Vibe Coding
Also called AI-Assisted Coding
Building software by describing what you want to an AI coding tool and accepting the code it writes without reading or reviewing it. Andrej Karpathy coined the term in 2025.
Why it matters
It lets a non-technical founder build a working prototype in hours, which makes it a fast way to test an idea. The same lack of review is the risk: code nobody has read can leak data, break under load or carry security holes, so anything that handles real customers needs someone who understands the code.
For example
A founder vibe-codes a booking prototype over a weekend to show ten customers, then has an engineer rebuild it properly once three of them agree to pay.
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Related terms
Also in Starting Up
See how founders actually handle this on Building the product, part of the Starting Up hub.
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