Vibe coding startups face a big copycat risk, says a founder who sold his company for $80 million (www.businessinsider.com)

Maor Shlomo, founder of Base44 (acquired by Wix for about $80 million), warns that “vibe coding” startups — tools that let people build software by prompting LLMs — are inherently easy to clone. On the 20VC podcast he argued the visible UI and prompt-driven magic are the simplest parts to reproduce, meaning startups that rely mainly on clever prompting or light fine-tuning will struggle to establish durable moats. Wix expects Base44 to reach $40–50M ARR by 2025, underscoring commercial interest even as fragility remains a core risk. What’s harder to replicate, Shlomo says, is the underlying platform engineering: built-in databases, authentication, user management, analytics, deep integrations, and the extensive agent tuning required to handle real-world, complex projects. Achieving production-grade behavior, he adds, often takes hundreds or thousands of prompts and sophisticated adaptation, not just a flashy front end. The warning matters as vibe coding attracts major capital and adoption — an a16z/Mercury analysis shows rising startup spend on these tools (Replit, Cursor, Lovable among top players), and recent megadeals include Replit’s $250M raise and Lovable’s $200M Series A. For founders and investors, the takeaway is clear: productize deep platform work, not just prompt UX, if you want defensibility in this hot but copyable space.