You Don’t Need to Learn to Code to Build a Million-Dollar Business Anymore. AI Is Changing Who Gets to Be a Founder

Here’s how Lovable is letting anyone turn an idea into a working product.

BY SHIRA LAZAR, CO-FOUNDER AND HOST, WHAT'S TRENDING @SHIRALAZAR

Illustration: Getty Images

For decades, starting a software business required one of two things: learning to code or raising enough money to hire engineers. Both were major barriers for small business owners, creators, and non-technical founders with ideas, but no technical team.

That dynamic is changing fast.

One of the companies pushing that shift is Lovable, an AI platform founded in 2023 by engineer-turned-founder Anton Osika. Lovable lets people build full software products by describing what they want in plain language, turning conversations into working apps, websites, and tools that can be published online.

The company’s growth has been rapid. According to Osika, applications built on Lovable now receive around 300 million visits per month, and more than 130,000 new projects are created every day.  In a recent round, Lovable was valued at $6.6 billion, reflecting investor belief that conversational software creation could reshape who gets to build companies.

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Osika says software creation is shifting from a technical skill to a conversational one. Instead of writing code, founders can explain what they want to build, and have functioning products generated in minutes.

“The 99 percent were never able to create software, but now anyone can create software. They just need an idea and they need to start.” 

Lovable’s ambition is bold: to become what Osika calls the last place you’ll ever need to go to make software.

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