Anybody Can Vibe Code a Startup Now
As vibe coding continues to gain traction, this year has seen a surge in startups built purely on instinct and improvisation. In a recent YC podcast, global partner Jared Friedman shared that nearly 25% of founders in the latest batch have said that AI writes more than 95% of their codebase. Adding to this perspective, CEO Garry Tan noted that some founders are so new to programming that they’ve never known a world without tools like Cursor, which allows them to vibe code using AI. Citing an example from the current batch, Friedman said the founders have highly technical minds but aren’t classically trained in computer science or programming. Yet, they’re incredibly productive and capable of building impressive products. “AI is writing almost the entire thing. It reminds me of the discourse around the first digital natives who grew up with the internet. This generation grew up with native AI coding tools, skipped classical software engineering training, and just does it with the vibes.” These aren’t just one-off stories. YC believes in them. Moreover, others are starting to follow. Solopreneurs Ship Faster Than Ever Billy Howell, a self-taught solopreneur, is a poster child for this shift. In a viral LinkedIn post, he shared how AI agents, especially Replit’s, let solo creators ship products at a fraction of traditional costs. “AI agents (Replit’s) empower solopreneurs and small teams to deliver code at a fraction of the cost it used to. This lowers the barrier to entry for millions of business owners who previously would have to pay an arm and a leg for custom software,” Howell said in a LinkedIn post. He even sold an app earlier this year, built on Replit, for $750. It was a KPI tracker for a car technician coaching business. In a YouTube video, he even shared a tutorial on how to build and sell AI apps. Howell advised creators not to start with grand startup visions. Instead, he focuses on small, specific pain points that businesses are actually willing to pay to solve. “The easiest thing you can do to set yourself up to develop and sell an app is to find a one-feature problem…It’s so simple,” he said. Whether it’s uploading documents, automating reports, or data entry, these small jobs are easy to scope and ship quickly. When Howell encountered tasks outside his expertise, he leaned on ChatGPT to get the job done. “I had clients that needed stuff that I didn’t know how to do, but I said, ‘Sure, I can do that.’ And…just pasting entire documents into ChatGPT, saying ‘Fix this.’” He started with tools like Airtable and Softr, then moved to coding with AI assistance as his confidence grew. Replit became his go-to platform for fast app development, and tools like V0 helped him generate user interfaces with minimal effort. Once the prototype worked, Howell sold MVPs for flat fees often in the $500–750 range, and offered ongoing support and hosting for $100–300 per month. This is the new pace of software development. What once took dozens of engineers and VC funding now takes one person with a clear idea and some tokens. The trend is so serious that DocuSign has sent a legal notice to Michael Luo, a developer who built a free alternative to its platform. His version offered a similar set of features and was built using ChatGPT, Cursor, and Lovable. From Side Projects to Fundable Startups Brad Lindenberg, co-founder of Quadpay and currently leading the United States operations at an investment firm, recently developed a project called Biography Studio AI, which can create full-length biographies of someone using only voice prompts. Lindenberg added that he had never coded before and built the project solo using Replit. “It’s a passion project that took eight weeks to build and $1,500 of tokens, which Replit Agent estimated would have cost $1.7 million and a team of eight to build over eight to 12 months without AI.” In another instance, Brazilian edtech player Qconcursos generated $3 million in just 48 hours after building their new platform on Lovable, a vibe coding tool. They used just two developers for a task that would have otherwise taken a team of 30. Lovable co-founder Anton Osika said that he will invest in startups built in Lovable. In a very short time, he received hundreds of names. Projects ranged from personal tools to full-fledged marketplaces. He shared that 2.5M sites were built with Lovable in June. “That’s over 10% of all new sites on the internet that month.” One of them, Everydesk, is a fully vibe-coded marketplace for underutilised office space, currently onboarding clients in the Netherlands. There’s also MakerThrive, a community for vibe coders itself, boasting over 1,500 members and 400 shipped products, all built with over 2,000 commits on Lovable. MyEcho lets businesses collect video testimonials from customers, while Components by Damien offers a futuristic UI library featuring glassmorphism and prismatic lighting for modern apps. Resume Optimizer helps users optimise their resumes based on job descriptions. Another notable example is Wilbe, a platform supporting scientist-led ventures, with a 1,300-member community and a combined portfolio valuation of $680 million. These are just a few examples of what’s being built on Lovable. At the same time, many are turning to Replit to build software from scratch. Replit is helping Zillow, a major online real estate marketplace, involve non-engineers in the development process. Employees who previously couldn’t code are now contributing to the company’s routing system, which connects thousands of home buyers with property agents. Jesse, who works in product strategy at Jaguars Football, shared in a post on X that he used Replit to build a workflow and scheduling platform for event-based temp staffing. The tool connects event organisers and staffing agencies, allowing teams to request and assign roles for upcoming events. He was initially quoted $68,000 per month for a contract by another company, but ended up building it himself. “I’m a PM with no coding background, but with Replit, I was able to build it myself for $226 total. In two weeks, the app went from idea to beta testing. Insane where tech is these days.” Another Reddit user shared how they used Replit’s vibe coding to build a wedding marketplace for Indian weddings quickly. “I fed that prompt into Replit, and within minutes, I had a mockup that was 70–80% of what I envisioned,” they wrote. The app included vendor listings, a booking dashboard, and even a pastel wedding aesthetic, “almost ready to share with potential collaborators across the internet”. In another instance, Digvijay Dey, a product manager at Vymo, recently experimented with vibe coding using Replit and was stunned by the outcome. “I’m still wrapping my head around what just happened,” he said, after watching a simple idea, connecting professionals with interview seekers for mock interviews, turn into a full-blown product. Replit auto-generated a complete file structure, built out a multi-screen UI from signup to user profiles, integrated his Google Cloud account, and even connected Calendar APIs after prompting him for the necessary keys. “It just kept asking the right questions, and I kept feeding it what it needed,” he said. Vibe coding is the startup shortcut no one saw coming. Builders are moving from idea to product in days: no engineers, no investors and no gatekeepers. With the right instinct and the right tools, they’re shipping faster, cheaper, and with more creative freedom than ever before. The vibe isn’t just real. It’s revenue-generating.
YC CEO Garry Tan noted that some founders are so new to programming that they’ve never known a world without tools like Cursor.
As vibe coding continues to gain traction, this year has seen a surge in startups built purely on instinct and improvisation. In a recent YC podcast, global partner Jared Friedman shared that nearly 25% of founders in the latest batch have said that AI writes more than 95% of their codebase.
["lovable", "Y Combinator"]
["Go", "ChatGPT", "lovable", "API", "funding", "AI", "Y Combinator", "Git", "GPT", "GAN", "R", "startup"]
["AI", "ChatGPT", "R", "Go", "Git", "API", "GPT", "GAN", "startup", "funding"]
Siddharth is a media graduate who loves to explore tech through journalism and putting forward ideas worth pondering about in the era of artificial intelligence.