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It's not directly comparable. The first time writing the code is always the hardest because you might have to figure out the requirements along the way. When you have the initial system running for a while, doing a second one is easier because all the requirements kinks are figured out.

By the way, why does your co-founder have to do the rewrite at all?

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I find the opposite to be true. Once you know the problem you’re trying to solve (which admittedly can be the biggest lift), writing the fist cut of the code is fun, and you can design the system and set precedent however you want. Once it’s in the wild, you have to work within the consequences of your initial decisions, including bad ones.

... And the undocumented code spaghetti that might come with a codebase that was touch by numerous hands.

You can compare it - just factor that in. And compare writing it with AI vs. writing it without AI.

We have no clue the scope of the rewrite but for anything non-trivial, 2 weeks just isn't going to be possible without AI. To the point of you probably not doing it at all.

I have no idea why they are rewriting the code. That's another matter.

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