Building A Global AI Startup From India

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 in India for a global audience.Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/applyChapters:00:00 - Intro01:06 - What Is Emergent?01:18 - Founder Backstory02:09 - From AI Testing to General Coding Agents02:52 - Getting Ahead of the Market04:18 - The Pivot to Non-Technical Users05:22 - Why Second Movers Can Win in AI09:04 - Building for Production, Not Just Prototypes18:21 - Live Demo: Building Apps with Emergent24:40 - How Emergent Hires and Runs a Lean Team29:04 - Is SaaS Dead? The Rise of Personalized Software34:04 - The Future: Niche Apps, Solo Builders and AI Agency