Streamline C project setup before builders lose hours
The Problem
C/C++ developers lose 20-30% of build time to CMake configuration on Windows, with hello-world projects taking 2-3 minutes due to compiler checks, linking hangs, and lack of caching. Clean builds for complex projects like game engines take ~8 minutes without optimizations, dropping incrementally but requiring manual PCH and cache setup. CI environments see CMake consume up to 50% of total build time for projects like LLVM, creating bottlenecks for frequent new project spins.
Real Demand Evidence
Found on Hacker News ↗·2 months ago
"Every time I wanted to start something new I'd spend the first hour writing CMakeLists.txt, figuring out find_package, copying boilerplate from my last project, and googling why my library isn't linking."
Core Insight
Automates instant C project boilerplate, pre-configured linking, and compiler checks to cut first-hour setup to seconds, filling gaps in CMake's Windows slowness, Ninja's lack of generation, and vcpkg/Conan's missing scaffolding.
- Target Customer
- Solo C/C++ indie hackers and indie game devs creating 5-10 new prototypes yearly; ~1.2M C++ devs globally (TIOBE index), with 20% on Windows facing acute setup pain, spending 2-5 hours/project manually.
- Revenue Model
- $10-20/month subscription (freemium CLI core, pro cloud templates/sync), undercutting no direct paid competitors while anchoring to time savings of $50+/hour dev rates vs. free tools' hidden costs
Competitive Landscape
Free (open source)
CMake configuration is notoriously slow on Windows, taking up to 30% of build time even with optimizations like ccache, and requires manual troubleshooting for compiler checks and caching. Initial project setup involves writing boilerplate CMakeLists.txt files from scratch, leading to wasted hours on linking and basic structure for every new project.
Free (open source)
Ninja excels at fast parallel builds but does not handle project generation, linking setup, or boilerplate creation; it requires a prior CMake configuration step, which remains a bottleneck for initial setups.
Free (open source)
vcpkg simplifies package management and linking for C++ projects but does not automate full project boilerplate or CMakeLists.txt generation, forcing devs to manually configure build systems for new projects.
Free (open source, Conan Center)
Conan focuses on C/C++ package management and dependency resolution but lacks tools for rapid initial project scaffolding or CMake boilerplate automation, leaving setup time-intensive.
Willingness to Pay
- Time savings equivalent to hours per project setup (30% build time bottleneck)
CMake time was 30.28% of all build time on Windows with MinGW; optimizations reduced it to 20.16%, but compiler checks still require manual caching efforts that developers gave up on.
https://cristianadam.eu/20170709/speeding-up-cmake/[1]
- 2-3 minutes per simple project setup
CMake takes 2-3 minutes to build and run a hello world program on Windows, with linking hanging on every compile.
https://github.com/exercism/cpp/issues/301[3]
- 20-30 minutes baseline setup time
Basic cmake --build takes 20-30 minutes; parallel builds speed up 5-10x, showing demand for faster initial setup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW4ay6wSfAk[4]
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