Eugenia Kuyda, the founder of Wabi, has certainly set off a storm in the app development world. She raised an astounding $20 million in pre-seed capital for her new, deeply thoughtful social platform. Wabi enables non-programmers to create mini apps with the help of AI-driven prompts. This allows their everyday users to solve day-to-day issues independently, with no programming knowledge needed. As one of the few tech companies with a user base greater than 35 million, Wabi has the potential to be a transformational company.
Wabi promises to simplify app creation. Users are able to quickly create tools customized to their workflow simply through plain-language queries. The platform’s Explore page showcases new and trending apps. This new feature allows users to quickly find and enjoy a wide array of creations. This feature will gradually develop into a more algorithmic format in the future, maximizing user experience and engagement.
In addition to creating apps, Wabi fosters a community atmosphere by enabling users to like, comment on, and remix existing applications. From here, users can visit other peoples’ profiles to find out what others have created or enjoyed. This promotes teamwork and inspires creative excellence among the platform’s large and global user base.
During her time onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt, Kuyda was infectious in her enthusiasm and vision for Wabi. Among other things, she spotlighted the promise of AI companions and the urgent need to democratize technology.
“This was really made to help people who have nothing to do with coding or the tech world to very quickly create apps from their daily lives,” – Eugenia Kuyda.
To continue to improve user experience, Wabi will introduce personalized onboarding in the next few weeks. To help ease new users into the platform, the platform automatically generates starter apps tailored to you. It performs the magical work of producing the icon, constructing the database, styling the UI. This intuitive experience enables users with little to no technical expertise to easily navigate through the platform and find what they’re looking for.
This funding will be key in allowing Wabi to grow its product team. There is a great opportunity for professionalization to improve the platform, which was one point made by Anish Acharya, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He sees Wabi as creating a space for its users to build things with code instead of just aspiring to be TikTok stars.
“I think software is the final frontier of participation,” – Anish Acharya.
The collaborative environment within Wabi creates a unique space for unlimited creativity. It gives the users a sense of ownership. In doing so, as they build their applications, they turn into the most dynamic players in the platform’s ever-changing ecosystem.
Her last venture, Replika is testimony to her relentless pursuit of user-first design. She mentioned how much she hates ads in apps, and that’s because she truly is passionate about designing fun experiences for users.
“I built [Replika] and never had any ads,” – Eugenia Kuyda.
Her emphasis on user experience especially dovetails with the vision she’s cultivating for Wabi. At the same time, Kuyda envisions creating a platform where ads don’t interrupt or otherwise ruin the user experience.
“I think ads just create a pretty bad user experience. I like creating delightful user experiences,” – Eugenia Kuyda.
Comparisons made between Wabi and YouTube show how the platform could develop in the future. As Acharya pointed out, YouTube began as a space for amateur creators and has since transformed into a hub of high-quality content.
“You think about the history of YouTube, it started out as people putting these shaky, low budget content experiences,” – Anish Acharya.
Wabi is leading the charge into a new development era for the app. It reduces barriers to entry and increases community buy-in. This opens the door for users to discover new and innovative solutions to their problems with technology.
