In this episode of The Lightcone, we talk with Mukund and Madhav Jha, the founders of Emergent – an AI platform that lets anyone build and ship production-ready software. In just eight months, users have created more than 7 million apps on Emergent, with the number doubling in just the last 45 days. We discuss how they built one of the most powerful AI coding agents, why they focused on non-technical users and what it’s like building for a global audience from India.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply
Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs
Chapters:
00:00 – Intro
01:06 – What Is Emergent?
01:18 – Founder Backstory
02:09 – From AI Testing to General Coding Agents
02:52 – Getting Ahead of the Market
04:18 – The Pivot to Non-Technical Users
05:22 – Why Second Movers Can Win in AI
09:04 – Building for Production, Not Just Prototypes
18:21 – Live Demo: Building Apps with Emergent
24:40 – How Emergent Hires and Runs a Lean Team
29:04 – Is SaaS Dead? The Rise of Personalized Software
34:04 – The Future: Niche Apps, Solo Builders and AI Agency
