The Pieter Levels Model

The Stack That Makes VCs Cringe

Pieter Levels' tech stack would fail any "modern" technical interview:

# The Pieter Levels Stack
Backend:     PHP (not Laravel, just PHP)
Frontend:    jQuery (yes, in 2024)
Database:    SQLite (a single file!)
Hosting:     A few VPS servers
Build tools: None
Team size:   1

# Revenue: $2.5M+ annually across products
# Users:   Millions

This stack is "wrong" according to every tech blog, Twitter influencer, and startup advisor. Yet it powers profitable businesses while VC-funded startups with "proper" architectures burn through millions and shut down.

Why "Boring" Technology Works

1. No Dependency Hell

When your stack is PHP and jQuery, you don't wake up to 47 security vulnerabilities in your node_modules. You don't spend mornings fixing breaking changes from dependency updates. Your code just... works.

2. Zero Build Time

Change a PHP file, refresh the browser. That's the entire deployment process. No Webpack watching, no TypeScript compilation, no waiting. The feedback loop is instant.

3. SQLite Is Actually Amazing

SQLite is often dismissed as a "toy" database. In reality:

• • It handles hundreds of thousands of requests per second
• • Backups are just copying a file
• • No database server to maintain
• • Zero network latency (it's local)
• • Used by literally billions of devices

4. One Person Can Understand Everything

With a simple stack, one developer holds the entire system in their head. There's no "ask the frontend team" or "check with DevOps." Every decision, every bug, every optimization is within reach.

The Myth of "But It Won't Scale"

The most common objection: "That stack can't handle scale." Let's examine this:

The truth is: most applications will never hit scale problems. And if you do hit them, that's a good problem—it means you have users and revenue. You can optimize then, with actual data about what needs optimizing.

Optimizing for scale before you have users is like buying a warehouse before you've sold your first product.

The Productivity Advantage

Simple stacks create a massive productivity advantage:

When Pieter Levels ships a feature, he's writing PHP and SQL. When a "modern" developer ships a feature, they're wrestling with TypeScript generics, debugging Webpack sourcemaps, and waiting for their CI pipeline.

What This Teaches Us

1. Technology Choices Are Often Cargo Culting

We choose React because "everyone uses React." We use TypeScript because "serious developers use TypeScript." We add GraphQL because "modern APIs use GraphQL." But do we actually need any of it? Often, no.

2. Complexity Has Real Costs

Every dependency is a liability. Every abstraction is cognitive overhead. Every new tool is a learning curve. These costs compound. Simple stacks avoid them entirely.

3. Revenue Doesn't Care About Your Stack

Users pay for solutions to their problems. They don't care if you built it with PHP or with a microservices architecture running on Kubernetes. They care if it works.

4. Solo Developers Can Compete

The Pieter Levels model proves that one developer with simple tools can build products that compete with funded startups. The leverage comes from focus, not from team size.

Applying the Pieter Levels Model

You don't need to use PHP and SQLite. The model is about principles, not specific technologies:

• Choose boring technology you know well — Mastery beats trendiness. Your productivity with familiar tools will dwarf your productivity with new ones.
• Minimize dependencies — Every npm package is a liability. Every service is a point of failure. Use the minimum viable stack.
• Optimize for iteration speed — The faster you can test ideas, the faster you find what works. Simple stacks iterate faster.
• Solve for today's problems — Don't build for imaginary scale. Build for current users. You can always refactor when you have real constraints.

The Contrarian Advantage

While the industry obsesses over the latest framework, solo developers like Pieter Levels quietly build profitable businesses with "obsolete" technology. They ship features while others debate architecture. They make money while others wait for builds to complete.

There's something almost subversive about it. In an industry that worships complexity, simplicity is the ultimate rebellion. And often, the most profitable one.