How a developer built an AI radio and encountered Tunio, a competitor

You're sitting in a garage, listening to your own music service and tinkering with it at the same time. You study competitors and stumble upon an article on Habr from the founder of Tunio. And suddenly it hits you: God, this is such a similar solo entrepreneur like me, and he created practically the same service. A mix of disappointment and admiration overwhelms you simultaneously.

Two Solo Entrepreneurs, Two Paths

The deeper I dug, the more interesting it became. We arrived at similar results through completely different routes. The author of Tunio was growing his service as a pet-project with an emphasis on the technical side, with a classic programmer's approach — like an engineer solving a problem optimally from a code perspective. My path turned out to be different.

This is one of those moments when you realize: ideas are in the air. When the technology matures, when the right tool appears (in our case — modern AI API), several people can arrive at a similar solution independently of each other. The main difference is always in the implementation details, in what you keep and what you discard.

What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from This

This story can be useful for those building their own project from scratch. Several practical conclusions:

• An identical idea doesn't mean failure — it's an indication that the idea is relevant
• Different approaches to one task show that there's no single correct solution
• Meeting a similar project — a stimulus to go deeper into details and uniqueness
• The solo entrepreneur path forces you to find your own way, not copy someone else's
• Reflection on your own path helps you understand which solutions were successful

Garage Code as Idea Validation

Creating a music service with AI in a garage — it's not just a hobby, it's a way to probe the market, understand your real user, refine your approach. When you're alone and doing everything yourself — from architecture to features to first marketing attempts — you very quickly learn what works and what doesn't. Meeting Tunio showed that another engineer chose a similar path. This validates the idea. But the most important thing is that each of us chose our own way of implementation, our own set of priorities. And both ways have the right to exist.

Competition as Validation

If you're building a startup and meet a competitor — don't be afraid. On the contrary, it means the idea is truly relevant, that the market is ready to consume it. The main thing is to do it your own way, taking into account your strengths, your vision and your approach to the problem. It's in this difference that competitive advantage is born.