‘chad: The Brainrot Ide’ Is A New Y Combinator-backed Product So Wild, People Thought It Was Fake

When erstwhile Twitter CEO Dick Costolo spoke astatine TechCrunch Disrupt, personification from nan assemblage asked him if HBO’s deed satire Silicon Valley would beryllium revived. Costolo, who was a writer for nan show, fundamentally answered nary (at timestamp 38:17).

While nan writers talk astir that regularly, he said, they don’t prosecute it because today’s existent Silicon Valley is truthful bizarre, it can’t beryllium parodied.  

The latest lawsuit successful constituent is simply a caller institution called Clad Labs that launched retired of Y Combinator this week. Clad’s merchandise is truthful outside-the-box that group thought it was an April Fool’s joke successful November. 

But it’s a existent product, laminitis Richard Wang told TechCrunch. The merchandise is called “Chad: nan Brainrot IDE.” It is yet another vibe coding integrated improvement environment — an IDE is nan package developers usage to codification — but pinch a twist. While waiting for nan AI coding instrumentality to decorativeness its task, nan developer tin messiness astir pinch their favourite brainrot activities, wrong a model of nan IDE. 

Or, arsenic nan company’s website advertises: “Gamble while you code. Watch TikToks. Swipe connected Tinder. Play minigames. This isn’t a joke — it’s Chad IDE, and it’s solving nan biggest productivity problem successful AI-powered improvement that nobody’s talking about.” 

The founders opportunity their IDE increases productivity by helping pinch “context switching.” Their statement is, by doing your brainrot activities wrong nan IDE itself, arsenic soon arsenic nan AI is done pinch nan task, you’ll get correct backmost to activity alternatively than beryllium focused connected your telephone aliases browser. 

Reaction on X was mixed. While immoderate group thought it was a clone satire, others thought it was a bully — aliases a unspeakable — idea.

Like it aliases dislike it, everyone had an opinion, moreover Jordi Hays, co-host of nan enthusiastically pro-tech podcast TBPN. Hays penned a station connected nan product called, “Rage Baiting is for Losers.” In it he said of Chad IDE: “On 1 manus it’s funny. On nan different hand, what are we doing present and why does this beryllium connected nan charismatic YC account?” 

He based on that products for illustration Chad IDE and Cluely person moved rage bait from a trading gimmick to a “product strategy” and “it really should not be.” He urged YC to commencement school founders that “rage baiting is for losers.” 

This is particuarly absorbing proposal from personification who, arsenic a founder, had mastered viral trading without rage. Hays and his woman Sarah founded Party Round, a backing startup that went viral for their friends trading gimmicks for illustration launching NFT versions of apical “helpful” VCs. (Party Round rebranded to Capital and sold to Rho successful 2024.) 

Wang tells TechCrunch what nan haters don’t get astir his brainrot IDE is that it wasn’t intended to beryllium rage bait. The founders dream it becomes a genuinely beloved AI vibe coder for consumer-app type developers. They want to springiness these folks a user app-like acquisition successful an IDE.

While nan merchandise is real, it’s not disposable to nan nationalist yet.

”We’re presently successful a closed beta,” Wang said. Right now, Chad is attempting to build a “community” of users who for illustration nan idea. Clad Labs hopes to unfastened nan merchandise up to nan nationalist soon, but for now, users must get an induce from personification already successful nan beta.

No uncertainty there’s a definite type of developer who would emotion Chad. But immoderate nan early holds for this merchandise 1 point is true: it is astir intolerable to parody Silicon Valley these days.