anthropic’s engineering was on it. By day five, 50% had adopted it. Nobody was told to. The product spoke for itself.

Then Sonnet and Opus 4 launched, and the product “just worked.” Usage exploded. Now 80-90% of Claude Code is written by Claude Code. It generates 4% of all GitHub commits. It crossed $1 billion in annual revenue.

From 2 likes to $1B in under a year.

Lesson for Creators

Initial reception means nothing. If you built something you genuinely need, others probably need it too. Stop waiting for applause and start watching adoption. The internal announcement got 2 likes, but 50% of engineers were using it within five days. Engagement metrics lie. Usage metrics don’t.

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