**Eugenia Kuyda’s Next Big Bet: Wabi, the “YouTube for Apps,” Hints at a More Personalized Future for Consumer AI**
Eugenia Kuyda, a pioneering figure in the consumer AI space, is making waves again. After founding Replika—the groundbreaking AI companion chatbot that launched in 2017 and grew to 35 million users—Kuyda is now setting her sights on a new frontier: empowering anyone to create, share, and remix personalized mini apps with her latest venture, Wabi.
**A New Kind of App Platform**
Wabi, which entered beta last month, is being described as “YouTube for apps.” The platform is designed as a social hub where users can use simple prompts to generate mini apps tailored to their needs, and then share them with friends or the broader community. The idea is to make software creation as accessible as posting a video or sharing a meme, even for those with no coding background.
This approach marks a significant shift in how we interact with technology. Instead of relying on big app stores filled with generic offerings, Wabi envisions a world where people can instantly spin up apps that solve personal problems, address unique interests, or simply provide amusement—all without ever touching a line of code.
**Backing and Industry Buzz**
Wabi’s vision has attracted considerable attention from investors. The startup has raised $20 million in pre-seed funding from a who’s-who of Silicon Valley, including AngelList’s Naval Ravikant, Y Combinator’s Garry Tan, Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, and Replit CEO Amjad Masad, among others. Their confidence in Kuyda stems from her proven track record of anticipating what consumers will want from AI, as demonstrated with Replika.
Industry experts see Wabi as entering a hot and competitive arena. Other platforms like Cursor, Lovable, Emergent, and Bloom are also racing to make app development more accessible for non-programmers. However, Wabi’s unique selling point is its integrated social layer, which combines app creation, discovery, and sharing—eliminating the need for a traditional app store.
**How Wabi Works**
Wabi is built for simplicity. Users can type in natural language prompts like “build me an AI therapy app,” and the platform does the rest: it suggests features, establishes the basic structure, creates an icon, and sets up any necessary backend elements such as databases. There’s no need for technical know-how or even advanced prompt engineering. For more advanced users, Wabi also allows customization, such as choosing the underlying AI model (like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini) and tweaking the prompts that power the app.
The platform is intentionally social, with features that allow users to like, comment on, and remix each other’s creations. You can browse user profiles, see what apps your friends are building, and get inspiration from trending or recommended apps on the Explore page. This social component