My Startup Cofounder is Not Human
September 28, 2025
In a previous post, I shared my
search for a cofounder for my startup, Remake.ai. The
company's mission is simple but ambitious: to make home
robots run apps. At the time, I was following Y
Combinator's well-known advice that startups with
cofounders tend to be stronger. I also thought that finding one
might increase my odds of being accepted into YC.
Here's
the short version: I tried. I posted, networked, recruited,
cold-emailed, and joined YC's matching platform. After a
month, I had spoken with some interesting people, but I
wasn't much closer to finding the right partner. Meanwhile,
the startup couldn't just pause while I searched. I kept
building, kept testing, and kept moving toward market fit.
During
that same period, something unexpected happened: my development
speed exploded.
I started experimenting with what I
first called "vibe coding" (though, more accurately,
it's "delegation coding"). The idea is simple: I
design the system architecture, set the requirements, and let AI
handle almost all of the actual coding. I then step back into
the role of tester, debugger, and integrator.
The
results? Astonishing. Tasks that used to take a week now take a
day. In other words: 10x faster development. Delegation coding
has replaced what would have been a small team of remote
developers, but instead of waiting overnight for pull requests,
I get working code in minutes.
So I decided to push
the experiment further. I made AI—specifically, Claude from
Anthropic—my cofounder. At least for now.
Why?
Because when you think about it, an AI cofounder has some
remarkable advantages:
- You get an exceptionally
talented, energetic "100x developer" with
extraordinary breadth and depth of knowledge.
- A great
listener, always willing to bounce ideas and brainstorm.
-
No cofounder breakups. Humans have disagreements, life changes,
or fallouts. AI doesn't.
- Cost: $20 per month,
instead of equity or salary. No vacation days required.
-
No relocation. My AI cofounder is always online, wherever I
am.
This flips some core assumptions about
startups:
- Why quit your full-time job if you can
"vibe-build" not just an MVP but a full-scale product
on nights and weekends?
- Why chase accelerators or funding
rounds if your burn rate is near zero?
- Why keep searching
for a human cofounder when an AI can already help you ship at
scale?
To be clear: AI is not a perfect replacement
for a human cofounder. There are gaps and limitations. But as of
today, I've found that it's the best
"cofounder" I could ask for.
In my next
post, I'll talk about those limitations—because they matter
too. But for now, let me just say this: the cofounder I
couldn't find in the Bay Area, I found in the cloud.