How Wabi is Building “YouTube for Software” with a Platform for Creating Mini Apps

Eugenia Kuyda is the founder and CEO of Wabi, an AI-powered personal software platform that lets anyone create, share, and remix mini apps in minutes. Before Wabi, Eugenia founded Replika, one of the world’s first AI companion apps, which she grew to 40M+ users over the course of a decade. A native of Moscow, Eugenia began her career as a journalist before pivoting to tech and founding the YC-backed startup Luka in 2014, which ultimately pivoted into Replika. She holds a Master’s in Journalism from MGIMO and an MBA in Finance from London Business School, and has spent the past decade building consumer products at the intersection of AI and human connection.Key TakeawaysAfter Eugenia unexpectedly lost her dear friend, Roman Mazurenko, to a hit-and-run in November 2015, she gathered thousands of text messages, fed them into a neural network, and built a chatbot that replicated his personality. This deeply personal project became the inspiration for Replika, one of the world’s first AI companions.Replika experienced immediate product/market fit, launching to a waitlist of 1.5 million people. Over the course of a decade, Eugenia and her team grew Replika to over 40 million users, helping people overcome loneliness, depression, anxiety, and recovery from breakups, divorces, and abusive relationships.Recently, Eugenia decided to launch a new AI startup called Wabi that aims to usher in the era of personal software with a platform that allows anyone to create their own mini apps in minutes with nothing but a simple prompt. Users can also follow other creators and “remix” their creations into mini apps that meet their own unique needs.While Wabi is extremely flexible in what it allows users to create, its platform offers a secure environment and standardized UI/UX elements that help overcome the pitfalls faced by many vibe-coded apps built by non-developers who don’t have the technical expertise required to ensure a high-quality finished product.While Eugenia has many ideas for how to grow Wabi through viral word of mouth and ultimately monetize the platform - including revenue sharing agreements for successful creators - she is keeping her team laser-focused on retention right now, given it is all that matters until they’ve demonstrated strong product/market fit.Eugenia KuydaWebsite: https://wabi.ai/Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w4JrIxFZRALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenia-kuyda-638a8a1b/X: https://x.com/ekuydaPhil CarterWebsite: https://www.philgcarter.comSubstack: https://philgcarter.substack.comLinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/philgcarterX: https://x.com/philgcarterPodcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io/