Emergent is an AI-powered development platform designed to help non-technical founders and business owners turn ideas into production-ready software using plain-language instructions. Its agents can plan, build, test, debug, and deploy full-stack web and mobile applications while abstracting away much of the underlying code, cloud infrastructure, and engineering complexity. The company also organizes VibeCon, an event where participants build working software over a weekend without needing a traditional coding background. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Emergent CEO and Co-Founder Mukund Jha to learn more about his background, the company’s mission, VibeCon, and how AI is changing who can build software.
Mukund Jha’s Background
When asked about his background, Jha shared:
I’ve been building since I started programming at 12, and what has always pulled me in is making things people actually use every day.
I worked on Google’s web search ranking team, then went back to India to co-found Dunzo, which became one of the country’s first quick-commerce unicorns.
My twin brother, Madhav, and I had talked for years about building something together, and in 2024 AI finally made the timing right, so we founded Emergent.
How Emergent And VibeCon Started
When asked what inspired him and Madhav to start Emergent and how VibeCon extends that mission, Jha explained:
Think about small business owners and founders.
They often know exactly how their businesses should run, but out-of-the-box software tools are either too expensive or do not meet their needs.
Vibe coding platforms are either focused on improving developer productivity or producing demos, not production applications that businesses can rely on.
Business owners and founders don’t need more software.
They need a way to turn how they already work into software.
That is what Emergent delivers for the millions of users on our platform.
Jha said VibeCon extends that philosophy by giving more people an opportunity to build:
Building is in our DNA, and our goal is to make it easy for others to build as well while eliminating technical barriers.
VibeCon is our way to showcase, celebrate, and democratize innovation and creativity.
We give participants a weekend to turn their ideas into working software, no coding background required, and the best teams get to put that work directly in front of YC and judges from Anthropic, AWS and MongoDB.
How AI Is Expanding Who Can Build Software
When asked what it means that 60% of VibeCon participants last year had never written code, Jha said:
It tells me that Emergent is on the right path for addressing the needs of non-technical business owners and founders.
Millions of people have great ideas but lack the technical skills or resources to bring those ideas to life.
With AI, the line between people who have ideas and people who can build them is disappearing.
With Emergent, anyone with an understanding of a problem and a good idea for how to solve it can now do so.
Jha highlighted last year’s VibeCon winner as an example:
A great example is last year’s VibeCon winners, who, in 48 hours, created Cypher, a cybersecurity training platform that runs AI-generated phishing simulations.
It uses open-source intelligence from public social media to create personalized phishing tests across email, text and voice, so companies can train employees against realistic social engineering.
Cypher’s team won a direct Y Combinator interview and $5,000.
Turning Ideas Into Production-Ready Software
When asked how Emergent helps non-technical founders and business owners create production-ready software, Jha explained:
You describe what you need in plain language, the way you’d explain it to a colleague, and Emergent’s agents plan, build, test, debug and deploy a full-stack web or mobile app.
Applications are fully managed on users’ behalf, with the cloud, infrastructure, and code abstracted away entirely.
Our users don’t need to know what a database or an API is.
They stay focused on what the product should do, and Emergent handles the engineering, from the first build through every change that is made after launch.
What Non-Technical Builders Are Creating
When asked what the first year of VibeCon revealed about the kinds of solutions non-technical professionals want to build, Jha said:
Mostly, people build what they’ve been waiting years for someone else to make.
Last year’s VibeCon winner took on employee security training, and we see the same pattern across builders on Emergent.
Case studies include a factory owner in Mexico who built a custom ERP to run a roughly 500-person operation, and a clinical psychologist and equestrian coach in Alaska who launched her app, EquiMind, on the App Store after not finding a good solution available in the market.
What connects them is domain expertise.
They’re solving problems they understand better than anyone, and now they can build the solution themselves.
VibeCon’s Partnerships With Y Combinator, Anthropic, AWS And MongoDB
When asked how VibeCon’s partnerships shape the experience for participants, Jha explained:
Y Combinator hosts the weekend at its San Francisco office, and the winning team gets an interview for an upcoming YC batch.
We have judges and/or mentors from YC, Anthropic, AWS and MongoDB evaluating ideas and providing valuable feedback.
That changes how people approach the weekend.
They aren’t building a demo for fun; they’re building something that could become a company.
What Separates The Strongest Teams
When asked what distinguishes the strongest VibeCon teams when everyone has access to increasingly capable AI development tools, Jha said:
When everyone has the same tools, domain expertise, creativity, and human judgment become the differentiators.
The strongest teams pick a problem they understand deeply, scope it tightly enough to actually finish in a weekend, and then explain clearly why someone would pay for it.
Our judges score on originality, value to users, execution, feasibility, market potential and storytelling, and only one of those is really about the technology.
Making Entrepreneurship More Accessible
When asked whether AI will make entrepreneurship more accessible to people who previously needed a technical co-founder or engineering team, Jha explained:
Yes, and we’re already seeing it happen.
A record number of entrepreneurs are starting businesses or side hustles, but for a lot of them, the technology hurdle is what keeps an idea from ever getting off the ground.
More than 12 million applications have been built on Emergent, many by small business owners and operators who would otherwise not have access to the technical resources.
When the cost and technical barriers of building drop, more people build.
It doesn’t make running a company easy, but it changes who gets the chance to start one.
The Future Of AI-Powered Software Development
When asked how he sees Emergent and AI-powered development platforms evolving over the next several years, Jha said:
Over the next several years, we’ll see custom software become normal for businesses of every size.
A salon owner, a factory operator or a sales team will build exactly the system they need instead of bending their work around generic tools.
Over time, we see Emergent helping people not just create production-ready software but also run and grow their businesses.
The Next Small Business Software Revolution
When invited to discuss another topic, Jha highlighted what Emergent is seeing among its users:
I’d love to talk about what we’re seeing on Emergent right now.
We have a front-row seat to the next small business revolution, and our data shows it’s already underway.
We recently analyzed more than 50,000 live applications across 28-plus industries and interviewed 300 business operators, and the takeaway was clear: the people building production software today often aren’t developers.
They’re the business owners themselves, replacing manual processes and software that never quite fit how they work.
These aren’t side projects, either.
Fifty-nine percent of the apps connect to outside business systems, one in four processes payments, one in three sends transactional emails or runs on a custom domain for real customers, and 39% of operators keep developing their apps after launch.
Jha pointed to an ICU nurse as another example:
Adam Carbaugh, an ICU nurse, is a great example.
He built a certification-prep application on Emergent for his own exam in six weeks, for under $1,000, while still working clinical shifts.
For a small business that might otherwise get a developer quote of around $20,000 and wait months, that changes what’s possible.
These are the people with ideas worth backing, and VibeCon gives them a chance to put those ideas in front of YC.
If you’re in the Bay Area, elsewhere in California or anywhere in the U.S. and have an idea you’ve been sitting on, apply to vibecon.com.
Need inspiration? Our customer stories at emergent.sh/case-studies show what people are already building on Emergent.
